How to Design a Great Email Newsletter

It's never a bad time to take another look at your email program and see if it could use a bit of a facelift. Here are five key factors to consider when retooling your email design.

From Flickr user Howard Dickins.

1) Digestability. I received a newsletter today that had more than 20 different articles in it. It was just too much. What three or four things should readers pay attention to and why? It's your job to tell people what's important.

2) Sharability. Are all of your articles sharable on social networks? They should be.

3) Consistent branding. Does your email match your web site? Consider replicating your top menu at the top of your stationery and using some of the same graphical elements. Readers who click from your email to your web site should feel like they are still dealing with the same organization.

4) Reader experience. Readers click on a link from your email, and then what? They read the content you're promoting, and then what? Think about your goals. Do you want readers to enjoy your content and then share it with friends? Buy something or donate? Attend an event? Always have your overall organizational goals in mind when you create the landing pages for your emails.

5) Visual appeal. Sometimes it doesn't seem right to spend your hard-earned cash on photos or a graphic designer, but it's a sound investment. A well-designed email makes your brand look the way it should and leads the reader through your content the way you want them to.


What would you change about your email program? Please share.

Need help updating your email strategy? Drop me a line - I can help.

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How to See the Opportunity in Your Own Email Files

A lot of non-profits (and businesses, too) that I work with have a similar problem - email lists all over the place, in different formats, with different permissions. If this sounds like you, it's critical to your future success that you do something about this ASAP. Why?

Lists. From Flickr user James West.

Your best source of new subscribers for your different email campaigns is sitting right in front of you. Think about:


1) Cross-promotion! Once you have your list all in one place and de-duped, you'll have remarkable opportunities to cross-promote your various initiatives. The people on your different lists already like your brand and are more likely to respond than people who haven't ever subscribed.

2) Re-activation! People who subscribed to a campaign you ran a couple of years ago are far more likely to be interested in your current activities than people who've never subscribed before. Here's your chance to reactivate them and opt them in to a more general list.

3) Information! Find out who your most active subscribers are. Don't you want to know how many people are subscribed to multiple lists, and to which ones? If you see that there are some common trends, it might be time to further consolidate your messaging strategy. You'll also find that some of your buyers from one list are prospects on another list. Shouldn't you be giving them loyal customer love whenever you talk to them? (Yes.)


These things are really, really important, which is why I've given them three big exclamation points.

Mine your own email list now, before you go out there and pay a whole bunch of money to get new subscribers. Once you're all set, THEN, you go get some more new subscribers.

How? Ask your shiny, buffed, nicely ordered list to recruit a few friends. The best businesses often  comes from referrals. You'll be able to do this in a targeted way, now that you better understand your customers' behavior.

How's your email program going and what do you wish was different? Do you need help consolidating lists? I've done it before, and I'll do it again (just let me find my spurs). Drop me a line and I'll be glad to help.

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I'll Be Back

I'm on vacation this week, not thinking about marketing (too much). I'll be back next week, with a new post for you.

Thanks for reading this blog. I really appreciate all the notes I've received from those of you who have found it helpful.

If you're new here, welcome! Here are some posts to get you started:

Why Marketing is not Sales

Do You Need a Mobile App?

Why Social Media Matters, for Almost Any Organization


Low Cost Sales Channels

Why All Marketing is Local

Make Your Content Go Viral

Happy reading, and see you again soon.

How to Look at Traffic Sources for your Web Site

Earlier this week, I wrote a post about basic web analytics, and stats you should be pulling on a regular basis to better understand how your site is used.

Traffic. From Flickr user Zoonabar.

The most important stats to track for my clients are those regarding web site traffic sources. Where is site traffic coming from, and what does it do once it gets there?


There are several kinds of traffic you'll see on your stats, including the following:

• Organic (unpaid, regular) search
• Paid search
• Online ads
• Social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, other)
• Email
• Direct (people type your URL into their browser or they have it bookmarked)
• Referring Sites (any other web site that refers traffic to you)

First, it's critical that you understand what portion of your site traffic is coming from each source type.

• It's essential to know whether most of your traffic comes from outreach like social or email, or customers reaching out to you through channels like search.
• It's also good to know what sites are referring traffic to you. Finding out which blogs, etc. are linking to you and developing those relationships could bring you a lot more traffic down the road. 

It's just as important to understand a few things about the behavior of traffic from each source. 

• Does one of your sources have a particularly high bounce rate (rate of one-page visits), for example? Say you find that the bounce rate from your ad traffic is far higher than for other channels. You might want to develop a special landing page for people who click on ads that better introduces your site and what you have to offer.
• Is one of your sources responsible for most of the conversion behavior on your site? If it turns out that people who reach you from email or social media convert far better than other kinds of traffic, then your goal should be to get new visitors to sign up for email and join you on Facebook or Twitter before doing anything else.

How are you using web analytics to grow site traffic and conversions? Let me know or drop me a line if you want to talk about it. 

What You Need to Know About Basic Web Analytics

Web analytics sounds like rocket science, but it's not. You really should be looking at your web traffic on a regular basis  - it will help you better understand what's truly driving your business.

Image: Search Engine People Blog.

Which numbers are worth a look?

I always tell people to start with the basics:

• Visits - how many different visits there have been to your site in a given period. A visit is a session on your web site, which might include multiple page views.
• Visitors - a visitor is a person visiting your site. You'll want to check for new and repeat visitors, so that you can understand loyalty, and also understand how many visits it takes to convert a customer.
• Average time on site - This is how long the average visit lasts. It's good to keep an eye on this - short visits could mean that people aren't engaging with your site the way you want them to.
• Bounce Rate - this is the rate of site visits that only include one page. Bounce rates for blogs are typically high as people read that day's post and leave, but a high bounce rate on an e-commerce site means that people are leaving your site without buying. If this is the case, you need to figure out why. Are you, for example, rickrolling people who come to your site from ads or email?
• Pageviews - this is the total number of pages viewed on your site during a given timeframe. Ultimately, this isn't a very useful number - numbers like Visits and Visitors are more instructive as to your traffic. However, this is always the highest number in your stats, and I find it's the one that the people in the corner offices always want to hear about.
• Traffic Sources - this is the most important data you have. This tells you how people are finding your site - through your email campaigns? Via Facebook? Through search? online ads? Further to this, once you connect traffic sources with conversions, you'll find out what's really working for you. For example, if you find that email isn't your biggest source of traffic, but it is the one responsible for the most conversions, then you know you need to concentrate your marketing efforts on building your email list - your customers may need to hear from you on email a few times before they are ready to buy.

How are you using analytics to drive your business? Let me know in the comments or contact me and I'll show you what to do.

Make Your Content Go Viral

It's every marketer's worst nightmare:

Hope this isn't contagious. Flickr user eviltomthai.

Your next assignment from the C-Suite? "Make it Go Viral!"

That's right - they want you to guarantee that your next piece of content sails around the Internet like wildfire, faster than a Kate Middleton pregnancy rumor.

Usually, this command from on high comes about content like whitepapers, a new product, or a single Facebook post - content that's simply unlikely to go viral. Uh-oh, right?

But don't despair.

Here are some things you can do to raise the chances of getting viral marketing to work for you.

• Video, video, video. Videos are more likely to go viral than most other types of content. Check out this article and video about a men's razor blade subscription service called Dollar Shave.The product itself didn't go viral - the video introducing  the product did. Make sure that all of your videos are shareable. If you haven't already, consider starting your own YouTube channel and integrating it with your marketing efforts.
• If video isn't an option for you, consider other visually-oriented content, like slideshows, interactives, and infographics.
• Be funny. People need to laugh, and they like to make each other laugh. So if your content is funny, it's more likely to be shared.
• Be timely. If you can capture the zeitgeist of what many people are thinking about right now, then your content is more likely to be shared widely because it's newsworthy. You can check Google Trends or Twitter to see what's trending right now.
• Be useful. Entertainment is great, but is there other value you can add? The Dollar Shave video isn't just entertaining, it provides relevant information about this new company and the problem they can solve, which is how men can get convenient, cheap, quality razor blades.

How are you solving the viral problem? Please share in the comments.

Advice for Businesses Just Getting Started on Social Media

Earlier this week, I had the wonderful opportunity to speak to some college students about social media. All of these students had communications internships with local businesses, which they were trying to promote. I gave them an overview of what social media is good for and they told me about some of their challenges. I hope I get the chance to do this again! Here are some highlights from our talk:

College students. From Flickr user Sterling College.

Many of the students wondered how to break through their clients' resistance to using social media. Some suggestions:

• Remember, you've been hired by this client to help them improve their reach and messaging. Social media is a tool that can help with this.
• Most brands are now discussed somewhere on social media. If you can prove that there's a discussion out there about your client that the organization can't  join because they're not participating in social media, then there's a compelling reason for your client to get on there to join, influence, and help the discourse.
• It's always good to talk about lost opportunities. Think about current events and how they might relate to your clients' work. For example, a client that makes healthy snacks could be taking advantage of increased focus on children's nutrition - contributing recipes, providing expert advice, and introducing their product to people who want to give their kids healthy foods.
• Finally, don't be afraid to show clients what the competition is doing. Sometimes, realizing that they're late to the game is enough of a kick in the pants to get people moving.

One student explained that her client was a small private Christian school that did not even have a web site. The principal was overloaded already and didn't want to add to her workload with all of these online channels.

• I wondered if a business like this might begin their online journey with a Facebook page. Since Facebook easily accommodates things like events, announcements, and information sharing, this may be far easier for the school to manage than building a regular web site. Fundraising, also a concern of the school, can be managed with apps like Facebook Causes.

Finally, students wanted some pointers about their own social media presence. Do they need Twitter feeds? Should they start blogs? I don't think that every person everywhere needs a Twitter feed or blog, but if you're going to pursue a career in communications, then you need to be out there communicating.

• I recommended to students that they think about their hobbies, interests, and passions - are they photographers, travelers, foodies, bakers, or knitters - and blog about those things. The key to social media is quality content. Also, since your clients might not let you write for them in your own style or voice, having your own blog is a way to show people who you really are and how you really communicate. 
• In terms of policy - just remember that if it's illegal in real life, it's illegal on social media. Plagiarism, libel, slander, and copyright infringement aren't OK in print or online. My other rule of thumb - if I can't share something with my Mother-in-Law, then I can't share it on social media either.

What have you learned lately about social media and what are you trying that's new? Please share in the comments.

Why Marketing and Inventory are Intrinsically Connected

You might think that the folks who handle your supply chain and logistics should be the only ones concerned with inventory, but you’re wrong.

Photo: Flickr user Hallenser.

Why?

Your inventory, whether it’s t-shirts, mobile phones, hotel room nights, or seats in your restaurant, is intrinsically connected to your marketing strategy, or at least it should be.

The state of your inventory tells you what to sell. For instance, say you own a local restaurant. You have a certain number of seats to fill every night - an optimum number based on the number of tables, your opening hours, and how long it takes the average customer to get through a meal without feeling too rushed (or ignored). 

There's a restaurant not to far from me where the owners have mastered the art of managing seating inventory well. First, they noticed that their weekends could be a little better. They had entertainment on Saturday nights, so they added it to Fridays. They are only a block or two from a local theater, so then they added a pre-theater menu on show nights. Their Sunday brunch was already busy, so they worked on making service more efficient so they could serve more people.

Weekends taken care of, they looked at the week. Thursdays filled up after they began advertising some great happy hour specials, most of which they already had in place. Wednesdays are packed thanks to trivia night. Tuesdays, they do a seafood special, and Mondays they're the place to be, thanks to half-price burgers. 

Everything they do is promoted on their web site, their Facebook page, and they regularly advertise in the local paper. They also make sure their pages on sites like Yelp, Menupages, Urban Spoon, and MerchantCircle are updated with the current menu and specials, and that they read all the reviews and respond if needed.

Thanks to the fact that customers know there's a good deal or some great entertainment around no matter what night they come in, the place is reliably busy - they are making the most of the inventory they have available, making sure that those empty seats are filled, rather than wasted. They've even hired a few new people, creating badly needed jobs.

Your takeaways:

• Look at what you have available, and sell that.
• If something you have is great, but isn't selling, try promoting it in a new way. 
• For inventory that's selling well, find ways to sell more.
• Always look for ways to make happy, loyal customers even more happy and loyal. 

Have an inventory problem? Let me know. I can help.

How are you making the most of what you have available? Tell me in the comments.

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How to Make Buying Easier for Your Customers

Today's question: Is your stuff too hard to buy?

Making it hard for customers to do business with you can drive them away faster than you can say “record low profits.” Retail sales are rebounding, but we’re not out of the woods just yet.

Shopping. From Flickr user Markles55.

If you want this year to be better than last year, then it’s time to take another look at each aspect of your business, which is why I’m asking you…

…Is your buying process easy enough? 

First, let’s look at your web site. 

How long does it take a customer to buy your product once they’ve decided what they want? Could it be faster? How many steps do they need to take?

Do you save purchasing information (contact info, shipping info, secure credit card info) for return customers? If not, why not? If you don’t have customer accounts and purchase data saved for one or few-click buying, now is a time to think about an upgrade.

Investments you make now will pay off big-time when the holidays roll around, and customers can easily buy whatever they see with one click. Price out your options (namely, with or without credit card data) and see what's really feasible. If it seems like too much, price it against the potential for missed sales (a financial pro can help you with that), and decide what's right for you.

Pro tip: Don't forget that you may also be able to ease the buying experience without some of the expense with tools like Paypal and Google checkout.

Remember, customer accounts drive loyalty - customers will return where it’s easiest to buy, especially when they’re on their mobile devices. No one wants to key in their data over and over again on a small screen when they can save it once on their bigger screen and buy anytime.

Let's take a look at your stores, too: 

Now is a great time to have your wisest friends mystery shop your store and report back. Could they find what they needed? Did anyone offer to help? Was it a consultative experience, with your salespeople offering expertise and recommendations?

How long did it take to check out? Are there places where you can streamline things without making people feel hurried? When your stores are busy, do you have the right systems and staffing in place to keep lines from getting too long?

And finally, are you capturing customers' phone numbers or email addresses, so you can communicate with customers again and track purchasing history?

Again, now is the time to upgrade, change, and rejigger anything that needs fine tuning, so your staff is used to performing at their best when busy times roll around.

Another pro tip:  Direct Mail isn’t dead yet. This recent Forbes article claims that physical marketing still leaves a deeper impression than online marketing. Time to mail your loyal fans a postcard, perhaps?

Need help getting to all systems go? Let me know. I can help.


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Your 2012 Strategy: The Best Marketing Team for Your Business

As you continue to get your marketing strategy in order for 2012, it's time to give some thought to your marketing team. Is energy and time being spent in the right way to grow your business? Successful markeitng teams have these bases covered:

Teamwork. Photo: Flickr user Dawn (Willis) Manser.

Writing: Poor writing can derail even the most well thought out campaigns. Someone should be on top of your grammar, syntnax, and spelling, and be making sure to write in a way that appeals to and connects with your target audience.

Data: If you don't understand your customer data, you're marketing in the dark. If you don't have any data expertise on your team, consider hiring a consultant to train you on how to read your data and segment your customers.

Project Management: You need a real stickler to make sure your campaigns go out on time to the right audience and that you have the inventory to support them. Marketing can go terribly wrong if no one's paying attention to logistical matters.

Strategic Planning: Successful marketing plans align with your overall business goals, available resources, long range plans, and the channels and tools you plan to use. Without strategic vision, you'll just be sending out emails and posting on Facebook with few results.

Need help getting your marketing team aligned around the expertise you need to drive your business? Let me know - I can help.

Your 2012 Marketing Plan - Crafting Your Framework

It's a fresh new year, full of possibilities. Make the most of it with a strong marketing plan. Done right, your plan will carry you through the year, supporting your goals and keeping you from dangerous foxholes like procrastination and loss of focus.

Scaffolding. Flickr user Maurice Koop.

The most important part of your new plan?

Your overall business strategy - this is the basis for the framework that is your marketing plan.

Why is this so crucial?

Your marketing plan isn't  about checking off boxes and making sure you're dutifully providing content for each channel. Your marketing plan supports your larger business strategy and your overall goals.

That said, what kinds of goals do you have in 2012?

- To open a new location?
- To increase the size of your business?
- To find customers in other parts of the world?
- To reach a new vertical - like parents or teachers or hikers?

These kinds of things are your business goals and your marketing plan supports those goals. The tactics you put into place support the strategies you've decided to employ to grow your business.

Here's how the framework operates:

Let's take the first goal as an example -  to open a new location.

Your strategy is - "We're going to open a new location in 2012, and that will increase our business by x percent because we will be able to accommodate x more customers than we could with one location."

Your marketing plan supports this strategy because it's a framework for driving traffic to your new store. You'll be able to add to this framework with marketing tactics like ads in local papers and their web sites, announcements on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, participation in check-in applications like FourSquare, videos, and emails with grand opening specials to your email subscriber base. You can use your marketing calendar to schedule all of these things to provide a strong, consistent flow of traffic to your store. Your calendar provides a framework that supports your overall goals.

Here's the best part. If you're thinking of a tactic and wondering whether to use it, you can just ask yourself if it supports the business goal you've already identified - in our case today, to open a new location. Tactics that don't support this strategic goal don't belong in our framework.

Need help starting your 2012 Marketing Plan? Drop me a line and let me know. I can help.

Your Customer Referral Program

Friends. Flickr user Glennharper.

What customer referral program, you ask?


The one you should have already.

The one you need to start this week. Here's why:

•  90% of customers seek others' opinions before making a purchase - using online customer reviews, Facebook, forums, and other tools to validate their purchasing decision. When we read online reviews and forum posts, we don't know who is putting forward their opinion, and it's sometimes hard to know whether or not to trust those opinions, and...
• People naturally trust the opinions of people they know over people they don't know, and it's vital that you make it easy for your most satisfied customers to tell everyone they know how great you are.

 
Simple enough, right?

How do you get started? Here are some ideas:

• On your web site, add a "tell a friend" button, where your customers can send your home page to others - on email and via social networks. Even better? Go one step further and let people share specific products with one another.
• Once a customer has made their purchase - add a "tell a friend what you just bought" button to the purchase confirmation page. 
• Make sure customers are able to share product reviews - their own or other people's - on email and via social networks.
• Add a page to allow customers to request catalogs for a friend, or a copy of your latest enewsletter.
• Reward referrals with discounts on future purchases. Give customers points or dollars towards their next order when they refer a new customers.

Need help getting it done? Drop me a line.

Get Your Holiday Sales On

From Flickr user Christina Rutz.

So we're about halfway through October, and it's time to put the final touches on your holiday sales planning. For most retailers, the winter holidays are the busiest time of year. This is when everyone's buying, and everyone's expecting a deal.

In fact, the National Retail Federation forecasts a better holiday season this year, with sales up 2.8% to $465.6 billion. Of course you want your share, so here's what to consider while you're finalizing your plans:


Do you have all the decor you need?

You should have approved designs and ordered everything a couple of months ago. Everything should be arriving now. Give it a thorough inspection and call your purveyors if anything is out of order. If all looks good, get it out to your stores with their new plan-o-grams, which they should implement right after Halloween.

What's your online plan?

While you were ordering your holiday decor, you were also approving designs for your web site to match. It's always a good idea to be a little more festive at this time of year - substitute some warm wintry graphics and put holiday sellers forward and move non-seasonal items back. Of course, the holiday promotions you've planned should go front and center.

What's your email plan?

Now that your stores and web site are updated, you can work on your holiday themed emails. These should be highlighting your deals and special sales events - Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and one or two more before the end of December. Consider a Hanukkah event, a last-minute event, and a deadline-oriented event - "last day to get free shipping" or "last day for 10% of orders of $80 or more..." kinds of things.

Are you staffed?

I hope you've already hired everyone that you need to start November 1. This includes warehouse staff, call center folks, and regular retail personnel. If not, help this year's lackluster job market by hiring people now. There are plenty of talented, motivated people out there who'd love a chance to build your business while they build a career.

I hope you're ready for a strong holiday season this year. Need help? Drop me a line and let's get our sale on.

Creating Your Branding Statements

So, last week we talked about building your brand and what you need to do to create meaning and strength behind your brand.  I asked you three questions:

Boxer puppy. Flickr  user MythicSeabass.

1) What do you do?


2) How are you different than the competition?


3) What do you stand for?

Now let's go through a branding exercise - we'll answer these questions for a sample brand.

Imagine that you own a small, local pet-sitting service, called Pets n' Friends. So...

1) What do you do? 

Pets n' Friends offers dog walking and pet sitting services for local pet owners and their pets.

So far, so good...

2) How are you different than the competition?

We really care about your best animal friends. Our qualified pet sitters and dog walkers are not only specially trained, bonded, and insured, they are genuine animal lovers. Our pet people love spending time with your pets - interacting with them, snuggling them, walking them, and playing with them. We offer great value, with weekly, monthly, and annual packages tailored right to your pets' needs.

Great job! And finally...

3) What do you stand for?

At Pets n' Friends, we feel like your best animal friends deserve the best quality of care, even when you can't be there. We believe that pets that have lots of caring people around are the happiest and healthiest, so we've designed a full suite of programs for play, exercise, and companionship.

Well, there you go. How would you describe your brand?

Need help? Let me know.

Building Your Brand

Brand. From Flickr user DentalBen.

What's your brand?

Your company name? Sure.

Your main product? OK.

Your visual identity - your logo and colors? All right.

That's a start.

But the strongest brands mean something. The strongest brands stand for something.

Now it's time for you to decide what your brand stands for.

Here's a simple exercise to get you started - ask yourself these questions:

1) What do you do? This is the core of your brand. Do you make clothes for children, sell organic produce, provide computer repair service, help people plan vacations?

2) How are you different than the competition? This is your value proposition. Are those children's clothes more affordable? Is the produce locally grown? Is the computer service guaranteed? Are the vacations more luxurious? These key differentiators help you articulate the value you offer to your customers.

3) What do you stand for? The very best brands are memorable because they stand for something larger - something bigger than a product or service. Do you believe that great children's clothes help kids stay more active and learn more? Do you believe that locally-grown organic produce is the key to our health and our economy? Do you believe that businesses are hurt by poor IT service? Or do you believe that travel can be a transformative experience that causes people to change the world?

Attempt to answer these questions, and you'll be closer to understanding how to strengthen your brand. These answers should be reflected in all of your communications - from your in-store merchandising to your catalogs, to your web site, PR, and social media.

You'll notice that I didn't say a word here about your logo, colors, or company name. While these things can make a difference to your business, the real difference is defining what stands behind them.

Need help articulating your brand? Drop me a line.

Improve Your Web Site

Now is a great time to take another look at your web site.

Why?

Old-school web site. Photo: Flickr user Cybershotking.

It's a smart idea to do a regular site audit. Sometimes when we upgrade our design and update our content, important things get lost. Take some time today to go through this checklist:

• Is it easy for users to find multiple ways to contact you (online form, phone, email, live chat)? Is your contact information on every page?
• Are your navigation bars intuitive, and complete on every page?
• Does your search function deliver results that make sense? 
• Do graphics download quickly?
• Does your site look good using different web browsers and screen resolution?
• Does the user's natural progression through your site end in the result you want - an inquiry, purchase, or other engagement?
• Are you promoting your other customer channels, like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn so users can join you there?

Hopefully you can answer yes to all of these questions. If not, fix these now, before they cost you more sales. Need help? Let me know.

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Starting Your Marketing Plan

So you you've been updating your Twitter account like a good kid, posting to Facebook often, but not too often, you make sure your blog and your web site always have fresh content, and you may finally get that press release done this week. For some reason, though, you feel like none of this is helping. The traffic just isn't coming.

Planning Essentials: Photo: Flicker user JacQueLyne

Why?

Because it's not part of a larger marketing strategy. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web site, and PR are tactics, not strategies.  These tools play their part to support a larger plan. If you don't have a larger plan, then won't realize their true potential to grow your business.

OK, so now what?


I like to lay out an annual plan, mapping out the year and determining some major themes. Marketing events might include promotions around holidays, the launch of a catalog, a major web site update, and a quarterly PR push. This is also a good time to think about new product that will be launching in the next year, where that goes on your marketing calendar and what you'll be doing around it.

"But, I can't possibly think of every single tweet, Facebook update, or blog post I'm going to do for the next year!" you say.

And you're right. You'll plan those things out on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, depending on how you prefer to work. It's important, now, though, to lay out your year so you can see what needs to be done in advance. For example, if you're launching a major new product line in the next year, you'll need to build in time to update your web site, put together a new catalog, write a press release, and make sure the rest of your online properties are updated.

Your Takeaway?

Set a goal to put together a marketing plan for 2012 by the end of October. Think about what your major campaigns will be, and what you'll need to do to execute them. I'm happy to review what you've put together and offer my feedback. You can connect to me on twitter at @leahibraheem or on LinkedIn here.

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Why All Marketing is Local

OK, all marketing isn't really local, but local marketing should be a strong component of your marketing strategy, whether your customers are consumers or other businesses. Why?

Local businesses. Flickr user RachelVorhees.

1) Being local gives you a natural connection to your customers. You're from the same place. You live and work in the same place, and this gives you a serious, valid reason to support one another.

2) You'll be able to make face-to-face connections. This is especially important if your customers are other businesses. You can call on new and prospective clients in person, sharing local stories, and building long-term connections. Your customers won't need to wait for you to fly into town to see you - you'll be able to stop by anytime. If you sell to consumers, you'll also be able to invite them to your store or call on them much more easily.

3) You'll have a much better understanding of the market than your non-local competition. Since you'll be selling to people who live and work in the same community as you do, you'll have an intrinsic understanding of the needs, environment, and conditions of that community. Knowing your local market inside and out will put you one rung above your non-local competition.


How do you access that local network? Simple is best - use your local papers (web and print properties), local events, local chambers of commerce and business groups, and local groups on LinkedIn to connect. Facebook also allows you to advertise by location, so you can find local customers there as well. Don't forget other networks that focus on local business reviews - like Yelp, ServiceMagic, and MerchantCircle.

What are you doing to strengthen your connection to your local community? Please share in the comments.

Are you local to the DC area? Drop me a line or let's connect on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Do You Need to be on Twitter?

This is an important question to consider as people have less and less time and resources to do more and more. After all, Twitter can take over your life if you're not careful. Is it REALLY necessary to have a presence?

Twitter. Image: Flickr user Danilo Ramos.

In a word, yes. Why? Let's do the numbers.

First, how many people are on Twitter?

• 13% of US online adults use Twitter.
• Half of those people are accessing Twitter using their mobile phones.
• 20.6 million US adults access Twitter at least once a month.
• 460K new accounts are created each day.
• 177 million Tweets sent daily.
• 77% of the top US companies have Twitter accounts, and 72% of all US companies are on Twitter.

Your Takeaway: Simply, a huge number of people are on Twitter. If you need to reach more people, it's worth a try to start talking to them, and more importantly, to see what they are talking about.

What kind of People are on Twitter?

Statistically, the person who is most likely to use Twitter is a female Latina in her 20s who attended college, lives in a city, and earns less than $30K annually, or $50 - $75K, though all kinds of people have Twitter accounts.

Your Takeaway: This means that if your product appeals to minority audiences (African-Americans are currently adopting Twitter at higher rates than other groups), this is a great way to reach them. You'll reach people at all income levels, and fairly educated users, some low-income, but others moving up in the world. If you'd like to reach people who are looking to save money, who like to follow the news, and who are interested in pop culture, Twitter is one place to find them.

What are people doing on Twitter?

Posting their own status updates, but also keeping in touch with friends, checking the news, using it for work-related needs, and for research.  About 25% of Twitter users check their accounts several times daily, from multiple devices, including their phones.

Your Takeaway: Once you've started posting to Twitter, make sure you include content that other people want to retweet and that you're meeting the needs of your followers. Are they following your feed because it helps them with their research or work, to save money, for entertainment, for news? Keep this in mind as you craft your posts.

How do I use Twitter?
I use Twitter to keep in touch with others in my industry and small business owners who are looking for guidance on marketing. My feed is a mix of retweets, replies, links, suggestions, and references to my blog. I have a modest, but growing following (thanks all). Click here to see my profile.

Stats thanks to the generous folks at Pew Internet and Hubspot.

How do you use Twitter? Please share.

Using Facebook to Drive Traffic to Your Store

Like most retailers, you've got a Facebook page. You put one up because you felt like you couldn't afford not to have one, and you were right.

Facebook. Photo: Flickr user Max-B

But having a Facebook presence is only the beginning. The Facebook page itself won't bring people into your store - you've got to turn it up a notch to really drive that traffic. What should you do to your page?

First, make it relevant.

Your fans want to know about your sales, specials, and upcoming events.

Second, make it engaging.

You can't spend all your time on Facebook selling - you'll turn people off. Try quizzes, contests, and questions to get people talking. Make sure you're checking back regularly to respond appropriately.

Third, make it trackable.

Use tools like Facebook Insights and Hootsuite to monitor your Facebook reach and engagement. You'll be able to see what kinds of posts generate the most comments, likes, and shares.

What are you doing on Facebook to make your presence known? Please share in the comments.

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Why Social  Media Matters to Your Business

Three Ways to Drive Sales Today