The John Ramos Blog

Your Competitors May Already Have: A Digital Partner

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 23:55:33 GMT

Running a business today is not easy.

Between serving customers, managing operations, keeping up with technology, staying active online, and trying to stand out in a crowded market, most small business owners are carrying more than they should.

And the truth is, your competition may already have helped.

Some of them may have an internal marketing team. Others may be working with a digital marketing partner who helps them stay visible, communicate consistently, and keep their brand in front of the right people.

That does not mean they are better than you.

It may simply mean they are not trying to do everything alone.

For many small and medium-sized businesses, marketing becomes one of those things that gets pushed to the side. Not because it is unimportant, but because there are only so many hours in the day.

You know you need to post on social media.

You know your website should stay fresh.

You know email marketing can help you stay connected.

You know content matters.

You know follow-up matters.

But knowing what needs to be done and having the time, skill, and consistency to do it are two very different things.

That is where having a digital partner can make a real difference.

A good digital partner is not just someone who “does marketing.” A good digital partner helps you think through your message, your audience, your communication strategy, and the systems that keep your business visible.

Think of it this way.

Trying to grow your business online without direction is like sailing across the ocean without a compass, a map, or a clear destination. You may still move, but you may not be moving in the right direction.

A digital partner helps you navigate.

They help you clarify your message, create useful content, communicate with your audience, and stay consistent in a business environment that keeps changing.

Here are five signs it may be time for your business to consider working with a digital partner.

1. You Do Not Have a Marketing Team

Many small businesses do not have an in-house marketing department.

And that is understandable.

Hiring a full-time marketing team can be expensive. Salaries, benefits, software, equipment, training, planning, and management all add up quickly. For many small and medium-sized businesses, that kind of overhead is simply not realistic.

But here is the challenge.

Even if you do not have a marketing team, your business still needs marketing.

You still need to communicate with customers.

You still need to attract new prospects.

You still need to educate your audience.

You still need to stay visible.

You still need to build trust.

When marketing is ignored, businesses often become less visible, less consistent, and less memorable.

That does not happen overnight. It happens slowly.

A few weeks go by without posting.

The email list goes unused.

The blog page becomes outdated.

The website no longer reflects the current business.

Follow-up becomes inconsistent.

Before long, the business owner wonders why referrals have slowed down, website traffic has dropped, or prospects are not responding.

A digital partner can help fill that gap without the cost of hiring a full internal team.

Instead of trying to employ several people, you can work with someone who helps you create a practical communication system that fits your business, your audience, and your budget.

2. Marketing Feels Overwhelming

Most business owners are very good at what they do.

The attorney understands the law.

The contractor understands construction.

The restaurant owner understands food and hospitality.

The consultant understands their area of expertise.

The medical provider understands patient care.

But marketing is its own discipline.

It requires strategy, writing, design, timing, technology, audience awareness, and consistency. It also changes constantly.

What worked a few years ago may not work the same way today.

Social media algorithms change.

Email rules change.

Consumer expectations change.

Search engines change.

Technology changes.

That can feel overwhelming for a business owner who is already managing day-to-day operations.

This is where many businesses fall into random marketing.

They post when they remember.

They send an email only when they have a promotion.

They update their website only when something is broken.

They create content without a clear purpose.

They try a little bit of everything but do not stay consistent long enough to see results.

The problem is not always effort.

Many business owners are working hard. The issue is that their marketing is not connected to a clear strategy.

A digital partner can help bring order to the process.

Instead of guessing what to say, when to say it, or where to publish it, you can create a simple plan that helps your business communicate more clearly and consistently.

3. Your Business Is Not Communicating Consistently

One of the biggest mistakes small businesses make is only communicating when they need something.

They send an email when they want to make a sale.

They post when business slows down.

They update customers only when there is a problem.

They promote an offer but do not spend enough time educating or building trust.

The strongest businesses communicate before they need the sale.

They teach.

They inform.

They remind.

They answer questions.

They share helpful insights.

They stay present.

That is where content creation and email marketing work so well together.

Your blog can educate your audience.

Your social media can create visibility.

Your email newsletter can keep you connected.

Your website can establish credibility.

Your follow-up messages can move people closer to taking action.

Each piece supports the other.

The goal is not to overwhelm people with constant promotion. The goal is to stay useful and relevant so that when someone is ready to buy, schedule, call, visit, or refer, your business is already familiar to them.

This is especially important because social media alone is not enough.

You do not own the algorithm. You do not control who sees your posts. You can have followers and still have very limited reach.

Email marketing gives you a more direct line of communication with your audience. When combined with strong content, it becomes a powerful relationship-building tool.

A digital partner can help you connect those pieces so your marketing does not feel scattered.

4. Consumer Behavior Keeps Changing

Consumer behavior is one of the most powerful drivers of marketing.

People change how they search, read, buy, and decide whom to trust.

Years ago, many people browsed primarily from desktop computers. Today, mobile devices dominate much of the online experience. If your website is not mobile-friendly, loads slowly, or is difficult to navigate, potential customers may leave before they ever contact you.

The same is true for communication.

Some people may discover your business through social media.

Others may find you through Google.

Some may visit your website first.

Others may join your email list.

Some may need several touchpoints before making a decision.

That means your digital presence has to work together.

Your message should be clear.

Your website should be current.

Your content should answer real questions.

Your emails should provide value.

Your social media should support your brand.

Your follow-up should be intentional.

When consumer behavior changes and your marketing does not adjust, your business can start to lose attention.

Sometimes the issue is not that people are no longer interested in what you offer. It may be that your business is not communicating in the way people now expect.

A digital partner can help you look at your marketing from the customer’s point of view.

Is your message clear?

Is your website easy to use?

Are you staying in touch with your audience?

Are you educating people before asking them to buy?

Are you making it easy for someone to take the next step?

These are important questions, and they should be reviewed regularly.

5. You Are Ready to Grow, But You Need a Better System

Sometimes the issue is not that the business is struggling.

Sometimes the business is ready for the next level.

You may already have customers.

You may already have a reputation.

You may already receive referrals.

You may already be known in your local market.

But you also know there is more opportunities available.

Maybe you want to grow your email list.

Maybe you want to publish more educational content.

Maybe you want your website to generate more leads.

Maybe you want to stay top-of-mind with past customers.

Maybe you want to turn your knowledge into blogs, newsletters, videos, and social media posts.

Growth requires more than good intentions.

It requires a system.

That system does not have to be complicated. In fact, simple systems often work best.

A simple system may include one helpful blog article each month, consistent email newsletters, social media posts that support your main message, and a clear call to action that invites people to connect with you.

Over time, that kind of consistency builds recognition and trust.

A digital partner can help you create and manage that system so you don't have to start from scratch every week.

You Do Not Need to Do Everything Alone

One of the most important lessons in business is knowing when to get help.

That does not mean giving up control. It means recognizing where your time and energy are best spent.

As a business owner, your job is to lead the business, serve your customers, and make decisions that move the company forward.

Marketing should support that mission.

It should help people understand who you are, what you offer, why it matters, and how you can help them. It should create trust before the sale. It should keep your business visible even when people are not ready to buy today.

That is the value of having a digital partner.

Not just someone who posts for the sake of posting.

Not just someone who sends an email because it is on the calendar.

Not just someone who creates content without understanding the business.

A real digital partner helps you build a communication strategy that supports your goals.

They help you stay consistent.

They help you clarify your message.

They help you educate your audience.

They help you use content and email marketing more effectively.

They help you show up with purpose.

In a competitive market, that kind of support can become a real advantage.

Final Thought s

Your competitors may not be doing everything better than you.

They may simply have a better communication system.

They may be staying in touch more consistently.

They may be educating their audience more often.

They may be using email marketing more effectively.

They may be updating their website content more regularly.

They may have someone helping them stay focused.

The good news is that your business can do the same.

You do not need to become a full-time marketer to market your business well. You just need the right strategy, the right tools, and the right support.

That is what a digital partner is meant to provide.

Final Thoughts

At The JR Solutions, we believe that powerful content is born from real conversations, not just automated prompts. We are your professional, friendly partners in crafting the essential building blocks of your digital presence: engaging blog posts, conversion-focused website copy, strategic social media content, and expert email marketing through Constant Contact. By focusing on your specific business goals rather than relying on generic AI, we deliver human-powered writing and technical guidance designed to build authentic trust and turn readers into loyal revenue. Let’s collaborate to tell your story and grow your brand—one word at a time.

And as always..

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read this blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can assist you with marketing. I have been an Email Marketing Specialist for over seven years. It has allowed me to help small business owners integrate email marketing, online registrations and online surveys into their marketing strategies. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation thru Zoom. Please email us at j ohn@thejrsolutions.com to set up an online session.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing or Digital Marketing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

BEYOND THE LIKE BUTTON: WHY EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS TO STOP "RENTING" THEIR AUDIENCE

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 22:13:38 GMT

Let’s be real for a minute. The hustle on social media is exhausting.

We all do it. We spend time crafting the perfect post for Facebook, we find the right sounds for a Reel on Instagram, and we jump into groups, trying to show up, be useful, and get seen.

And when we get a post that takes off, when the "likes" and comments start rolling in, it feels good. It feels like progress.

But I have a hard question for you (and it’s one I had to ask myself not too long ago):

If your favorite social media platform disappeared tomorrow, how would you reach those people again? ��

If your answer is a long silence or a spike in anxiety, you aren’t alone. But it means you are building your business on "rented land."

The Digital Landlord Problem

When we focus all our energy on building a following on social media, we are essentially building someone else's platform. We are the "digital tenants," and the social media conglomerates are the "digital landlords."

And landlords can change the rules.

They can tweak the algorithm overnight, crushing the reach of your best posts. ��

They can change the business model, forcing you to "pay-to-play."

They can, though it’s rare, simply shutter the platform (remember MySpace, or even the original Google+?).

When that happens, you lose access to the very audience you worked so hard to build. All those educational connections, those trust-building conversations, and that potential local networking… poof.

The Solution: Start Building Your "Home" ��

The alternative isn't to abandon social media. These platforms are incredibly powerful tools for discovery, connection, and learning (especially locally!). I love jumping into our community groups and learning what people are working on.

The shift is the goal of your social media activity.

Instead of just collecting "likes," focus on inviting people off the noisy digital street and into your digital home: your email list.

Your email list is your own property. It is an asset you fully control.

Why Your List is "Algorithm-Proof"

1. Visual authority

When your infographic is clean, on-brand, and rich in meaningful insight, you demonstrate you’re not just a “me too” business—you *know* your stuff.

*Tip*: Use your aerial/video style to create a short lead-in clip, then embed the infographic in your email or blog as a “download the full visual” asset.

When you have a customer's email address (because you asked for it politely and they happily gave it to you in exchange for real value!). You are no longer at the mercy of an algorithm to make a connection.

You have a direct line. You can:

Continuing Teaching: Send in-depth, valuable tutorials or lessons that are too long for a post.

Deepen the Bond: Create a 1-on-1 feeling that you simply cannot get in a public comment thread.

Promote Securely: When you have a new course or service that solves a massive problem your audience has, you can tell them directly, without worrying that 90% of them will miss the message.

Here is the Challenge

You don't need a fancy system to start. This week, make one small change to how you approach your posts or networking:

Instead of ending with "Like this post," try ending with a question and a specific invitation.

Example:

“Which of these platforms are you using the most today? Facebook, Instagram, TikTok “.

I’ve written a brief guide on how I use that exact tool to get off the content hamster wheel. Drop a comment, and I'll send you the link!

That simple shift moves you from "renter" to "future owner."

Stop chasing likes and start building a community you can reach.

What’s your biggest hurdle when it comes to starting or growing your list? I’d genuinely love to know. Let's talk about it in the comments or shoot me an email.

Final Thoughts

And as always..

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read this blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing or Digital Marketing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Updated for 2025 Do you know what an Infographic is?

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 18:43:13 GMT

Do You Know What an Infographic Is?

IYou’ve likely seen them: bold visuals, stacked icons, concise text, telling a story at a glance. That’s an “infographic “—but in 2025, it’s more than just a pretty picture. For small-to-medium-sized businesses ready to stand out in a noisy marketplace, infographics remain a potent tool—if used strategically.

Why Infographics Still Matter (and How They’ve Evolved )

Infographics are a powerful combination of image, data, and narrative—designed to deliver a message quickly and memorably. Back in 2020, I listed benefits such as being easy to understand, shareable, good for brand awareness, and SEO-friendly.

Today, those benefits remain—but the stakes have changed:

Attention spans are even shorter: With TikTok, Reels, Shorts, and constant mobile scrolling, your audience quickly decides “Will I stay or scroll past?” An eye-catching infographic gives you the chance to stop scrolling.

Content saturation is high: Every business is vying for attention. Infographics let you *condense* expertise and present your brand as confident, knowledgeable, and professional.

Cross-channel utility is key: Once upon a time, you might share a static infographic on your blog. Now, you’ll want versions of Instagram Stories, LinkedIn posts, email campaigns, even as a slide in a short video or part of a drone-shot intro. That’s where your services tie in.

SEO and linking still matter—but differently: It’s not just about embedding code and alt tags (though that still helps). It’s about creating assets that people *want* to link to or share, ideally from mobile devices, and that play nicely in email campaigns and on social. That means designing for mobile view, optimizing load speed, and having a share-friendly story.

Repurposing is smart: Make one core infographic—then break it into social carousels, use it in an email newsletter, turn it into a short, animated video or aerial intro (you’ve got the skill set!). That multiplies your content ROI.

Top Benefits Today (and What They Mean for Your Business)

Here’s what infographics really do for businesses in 2025 — and how *The JR Solutions* can help you implement them:

1. Visual authority

When your infographic is clean, on-brand, and rich in meaningful insight, you demonstrate you’re not just a “me too” business—you *know* your stuff.

*Tip*: Use your aerial/video style to create a short lead-in clip, then embed the infographic in your email or blog as a “download the full visual” asset.

2. Shareability across platforms

Infographics still perform well when paired with the right channels: Instagram carousels, LinkedIn PDFs, email attachments, and blog feature pieces. The key is format flexibility.

*Tip*: Create multiple aspect ratios (square, vertical, story size) from one master asset to cover your social channels without extra spending.

3. Lead-generation and traffic

You can use infographics as gated assets (“Download our infographic: The 7 Metrics Every Small Business Must Track”) in your email campaigns, send them to your list, embed them in blogs, and track clicks, downloads, and conversions.

*Tip*: As an email marketing specialist with Constant Contact, you know the value of list growth. Use the infographic as the “hook” in your email, then invite your audience to a free consultation or video marketing service.

4. Improved engagement and retention

Visuals help people remember. If you deliver complex ideas (for example: “How drone video raises your brand’s perceived value”, “Why blended content + email = results”), infographics translate that for your audience.

*Tip*: In your next blog, embed the infographic first, then provide the deeper explanation below—this follows how people scan and then dig in.

5. Cost-efficient content asset

You invest once, use many times. With your services (content writing + video + email), you’re uniquely positioned to produce these premium assets and distribute them widely.

*Tip*: Bundle an infographic design into your video marketing packages: e.g., “We’ll produce 1 aerial introduction video + 1 supporting infographic + 4 emails per month”.

How to Get Started—Smart Steps for 2025

Define the outcome: What problem are you solving? What data or insight do you want to convey?

Know the format: Consider where the infographic will live — blog post, email, LinkedIn, Instagram. Design accordingly.

Make it brand consistent: Use your colors, fonts, logo, style. This ensures recognition when it’s shared.

Optimize for mobile: Many readers will view it on their phone — ensure readability at smaller sizes, fast load time.

Turn it into other assets: Create an email snippet highlighting the infographic, embed it in a blog, turn key points into social-media posts, and use portions in a short video.

Track performance: Using your email tool and analytics, monitor downloads, shares, clicks, and conversions. Use that data to refine.

Offer it as a value piece: For your clients, infographics can be the “lead magnet” or centerpiece of a campaign. You can deliver the assets and then use email marketing to nurture those contacts.

Final Thoughts

In 2025, infographics aren’t just “nice to have”—they’re an integral part of a smart, multi-channel content strategy. For small and medium-sized businesses, leveraging visuals, email, and video together can set you apart. With your deep experience in content writing, email campaigns (and now video/aerial services), you’re in a perfect position to create high-impact infographics that drive traffic, build trust, and generate leads.

If you’re ready to elevate your brand and stand out in the digital marketplace, let’s talk. I’d be happy to show you how a custom infographic (paired with an email campaign and short video) can become a powerful tool in your marketing toolkit.

And as always..

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read this blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing or Digital Marketing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Email Marketing is Far from Dead

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 20:00:06 GMT

How Email Marketing Works - 2025

If you’ve been hearing that email marketing is “dead,” let me stop you right there. That myth has been floating around for years, but here’s the truth:

Email marketing is very much alive—and it’s still one of the best ways to grow your business.

In fact, if you’re a small or mid-sized business, email might just be the secret weapon you’re overlooking. Let’s break it down in plain English—no jargon, no fluff—just real talk about why email still matters and how it can help you connect with your audience and drive serious results.

Think Mobile Optimization

The more creative you are per inch of space, the better. Mobile browsing has overtaken the traditional desktop browsing by a significant margin, but most marketers and brands fail to realize this.

However, is not easy to have mobile optimization, there’s a lot of extra work to be done, including code [only if your email marketing platform does not offer if in the background]. Design of your emails is another piece of the processes you need to be aware.

In the advertising world, there is a saying that [paraphrasing that stipulates that packaging is everything], the same goes for your emails. A well-thought-out email design will go a long way in attracting that potential client. You can also use automation and tools that are tailored to improve the mobile experience.

And as always...

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read this blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can assist with your marketing. I have been an Email Marketing Specialist for the past thirteen years which it has allowed me to help small and medium size business owners integrate email marketing, online registrations and online surveys into their marketing strategies. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation thru Zoom. Please email us at john@thejrsolutions.com to set up an online session.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing or Digital Marketing , we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Email Marketing for Content Kings: A Guide to Sustained Engagement

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 21:52:22 GMT

In the realm of digital marketing, content is king. But to truly reign supreme, you need a trusted steed—email marketing. The combination of high-quality content and strategic email campaigns can propel your small to medium-sized business (SMB) to new heights of engagement and customer loyalty. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to make this dynamic duo work for you.

Unlocking the Power of Email for Content Marketing

Email marketing isn't just about blasting out newsletters; it’s a sophisticated tool for distributing, nurturing, and amplifying your content. When used effectively, it transforms your emails from mere messages into powerful channels for audience engagement and brand building.

1. Align Email with Your Content Strategy

Begin by ensuring your email effort aligns with your broader content marketing goals. Your emails should extend, not replicate, your content calendar. Identify key pieces of content—such as blog posts, infographics, and videos—and plan how they will be promoted via email. This alignment guarantees coherence and maximizes the impact of each content piece.

2. Repurpose and Enrich Your Content

Email isn’t just for sharing links. It's a medium where you can repurpose and enrich your existing content. Turn a blog into an email series, highlight key statistics in infographics, or summarize a comprehensive guide into bite-sized tips. This not only maximizes the lifespan of your content but also caters to different audience preferences for consuming information.

3. Personalization and Segmentation

Mass emails are so yesterday. Today’s savvy marketers know that personalization and segmentation are key to cutting through the noise. Use data to segment your audience based on interests, behaviors, and demographics. Tailor your email content to each segment, addressing their specific pain points and interests. This hyper-personalization boosts open rates, click-throughs, and conversions.

4. Automate for Efficiency and Relevance

Automation is your best friend when it comes to sustained engagement. Set up automated email workflows that trigger based on user actions—such as welcome emails for new subscribers, abandoned cart reminders, or follow-up emails after a purchase. These automated touchpoints keep your brand top of mind without requiring constant manual intervention.

5. Measure and Optimize

Analytics is the heartbeat of any successful email marketing campaign. Track open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and unsubscribe rates. Use these metrics to understand what resonates with your audience and adjust your strategy accordingly. Remember, email isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach; continuous testing and optimization are essential.

Embrace the Email-Content Synergy

The marriage of content marketing and email is a powerful one, offering SMBs an opportunity to stand out in a crowded digital landscape. By following these strategies, you can elevate your content's reach, enhance customer interactions, and drive sustainable business growth.

Ready to Start Engaging More Customers? Try our 30-day free trial of Constant Contact and experience the power of email marketing for your content. Click here to get started today!

https://conta.cc/2IZyiPG

Constant Contact is a great option to explore if you are seeking to improve your email marketing strategy. You can try it out for 30 days for free with no obligations – no credit card is required . Follow the link above to learn more and get started today without any contracts.

For more information, please call [407] 617-2910

www.thejrsolutions.com

#EmailMarketing, #ContentStrategy, #SMBGrowth, #EmailPersonalization, #DigitalMarketingTips

#thejrsolutions #constantcontact

Content Marketing vs. Blogging: What's Really the Difference?

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 23:03:24 GMT

Hey there, friend! Have you ever wondered what exactly sets content marketing apart from blogging? Today, let's simplify it in my easy-going style—making it crystal clear and fun for anyone!

Here's What We'll Chat About:

* What exactly is Content Marketing?

* What does Blogging really mean?

* What's the main difference between Content Marketing and Blogging?

* Why are both super important?

* How to blend Content Marketing and Blogging effectively

What's Content Marketing, anyway?

Think about running a lemonade stand. Content marketing is like giving free tasty lemonade samples to get people interested, rather than just yelling, “Buy my lemonade!” It’s all about offering valuable and helpful information that draws people in and keeps them coming back.

Content marketing can look like:

* Fun and useful YouTube videos.

* Free downloadable guides or handy checklists.

* Quick tips or engaging posts on Instagram.

So, what's Blogging then?

Blogging is more like having an online journal—only everyone can read it. You regularly post short, interesting, and sometimes personal articles that share your knowledge, experiences, or even humorous stories.

Blogs often include:

* Delicious recipes.

* Stories about adventures or travel.

* Helpful "how-to" posts.

Key Differences Between Content Marketing

and Blogging

* **Goal: **

* Content marketing is designed to attract and engage potential customers with valuable insights.

* Blogging typically aims to build a relationship through regular storytelling and sharing insights.

* **Format: **

* Content marketing covers various types like videos, graphics, and articles.

* Blogging primarily uses written posts.

* **Consistency: **

* Content marketing tends to be strategic and targeted.

* Blogging happens regularly, often weekly, to maintain audience interest.

Why You Need Both

Think of content marketing and blogging like peanut butter and jelly—good individually, but incredible together. Blogs help keep your audience coming back frequently, while content marketing attracts new people and builds trust in your brand.

* Blogging keeps your content fresh and consistent.

* Content marketing positions your brand as trustworthy and valuable.

How to Use Them Together for Best Results

Here's a simple strategy to combine the best of both worlds:

* Regularly post engaging blogs that your audience loves.

* Share diverse types of content (videos, infographics, posts) on social media.

* Use your email marketing to share your blogs and valuable content.

* Encourage readers to share your content to reach more people.

Final Thoughts

In short, content marketing attracts and engages your audience, while blogging builds deeper, regular connections. Together, they form a powerful combination for growing your brand.

Ready to level up your content game? Let’s make it happen!

And as always...

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read my blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can assist you with marketing. I have been an Email Marketing Specialist for the past twelve years which it has allowed me to help small and medium size business owners integrate email marketing, online registrations and online surveys into their marketing strategies. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation thru Zoom. Please email us at john@thejrsolutions.com to set up an online session.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing, Digital Marketing , or Content Writing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Building Brand Trust with Email Marketing (Why It Still Works in 2025)

Wed, 28 May 2025 18:52:46 GMT

If you’re running a business in 2025, you’ve probably noticed just how noisy the online world has become. We’re all getting hit with ads, pop-ups, and social media posts every time we pick up our phones.

But here’s the thing: **people don’t want more noise. They want a connection. **

And that’s precisely why **email marketing is still one of the most powerful tools you can use to build absolute trust with your audience. **

Whether you’re just starting out or already have a list of subscribers, this guide will walk you through how to use email not just to sell, but to connect — and how * The JR Solutions * can support you every step of the way.

Why Trust Matters (More Than Ever)

We all know that people don’t buy from businesses — they buy from people they trust.

These days, consumers are smarter. They’re doing their research, reading reviews, and tuning out anything that feels too “salesy.” So, how do you stand out?

Simple: You build trust first.

And email marketing lets you do that in a way few other platforms can. You’re not battling an algorithm. You’re landing directly in someone’s inbox — with permission.

What Makes Email So Effective?

.Here’s why we always recommend email marketing to our clients at *The JR Solutions*:

✅ It feels personal

You can write as if you're talking to one person — and with segmentation, you kind of are.

✅ People opt in (they *want* to hear from you)

That’s already a huge win. You’re not interrupting them — they’re inviting you in.

✅ It builds consistency

When you show up regularly in someone’s inbox with helpful, valuable content, your brand becomes familiar. And familiar = trusted.

When you show up regularly in someone’s inbox with helpful, valuable content, your brand becomes familiar.

And familiar = trusted.

5 Ways to Build Brand Trust Through Email

1. **Kick Things Off with a Real Welcome**

You only get one chance to make a first impression.

.ad of sending a boring “Thanks for signing up” email, create a short welcome series that introduces:

* Who you are

* What your business stands for

* What they can expect from you

* A quick win — a tip, freebie, or tool they’ll appreciate

�� *Pro tip:* Use your name, your voice, and even your photo. Let people see the human behind the brand.

We help our clients craft welcome sequences that *feel real*, not robotic.

2. **Focus on Value Over Sales**

If every email you send is about a product or promo, people will stop opening them.

Instead, share content that helps or inspires:

* Quick tips

* Helpful resources

* Lessons you’ve learned

* Answers to common questions

* Behind-the-scenes stories

It doesn’t have to be long. Just be helpful and consistent.

Need ideas? *The JR Solutions* helps small businesses build content plans that keep people engaged — and clicking.

3. **Keep It Visually Consistent**

Your emails should reflect your personality. That means:

* Your colors

* Your logo

* Your tone of voice

When your emails feel cohesive with your website and social media, it builds recognition. People start to remember you — and that’s a big part of trust.

If design isn’t your thing, *The JR Solutions* can build templates that make your emails look clean and professional every time.

4. **Tell Your Story**

This is a big one. We all connect through stories — not sales pitches.

Tell people:

* Why you started your business

* What drives you

* How your product helped someone

* What you’ve learned along the way

Even something small — like a behind-the-scenes peek at your day — helps people feel connected to you.

Want help shaping your story? We do that all the time at *The JR Solutions*. We’ll make sure your voice comes through loud and clear.

5. **Make It a Two-Way Street**

Your emails shouldn’t just talk to *at* people — they should invite responses. Ask questions. Invite feedback. Add polls or links that help you learn about your audience.

And don’t forget to track what’s working:

* Are people opening your emails?

* Are they clicking?

* Are they unsubscribing?

We help our clients not just write emails but also understand the numbers. Because numbers tell a story, too.

Want to Try Email Marketing Yourself?

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use tool to get started, I always recommend

[**Constant Contact**] https://conta.cc/2IZyiPG / .

It’s super beginner-friendly and gives you everything you need to:

* Build your list

* Send beautiful emails

* Track what’s working

Click here to try Constant Contact free for 30 days https://conta.cc/2IZyiPG ** — no strings attached.

Need help setting it up? * The JR Solution s* can walk you through everything — from setting up your account to writing your first welcome series.

Final Thoughts

In today’s crowded digital world, email is more than just a marketing tool — it’s a way to **build real, lasting relationships**.

So be yourself. Be helpful. Show up consistently. And always lead with trust.

And if you want someone in your corner to help you get it right?

�� [Let’s talk at The JR Solutions]( https://www.thejrsolutions.com )

We’ll help you take your email marketing from “just okay” to “wow, that really sounds like me.”

Aerial Photography and Video Drone Service: Why Your Business Needs It

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 14:57:00 GMT

In today’s fast-paced digital world, standing out visually can be the key to capturing your audience's attention.

Aerial photography and video drone services provide an innovative way to showcase your business from a fresh perspective. Whether you're in real estate, tourism, construction, or event planning, our aerial photography and video drone service can elevate your marketing strategy. Here's how this service can help your business thrive and why you should choose our agency for all your marketing needs.

Who Can Benefit from Aerial Photography and Drone Video Services?

1. **Real Estate Agents**

Aerial photos and videos offer potential buyers a comprehensive view of properties and their surroundings, helping listings stand out in a crowded market.

2. **Construction Companies**

Documenting progress from above allows construction companies to showcase the scale and development of their projects, both for internal use and marketing purposes.

3. **Event Planners and Venues**

Capture stunning overhead shots of large events, such as weddings, festivals, and corporate gatherings, providing clients with breathtaking footage to cherish and remember the occasion.

4. **Tourism and Hospitality**

Showcase scenic landscapes, resorts, or outdoor adventures through captivating aerial visuals, making it easier to attract tourists and guests.

5. **Agricultural Businesses**

Drones can monitor crop health, assess land conditions, and even provide aerial shots for marketing purposes, helping agricultural businesses stay competitive.

6. **Marketing Agencies and Content Creators**

Offering unique aerial visuals enhances marketing materials, social media campaigns, and website content, drawing attention to brand messages in innovative ways.

The Top Benefits of Aerial Photography and Video Drone Services

**Stunning Visual Appeal**: Aerial shots capture the beauty and scale of locations from unique angles, making your business’s visual content more engaging.

**Cost-Effective**: Traditional methods of capturing similar footage (like using helicopters) can be expensive. Drones offer a more affordable alternative.

**Increased Engagement**: Studies have shown that video content, particularly with aerial perspectives, receives higher engagement on social media platforms.

**Enhanced Storytelling**: Drones provide a creative way to tell a story, whether it's the construction progress of a project or a scenic tour of a property, building stronger connections with your audience.

**Improved Marketing Materials**: High-quality drone shots enhance brochures, websites, social media, and ads, providing professional visuals that lend credibility to your business.

**Timesaving**: Drones can cover large areas quickly, gathering all the necessary footage without lengthy waits or extensive planning.

**Versatility**: Aerial footage can be used in various marketing mediums, including TV commercials, websites, social media campaigns, and presentations.

**Better Perspective**: Drone footage offers a bird’s-eye view that is simply not achievable with traditional photography, providing fresh perspectives on your subject matter.

Why Choose Our Agency for Your Marketing Needs?

At **The JR Solutions** , we don't just offer aerial photography and video drone services—we provide a comprehensive marketing strategy designed to help your business succeed. With our expertise in content creation, video marketing, and email campaigns, we can ensure that your visuals reach the right audience with maximum impact.

Our team of professionals is dedicated to delivering high-quality visuals that align with your brand’s identity and goals. Whether you need stunning aerial footage for a property listing or dynamic video content for your social media channels, we have you covered.

Let Us Elevate Your Marketing Strategy

Aerial photography and video drone services can provide the unique and professional visuals that make your marketing stand out. Contact us today to learn how we can help your business soar.

Why Video Marketing is a Game-Changer for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 18:17:27 GMT

In today’s fast-paced digital world, attention spans are short, and competition is fierce.

That’s why **video marketing** has become one of the most powerful tools for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) looking to **boost brand visibility, connect with customers, and increase sales**.

Here’s why **your business should invest in video marketing**—and why our agency is the perfect partner to make it happen:

��️ Benefits of Video Marketing for SMBs:

1. **Increases Brand Awareness**

Videos are highly shareable and help spread your message across multiple platforms quickly and effectively.

2. **Improves Website Engagement**

Pages with video hold visitors' attention longer and reduce bounce rates, improving your SEO rankings.

3. **Boosts Conversion Rates**

Product videos and explainer videos help potential customers better understand your offering—leading to more purchases.

4. **Builds Trust and Credibility**

Authentic, well-crafted videos humanize your brand and create a personal connection with your audience.

5. **Great for Social Media Marketing**

Video content performs better than static images on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

6. **Enhances Email Marketing Campaigns**

Including videos in emails can increase click-through rates by up to 300%.

7. **Showcases Products and Services in Action**

Let potential customers *see* what you offer in real-world scenarios, making it easier for them to choose you over a competitor.

8. **Cost-Effective with Long-Term ROI**

A single high-quality video can be repurposed for social media, email, your website, and paid ads.

9. **Aerial Video and Photography Adds a Stunning Perspective**

Our aerial services give your brand a cinematic edge—perfect for showcasing real estate, events, construction progress, or your location from a bird’s-eye view.

Why Choose Us for Your Video Marketing?

At **The JR Solutions**, we specialize in helping small and medium-sized businesses **stand out through powerful, professional video content**. This includes **aerial video and photography**, scripted promos, explainer videos, and more. We also offer a full suite of marketing services—**email marketing, content writing, and blog management**—to help you maximize the return on your video investment.

If you're ready to elevate your brand and reach a wider audience, we’re prepared to help.

�� **Let’s create something that gets people talking. **

Let’s Talk About What a “Brand” Is and Isn’t

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 23:25:57 GMT

In a world where businesses compete for attention and loyalty, understanding the true essence of a brand is more crucial than ever; this article explores what a brand really is and what it isn’t, helping you navigate the complexities of brand identity in today’s marketplace.

Table of Content

1. Introduction

· Overview of the importance of understanding a brand

2. What a Brand Is

· A Promise to Your Customers

· The Perception of Your Business

· An Emotional Connection

· A Unique Identity in the Market

3. What a Brand Isn’t

· Just a Logo

· A Product or Service

· An Advertisement or Marketing Campaign

· A Quick Fix

4. Conclusion

What a Brand Is

. **A Promise to Your Customers**

At its core, a brand is a promise. It’s the expectation that your customers have when they see your logo, interact with your products, or engage with your services. A strong brand delivers consistently on this promise, whether that’s quality, innovation, or customer service. **Understanding what a brand truly means** involves recognizing that it’s more than just a logo or a product; it’s a commitment to your customers.

2. **The Perception of Your Business**

Your brand is how people perceive your business. This includes everything from your visual identity (like your logo and colors) to your tone of voice in communications, to the experience customers have with your products or services. **Defining your brand identity for business growth** means shaping this perception in a way that aligns with your goals and values.

3. **An Emotional Connection**

Brands go beyond tangible products or services; they create an emotional connection with customers. Think about how Apple evokes feelings of innovation and creativity, or how Coca-Cola brings to mind happiness and togetherness. **How to build a strong emotional connection with your brand** is a key factor in creating loyalty and long-term customer relationships.

4. **A Unique Identity in the Market**

Your brand distinguishes you from competitors. It’s the unique combination of elements—visual, verbal, and experiential—that sets you apart in the marketplace. **What makes a brand stand out in the market** is its ability to convey a unique value proposition that resonates with customers and differentiates it from others.

What a Brand Isn’t

1. **Just a Logo**

While a logo is an essential part of your brand, it’s not the brand itself. A logo is a symbol that represents your business, but the brand is the entire experience your company provides. **The difference between a brand and a logo** is crucial; relying solely on a logo to define your brand can lead to missed opportunities in creating a deeper connection with your audience.

2. **A Product or Service**

A product or service is what you sell; your brand is what you stand for. Your brand is the overarching narrative that gives meaning to your products and services. It’s the reason why customers choose your product over a competitor’s, even if they are similar in function and price. **Defining your brand identity for business growth** ensures that your brand encompasses more than just the products or services you offer.

3. **An Advertisement or Marketing Campaign**

Marketing campaigns are tools to promote your brand, but they are not the brand itself. A brand is the sum of all interactions and experiences a customer has with your business. Marketing can help shape these experiences, but it’s the brand that sustains long-term relationships. **Understanding what a brand truly means** involves recognizing that it’s a long-term asset, not a short-term tactic.

4. **A Quick Fix**

Building a brand takes time and consistency. It’s not something that can be established overnight or through a single marketing effort. A brand is nurtured over time through consistent messaging, quality products or services, and a deep understanding of your audience. **What makes a brand stand out in the market** is its ability to evolve and grow with its customers, rather than seeking quick fixes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, your brand is the lifeblood of your business. It’s the promise, perception, emotional connection, and unique identity that defines who you are and what you stand for. **Understanding what a brand truly means** and **defining your brand identity for business growth** will help you create a powerful, lasting impression in the marketplace. Remember, **the difference between a brand and a logo** is just one part of the larger picture; your brand isn’t just a logo or a product—it’s the experience and relationship you build with your customers over time.

By focusing on these aspects and incorporating **how to build a strong emotional connection with your brand** and **what makes a brand stand out in the market**, you’ll not only enhance your brand’s presence but also improve your SEO, making it easier for potential customers to find and connect with you.

The Importance of a Blogging Page for Small Businesses

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 19:29:08 GMT

1. Boosts SEO and Online Visibility

A well-maintained blog can significantly improve your website's search engine optimization (SEO). Regularly updated content with relevant keywords helps your site rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs), making it easier for potential customers to find you. According to a HubSpot study, B2B businesses that blog get 70% more leads than those that don’t.

2. Establishes Authority and Trust

Blogging allows you to share valuable information and insights, positioning your business as an industry expert. This builds trust with your audience, making them more likely to choose your products or services over competitors.

3. Engages and Retains Customers

High-quality blog content keeps your audience engaged and encourages them to return to your site. It also provides material for social media posts, driving more traffic to your website and increasing customer retention.

4. Cost-Effective Marketing

Unlike traditional advertising, blogging is a cost-effective way to market your business. It provides long-term benefits as the content remains on your site, continuing to attract visitors over time.

5. Enhances Customer Experience

Blogs that focus on providing valuable, non-sales information improve the customer experience. This approach fosters a positive relationship with your audience, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Why Hire an External Content Writer?

1. Expertise and Quality

Professional content writers have the skills and experience to create high-quality, engaging content that resonates with your audience. They understand SEO best practices and can optimize your blog posts to improve search engine rankings.

2. Timesaving

Running a small business is time-consuming, and creating quality content requires significant effort. Outsourcing your blog writing allows you to focus on core business activities while ensuring your blog remains active and engaging.

3. Consistency

A content writer can help maintain a consistent posting schedule, which is crucial for keeping your audience engaged and improving your SEO. Consistency in content delivery also helps establish your brand's voice and identity.

4. Cost-Effective Solution

Hiring a full-time writer may not be feasible for small businesses. Outsourcing to a freelance writer or content agency can be a more cost-effective solution, allowing you to pay for content as needed without the overhead costs of a full-time employee.

5. Fresh Perspectives

External writers bring fresh ideas and perspectives to your content, which can help keep your blog interesting and relevant. They can also provide insights into industry trends and best practices you might not know.

Conclusion

A blog is a powerful tool for small businesses, offering numerous benefits, from improved SEO to enhanced customer engagement. However, if you lack the time or expertise to maintain a blog, hiring an external content writer can be a strategic move to ensure your content is high-quality, consistent, and effective.

Get Started with a Free Trial Email Account!

Hello there! �� Ready to explore the benefits of a free trial email account? Let’s dive in!

�� What’s Included:

Enjoy a 30-day FREE trial with no strings attached.
Access all the features across different plan levels.
Build and experiment with your email lists and automation tools.

�� How It Works:

https://conta.cc/2IZyiPG

Explore: During the trial, test out everything—contacts, templates, and more.
Decide: When the trial ends, you choose whether to continue with a paid account. Pick your contact limit, plan level, and payment frequency (monthly or annually).
Keep What You Create: Anything you build during the trial period is yours to keep!

�� Important Note: While on the free trial, you can import up to 100 contacts. So, play around, experiment, and get comfortable before importing your full list.

�� No Contracts, No Hassle! Ready to get started? Let’s explore the world of email together!

Happy emailing! ��✨

Optimize Your Website - [Updated Post]

Wed, 03 May 2023 18:32:47 GMT

In a recent post, I wrote about ten reasons a business needs an updated website.

In this post, I would like to elaborate a little bit more as to why you should consider my suggestion(s).

As an email marketing specialist and content writer for small to medium-sized businesses, I want to talk to you about something super important for your website: optimizing it for mobile devices.

Nowadays, almost everyone uses their smartphones and tablets to browse the internet. That's why having a website that is mobile-friendly is so crucial. It provides a better user experience and can improve your search engine rankings, making it easier for potential customers to find your site.

A responsive design is one way to ensure your website is mobile-friendly.

.

This means your site's layout and content automatically adjust to fit any device’s screen size.

Pretty cool, right?

Another way to optimize your site for mobile is by optimizing images.

Large images can slow down your site's load time, which can be frustrating for mobile users. So, compress images and reduce their file size without sacrificing quality.

Simplifying navigation is another crucial factor for mobile optimization.

Use clear, concise labels for your menus, and make sure they're easy to access from any device. This can help mobile users find what they're looking for quickly and easily.

Testing your website on multiple devices is also a good idea.

This will help you identify any issues that must be addressed to ensure your site looks and functions nicely across all devices.

Lastly, prioritize speed.

Mobile users expect websites to load quickly, so minimizing the use of large images and videos, using browser caching, and compressing your code can all help reduce your site's load time.

So, there you have it! Optimizing your website for mobile devices is essential for providing a positive user experience, improving search engine rankings, and driving conversions and sales. As an email marketing specialist and content writer for small to medium-sized businesses, I encourage you to consider these tips and make sure your website is optimized for mobile.

Your competitors may have updated their websites, which can make your site look outdated in comparison. Updating your website can help to ensure that you stay competitive and that your business stays relevant in today's digital landscape.

Ten reasons why someone needs a website updated.

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 20:01:03 GMT

Outdated Design:

An outdated website design can make your business appear less professional and trustworthy. An updated design can help to improve the user experience and make your site more visually appealing.

Slow Loading Time:

A slow-loading website can frustrate visitors and lead to a higher bounce rate. Updating your website can help improve loading speed and ensure visitors stay on your site longer.

Poor Mobile Responsiveness:

With more people accessing websites on their mobile devices, having a website not optimized for mobile can result in a poor user experience. Updating your website can help to improve mobile responsiveness and make your site more accessible to mobile users.

Security Vulnerabilities:

An outdated website can be more vulnerable to security threats, compromising sensitive data and damaging your reputation. Updating your website can help ensure that security vulnerabilities are addressed and your site is protected from attacks.

Outdated Content:

Outdated content can make your website look neglected and give visitors the impression that your business is no longer active. Updating your website with fresh, relevant content can help engage visitors and keep them returning.

Poor Search Engine Rankings:

An outdated website with poor SEO can hurt your rankings, making it harder for potential customers to find your site. Updating your website with optimized content and a better structure can help to improve your search engine rankings.

Broken Links:

Broken links on your website can lead to a better user experience and help your search engine rankings. Updating your website can help ensure all links work correctly and visitors can easily navigate your site.

Lack of Functionality:

An outdated website may need more functionality than visitors expect, such as a search function or social media integration. Updating your website can help add new features and functionality to improve the user experience.

Incompatibility with New Technologies:

An outdated website may need to be compatible with new technologies, such as the latest web browsers or mobile devices. Updating your website can help to ensure that it is consistent with the latest technologies and that visitors can access your site from any device.

Competition:

In summary:

In today's digital landscape, having an up-to-date website is more important than ever. From an outdated design to slow loading times, security vulnerabilities to broken links, there are many reasons why you may need to update your website. But the benefits of updating your site are clear. Not only can an updated design improve your professional image, but it can also help to improve the user experience, make your site more accessible to mobile users, and improve your search engine rankings. So, if you're feeling left behind by your competitors or frustrated with your site's performance, it may be time to consider updating your website. With the right strategy and updates, you can ensure that your site is optimized for success and helps your business thrive in the digital world.

Are you in need of an Email Marketing solution?

If you're ready to take your email marketing to the next level, please contact us today to learn more about how we can help you develop a customized strategy that maximizes your potential and achieves better results. With our help, you can improve engagement rates, increase open and click-through rates, and boost your conversion rates.

Exploring an email marketing tool to boost your business is crucial.

The JR Solutions, a trusted digital marketing agency in operation since 2010, can provide you with the ideal solution. Consider trying out Constant Contact offers a free 60-day trial for all your email

marketing needs.

Click here >>> https://bit.ly/3DZJl6T

Content Marketing vs Blogging

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 19:09:41 GMT

Topics covered:

What is Content Marketing
Blogging Defined
When to Consider Content Marketing vs Blogging

As I get more and more into this thing we call “Digital Marketing”, I try to tell my clients and prospects that they need to start blogging. Then I get asked, what’s the difference between “blogging and content marketing”?

Ok, so let’s talk about this. The terms are used interchangeably when they are not the same (at least not 100%).

Content Marketing

Blogging

When you should consider Blogging or

Content Marketing

Want to read more about Content Marketing?

Click here > https://bit.ly/3yTky4H

And as always...

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read my blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can assist you with marketing. I have been an Email Marketing Specialist for the past eight years which it has allowed me to help small and medium size business owners integrate email marketing, online registrations and online surveys into their marketing strategies. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation thru Zoom. Please email us at john@thejrsolutions.com to set up an online session.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing, Digital Marketing , or Content Writing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Surviving After the Pandemic

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 17:17:21 GMT

Surviving After the Pandemic

Hopefully, as we head toward the end of the pandemic, the economy will not return to the “norm” as we once knew it.

It will not return to normal, if you are going to survive it, you need to lay the groundwork now.

Now is the time to build a foundation that can get you through this now and in the future.

Here are three action items that I recommend you take based on all my research.

First, Communicate

Second, Build Relationships

Although as of this writing, things appear to be moving right along, we are all going through a shared experience that everyone can relate to.

Your customers and prospects will connect with you thru newsletter stories about how you and your family have found a renewed love for different activities.

Get a little vulnerable if it feels right for you. Be human.

Everything is up for renewal. Right now, the entire world is in a massive state of change. Customers are open to opportunities. You’d better be reaching out to remind them you still are in business.

Don’t neglect your referral partners. They are crucial right now. How can you help each other at this time?

You must get personal, so people feel like they have a genuine connection with you. Remember the old and true saying, “people want to do business with people they like, know, and trust”.

Third, Follow Up with Prospects

You cannot take your customers for granted anymore. Any type of sales effort should end with getting the prospects’ full contact information. Use a Customer Relationship Management software [CRM] to capture all the history that you may build up with the potential client and existing clients. Don’t let them drop off the grid if they are not ready to purchase from you.

Not everyone will be ready at the time of your call. It does not mean they won’t be interested in buying from you tomorrow. You never know why someone didn’t buy right away, but it’s your job as the business owner to make sure your company is nurturing prospects and guiding them to make a buying decision in the future. Send them emails about your company, maybe featuring some of your staff so they can get to know your company even more.

The above paragraph is really a reflection of their budget changing with the current times.

As we keep moving forward in our “new world”, it may be a good idea to cultivate a personal connection. Communicate and build relationships to ensure your business not only survives but also thrives afterward.

If you are not sure how can a newsletter or your digital footprint can help you, reach out to us. Send us an email to john@thejrsolutions.com to set up a complimentary consultation.

And as always...

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read my blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can assist you with marketing. I have been an Email Marketing Specialist for the past nine years which it has allowed me to help small and medium size business owners integrate email marketing, online registrations and online surveys into their marketing strategies. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation thru Zoom. Please email us at john@thejrsolutions.com to set up an online session.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing, Customer Relation Management [CRM], Digital Marketing , or Content Writing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Do you know the history of “branding”?

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 21:10:46 GMT

Here is a quick Birdseye view on how it came into existence and practice.

The concept of “branding” has been around for hundreds of years. But as time went by, “branding” has taken many meanings and usage.

First a little background on the word “brand”.

In doing some research, I found out that the word comes from the Ancient Norse ( SIDE NOTE: Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian was a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements from about the 7th to the 15th centuries) which meant to “burn”. Around 950 A.D., a brand was referred to a burning a piece of wood. By the 1300s, it was used primarily to describe a torch, a burning piece of wood used as a tool to mark something or livestock. However, by the 1500s it was solely used to mark ownership of livestock. Ranchers would burn their initials on their animals in case they got lost or stolen, they could easily identify them. It was simple and unique. You can equate it to today’s modern logos.

Click here to read more on “what a “ brand is and isn’t in today’s marketplace ”

1820s brought us another usage of a “brand”. The rise of mass production and trade goods all over the world opened visibility (brand awareness) of products, allowing them to be known in faraway lands. However, with time, the “brand” became known as a symbol of quality rather than ownership.

Any “brand” perceived of a higher quality could have been sold and still is, at a higher price. This practice also gave way to trademarks.

Mass Media Comes into Being

With the radio and the television era, manufactures found new ways to create and demand more of their “brand” getting more recognized in the marketplace. By 1928, Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, published a book, titled Propaganda, copyright 1928, in which he made the case that associating products with ideas and “brands” with large numbers of people could influenced the act on purchasing such products (this is where the term “impulse buying" probably comes from).

As the years went on by, around the 1960s, marketers were using mass media to associate brands with emotional benefits rather than functional ones. At the time, purchasing a particular “brand”, made someone feel as part of an exclusive group. By 1979, Coca Cola came with the tagline, “Have a Coke and a Smile!”

The 1980s brought an incredible reach of products on the global stage, giving consumers more choices than ever. Like anything else in business, building brand recognition became more important to companies rather than focusing their products and services. This strategic move, allowed to build “brand” loyalty across product lines.

In 1984, Apple Computer released their iconic “1984” television ad, showing users how to break free of rigid conformity by using Apple computers. The concept took off quite well and business began to focus more on establishing long term corporate identity.

This turn of development in the marketplace gave way to Advertising Agencies which morphed into Brand Consultancies practices which in turn brought into existence branding for nonprofits, potential groups and even personal brands for celebrities.

So, what’s going on now?

So now, fast forward to the the 21 ^st century, between the internet and social media the next stage in the evolution of branding is taking another important and huge step as our world shrinks as far as being able to reach anyone, in anyplace, instantaneously.

No longer are people in today’s market satisfied in merely consuming – they want to participate. Social media brands like YouTube and Facebook rely on their users to help establish their value and how they are perceived by the public.

Content sites like Amazon and Yelp depend on reviewers to provide their most persuasive content. Although internet-based companies give up some of the control of their brand image, the loyalty from an actively participating customer base is unparalleled. Viral marketing, search engine optimization, and outsourced delivery allow organizations to gain visibility and deliver products without spending millions on advertising and infrastructure.

Being a marketer for the last 20 years, I, personally, am eager to keep watching (and learning) how we use the term of “branding” that started over hundreds of years ago by branding livestock into what we know today, as “brand awareness” in a Digital World.

Click here to read more about “ How to Brand Your Brand-New Business ”

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read this blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can assist you with marketing. I have been an Email Marketing Specialist for over seven years. It has allowed me to help small business owners integrate email marketing, online registrations and online surveys into their marketing strategies. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation thru Zoom. Please email us at john@thejrsolutions.com to set up an online session.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing or Digital Marketing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Why You May Need A Content Writer

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 15:34:00 GMT

Let's Talk For A Minute About Content Writing

If you are taking the time to read this blog then dream with me for a minute.

Imagine us getting together before going into an event for talks, presentations, and meet-and-greets, we agree to meet up at that quaint little coffee shop on the corner nearer our hotels.

We sit at a table by a window looking out onto a sunny city street. Bright-eyed, early shoppers passing on by with their shopping bags, and business people in suits and blazers hurry by on their way to their first morning meetings.

We sip our coffees and chat idly about the upcoming events of the day and after my last sip of Cuban coffee from the tiny little cup, all wired up, I ask, “So, how is your company’s blog doing?”

You reply with a pained sigh, and lifelessly mutter: “It could be doing so much better.”

I, then, very attentive, listen closely to what you have to say, you continue on letting me know of the issues you perceive having with it.

You go on to tell me that you can’t keep up with the weekly consistent blogging schedule

that it takes to maintain proper consistency online.

You’re hyper-focused on quantity and obsessed with pushing out content just to get it out there. Ergo much of your content is just okay, while most of it is downright rushed and bad.

You haven’t even thought about SEO.

Writing isn’t your forte, nor is it the specialty of anyone else on your team, so you struggle mightily when it comes time to create content.

Your main competitor, on the other hand, has an incredible blog and is jumping ahead of you by leaps and bounds with the audience they’re drawing in. And the list goes on.

You sit back in your chair, rubbing your temples. Just thinking about the situation gives you a headache.

You know what I’m going to say. I say it anyway.

“You need a content writer” …that’s right, “a content writer”!

I can share with you 5 basic reasons why you need invest in a Content Writer.

By the way, before you ask, [if you do ask], there is a difference between Content Marketing [Writing} and Blogging.

Now I know, I know, this is just a tale, but even though this is an imaginary situation, the point still stands. If you’re like most small brands, some or all of this is ringing true.

Research shows most small business owners, marketers, and communications professionals experience a disconnect between knowing what successful writing looks like and achieving it.

76% say they know what successful writing looks like, but only 45% think their content is extremely ineffective.

Nearly half of all business communicators struggle to understand what their audience wants to read.

Those with only moderate success with content writing struggle with most aspects of the process: writing and publishing consistently, maintaining quality over time, writing headlines, writing for SEO, writing concisely, getting the words to flow, and meeting deadlines. As you can see, you’re not alone in your struggles.

But there IS a solution.

You need a content writer, and I’m here to tell you why. [Imagine going back to that make-believe conversation we had over high-octane coffee]

You Don’t Have Time

Content Writing Is More Than Writing

When you hire a content writer [hopefully me... :-) ], you’re not getting someone who will write generic content that may or may not apply to your business. You’re hiring a team member who will take an interest in your business and will be eager to learn how you work, who your audience is, and where your big successes and failures are now.

Once we have all the information we need, we’re going to be doing more than writing – we’re going to be communicating with your audience on a level you’d never have time to maintain.

Not only that, but our team is very experienced with writing for SEO — including keyword and topic research — as well as editing, writing for social media and other content formats, and more.

Content writing means we have to be good at a little of everything – and that’s good for you.

A Good Content Writer Brings a New Perspective

A common mistake of CEOs and business owners doing their marketing and advertising is that they’re just too close to their products. They can’t see the forest for the trees, so to speak.

Your content writer, on the other hand, is coming to the table with no biases and a fresh perspective. They’ll look at your product with zero prior knowledge of its existence, in many cases.

A content writer who’s worth his or her salt will take an interest in your business and will work tirelessly to understand it while maintaining their clear-eyed objectivity. It’s this objective stance that helps them write creative and innovative content that doesn’t rehash the same old tired clichés plaguing your industry.

That’s our job. We take your product, look at it in a fresh new way, and sell it to new customers with a novel perspective on what makes it so great. We take your tired content topics and breathe new life into them, illuminating and showcasing your brand voice in the process.

Fresh Content, Consistently, Means Better Results

It should go without saying at this point, but I’m saying it anyway. (Do you see a theme emerging, here?)

Search engines love fresh content. They also love quality content.

To rank well, to stay on Google’s page one, you need both.

75% of SEO experts cite content as the most important factor for an SEO-friendly website.

Keeping your sites' pages filled with ever-changing, fresh, keyword-optimized content that isn’t spammy [just came up with a new word], that’s written for humans, and is fun and engaging for an internet audience to read, is going to be the best dang thing that ever happened to your website. Period.

Guess what?!?!

The best content writers do that. ALL of it.

Your content writer will have his or her finger on the pulse of your web traffic in a way you never could. They know how to write consistently great content while using SEO techniques – all without sacrificing readability, customer engagement, or accuracy.

It's Not That Expensive

I get it. You have overhead that hiring even one more person will make your budget that much tighter.

No worries. You don’t need a sky-high budget to get stellar content writing.

Even companies on the barest of budgets should be able to afford the services of a freelance content writer for a project or two, and if the content is effective, then your bottom line will start looking up, enabling you to bring that freelancer on board regularly.

If cost is your barrier to hiring a new, savvy content writer, don’t forget the long-term ROI of content, either. Dollar for dollar, content marketing outperforms paid advertising. That means you’ll spend less money on content but get more bang for your buck.

And as always...

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read my blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing, Digital Marketing , or Content Writing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Blogging To Reach Your Intended Audience

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 13:11:10 GMT

Blogs are mainstream tools for any business online

You may be tempted to think that each of the media that innovative marketers use to reach clients and/or potential clients is a standalone communication tool. Quite honestly some of them are self-contained.

The reality is that they all are interconnected and no matter how one decides to use them, the tool that unifies it all is a content-rich website.

So let me jump right to my topic of the day. *Blogging*

Blogs are mainstream tools to any business to get their ideas out to the marketplace. [As I write this article, please keep in mind that I am trying to convey to you, my readers, how valuable blogging can be to your web presence]

Blogging, a Front Door Opener

Blogging is a great front door opener for any individual or organization because it helps build brand awareness as well as it will establish one as an expert in their field. [And by the way, it does not happen overnight]

And here is another important point I would like to make…creating a blog that showcases your brand in contrast with all the social media networks, is a no brainer. You see you never own your real estate with these platforms [Twitter, LinkedIn, Google], algorithm can change from one day to the next, leaving you starving for “viewing eyes”.

I know, I know, “blogging” in some circles, at times my carry a negative connotation with some people that have the belief that what they are reading is just “fluff”.

Well, I am here to tell you that if you create valuable information to market your business [mostly educating your readers about your products/services/introducing your staff, etc.] then eventually your “blogging” will pay off.

In future articles, I will write more about how to establish your own blog. As you get started, I will suggest to you to monitor blogs that are in your market space, that alone will teach and/or will give you an idea how to compete with others that are in your niche and how to possibly shine within the intended space.

And as always...

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read my blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing, Digital Marketing , or Content Writing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

How Email Marketing Works in 2021: Trends and Best Practices

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 21:52:20 GMT

How Email Marketing Works in 2021

Not all emails that you send out should be about convincing your potential clients or established clients to buy something from you. You should have relevant content, something that will educate you audience with what is that you do, maybe how you can offer a solution to a particular challenge that you come cross in you daily or weekly business. Something that they may opt to keep in their inboxes for future point of reference since you will come across as an expert in your field.

Along the way, focus on data privacy. It shows them that you’re more than just a business- you care about your customers and want only what’s best for them.

Make sure that your email copy will look good on a mobile screen or else it won’t be as effective. Email marketing is a fine art, and sometimes you need the help of a professional.

At this point, let me reiterate, that email marketing remains a vital component in any business strategy, and more so in the year 2021.

Think Mobile Optimization

The more creative you are per inch of space, the better. Mobile browsing has overtaken the traditional desktop browsing by a significant margin, but most marketers and brands fail to realize this.

And as always...

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read this blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing or Digital Marketing , we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Do You Know How to Use Email Marketing to Build Brand Awareness?

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 13:39:50 GMT

I am sure you do know that building awareness for your business is important.

But how do you stand out and actually get the attention you need to reach new customers and generate new opportunities?

Building awareness means having a way to stay top-of-mind with existing clients, and being able to reach potential clients in the process.

Email marketing can help you communicate and share industry updates with your existing clients. It can grow into one of your biggest assets for brand awareness. People will talk about your business because somehow, they heard about your business, thru an email that was sent to one of their friends and so now it becomes word-of-mouth advertising. [Not a bad thing to have happened]

If you’ve been struggling to get the reach you’re looking for, email marketing can help. Consider these four tips to help you get started:

1. Ask for permission

Growing an email list can take some time, but it’s better to collect email addresses the right way, rather than trying to take shortcuts.

Add people to your list that you have met and have an existing business relationship with you. When you let people know what they’re going to receive — which can be information about events, industry news, and any product updates— people are very willing to sign up.

Getting permission has proven to be particularly important, following the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), which went into effect on July 1, 2014. The legislation introduced new requirements for businesses to obtain consent before sending marketing messages.

Reach out to your audience to let them know that you are aware of it, and give them the option to update their subscription. You may be surprised to see the number of people that may want to keep hearing from you.

2. Put your audience first

Asking permission will get people onto your list, but once they’ve signed up it’s your responsibility to provide something of value.

Provide the best value from the start with your audience and try to understand what they’re most interested in receiving.

It’s all about providing something that’s relevant to them and promotes engagement.

Use audience feedback to tweak their strategy and also incorporate video in your Email Marketing as a central part of their marketing strategy to humanize your business, show people behind the scenes.

Also consider sending an online survey to a segment your client base to learn more about what they’re interested in receiving.

3. Share your knowledge

4. Be consistent

Consistency is important — both in the look and feel of your messages, and in the frequency that you communicate with your audience.

Email templates make it easy to create professional-looking messages that can be customized to match your brand.

Plan out how to design your templates so that your image is always the same for brand awareness. Your goal is to humanize your business, so each message that goes out will have a video or photos of your staff or clients.

It may take while before anyone is converted to a new client so consistency is key in building that relationship.

This eventually will result in new business opportunities, increased referrals, and greater brand awareness for your business.

Email Marketing can be the most effective tool for delivering your message.

Put your email marketing strategy into action.

Whether you offer services to other businesses, or want a better way to build relationships with customers, email marketing can help.

And as always...

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read this blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing or Digital Marketing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Social Media: It doesn’t have to overwhelm you

Wed, 26 May 2021 21:21:46 GMT

If you’re like many of the business owners I talk to, social media marketing feels overwhelming. And it often feels like you’re spinning your wheels — doing a lot of activity across many channels with little to show for it.

Don’t worry, you’re not alone, it’s a common frustration.

Luckily, a lot of this frustration can be alleviated by busting a few common social media marketing

myths when it comes to myths vs reality.

Ultimately, social media should allow you to generate awareness, engagement, and action for your business that you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

You should reserve your business name on the important social channels so you have it. But you don’t have to be active everywhere. That’s why we recommend starting with one channel that makes sense for your business.

Ideally, choose a primary social channel based on the clients you’re trying to reach. Also, consider what channel you’re most comfortable using and how it fits with the personality of your business.

Social Media Myths and Truths

Myth #1: Social media is for selling

If you’re expecting client conversions straight from a social media posting, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.

Think about this for a second: You’re expecting someone to make a final decision based on hashtags and hyperlinks. Yes, it’s as crazy as it sounds.

Truth #1: Social media is for sharing

Social media is a constantly evolving extension of your website’s “About Me” and “Blog” pages.

It is a chance to share with your audience in real time the things happening in your world,

to give them a glimpse into what your day looks like today and not just the polished

presentation from your website.

Sure, you can share things about what your products or services,

after all, they are a major part of your day. But, the payoff from that share isn’t going

to happen on Facebook Messenger 10 minutes later, it’s going to happen on your website after

10+ days of consistent social posting that finally drives someone to take the next step

and check out your website .

Myth #2: Nobody sees what I post

The fastest way to get discouraged and quit social media marketing is to convince yourself that

nobody cares. What is the point of all the hard work to market on social media if nobody actually click

on my content?

Truth #2: Success on social media comes in many forms

When measuring the effectiveness of your social media posts, there are three metrics you should

care about: Impressions, Reach, and Engagement. Impressions are the number of times your post is

viewed, reach is the total number of unique users who’ve seen your post, and engagement is the

amount of interaction (either in the form of likes, comments, or shares) a post gets.

If you’re only caring about one of these measurements, you’re ignoring the benefits of the others. High volumes of impressions and reach are indicative of solid brand awareness; you’ve exposed a lot of people to your message. Maybe those people aren’t ready to engage you as clients yet, but perhaps when they get to see your next post or visit your website, they’ll remember the social media post and be more likely to call. Maybe your overall reach is fairly low, but the engagement on your post is very high.

This indicates that while your audience is small volumetrically, they’re engaged in what you have to say, and are therefore more likely than their unengaged counterparts to make a move down the lead funnel. As far as leads go, there is absolutely no difference between an audience of 20 with a 20% engagement rate and an audience of 100 with a 5% engagement rate.

Myth #3: The only way to actually build an audience is to pay for it

There is a reason that social media platforms offer their services completely free of charge to users; they make all their money by charging for advertising. Advertising on social media can be an effective means of building an audience and generating activity from your social media marketing, but it’s not the only way.

Truth #3: There are lots of ways to engage and build your audience without paying for them

Building your audience begins and ends with thoughtful, well-crafted content. When you

create social media posts that are optimized for the individual platforms, then share information

your audience is interested in a way that your audience is interested in consuming it, your

readers do the rest of the work for you.

Even though your organic audience might be small...

Even though your organic audience might be small, when they share your content, it gains momentum

exponentially, quickly reaching beyond the confines of your following. In addition to creating great

content, all the major social media platforms have a hashtag system, allowing posters to categorize

their content, as well as allowing consumers to search for types of content by topic and not

necessarily by who they follow.

When you do find posts that garner a high level of interest, you may consider putting advertising dollars behind them to extend the reach of proven content even more.

And as always...

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read this blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing or Digital Marketing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Why You Should Delete a Bunch of Your Email Subscribers Right Now

john@thejrsolutions.com — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 22:22:02 GMT

Want to run a successful marketing campaign? Then it’s time to clean house.

You built up your list of subscribers. Now it’s time to remove a bunch of them. Because a clean email list can work wonders.

In fact, cleaning your email list can improve three key metrics: deliverability, open rates and click rates. The better these metrics, the more successful your email marketing campaign will be.

That’s because a smaller list of engaged subscribers — people who actively read and interact with your content and brand — are more valuable than a larger list of subscribers who never open your content.

In fact, lists with numerous inactive email addresses typically have higher rates of bounces, spam complaints and unsubscribes than ones that don’t.

Plus, when you continue to send emails to people who don’t open them, internet service providers — like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo — penalize you. Do this often enough, and your emails may end up in their spam folders, which decreases deliverability to people who actually want to read your content.

Email list hygiene is important

Want to succeed with email marketing? List cleanup is non-negotiable.

A healthy, well-maintained email list is the foundation for any successful email marketing program. If you’re spending the time and effort on your campaigns, you want to make sure you get results.

Unfortunately, the average email list depreciates over time – nearly 25% a year. This is due to a combination of things: bounces, unsubscribes, email address changes. And if you’re not bringing in subscribers at the same rate as they leave, it can feel like your business is taking a hit.

How often should I clean my email list?

How often you should clean your email list will vary from company to company, and list to list.

But a good rule of thumb is every six months — and definitely not longer than a year.

Or, if you want to keep your list squeaky clean year-round, try cleaning your list every 3 months.

How to clean your email list

Ready to say good-bye to inactive subscribers? Clean your list in 5 simple steps.

Step 1: Think quality over quantity

A big list certainly seems impressive. There are dozens of blog posts and case studies out there touting strategies to go from 0 to 10,000 subscribers in no time. Not all of these list-building tactics are legit – buying an email list, for example, might get you subscribers, but it won’t get you the results you’re looking for.

Why? Because these subscribers never opted-in to receive your emails. They don’t know who you are and they most likely have no interest in buying what you’re selling – be prepared for your emails to go straight to the spam folder. Plus, if you’re using a reputable email service provider [like Constant Contact], purchased lists are totally off limits.

Wouldn’t you rather have a smaller, curated list of ideal subscribers who are super excited to read your emails? This would certainly bring joy to your email list – and your open rates.

Step 2: Commit yourself to letting go

Letting go of clutter is hard to do. The same can be said for your subscribers. Cleaning up your list means having to part with subscribers that you spent time and money to acquire.

Keeping your goal in mind is a great way to stay focused. Are you sending to attain more sales? Readers? Connections? The people on your list should be the ones who help you achieve that goal.

Keep in mind that not only will a clean list mean more attentive readers, but your deliverability and open rates will improve, too. Talk about a win-win!

Step 3: Imagine your ideal subscriber

The ideal subscriber is someone who looks forward to seeing your latest newsletter hit their inbox, engages with your newsletters, clicks through to your offers and shares your emails with friends. While these are the people you want to see on your list, you might find that there are different characteristics and traits among your specific audience.

Having a visual ideal for the type of people you want to send to plays a huge part in how you plan your email strategy. These personas will make sure your content, cadence and promotional strategy are all in check.

A good way to identify these subscribers is by sending out a survey. Ask questions about the type of content they’d like to receive and how frequently, as well as what they expect from your emails. With the feedback you receive, you can learn a lot about your list.

Step 4: Identify your inactive subscribers

Inactive subscribers are people who signed up for your email list, but haven’t opened any of your emails in a long time – or possibly ever. And we always seem to make excuses for keeping these people on our lists.

There are lots of reasons why these perfectly valid subscribers go dark: they no longer need your products or services; they don’t have time to check all of their emails or maybe they just aren’t interested. Sometimes people sign up for a one-time incentive offer but have no intentions on purchasing from you again.

Fortunately, your inactive subscribers aren’t too hard to spot. Simply take a look at your subscriber stats to see who opens your emails and who doesn’t. People who open but don’t click aren’t necessarily a lost cause – they’re showing some interest in your brand, but maybe the content doesn’t completely resonate. It might be a good option to segment them out from those who don’t engage at all, and follow up with more targeted content.

Cleaning up your list from inactive isn’t easy. It’s hard to part with your subscribers! Before you remove these people from your list, try running a reactivation campaign to give them a second chance and increase engagement. If they still aren’t opening your emails, it’s time to let go.

Step 5: Spark some joy

Keep your list healthy and maintained by delighting your subscribers with relevant content. After all, these are your ride-or-die subscribers. You should be showing them as much attention (if not more) than your prospects.

Here are a couple of ideas to possible spark new interest:

Send subscribers a special promo code or discount offer
Share helpful tips or hacks for using your product or service (bonus points for GIFs)
Ask for feedback with a customer survey
Reward customers who frequently purchase from you with a loyalty program

But before you delete, try a re-engagement email

campaign first…

Try a re-engagement email campaign to win back inactive subscribers before you clean your email list. It’s a lot less work to reach out to a current subscriber than it is to add a new one.

1. Take a closer look at your inactive subscribers

How did they sign up? If, for instance, they subscribed after signing up for a free eBook or webinar, their interest may have waned after they received their freebie. Look at the content you covered in the incentive you offered – can you send them similar content again?

2. Segment your list based on activity

Now it’s time to separate the active from the inactive. As mentioned earlier, you may want to take one extra step by segmenting the totally inactive from the semi-active, or those who have opened your emails but haven’t clicked your links.

3. Reach out to your inactive subscribers

There are a few ways you can do this:

Send a survey asking what they’d like to see from you in the future.
If you already have an idea of what kind of content they want, send them related content.
You can try sending them a freebie – an eBook, checklist or another electronic download – to remind them of your value.
For those who have opened your emails but haven’t made a purchase from you, a coupon might be the nudge they need.

For any reactivation message, keep these things in mind:

Your message should be super compelling and remind your subscribers why they signed up in the first place.
Your value proposition should align with the “What’s in it for me?” rule.
Make your subject line pops – remember, these are people who haven’t opened an email from you in a while.
Let readers know how they can reach you on other social sites. If a reader checks Facebook more than email, it makes more sense for them to stay in touch with you there.

If the inactive subscribers still aren’t biting, it’s time for a cut-off email

Send a message to those who were unresponsive to your reactivation email asking them to reconfirm their interest in your mailing list. Remind them about all the valuable content they’ll miss out on from you.

Remove those inactive subscribers

At this point, you’ve given your inactive subscribers plenty of chances to reconfirm their interest in your list. It’s time to say goodbye! It might hurt at first, but inactive subscribers can only hurt your email marketing.

Here’s why:

They skew your email analytics in terms of opens rates and click throughs, hurting your deliverability and preventing you from getting an accurate picture of your emails’ success – and that negatively impacts your entire campaign.

You’re better off having a small list of active subscribers than a large list of dead email addresses.

It’s the best way to ensure the overall health of your email list.

Reactivating your inactive subscribers is one of the best ways to reinvigorate your email marketing performance.

If that doesn’t work, it’s time to delete inactive subscribers

If your inactive subscribers still aren’t biting after a re-engagement campaign, it’s time to say goodbye.

There’s nothing better than the feeling of a clean email list. Have you employed some of these tactics in your email marketing strategy?

Are you offering gift cards this holiday season?

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 14:40:42 GMT

Well, it’s almost that time of the year! This year to have some positive vibrations started early, I would probably start putting up decorations up at Thanksgiving and leave them there until after the New Year. Why can’t there be a Valentine’s Day tree? Just saying.

Whether you’re into the holiday spirit or not, as a business owner, you need to take advantage of this time of year.

Gift cards make the perfect present for the fussy shopper. They make an even better marketing tool for local retailers. Not only do they guarantee sales, they also increase brand awareness and generate new customers.

Whatever your multi-location business, selling more gift cards is going to increase profits. With the holidays approaching, there’s no better time to boost sales. Here’s how you can leverage your growing digital presence to sell more holiday gift cards online and in-store.

Start With Your Website

Spread the message across Social Media

Social media can be particularly powerful because consumers are increasingly turning to their favorite network for gift inspiration. Create content to encourage customers to buy your e-gift cards online. The transaction is automated and once processed, you have that buyer’s contact information for up-sells and future promotions.

What’s great about using your social media profiles to promote your holiday gift cards is that you can actually show them the card. You could even go as far as to couple gift card promotions with in-store items.

Consider posting an image of the gift card next to an in-store item. If customers don’t know the size, color or style to get, a gift card is the perfect solution.

You probably aren’t short of social media content over the holiday season. But promoting your gift card on social media will make sure you definitely don’t run out. If you want to take things further, it is recommended offering a special discount to your social media audience, if they make a gift card purchase online.

Don’t forget to push the last-minute angle when promoting gift cards on social media. Electronic gift cards make the perfect present for someone who hasn’t got time to visit your store and pick out a present.

Hit Up Your Email List

Get Noticed on Google

So far, I only have discussed free tactics that promote gift cards across your owned media properties. But let’s talk about paid advertising.

Google AdWords provides a relatively inexpensive way to promote your gift cards. The benefit of AdWords is that you can target specific keywords. This allows you to promote your store’s gift cards when users search broad queries like “spa gift cards” as well as searches that are specific to your brand.

Another way to promote your gift cards through Google is to use Merchant Promotions. Although you can never go wrong with a discounted price or free shipping, I think a particularly good offer for the holiday season is a gift card. Why? Because it allows shoppers to show their loved ones that they’re thoughtful while also giving them a little bit of insurance.

Through Google Shopping’s Merchant Promotions, retailers can include a free gift card when customers spend over a certain amount. To be clear, this gift card is offered for free, but it is still a great way to encourage users to complete an online order while adding an incentive for them to return to your store after the holidays.

And as always..

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read this blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can assist you with marketing. I have been an Email Marketing Specialist for over seven years. It has allowed me to help small business owners integrate email marketing, online registrations and online surveys into their marketing strategies. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation thru Zoom. Please email us at john@thejrsolutions.com to set up an online session.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing or Digital Marketing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Do you know what an Infographic is?

Mon, 28 Sep 2020 20:50:12 GMT

Benefits to using Infographics

Infographics are a mixture of pictorial, data, and writing that is used to visually communicate information to an audience. Infographics have more potential to “go viral” than other forms of data because they’re fun to look at, get across the information quickly and are fun.

There are many benefits to using infographics to spread any message or idea.

Take a look at these eight benefits:

* They’re Attractive to Look At

Most people are visual by nature. The eye is naturally drawn to colors and images more than text. Plus, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. If you can make a good infographic it will be worth literally thousands of words but take up less space and get more interest than the same information in text format only.

* Easily Understood by Scanning Quickly

When people read on the internet they typically scan vertically instead of horizontally. This is why when writing content, you’re told to include a lot of subheadings and bullet points. An infographic offers the best of all worlds, taking into consideration how people digest content on the web, and how the mind loves interesting images.

* Can Convey Deep Concepts Easily

There are many concepts that are difficult to explain with words only or images only. Infographics bring together the best of both worlds. If you think about it, a comic strip is a kind of infographic that has been used for years to make people laugh and also explain difficult concepts.

* Easily Shared

Not only is it easy to share an infographic with a click, but they are also more likely to be shared than text. They are acceptable content on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest – among others – and are usually well received by most.

* Spread Brand Awareness

If you want to spread brand awareness, having an infographic developed for your “about page” is a really good idea. It will ensure that your visitors are more likely to read it, and understand what your business is truly about when they finish.

* Demonstrate Expert Level Understanding

Creating an infographic requires a deep level of understanding of a topic. If you don’t have that, it will be difficult to create an infographic that means anything.

* Increase Website Traffic

Since they are more likely shared, you’re going to get more website traffic. Learning to create an embed code can help your traffic go up even faster by giving people permission to embed your infographic into their sites, which people will click and be taken to your website.

* They Improve SEO

Most people will say that infographics do not help SEO, but the truth is they do. They improve links to your site and offer proof of understanding of a topic, thus increasing your expert status level. And if you add keywords to the “alt” tags, a textual description of the information in the infographic, plus the infographic, it will improve SEO.

Infographics are a great way to repurpose content and make your website fresh, as well as give you good results from social sharing. Because visually interesting assets are shared more often than other types of content, this means infographics are highly beneficial to use for marketing your business.

So, to recap here are five more reasons to try out infographics for your business:

1. Time

For small business owners, content creation takes up a large chunk of our time. Most of us are worried about the time it would take to create an infographic on our own, and the quality of said infographic after spending hours grueling over it.

2. Money

The other struggle many small businesses owners face is the issue of money. It’s not exactly a renewable resource when you’re either starting out or just starting to grow, so you want to be smart with where you invest.

Many infographic creation tools give you plenty of wiggle room in your budget, while also giving you massive returns on your investment.

3. Conversions

Whether you count conversions as email subscribers, blog signups, course purchases, or product sales on your website, infographics can help you see higher numbers on all fronts.

People are more 17 percent more likely to be persuaded by visual imagery, which means visuals should be an important component of your marketing efforts including email marketing, social media, and your blog.

4. Traffic

The biggest way that infographics move leads into conversions is by increasing your website traffic. To do this, you must create an infographic that is visually engaging and encourages action (such as clicking through to your landing page).

The most important aspect of this step is making sure that you embed your infographic code into your website so that, whenever the image gets shared, it leads back to your site.

5. Exposure

Think about the places you’ve seen a single infographic shared. You’ve definitely seen them on Facebook and Twitter, but what about on Instagram, Pinterest, or even LinkedIn? Have you seen infographics in emails? Blogs? Advertisements?

This is the biggest reason you should really start using infographics today — they can be used everywhere to make your business or brand visible.

And as always..

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read this blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing or Digital Marketing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Answers to your Email Marketing questions

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 19:31:07 GMT

Fact: Email Marketing reaches more people than Facebook, Instagram and Twitter combined.

That’s a heck of a lot of people!

Most of us check our emails every day, and some of us, up to 20 times.

For starters, there are over 110 trillion emails sent out every year. And the numbers keep going up, with 126.7 trillion expected to be sent by 2022. The average email subscriber receives 13 commercial emails a day. With the rise of mobile use, checking email is super easy, after all.

More than half of us even check our email before doing anything else online (probably before even getting out of bed):

As an Email Marketing Specialist, I can tell you that it deserves your time and attention. And like any aspect of marketing, there can be a learning curve to discover the ins and outs and best practices. Hopefully I some of these answers will address some of the most common and important email questions making the learning curve a little less steep.

For starters…

1. Right up front, clients and/or potential clients will ask me do I grow my email list?

Often, when I’m browsing the web, I’ll come across a blog with a stunning newsletter subscription form, boasting thousands of subscribers and to be honest with you, I’m kind of jealous.

So, yes, one way is to have an Email signup form to convince and convert visitors to join your newsletter.

Big subscriber numbers are something we all want, so it’s good to know there are many smart ways of going about growing a list.

But first, and foremost, let me start with one way NOT to grow: Purchasing email addresses.

Buying email addresses is frowned upon by most major email service providers (e.g., Mailchimp, Constant Contact and Aweber will cancel your account if you try to do so). More importantly for you, the quality of these leads is poor. Let’s face it, these people don’t know you and most likely they won’t have any interest in your product organically, so you’re already fighting an uphill battle and they report you as a spammer.

Instead of buying subscribers, try earning them through quality content and asking permission. Here are some tactics for growing your list the right way.

Create an offer

Any piece of quality content will do. Depending on your industry you may be able to build an eBook out of a series of blog posts. Or maybe an email course if this something you can offer.

Then once you have your offer, ask folks for an email address in order to access the content.

Use subscription forms

You’ll never get an email address if you never ask for one. (Duh, I know, but stay with me.) The University of Alberta famously boosted subscribers’ 500 percent with a popup survey asking nothing more complicated than: “Would you like to sign up for our email?”

Popup surveys are one of many locations for a subscription form. Consider adding one to the sidebar of your blog, as a popup for those reading your articles, or in a call-to-action on your main page or in your footer.

Make great partnerships

You are likely to find willing subscribers at other places around the Internet by partnering with sites that fit your focus. The key is to be helpful: Provide great content that your peers find valuable, and you’ve likely found yourself a partner. (Then be sure to close the deal by asking for email signups.)

2. Here is another question I get often, what is the best day of the week / time of day to send an email?

I hate to tell you this but there is no magic bullet for an optimal time to send email. The “right time” varies by so many factors and from list to list.

Your own email timing data is the best data you can get your hands on!

The best time to send your email will be unique to your list. That being said, there are some trends in open rates and click through rates that provide a good starting point for some tests. An Email Marketing platform should provide you with the analytics that will help you to fine tune the timing.

3. How often should I send email to my subscribers?

I won’t cop out on this one either (but I probably should). Your own data will teach you a lot about optimal email frequency, but here’s a good rule of thumb to follow, in my opinion, depending on your industry:

It can be once a month, twice a month or if you run a retail store or restaurant, maybe once a week to highlight your “weekly specials”.

Another way to help you decide is to offer some kind of any eBook or some other educational piece of literature when they opt to sign up for your newsletter(s) but be clear upfront letting them know that they will get a series of message however frequent you design your way of staying in contact with your audience. Eventually you will send them just updates about your blog and/or new products or services.

5 . What metrics should I track?

There are two titans of email marketing statistics:

Open rate: The number of recipients who opened or viewed your email.

Click-through rate: Percentage of recipients who clicked at least one link in your email.

Certainly, you should follow up each campaign by checking these two numbers. Industry averages range, but in general, a 15 to 20 percent open rate is healthy and a 1 to 3 percent click through rate is good.

Consider opens and clicks to be your bread and butter. You’ll still need fruits and vegetables (and desserts), right? Here is another vital metrics that help complete the analytics picture for your email campaigns.

Click-to-open rate: Of the subscribers who opened the email, how many clicked?

Whereas click-through rate is based on total emails sent, click-to-open rate is based on total emails opened. This will help you measure the quality of your copy and design better than the overall click through rate will.

You may have to calculate this yourself if your email provider doesn’t provide it. Simply take the number of unique clicks and divide by unique opens.

Conversions

It is possible that your email is merely a stop along your sales funnel, in which case you will want to follow up to see how the email converted. Conversion tracking requires that you dig deeper beyond the first open or click of an email and to track the user trail all the way to the end. You’ll likely need to get your website analytics involved in this step.

Email list health and deliverability

Having hundreds of thousands of subscribers is only a good thing if hundreds of thousands are engaged with your emails. When lists balloon in size and not quality, huge percentages of the list can result in bad email addresses or disinterest. This negatively impacts whether or not your message reaches the inbox (deliverability) as email services tend to frown on places that send bulk email with a lot of bad ends.

The good news is that proper list health – which could involve pruning a list dramatically or scrubbing out all the zombie subscribers – can lead to big results.

7. Where should I spend the most time on my email?

Certainly, there is a lot to consider for sending an email marketing campaign. It’s easy to get lost in a sea of options, so here’s an exercise to try: Put yourself in a subscriber’s shoes. (Should be easy; you probably get a ton of email yourself!)

What will make the subscriber open your email? What will he or she see first? Their eyes will go in a pattern something like this:

Who sent the email (“from” name)

What the email is about (subject)

These are the elements that will determine whether or not your subscriber even proceeds to the body of your email.

In other words, spend quality time coming up with a quality subject. Here are some options for a good workflow.

Write your subject line first

Before the design. Before the copy. Before the amazing call-to-action you know is going to rock the world of email marketing.

Write your subject line first, and tackle the rest second.

Schedule time in your workflow to write you subject line

OK, let’s say you’re incredibly set in your ways with designing and writing your HTML email first. You can keep it that way, as long as you make sure to schedule an appropriate amount of time for your subject. Yes, it is that important. If you have two hours to create your campaign, spend an hour-and-a-half on the design and copy and the remaining half hour on your all-important subject.

8. What is the ideal length for my subject line?

In general, keep the subject line shorter than 50 characters.

Ideally it should be 28 to 39 characters if all possible

9. How do I make my email look good everywhere?

The latest numbers on email opens confirm that mobile is hugely important.

Better than 50 percent of emails are opened on a mobile device.

That means that half your audience will be viewing your email on a screen three inches wide and the other half could be viewing on a screen 15 + inches wide. How do you bridge that gap in one well-designed message?

Answer: Responsive email design. Much like responsive web design, responsive emails look good no matter where they are viewed because they have specific styles for specific screen sizes.

If you’d prefer a quicker fix, try this: Design a one-column email. One-column emails scale beautifully because there are no sidebars to squish the content as the screen size decreases. One column email is as simple as they come and work great on almost any screen.

10. Are there any rules to email marketing?

Yes, and they aren’t just rules—they’re laws. In the United States, the CAN-SPAM Act legislates good and bad email with some specific guidelines. If you are sending commercial email, you must do the following:

Include an unsubscribe link
Include your brick-and-mortar address or your P.O. box
Honor someone’s unsubscribe request by never emailing them again
Avoid purchasing a list

Penalties for not following the law can be as severe as a $300+ fine for each recipient of your email.

Your turn

Do you have a question that didn’t make the list? Ask away in the comments, and I’ll do my best to give you an answer!

P.S. If you like this post, you might also like How To Write An Email Newsletter

A Guide to Crisis Email Marketing During the Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 19:19:23 GMT

The impact of the coronavirus continues to be

felt across the globe

With over a hundred countries and more than half of the world’s population currently in some form of lockdown, brands and marketing experts are reevaluating their strategies and marketing budgets for the remainder of the year. Businesses of all sizes — be they corporations, startups, or small businesses — are trying to stay afloat amidst the pandemic and many are struggling to manage their operations or communications during this time.

As small business owners, we will definitely feel the pinch as budgets get reallocated and priorities start to shift, but luckily we are uniquely qualified for these times. We have the ability to pivot and adapt to changes at the click of a button and we know how to communicate sensitively during times of emergency. Right now, we need to pool our resources, settle in and assist not only our clients and customers, but also our own staff and other business owners in creating a new sense of normalcy.

If email marketing does not currently form a part of your marketing and communication strategy, the time has come to start implementing it along with the best security practices as it relates to email marketing. With the world in lockdown and economies on the brink of a possible global recession, email marketing is a low-cost, high-return option that will keep your communication lines open.

Choose your email messaging carefully

The saying, “It’s not what you say, but how you say it” has a higher bearing on our marketing messages now more than ever. Creative special offers and the everyday buzzwords we usually use might be perceived very differently than they were before this crisis.

We have to keep protecting your brand’s reputation at the forefront of everything we do. We live in an era where 90% of customers research a company online before buying from them, and any particularly poor or embarrassing messaging choices can easily make news in your industry. As a result, our copy and messaging need to evolve and be sensitive to our current reality.

Tips to follow:

Ensure your message speaks to your audience. The crisis communications for nonprofits dealing with COVID-19 will be completely different from the communications sent by a small online retailer to its established or regular customers. Remember to use sensitive language and never create or use discount codes or promotional sales that relate to the crisis.
Do not insinuate that your products or services are essential or a necessity. We all believe that our services or products are a critical part of everyday life, but to get your emails opened and read, it is crucial to understand that our new normal has changed what people perceive as essential or critical.
Try to build your messaging around the need or role that your service or product can fulfill. For example, instead of the usual “Spring Must-Haves”, ask yourself how your service or product will make your client or customer feel valued. Let them know how your product can add some relief.
Ask yourself if your messaging comes across as sensitive and aware, but still positive. As with any outreach marketing strategy, it is very important to find the right balance between a positive and uplifting message that also does not come across as overly enthusiastic or pushy. In short, do not add to the fear and negativity, but also do not act as if nothing is wrong.
Careful about messaging that creates a false sense of urgency e.g. “stock up” or “hurry”. With most essentials such as hand sanitizer and toilet paper in short supply, consumers will most likely be very sensitive to messages that instill additional fear and feelings of uncertainty.

Think about your email content

Do you usually make use of videos, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, or motion graphics? What would make the most sense at this stage? What can you do content-wise to ensure that your current subscribers stay engaged and hopefully continue to make purchases?

COVID-19 updates are indeed very important, but they should not be the only focus of your content and messages over the next couple of weeks.

Before investing your time in a dedicated COVID-19 update, ask yourself if it requires a distributed email or if you have any other means that would be better suited for the update. Examples could include directly text messaging your customers or posting a general update on your website.
Try to limit any content that focuses on one individual product when possible, and remember that you may run out of stock. Rather focus on more category-specific CTA’s and landing pages if your stock levels are unpredictable.
Do you have a batch of new products or a new range of services coming in? If you invest in email marketing services, you can create a spaced-out release schedule that will give your subscribers something new and exciting to look forward to. By following this strategy you will have the additional benefit of distributed revenue over a longer period of time.
Are you planning a sale? Remember that people may have a limited income during this time and they will think twice about the necessity of your product or service. Your usual customers may not be interested in certain products during this time no matter how good a deal you are offering. It is also important to remember that massive discounts at this point in time may damage your brand in the long run as it might cause your customers to only buy your product/service when you have big promotions.
Keep an eye on the images you are using in your current content. Avoid images that feature traveling or large groups of people, rather focus on images that portray serenity and individual joy.
Change your online messaging to include your new clients or customers, as many are transitioning to online shopping and cloud services during this time and may be brand new to your products or services. Set up quick surveys if necessary, to find out if your onboarding experience relays the necessary information and trust with your business or company.
This could be the perfect time to do an audit of your business’ current transactional and triggered emails. Fine comb the wording of each email in your list, and adapt and update where you feel it is necessary. Be sure that each and every one of your touchpoints are meaningful and relevant. Each message should speak to our current state of affairs and relay your values.

Evaluate the timing of your email sends

Most of our daily schedules have been upended. We are missing our daily commutes, regular meetings, early morning coffee, and are learning to adapt to working from home.

Consumers are now focusing on online shopping and visiting their preferred social media channels more often. While this may make you think that marketing via social media needs to be your main focus right now, the truth is that email marketing remains the most effective tool for engaging and converting users, being seven times more effective at creating sales than the major social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn put together.

For this reason alone, email marketing needs to remain at the forefront of your efforts to generate sales from customers, and your success can really come down to how well you evaluate the timing of when your emails should be sent.

You do not want your emails to end up in a spam folder due to not being opened, so it might be worth your while to do a limited amount of testing to gauge the ideal time for your emails to be sent. As your subscribers may now be home-bound, the optimal times may have changed significantly. Bear in mind that these schedules will have to be revisited once we return to our normal routines.

It might be worth your while to consider how the rising amounts of time spent at home can impact the usage of your product. If someone will need more or less of your product or even more or less of your usual services than usual due to the current lockdowns, try to determine how it might influence the timing around your follow-up. It is always a good idea to put replenishment triggers in place if you haven’t previously done so.

Communication and transparency go hand in hand

We’ve all had to inform our clients and customers of out of stock products or delivery delays after big promotions (think Black Friday). At this point in time, issues like these should be anticipated and planned for in advance.

Be sure to convey this to your customers or clients upfront so that it does not catch them unawares. Remember that there is no perfect formula out there that can assist you to create the perfect email. Just be honest and authentic in your communication.

Where possible, communicate any known inventory or delivery issues on your created content e.g. paid advertisements as well as on your website to ensure your customers are informed beforehand. By giving your clients or customers a well-advised heads up, you are building loyalty and trust.

If you wait to inform your client or customer of any possible delays and other issues until after they’ve made their purchase, you may have won that single purchase, but the client or customer will have experienced a negative buying experience.

After the purchase has concluded, try to reiterate the possible issues or delays again in your confirmation emails and on the accompanying invoices. Depending on your customer management system, you may have the ability to send an email or text message along with every shipping update. If not, try to get it in place as soon as possible. People look forward to receiving their online orders, and regular updates will lead to more positive buying experiences.

Remember the people behind the emails

While governments across the world — from China to Australia to Brazil, and everywhere in between — have placed strict measures to keep us safe and healthy, we are unfortunately still (at the time of writing this article) very much at risk of contracting the virus. It is very important to have a back-up plan in place for your email marketing strategy and implementation should the company or person in charge of your projects become affected in any way.

It may not be the most pleasant part of your current planning, but you do need to plan for any and all contingencies in advance to ensure that a person or company can jump in and manage your strategy or projects in order to keep the lines of communication open between you and your customers.

One such strategy to prepare for contingencies is to set up a buddy system. Whether you are managing your own projects or have a company or agency that assists you in this endeavor, it is important to establish a buddy system in order to have your back-up plan ready (where someone can step in and take the project over) at the drop of a hat. Case in point, Sydney-based web developer Nathan Finch recently came down with a mild case of COVID-19, but was able to quickly hand off operations of his Australian web hosting business to his senior staff so that customer accounts remained active.

Another important email marketing tool to use is a marketing content calendar. Your usual content calendar may not apply during this time. As such, ask your team/s to come up with a calendar that speaks to our current reality and spend some time creating a timeless bank of content together that can be used by anyone should a new project come up or the current project evolve.

In conclusion

It has been said that times of crisis does not create character, but reveals it. The way your business or company carries itself during this pandemic and the worldwide crisis will play a direct role in your ability to retain your clients or customers as you go forward.

It is also important for marketers and business owners to remember that different individuals will react differently during times of crisis. As such, think about how you would like to let people know that you understand the challenges that they are currently facing and show your concern. They might be experiencing feelings of anxiety and panic and may even be traumatized and completely overwhelmed.

By staying empathetic and mindful in our current reality, your business or brand will reap the benefits in the long term. Our current situation is only temporary, but the ripples will remain forever.

7 Ideas for Your First Automated Email Series

Wed, 15 Jul 2020 22:18:49 GMT

Email Marketing at its best

If you do Email Marketing, regardless of which tool you use, you cannot expect your clients and/or prospects to feel like they need to play “catch up” with you. This isn’t the best way to kick off or maintain relationship with them and your business.

This is where Automation comes in

You can create a series of personalized, automated emails that are sent to a contact after they are added to a mailing list.

You choose the order, frequency, and targeted content of the automated email messages. Once the sequence is set up, it will send all on its own, on autopilot.

For new contacts, your email series might look something like this:

An overview of your business or organization
Some of the key values that separate you from others in your field
Information on how to stay connected (company hours, contacts, and social media channels)

The biggest benefit of automation is that you’re building a relationship with personalized content.

Now, someone who may have signed up with a brief understanding of your business and what you offer will have the same knowledge as someone who has been receiving your automated emails and interacting with your business for years!

Automation isn’t just about building new relationships

It can also be used in a variety of other ways to improve relationships with existing contacts on your list and drive more meaningful results for your business.

Here are a few more examples of how automated email series can work for you:

Build trust through education

One of the best ways to win your list of contacts over quickly is by showing your expertise. Offer them information that’s useful to them and they’ll begin to know, like, and trust you.

Here are some examples:

A health food store might send weekly healthy recipes for contacts to try out
A mentoring organization could offer 7 proven benefits of having a mentor
A marketing consultant could offer a list of social media “don’ts” to avoid

Build credibility with your subscribers by showcasing your success

Case studies allow you to paint a picture of what life will look like with your help. Giving concrete examples of problems you’ve tackled and solutions you’ve created will help them imagine their own possibilities in working with you.

You can try:

Highlighting customers individually and showing your step-by-step approach to delivering a great experience
Focusing on a new problem in each message and offering a couple stories of how you creatively and effectively came up with multiple solutions

Humanize your business with staff profiles

The most effective way to gain trust is to let your audience connect with you on a personal level. Every member of your company has a unique area of expertise, point of view, and personality that can make for engaging and relatable content.

You can humanize your business by:

Interviewing a different member of your staff in each message
Creating a series of videos introducing different departments
Having a different staff member contribute the content for each message

Make a series of your very best content

If you’ve been updating your company blog regularly, you may have a lot of great, timeless content out there that doesn’t get the views it once did. Consider repurposing this content in an automated email series for newer customers who haven’t seen this content yet.

This automated email marketing campaign is a great way to get more from the content you create, while also building stronger relationships with customers and prospects.

Some ideas to keep in mind:

Go through and make sure your posts are still relevant and up-to-date
Make sure the automated email sequence builds upon ideas and that there’s enough variety to be as engaging as possible

Turn customers into repeat buyers

If you have an email list contact that has been involved with you for a while, you might want to convince them to take an even bigger step. Make an automated email series for your most loyal audience members and give them some special attention.

Here are some examples:

A yoga studio could send tips for mastering new poses, with information about registering for an advanced level class
A marketing consultant could send ideas for taking their marketing to the next level, with details for scheduling a call
A lawn care business could send information about new services, with special offers for returning customers

Build enthusiasm for an even t

Anyone who’s put on a successful event knows how much time, energy, and planning is involved. Make things a little easier for yourself by creating a series of emails to engage registrants, so you can focus on other things.

Consider including:

A thank you for registering email
An email with a profile of your speakers and presenters
A preview of the items that will be part of your silent auction

Engage with customers to improve satisfaction

Another great way to use automation is to collect customer feedback. Engaging with customers this way will make them feel valued and help you learn what they like – it’s a win-win!

Check out these examples:

A cupcake shop could create a survey asking what cupcake flavors customers like best
A nail salon could send a poll to customers asking what nail colors they should order for summer
Run a contest and have customers suggest names for the new office cat

Engage with customers to improve satisfaction

Another great way to use automation is to collect customer feedback. Engaging with customers this way will make them feel valued and help you learn what they like – it’s a win-win!

Check out these examples:

A cupcake shop could create a survey asking what cupcake flavors customers like best
A nail salon could send a poll to customers asking what nail colors they should order for summer
Run a contest and have customers suggest names for the new office cat

Use automation to personally and easily talk to customers

Of course, no one knows your subscribers and loyal contacts as well as you do, so spend some time thinking about what different people need to know and how you can send emails that are valuable to them. Then create an automated email series of your own.

For more ideas, click here > https://bit.ly/3ewMJsY

So in conclusion...

I would like to say "thank you" for taking the time to read this blog. I hope that if you found it of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

If you have a specific topic as it relates to Email Marketing or Digital Marketing, we would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Online Local Marketing

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 21:24:41 GMT

A quick list of what you need to do

Online local marketing consists of online marketing efforts that are designed specifically to draw local traffic to your business — online and offline. Take a look at the [Infographic] below.

Localizing your small business’s online marketing efforts is a matter of making sure that all of the information you have online clearly states not only where you’re located, but also shows that you’re a local.

Get started with a free trial account today for 2 months. See what this can do for your business!

No Contract! Click Here... https://conta.cc/2IZyiPG

I hope that if you find this article of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can assist you with marketing. I have been a Certified Constant Contact Solution Provider for over six years plus. It has allowed me to help small business owners integrate email marketing, online registrations and online surveys into their marketing strategies. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation.

If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email us at john@thejrsolutions.com . We would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Is Email Marketing Sexy?

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 22:59:32 GMT

Email Marketing is not sexy at all, however, if you ignore it in your marketing strategy, you are making a huge mistake. Most digital markets will gravitate toward the last tendency in software. It’s like developers with a new piece of code, they run to implement it in every single stage of their projects.

Although there is nothing wrong with trying new ideas, do not abandon the tried and true. Email Marketing has been around since the fall of 1971. At times, it is not all that glamour at all. Depending on the creator behind it, it could be very appealing to some eyes but consistency provides one of the highest returns on investment, both in time and money.

Alright, so now let’s talk about spam. We all loath spam emails. Most of the time, emails that are always trying to sell us something are not very welcomed, at times. Overly salesy campaigns won’t find much success. You need to build a brand as well as the following audience and not necessarily selling something right away.

Building an email list is not easy and it may not happen overnight either. There are no shortcuts to a high-quality list - It takes time. One way of building a list where people may want to become a subscriber of your email marketing is by providing quality content and offers that attracts potential customers to come back for more.

Over the years, there has been advertised ways of buying a list of contacts for marketers. This will be a huge disservice to you and your business. To start with, most of those contacts [and probably all of them] won’t know you from a hole in the wall and they may report you as spammer, potentially leading you to be banned from some of the major ISPs [Internet Service Providers]. If this happens, you may be looking at a long time before you can use any of the email marketing services ever again. Bottom line… DON’T BUY AN EMAIL MARKETING LIST , period!

There are several safe ways to build a list. You can start by asking your family and/or immediate friends if they would be interested in subscribing to your newsletter. Explain to them that you are starting a new venture and you would like to have their support. Also, if you frequent business networking events, you can do the same. Once you meet someone and have an ongoing dialog, ask them for permission to have their names added to the list. [At the time of this writing, we are amid a pandemic so must of us are working from home]

If this is the case with you, and you think you are likable enough, then every time you get on a virtual meeting, you may want to ask the group if you can add their names to your list.

Don’t take it personally if some of them say no.

Friends that you have not connected within a while can be approached by sending them a brief email with an invite along with why you are asking them to join you. You never know, you may rekindle that friendship again and business may come from it.

Another source is your social media contact. Most likely you know more people there than in real life. If you have the basic LinkedIn service, then go thru all your connections and send them a brief message, NO SALES stuff, asking them to opt-in to your newsletter. By following some of these basic tactics, you may increase your subscriber list to a couple of hundred people.

You want to have strangers too. So, make sure your website has an easy way for visitors to sign up o your list. A certain percentage of visitors will always sign-up, either from an organic approach or from paid sources. This will allow you to build your list with interested parties that want to hear more from you and your company. Being too aggressive can be very damaging to your brand. Keep in mind, that “your brand”, it’s you upfront. Liking you and trusting you is where the game starts!

Now Let’s Talk About Engaging Your List

So now you have an emailing list. Your first thing to do is to create an email campaign base on 7 components that will comprise an engaging piece.

Header
Pre-header
Logo & Colors
Image
Message Body
Call-to-Action
Footer

Not sure if Constant Contact is for you? There is no such thing as a free lunch, but there is a FREE evaluation of this platform – Click here… https://conta.cc/2IZyiPG

Keep in mind that if you use your email marketing strategy as a way to drive sales primarily, rather than brand, you are going to be in for a rude awaking.

Think about you your inbox. How many emails do you get each day? How many of them do you open and read? How many give you a little bit of enjoyment, satisfaction, or education? Not many, right?

We all get bombarded with pushy sales emails. Some of these tactics do work, it’s about timing. If the recipient is in the market for what they have just received, then consider yourself lucky. But most of the time it will be a little bit of courting the reader, just like trying to date someone, it takes time before he or she realizes that you are worthy of getting to know more and decide to have coffee, lunch or dinner with you. Unfortunately, some marketers are predatory by nature but the best-kept secret – don’t be, be creative.

Email marketing is a better way (than social media, for example) to generate brand awareness on a more sustained level Since it takes a certain degree of commitment for somebody to sign up for your email updates, as opposed to simply clicking “like” on something, that gives you a better sense of how much people are becoming aware of your brand. After that, you can leverage that initial interest by providing exactly the type of content, updates, and info that specific profile or segment within your customer base may be looking for. More often than not, that is what ultimately gets conversions. In conclusion these are just a few of the main reasons why you absolutely must use email marketing as one of your main online promotion strategies. Certainly, there is a place for social media, Google, YouTube, blogs, articles and other venues, but never underestimate the tremendous staying power email marketing has proven to have.

And as always, I hope that if you find this article of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can be of assistance with your marketing. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation.

If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email us at john@thejrsolutions.com . We would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

You Need To Stop Saying “Email Marketing Is Dead”

Tue, 26 May 2020 12:27:22 GMT

This era of technological advancement has been accused of “killing” a lot of things. Some say that Airbnb is killing the hotel business, others will tell you that ride-sharing threatens the taxi-cab industry, and millennials have caused the death of all sorts of things.

Email Marketing is dead…or is it?

The “death toll” of digital marketing channels continues to grow—but we can’t always believe the dramatic claims we hear. After all, people have been saying SEO has been dead for years. This argument is weak at best, especially when you consider Google, a company fueled by search traffic, has been on an upward trajectory for the last two decades.

Still, the tech obituary continues to announce new victims. One recent claim you may have heard: Email marketing is dead. It’s no wonder professionals feel this way, this year’s pandemic does bring up some challenges. Tech companies—and their tactics—are falling under speculation and numerous marketers have been clinging to the idea that email marketing is obsolete.

Today, regardless of what’s going on, we’re going to pivot away from this idea. Our current world situation is actually making us more creative with “old fashion” tools. That’s right, one of them is Email Marketing.

No, it isn’t dead but it is changing. Email Marketing is evolving, and as marketers, we have to evolve with it.

Why do people think email marketing is dead?

Data got powerful

As the years have passed, we’ve seen just how far data collection can go. Data can be used to categorize traits, manipulate users, and potentially influence elections.

It’s data’s endless possibilities that have weighed heavily on the EU since the 90s, inspiring the 1995 Data Protection Directive, and most recently, GDPR. (It’s worth noting that the beginnings of the GDPR movement began the same year Facebook was compromised.)

You may be asking what is GDPR

>>> The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information from individuals who live in the European Union (EU) <<< (I can cover this topic in greater detail in another blog if you, my dear reader, want me to)

Growing A Organic Email List

Not sure if Constant Contact is for you? There is no such thing as a free lunch, but there is a FREE evaluation of this platform – Click here… https://conta.cc/2IZyiPG

When it comes to growing a subscriber list organically and preventing churn, email marketers want users who are interested in marketing messages and personalized offers.

Users unsure about their subscription status, why they’re receiving emails, or how they got on the list—these are not typically indicative of quality subscribers or a well-executed email list.

In fact, if users feel that they can trust you and your brand, they will give you their information. Most consumers are willing to trade personal information for trustworthy benefits and valuable products.

Perhaps this is why email marketing is still more valuable than almost any other form of marketing—its success is largely based on trust and building relationships with clients.

Email marketing is doing better than ever

before as an industry

Email continues to be one of the worthiest investments a businesses can make. In fact, 65% of marketers cite it as the top ROI-generating marketing method for their organizations. Perhaps this is why 50% percent of marketers sought to increase their spending on email marketing this year.

Email marketing is not just a boon for businesses, however. Email marketing is also a growing career opportunity. Did you know that as of 2017, email marketing jobs were trending, making email marketing a worthy investment and a profession in high demand.

You can still reach more people through email

More people use email than social media

Marketers may claim email marketing is dead, but more people continue to use email over social media. And here is why…You do not have any control on your Social Media followers, if you have a list of emails that you correspond with on a regular bases, you own that list. The algorithm for any of the Social Media platforms is always changing so needless to say, is unpredictable as to whom may get to see your messages. Studies have shown that only about 2 to 3% of those that follow you on any of Social Media platforms, will ever get to see what you are publishing. In fact, only ~74% of internet users use social media, whereas 89.6% of internet users send an email at least once per month.

And even though many people still use social media, not everyone is utilizing the same platform. Instead of focusing your personalization tactics to specific platforms, you could be segmenting your emails based on user data. Since 51% of marketers consider email segmentation to be the most effective personalization tactic, focusing on social media alone may be a lost opportunity.

Plus, segmented email marketing campaigns boast 14.64% more email opens and nearly 60% more clicks. Customization helps users prepare, which makes the email more relevant and valuable.

Most people expect and appreciate

email marketing efforts

We may traditionally consider advertisements to be a nuisance, but 32% of consumers want to receive promotional emails more than once a week.

Of the numerous people who subscribe to newsletters, 74% want a welcome email when they subscribe to a list. Even something as familiar as a birthday email can drive open rates and conversions.

In short, users may have more control when it comes to their information, but many consumers appreciate marketing efforts and even expect them.

Email Marketing is a constant

Wrapping up

People may have more power over their information, but that doesn’t mean email marketing has lost its appeal. If anything, we as business people, see great potential to improve the lives of our subscribers. By listening to users, we can easily evolve with email marketing.

And as always, I hope that if you find this article of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can be of assistance with your marketing. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation.

If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email us at john@thejrsolutions.com . We would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Online Reputation Management >Spanish Version/Manejo de Reputación en Línea

Mon, 04 May 2020 19:10:03 GMT

La realidad de Internet es que muy pocos prospectos se preocuparán por saber quién eres en lo más profundo como organización, negocio o individuo.

La mayoría de nosotros tomaremos decisiones rápidas basadas en un vistazo a nuestra reputación en línea.

No importa si su reputación o marca en línea es precisa o no.

Supervisar y administrar su reputación en línea se han vuelto recientemente tan vitales como cualquier otro marketing que pueda estar haciendo.

Hay un término en el mercado que usted a la mejor lo ha oído, "Manejo de Reputación en Línea" . Es un término que debes aceptar.

Bajo las viejas reglas, si molestas a un cliente, a todos nos dijeron que esperáramos que se lo dijeran a siete de sus amigos. Concluyendo que un cliente molesto ocasionalmente era aceptable y esperado, pero ciertamente no potencialmente devastador.

Ahora las cosas han cambiado. Si alguien tiene algo malo que decir sobre ti, su comentario podría publicarse semipermanentemente en la página uno de Google durante meses o años. Al principio, puede parecer insignificante porque después de todo, puede ser un cliente insatisfecho, pero lo que debe tener en cuenta es que cientos o incluso miles de clientes potenciales pueden verlo. Los motores de búsqueda se utilizan intensivamente ahora en día para conocer industrias, personas, o negocios que alguien está considerando obtener sus servicios y si le gusta o no, su negocio, nombre, u organización está en la lista de aquellos que se verán afectados. Esto se pude empeorará antes de que mejoré porque en Google, las malas noticias flotan.

Lo que está en juego es alto. La verdad del asunto, no mucha gente se tomará el tiempo para investigar el trasfondo de las noticias que se están publicando. Van a creer en lo negativo y siguen adelante.

Pero estoy aquí para decirle que, si usted es proactivo, puede administrar su reputación en línea si usted es un pequeño o mediano negocio, y por supuesto, se aplica a cualquier gran empresa.

En mi firma, The JR Solutions , hemos proporcionado servicios de marketing a una base de clientes bastante grande durante los últimos 6+/- años con nuestro nombre y nombre comercial orgullosamente unidos a cada transacción.

Les gustaría probar marketing por correo electrónico - inicie una nueva cuenta HOY durante (60) días

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Así que usted puede estar preguntando, ¿es posible mantener una gran base de clientes 100%% feliz todo el tiempo. La respuesta es un CLARO NO – es casi imposible. Ningún negocio es perfecto.

El objetivo realista para su negocio debe ser solucionar cada problema rápidamente y no permitir que nadie se enfade tanto que publiquen cosas evidentemente negativas sobre usted en línea. En la ocasión en que una situación se le escapa, usted necesita estar preparado para combatir los comentarios negativos estratégicamente. Es posible gestionar su reputación a través de un gran número de transacciones y clientes, incluso si sólo tiene un personal pequeño.

Una excelente estrategia para prevenir o mantener a raya cualquier tipo o prevenir la escalada de mala reputación es inundar intencionalmente la Internet con buenas noticias y testimonios sobre usted y su empresa. Esto ayudará a tener cualquier noticia negativa de propagarse demasiado. Es posible que necesite ayuda de clientes leales, siempre y cuando se haga éticamente.

En resumen: La red de potencial de las relaciones instantáneas en línea y la información ilimitada de los clientes actuales pueden hacer correr la voz a un número inimaginable de posibles clientes potenciales si solo les da una buena razón.

¡Prácticamente todos los clientes tienen un megáfono!

Me doy cuenta de que estamos en medio de una pandemia y cada uno de nosotros está tratando de reinventar la rueda. La red de contactos potenciales de los que todos sus clientes forman parte se parece a cualquier cosa que hayamos visto en el negocio y está creciendo a un ritmo inimaginable. Debido a que estamos en medio de una situación sin precedentes, debemos encontrar formas creativas de ser proactivo con los prospectos que están directamente conectados con sus clientes actuales.

Ya no es lo suficientemente ser bueno en lo que uno hace. Para sobrealimentar su reputación en línea debe animar proactivamente a sus clientes a difundir la palabra.

Aquí hay unas ideas:

Tenga un ordenador portátil o iPad a mano en el vestíbulo de su negocio o en la sala de espera y publique un letrero cercano que diga: “Acceso a Internet. Le que pedimos a cambio es que les cuente a sus amigos acerca de su experiencia con nosotros hoy en sus canales de redes sociales".
En cada correo electrónico o correspondencia que envíe, pida a sus clientes que le envíen historias de éxito con su empresa en línea.
Pídale a sus clientes que envíen cualquier foto que puedan tener de sus experiencias con su negocio.
Celebre un concurso y publíquelo en YouTube
Tenga productos promocionales, especialmente una camiseta con el logotipo de su empresa, y simplemente regalarlo.

En resumen: No te hagas una reseña.

Siempre revise todas las publicaciones sobre su negocio. Si ves algo negativo, dele de frente inmediatamente. Demuestre que usted está consciente de la situación y que va a tomar medidas para corregir el problema si lo hay.

Así que ahora usted sabe un poco acerca de la "Manejo de Reputación en Línea" .

Y como siempre, espero que, si encuentras este artículo de valor, lo compartas en tus plataformas de redes sociales.

Por favor, hágamelo saber si hay algo que pueda ser de ayuda con su marketing. Usted es sin duda bienvenido a ponerse en contacto con nosotros si desea tener una consulta gratuita de 1/2 hora.

Si tiene un tema que desea que cubramos, envíenos un correo electrónico a john@thejrsolutions.com Estaremos encantados de tratar de satisfacer su solicitud.

Online Reputation Management

Mon, 04 May 2020 17:18:47 GMT

The reality of the Internet is that very few prospects will ever care to find out who you are deep inside as an organization, business, or individual.

Most of us will make snap decisions based on a glance at our online reputation.

It does not matter if your online reputation or brand is accurate or not.

Monitoring and managing your online reputation have recently become just as vital as any other marketing you may be doing.

There is a term in the marketplace that you may or may not know, “Online Reputation Management” . It’s a term you must embrace. Under the old rules, if you upset a customer, we were all told to expect that they would tell seven of their friends. Concluding that an the occasional upset customer was acceptable and expected, but certainly not potentially devastating.

Now things have changed. If someone has something bad to say about you, their comment could be posted semi-permanently on page one of Google for months or years. At first, it may seem insignificant because after all, it may be one unsatisfied customer but what you need to keep in mind is that hundreds or even thousands of potential customers may see it. Search engines are used intensively nowadays to get to know industries, people, or businesses that someone is considering doing business with and, like it or not, your business, name, and/or an organization is on the list of those that will be impacted. This will get worse before it gets any better because on Google, bad news floats.

The stakes are high. The truth of the matter, not many people will take the time to investigate the background of the news that is being posted. They believe in the negative and move on.

But I am here to tell you that if you are proactive, you can manage your online reputation whether you are a small or medium-sized business, and of course, it applies to any large company.

In my firm, The JR Solutions , we have provided marketing services to quite a large customer base for the past 6+ years with our name and business name proudly attached to every transaction.

Get started with a free trial account today for 2 months. See what this can do for your business!

No Contract! Click Here... https://conta.cc/2IZyiPG

So you may be asking, is it possible to keep a large customer base 100% happy all the time. The answer is a clear NO – it’s next to impossible. No business is perfect.

The realistic goal for your business should be to fix every problem fast and allow no one to become so upset that they post glaringly negative things about you online. On the occasion where a situation gets away from you, you need to be prepared to combat the negative comments strategically. It is possible to manage your reputation through a large number of transactions and customers even if you have only a tiny staff.

One excellent strategy to prevent or keep at bay any type or escalating bad reputation is to intentionally flood the Internet with good news and testimonials about you and your company. This will help in having any negative news from spreading too much. You may need assistance from loyal customers, as long as it is done ethically.

Bottom line: The network of potential this era of instant online relationships and limitless information customers today can spread the word to unimaginable numbers of potential prospects if you'll just give them a good reason.

Virtually every customer has a megaphone!

I realize that we are in the middle of a pandemic and every one of us is trying to reinvent the wheel. The network of potential contacts that your customers are all part of is unlike anything we’ve ever seen in business and is growing at an unimaginable pace. Because we are in the middle of an unprecedented situation, we must find creative ways to rap into the pool of prospects that are directly connected to your current customers.

It’s no longer good enough just to be good at what you do. To supercharge your online reputation you must proactively encourage your customers to spread the word.

Here are a couple of ideas:

Have a laptop or iPad on hand in your business lobby or waiting room and post a sign nearby that reads, “Free Internet access. All we ask in return is that you tell your friends about your experience with us today on your Social Media channels”
In every e-mail or correspondence you send out, ask your customers to send you stories of success with you your company online
Ask your customers to send in any pictures they may have of their experiences with your business
Hold a contest and publish it on YouTube
Have promotional products, especially a t-shirt with your company logo on it, and just give it away.

Bottom line: Don’t give yourself a review.

Always review all postings about your business. If you see something negative, address it. It shows that you are aware of the situation and that you will be taking steps to rectify the issue if any.

So now you know a little bit about Online Reputation Management.

And as always, I hope that if you find this article of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can be of assistance with your marketing. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation.

If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email us at john@thejrsolutions.com . We would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Marketing in the Middle of COVID-19

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 14:34:13 GMT

The spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) has developed rapidly, leaving many small business owners uncertain about their future. I have consulted with clients and prospective clients and they all have had a significant impact on their revenue.

Unfortunately, it seems these concerns are justified, but there are some actions you can take to protect your small business while at the same time, protecting yourself, your employees, and your customers.

In this article, I’ll lay out what I have been able to ascertain how coronavirus is impacting small businesses, how you can minimize losses and some steps you can take to protect your business. These suggestions are by no means exhaustive, as there is much we still don’t know about how this situation will play out. But we hope they will be a good starting point for business owners who are overwhelmed and unsure of what actions to take.

But first, I want to make clear that your number one priority should be to stay safe and take care of yourself.

As we go through these uncertain times, we are facing many unknowns with our businesses. Social distancing makes it a bit challenging to stay top-of-mind with our customers/clients as well as prospecting for new business.

Small business owners have to be very creative to get through it all. Some of us, have to think outside the box.

There is a new attitude of “never say die”, instead of “let’s close up shop”.

I would like to take this opportunity to revisit with you some of the marketing goals you probably had at the beginning of the year or perhaps as you were planning the new, upcoming year, in December.

You probably asked yourselves what you wanted to achieve through marketing as well as what’s important in a larger business context.

Your marketing goals most likely was to create a campaign that ultimately would help you attain a 60% share of your market. This would have brought you enough revenue to meet your long goals, to perhaps expand your operations. If they weren’t that ambitious, then, they needed to be set in a framework that would encompass the overall business objectives.

Marketing Goals You May Have Had

The first thing you probably thought of was how you were going to achieve your marketing campaigns. After all, you were going to be spending a lot of time and money on it. So, at the beginning of your planning, you had a clear idea of what you had hoped your outcome would have been. If some of these objectives were not covered in your initial major objective, then, not to worry, you have an opportunity now to fine-tune your goals with what I have listed below. By the way, these are some of the items I covered with my new clients when I consult with them)

…Than COVID-19 happened

I hope that with the next six items I have listed below, it will help you refresh your memory as to whom you were before this pandemic disrupted our lives. So let’s review some of those major objectives you most likely thought of and were placing a lot to time to achieve your marketing campaigns.

Awareness. This was and is, aimed at getting customers, making your business, products, services, website or other offerings come to light. Maybe this was going to be accomplished with the launch of a new website and/or updated content with new features, prices, versions, etc.
Action. This was and is, aimed at getting customers to do something specific in response to your marketing activities, maybe through making a purchase, visiting your website, taking advantage of a special offer, maybe clicking through on an ad in your website or perhaps inviting them to visit your place of business.
Brand Building. This is something that I profess time and time again. This is where Email Marketing shines. It will help you by getting to know your market and it helps them remember the name of your company and products or services. By continually staying in the public's eyes so that they get to know of you and your offering. Email campaigns will help you promote name recognition.
Announcement. Promote anything positive about your company whether it is key milestones, awards or any prestigious events. Maybe mergers or acquisitions or new key employees.
Affiliations. Help customers connect with you through a mailing list. Let them know that you have the same values regarding social responsibility. Another good attention getter is showing any endorsements or celebrities that have admired what you have accomplished.
Attitude. You must get others to think of you in a certain, positive light. You can accomplish this by confirming your place as a market share leader, showing any innovative and cutting-edge, or perhaps how your products and/or services are used by others.

So I am hoping that the above list will help you to refocus as there are many marketing goals that you probably planned on and got sidetracked by no means of your own doing. But as you start putting the pieces back together you may want to narrow on a new set goal and /or approaches as you reinvent yourself in this “new norm" of Digital Marketing.

Feeling the Pinch

Small business owners are feeling the pinch as budgets get reallocated and priorities start to shift, but luckily you are uniquely qualified for these times. You can pivot and adapt to changes at the click of a button and know how to communicate sensitively during times of emergency. Right now, you need to pool your resources, settle in, and assist not only your clients and customers by creating a new sense of normalcy.

If E mail Marketing is not currently part of your marketing and communication strategy, (See below if you would like to try it) the time has come to start implementing it along with the best security practices as it relates to email marketing. With the world in lockdown and economies on the brink of a possible global recession, email marketing is a low-cost, high-return option that will keep your communication lines open.

Get started with a free trial account today for 2 months. See what this can do for your business!

No Contract! Click Here... https://conta.cc/2IZyiPG

Something To Think About

You must keep protecting your brand’s reputation at the forefront of everything that you do. We live in an era where 90% of customers research a company online before buying from them, and any particularly poor or embarrassing messaging choices can easily make news in your industry. As a result, your copy and messaging need to evolve and be sensitive to our current reality.

Few Crucial Tips

Ensure your message speaks to your audience. The crisis communications for nonprofits dealing with COVID-19 will be completely different from the communications sent by a small online retailer to its established or regular customers. Always use sensitive language while the crisis is ongoing. Also, in the words of marketing expert Dan Jak: “Personalization is not about your customer’s first or last name. It’s about relevant content.”

I believe that your services or products are a critical part of everyday life, but to get your emails opened and read, it is crucial to understand that your new normal has changed what people perceive as essential or critical.

Try to build your messaging around the need or role that your service or product can fulfill. For example, instead of the usual “Spring Must-Haves”, ask yourself how your service or product will make your client or customer feel valued. Let them know how your product can add some relief.

Ask yourself if your messaging comes across as sensitive and aware, but still positive. As with any outreach marketing strategy, it is very important to find the right balance between a positive and uplifting message that also does not come across as overly enthusiastic or pushy. In short, do not add to the fear and negativity, but also do not act as if nothing is wrong.

Careful about messaging that creates a false sense of urgency e.g. “stock up” or “hurry”. With most essentials such as hand sanitizer and toilet paper in short supply, consumers will most likely be very sensitive to messages that instill additional fear and feelings of uncertainty.

Email Content

Emailing Timing Is Crucial

Most of your daily schedules have been upended. You are missing daily commutes, regular meetings, early morning coffee, and maybe learning to adapt to working from home.

For this reason alone, email marketing needs to remain at the forefront of your efforts to generate sales from customers, and your success can come down to how well you evaluate the timing of when your emails should be sent.

Communication and Transparency Is A Must

We’ve all had to inform our clients and customers of out of stock products or delivery delays after big promotions (think Black Friday). At this point, issues like these should be anticipated and planned for in advance.

After the purchase has concluded, try to reiterate the possible issues or delays in your confirmation emails and on the accompanying invoices. Depending on your customer management system, you may have the ability to send an email or text message along with every shipping update. If not, try to get it in place as soon as possible. People look forward to receiving their online orders, and regular updates will lead to more positive buying experiences.

Never Forget The People Behind The Emails

It may not be the most pleasant part of your current planning, but you do need to plan for any contingencies in advance to ensure that a person or company can jump in and manage your strategy or projects to keep the lines of communication open between you and your customers.

My final Thoughts - For Now...

It has been said that times of crisis does not create a character, but reveals it. The way your business or company carries itself during this pandemic and the worldwide crisis will play a direct role in your ability to retain your clients or customers as you go forward.

By staying empathetic and mindful in our current reality, your business or brand will reap the benefits in the long term. Our current situation is only temporary, but the ripples will remain forever.

I hope that if you have found this article of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can assist with your marketing. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation.

If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email us at john@thejrsolutions.com . We would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

4 Benefits & 3 Tips On Effectiveness From Email Automation

Sat, 18 Apr 2020 15:05:06 GMT

Email is still the most efficient way for businesses to reach out to their customers. You can decide which email you want to send, at what time and to whom.

That, in a nutshell, is what Email Marketing Automation is all about.

If you’re the owner of a small business, you might not always have the time and resources to keep track of when your customers have their birthdays, or which of the 700+ customers you have is a dog owner. By incorporating automated email marketing into your communication strategy, you know exactly when to send, what to send and to whom to send.

The use of predefined rules to trigger email messages based on specific actions customers take—or don’t take. Some examples include a welcome email that sends when a customer signs up for a mailing list or a quick reminder that the customer placed something in their cart but never finished checking out. Email automation takes repetitive tasks off your to-do list to free up your time for other valuable tasks, such as responding to customer questions. It can help customers learn more about your brand, encourage them to keep coming back or remind them of why they bought from you in the first place.

If you are a marketer or a business owner, you’d like to stay connected to your customers. Email automation is a powerful tool that lets you send the right message to the right people at the right time.

Get started with Constant Contact free trial account today for 2 months.

See what this can do for your business!

No Contract! Click Here... https://conta.cc/2IZyiPG

Email automation Defined

Em ail automation is a way to create emails that reach the right people with the right message at the right moment—without doing the work every time.

When you link your website analytics with your email marketing platform, you can target people based on behavior, preferences, and previous sales.

Then you can personalize each customer’s experience and increase the relevance of your messaging.

The benefits of email automation

Improve your customer retention rate.

It's much easier and more cost-effective to sell to an existing customer than to convert a new one, and with automation, you can stay in touch better than ever before. Schedule your messages so that your customers don't go too long without hearing from you—and be sure the copy is relevant to maximize its impact.

An email that reads “Hey, we haven't heard from you in a while... pay us a visit!” i s likely to end up in the trash.

>>> Compare that to this one:

"Dear Joe, we haven't heard from you in a while, and we wanted to make sure that you heard about our latest offer. The printer you’ve been buying parts for came out with a new model, and it's 20% off! Come check it out."

That's an example of a message that fills a need, which is more likely to bring back a customer.

Make your marketing strategy scalable

When you send out an email series manually, the size of your staff limits the number of customers that you can reach. Would you be able to stay on schedule if your customer base suddenly doubled in size? What if it tripled?

Automation makes email marketing scalable. When you've set it up so that your platform sends a message every time someone signs up for your mailing list, you don't have to make sure a staff member is available to do it.

With email automation, customers automatically integrate into your system as soon as they perform any of the actions that you track. Their behavior tells your system what messages to send them next without any additional demands on your limited resources.

In email automation, triggers are used to set on a specific date, event, or contact’s activity that tells your system to send out a related message. You can choose triggers and triggered messages based on your contact’s journey.

Here are a some examples to get you started:

Trigger: New subscriber

Email: "Welcome!"

Even if your website is an e-commerce store, many of your first-time visitors won't be ready to make a purchase. If you capture their interest with a “subscribe now” button , what should you do with an email once you have it?

Welcome emails have become like thank you notes after a job interview. There’s no rule that you have to send them, but people notice when you don’t.

74% of people expect to receive a welcome email when they subscribe to a mailing list.

Welcome messages get 4 times more reads and 5 times more clicks than standard marketing emails.

They generate as much as 320% more income per email than other promotional messages.

When you get a new subscriber, following up with a warm welcome can help turn new leads into customers without any extra effort.

Trigger: Cart abandonment

Email: "Forget something?"

It only takes 1 click to add an item to your cart, but following through takes more steps. About 70% of e-commerce shoppers abandon their carts for many reasons, including high shipping costs, having to register for an account, or concerns about the site’s security.

Abandoned cart emails can help you recover lost sales. Once you get to know your audience and write a clear, timely email, you can start recapturing the interest of your shoppers.

Trigger: New products or promotions

Email: "Something special for you!"

If you announce every new product release, upgrade, or promotion to every customer, your messages can start to lose their effectiveness.

Email automation helps you avoid this trap because it lets you announce products to particular customers based on their interests. I f you include personalized recommendations in your email campaign, y ou can increase sales per email opening by an average of 150%.

Making email automation more effective

Here are a few tips to help your new automated email strategy run as smoothly as possible:

1. Track responses to collect more information.

Every time you send an automated email, you have the opportunity to get key information from each customer. You can learn whether or not the person:

Opens the email

Clicks through to your site

Uses an offer

Buys a suggested product

Continues to browse once they’re on your site

When targeting your automated emails, everything you learn about your shoppers can direct your next move. If your recipients aren't opening your discount emails or not clicking on your recommendations, try a different tactic.

Offer discounts strategically

The high cost of shipping is one of the biggest reasons that people abandon their shopping carts.

You can't eliminate shipping fees or bottom out your prices, but you can send out discount coupons or promo codes to entice reluctant spenders. This can be an effective strategy, but be careful not to overuse it. If you offer too many discounts, your customers might expect to receive them more often.

Create automated drip campaigns

Some people interact with your company several times before they become customers. Drip campaigns gradually “drip” useful content about a company, product, or industry.

These types of campaigns have to be relevant to work, and with email automation, drip campaign messages only go out to prospects who have demonstrated interest.

Start building customer relationships

I hope that if you have found this article of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can assist with your marketing. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation.

If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email us at john@thejrsolutions.com . We would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

How to Brand Your Brand-New Business

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 20:25:25 GMT

Your Brand - Your Business

Back on January 13, 2020, I wrote an article on “What A Brand Is And Isn’t” . I discussed the concept of brand identity which must perfectly be aligned with the brand image you want to have. Whether it is on a website, Instagram, Twitter or any other social media platform you may use.

In this article, I will cover the subject slightly from a different angle.

When you first meet a new person, what’s the first thing you notice? Chances are, you will first look at their face and what they are wearing. Then you will listen to what they say and how they say it. You’ll see how they behave and what they do. After a little more time with them, you’ll get a sense of how they think and what they believe in. Later on, when you recall that person, you will think of their name but also will associate their appearance as you first met them, their behavior, and their values with that name. These are all part of total personality or identity.

That’s essentially how a brand works. A brand is the totality of the identity or personality of a company, product, or service.

Branding uses words, design, ideas, and more to represent a company, service or product, making the company, service or product memorable to customers and establishing its position in the market.

Building a brand is one of the most exciting, difficult and rewarding experiences for a business owner. You don’t have to be a big corporation or have a huge advertising budget to develop a brand. Even a one-person company can build a reputation that is essentially their brand. Everything is new, the possibilities are endless and the benefits can be monumental, but it takes a serious amount of patience to be done correctly.

The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

Brand Promise

Position Your Brand

Create Your Look

Brand Management

Establish Deep Connections

Better Service From A Brand

Business People Remember

In conclusion

I hope that if you have found this article of value, that you would share it on your social media platforms.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can assist with your marketing. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation.

If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email us at john@thejrsolutions.com . We would be very happy to try to accommodate your request.

Seven Email Marketing Tips For Content Marketers

Sat, 28 Mar 2020 21:35:29 GMT

In this article, I will be covering some of the biggest benefits of content marketing when used with Email Marketing to build an audience instead of renting that audience through advertising. The number one way to stay in touch with that audience is email, but it’s often used just as a channel for sales instead of sharing your brand’s content.

The fact is, even though 80% of content marketers are using email, most could stand to improve their strategy since they are pouring their hearts and souls into creating great content. Unfortunately, that simply won’t do.

If you put in some time into research, you will find data for email marketing by sector — i.e. finance, media, technology, etc. — but it’s nearly impossible to find good data on email effectiveness by strategy.

Studies show, that consumers just aren’t interested in receiving B2B emails — their click rates hover just above 2% — but if you’re in the media business, you can expect nearly triple the clicks. Generalized data like this could lead marketers to falsely conclude that their customers simply aren’t interested in certain topics. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As you know, Email Marketing is a permission-based marketing channel. If someone has signed up to receive your emails, they are explicitly requesting more information. They need to educate themselves on a topic, or maybe they have a problem that your product can solve. Sometimes is better to ignore the statistics and think outside the box. If you’re prepared to give some real thought to your emails and perform a few tests, you’ll soon see click rates higher than 10 or 12%.

In this blog, I’ll outline seven email marketing tips so you can apply to drive more people to your content. These suggestions can be used in any sector and most can be combined for an even greater effect.

Stay Focused

Use Compelling Images

I highly recommend that you use images.

Images should be part of your content strategy, not your conversion strategy. Images should add context or help readers visualize your ideas. This enhances the reader's experience. Including stock images or other unrelated visual content in your emails is a distraction.

Images can be used as teasers. Encouraging the reader to continue to the site to learn more on the topic. It also adds value on its own, meaning that readers can have a positive experience without leaving their inbox.

Curate

Take Conversion Seriously

Put Content Ahead Of The Design

Be Expected

In Conclusion, Include Content In All Your Emails

In addition to your newsletter and promotional emails, you most likely will send automated emails in the form of welcome messages, invoices, notifications, and receipts. There are many scenarios where content can add valuable context to these emails.

Automated emails are a great way to get readers engaged in your best work. Because they are triggered as a result of action — subscribing to your blog, making a purchase, downloading an e-book, etc. — they can become a key traffic source and a valuable resource for your customers.

I hope that if you have found this article of value, that you would share it in your social media platforms.

You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation.

What makes a website great? Part Four – Final Installment

Tue, 17 Mar 2020 12:37:03 GMT

Use clear navigation

Providing your visitors with a clear way to navigate your site is very important, especially as your business grows and you start to offer a large range of products and services. If you’ve thought carefully about your strategy and cut out unnecessary material from your site, the navigation bar should be obvious.

Your navigation bar should present the different sections of your site, and be arranged hierarchically so that customers can easily find what they are looking for and get to it in one click.

“Below The Fold”

Ten years ago, the perceived wisdom was that homepages – the first page a visitor looks at on your site – should be as short as possible. The thinking was that the homepage should essentially be an extension of your navigation bar, presenting customers with a range of options as to which page to visit next.

That advice is now obsolete. A recent survey of more than 230 B2C-focused websites by SurveyCool found that “roughly 82% of the surveyed businesses used one or more above-the-fold CTA.” Increasingly, the best sites are using their homepage more like the front page of a newspaper: to highlight their unique offering before customers explore the site further. The content you can put on your homepage can include:

Value proposition
Intro Video
Overview of Services
Product Features
About Us
Testimonials
Case Studies/Success Stories
Resources

Aim to include at least three of these items on your homepage, because this page offers you a free space to tell your customers what you think is most important about your company. Don’t be afraid, either, to have this page scroll – as long as the material is engaging enough, your customers won’t resent this.

Be mobile-first

Mobile optimization is now a must-have for every site owner. 80% of internet users own a smartphone, and large websites are seeing mobile traffic increase exponentially.

Optimizing your site for mobile can be a great learning experience as well. Because you have less space to fit your content into, designing for a mobile phone screen can help you think about what is important. As such, implementing this tip helps you to work toward some of the other principles on the list, like strategizing and cutting out unnecessary content.

You should also be aware, however, that encouraging mobile traffic should be done responsibly because it can undermine the security of your website. The number of cyberattacks launched from mobile devices has increased rapidly over recent years, and as your site expands you need to assess every new feature for its potential security implications. That includes mobile-friendly interfaces.

Check that your website loads fast and resolves properly on mobile using a mobile testing tool such as Screenfly or Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.

Security

An often-overlooked part of building a great website is to make sure that your site is secure. This is particularly important when you are upgrading your site because making major changes can open up major security flaws.

There are a few key ways you can do that. You should be aware of the dangers of running unused plugins on your site and deactivate any plugins that you are not using. You should also make sure that you are using strong passwords for all parts of your site, and preferably using a password manager to generate and manage long, complex passwords for everything you do online.

If your site is used and updated by several different staff members, you should also take steps to ensure that they are not compromising its security. Use firewall protection and a virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt your internet connection. The best VPNs make it almost impossible for hackers to intercept your passwords and other sensitive information. This is particularly important if you work remotely because managing your website off-site introduce vulnerabilities into your workflow.

Testing, testing, testing

Never stop testing your site. A subscription to a web analytics tool is a worthwhile investment because it allows you to see in detail how your visitors are using your site. Tracking your customers’ “journey” through the buying process allows you to adapt your site’s design to improve conversion rates.

Sometimes these changes can be as simple as updating out-of-date landing pages to highlight new products. In other cases, testing your site allows you to see that your navigational structure needs to be improved.

The ultimate test of how “good” your website is the way that your customers use it. You might think it looks great, but unless it is generating traffic, engagement, and sales, it is worthless.

Be original

As I try to finish this article, I need to mention something slightly more complex, yet key elements of a good website. The first is that you should be original.

It can be tempting, after looking at the sites that are performing well in your sector, to merely copy their content. That is a very bad idea. Not only can customers spot the plagiarism, but they are unlikely to come back to your site: after all, they can get the information they need somewhere else.

Make sure that every piece of content you produce is original. Do as much research as you can and offer your customers something more than your competitors can.

Be yourself

Alongside being original, you should also use your website to highlight your personality. A powerful way of connecting with your customers is to draw on your company culture, creating truly unique pages.

Customers are increasingly drawn to companies that they can relate to as friends. That’s why many companies are hiring an influencer marketing agency. But you can also foreground your personality in other, simpler ways. Try injecting a little humor into your landing pages, for instance, or commission a designer to make you some stylish, unique graphics.

You aim to differentiate your company from your competitors. If you can make your customers feel that they are valued and that they are speaking to a real person as this goes a long way toward ensuring their loyalty.

And Finally

If you want to get involved in the designing of your website, you may want to create something with pen and paper as you discuss your needs with your web developer. You may think this is quite outdated but in the long run, it may turn out quite profound.

At the end of the day, the key to designing (or improving) a website is simplicity. The less you put on your site, the quicker your customers can find what they need. Your site is also going to be faster, more manageable, and more secure.

So, the bottom line is keeping your site design as simple as possible, while still providing your customers with everything they need, and you’ll be well on your way to a killer website.

I hope that if you have found these articles of value, that you would share them in your social media platforms. You are certainly welcomed to reach out to us if you want to have a free ½ hour consultation.

Three tips to improve your website

What makes a website great? Part Two

What makes a website great? Part Three

What makes a website great? Part Three

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 22:10:36 GMT

To continue with more “how to make a

website great” tips.

Usage of well-written headlines

Your headlines should accurately describe the benefit that your company can give to your customers, and stand out from the rest of your text. Ultimately, you should try and put yourself in the shoes of your target audiences, and work out why they have come to your site.

Using well-written headlines also has another advantage: it improves your search ranking. The Google search rank algorithm gives more weight to H1, H2, etc. headlines than your content. If you put the key terms that your customers are searching for in the headline, you are likely to see your search traffic increase and climb the Google page rank.

Be consistent

Consistency can be a real problem for pages that have been around for a while. If you have legacy pages on your website from years ago, redesign them. You should aim for the same beautiful design on every page on your site, from your product pages to your contact forms.

There are two problems with inconsistent website layout design. The first is simply that pages that look different from each other make your page look cheap because it looks like you can’t be bothered to update your old pages. The second issue is that your users will get lost if your pages look different across the various parts of your site and if they don’t know where they are they are going to leave.

Check 404s

Part of ensuring consistency across your pages is to check that every link on your site works.

There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is that encountering a 404 error annoys your customers, and makes it look like you are not taking your site seriously enough. (FYI…a 404 error is an HTTP status code that means that the page you were trying to reach on a website couldn't be found on their server) Also, having lots of broken links on your site slows down, and it negatively affects your search ranking.

The best web building software now automatically checks for broken links, so you can identify and fix them quickly. There are also plenty of free tools, though: to check if you have any 404s you can set up Google Webmaster tools on your website and check crawl errors. You can also use this 404 checker for free.

Remove the jargon

it is easy to forget that your customers aren’t as knowledgeable as you when it comes to the details of your industry. Are you now wondering how to write great content for your website that will grasp and maintain the viewer’s attention?

Great content writing, therefore, aims to remove as much jargon as possible from the website copy. Not only does jargon confuse customers – but it can also actively dissuade them from using your site. Explain your products and services as clearly as possible, and you are sure to be rewarded with loyal, engaged customers.

Don’t fall into the habit of writing that is generic and boring. Take a look at your site, and remove words like these: next-generation, flexible, robust, scalable, easy to use, cutting edge, groundbreaking, best-of-breed, mission-critical, innovative. These words are used on thousands of websites and have essentially lost their meaning.

Include sharing buttons.

If you don’t include opportunities for your visitors to share their experience on your site, you are probably going to miss out on a lot of traffic. Social media shares are one of the most effective ways to promote your website because this traffic is built from the existing visitors to your site.

Sharing buttons are a great way to encourage sharing on your site. They offer a non-pushy way for visitors to instantly share their experience, or recommend your website to their friends. Again, many of the best website builders include sharing buttons as a tool you can use in the construction of your pages, but you can also try out free social sharing tools like SumoMe and Shareaholic.

Improve your SEO

You can have the best website in the world, but if no-one can find it, then it counts for nothing. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a huge and complex field, but ignoring it altogether can have a profound (and negative) effect on the level of traffic to your site.

There are a few easy tips for basic SEO. You should check what keywords your customers are searching for, and write content that engages directly with these keywords. Sometimes, even changing one word in a headline can have a huge effect on where your page is ranked, so don’t be afraid to experiment and see what works best.

You should also make sure that you are producing a range of different types of content. Videos, blog articles, podcasts, and e-books all have their place, and producing all simultaneously ensures that you are reaching the largest audience possible.

Be responsive

Using social media on your site doesn’t stop with giving your customers an easy way of posting their experiences to their social media feeds. You should also follow up with any comments that they make – good or bad – and you can even highlight this on your website.

Firstly, it is approximately nine times less expensive to keep existing customers than it is to get new customers, and engaging with your customers is a very effective way of ensuring their loyalty. Secondly, you can often defuse criticism of your company by engaging with your customers directly. If they have had a bad experience, and post this on social media, a heartfelt apology from your company can go a long way toward proving that you take their business (and their feelings) seriously.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you think we could assist you in your digital marketing endeavor.

Tip Tuesday - Your Email List Is Valuable

Tue, 25 Feb 2020 15:29:33 GMT

Besides YOU being the brand of your business, did you know that your email list has a high potential of being very valuable to your bottom line?

Have you ever thought about it?

Here is some food for thought. Say your product and/or service has a value to the consumer of $100 per transaction and you have an email list of maybe, 1,000 contacts. Now you are looking at a list worth $100,000. Now let’s say, you send out an email and after a few “touches”, perhaps seven (see past article) , 2% will purchase or hire you for what you have to offer, that’s $2,000 in ROI.

And here is another thing to ponder, you actually own your email list.

Social media channels are changing their algorithms frequently, and making tweaks every day that impact the reach that you have with your customers. So, whenever you do use those channels, you should be using them to eventually move people onto your email list because you have complete control over that. If all of those social sites disappear tomorrow, you still have your email list. You’re still able to contact those people on your terms, not somebody else’s.

Please let us know if we can be of any assistance to your marketing projects.

What makes a website great? Part Two

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 17:28:01 GMT

Use Calls to Action (CTAs) correctly

Most people are aware of the importance of “Calls to Action”, or CTAs. The problem is that too many of these simply don’t work. That’s because a boring button that says “click here!” is not going to generate user interaction by itself.

There are two key things to bear in mind when thinking about your CTAs. The first is that they need to highlight the value of what you are offering. Instead of just saying “click here”, encourage your website visitors to “sign up for the latest news”, or “click here to get 10% off”.

So, if you want more email subscribers or contest entries or conversions than I highly suggest you get a bit more creative with the CTAs.

No matter what you’d like to accomplish with advertising and marketing, you won’t do it without the right CTA.

Almost all of your campaigns and content should have well-crafted call to actions designed to drive action.

The second principle that I would like to share with you, is that instead of inline hyperlinks, use buttons, and make sure they look good. Studies show that there can be an increase of clicks by testing different color variations with your action messaging. You can also play around with your design, and see what works for your business.

Hyperlink highlighting

Another trick (if you want to call it that) is to hyperlink highlighting. This is also an important tactic you can use. With so many options when working with text in modern website builders, some people try to reinvent the wheel: making their hyperlinks a strange color.

Showing your hyperlinks must be as simple as possible. Regular websites users will use the color blue with the text underlined, this is pretty standard. At the end of the day, you want your screen readers to see your links, and click on them with minimal load time, this way no one is going to miss them.

Segment information

A website has to be designed according to the business is projecting online (this is an obvious point) but it also has to work for the various sectors of your target audience.

Nonetheless, there are some basic ideas that will help you break up your content to allow your users navigate more easily around your site:

Break your pages up into grids that are clearly delineated
Give each product or service its own page that contains all the relevant information on it
Use bullet points to break up your points

Use images

When designing a website or updating one, you should use high-quality images. They are an incredibly powerful way of engaging your audience and are, perhaps, the most important element of beautiful website design.

Let’s take a closer look at what it may mean to use the “right” image(s). First, stay away (as much as you can) from using stock images. Research shows that stock images reduce conversion rates. That’s because using stock images makes your website look cheap, but also because it’s a wasted opportunity to show your customers your personality.

Secondly, a web developer that really knows what he/she is doing, will make sure that your images are optimized for your website. Taking a few unique images of your actual business is a great idea, but be aware that the files that the average camera (or smartphone) produces are far too big for your website, and often will loose resolution when being uploaded to cloud storage providers like Google Drive. Making them smaller won’t affect the detail that your customers can see, but it does increase your page loading speed dramatically and you do want to avoid this challenge.

And as a personal note to you my dear reader is that I sincerely hope that you find my intentions of pointing certain suggestions informative. We share the same information with our clients. Our goal is to help you design and/or update your website according to best practices as we know them.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you think we could assist you in your digital marketing endeavor. And one more “please”…:

Tip Thursday – Lead Nurturing

Thu, 20 Feb 2020 17:12:47 GMT

Do you know the Rule of 7? It’s a marketing principle that states that your prospects need to come across your offer at least seven times before they really notice it and start to take action. Your prospects can be exposed to your offer significantly more than seven times, but they need to see it at least seven times.

You must give it time to educate and inform them as they move through each stage of the buying journey.

Did you know that emails are a great tool you can use to nurture prospective customers down the sales funnel until they make a purchase? Nurture emails, drip campaigns, and welcome emails are all really similar. In fact, your welcome email may even be part of your overall lead nurturing strategy.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you think we could assist you in your digital marketing endeavor. And one more “please”…

What is the True ROI of Email Marketing?

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 15:12:35 GMT

I always get asked if email still a valuable part of a digital marketing strategy. The answer is a resounding YES!

A thousand times, yes!

Digital Marketing as we know it today is changing at the speed of light but email marketing remains one of the best ways to reach and engage your target audience. Email marketing’s power lies in its ability to provide businesses of all sizes an attractive return on investment. In fact, according to a recent study, the median email marketing ROI is 122%. That’s four times higher than any other digital marketing channel.

If you think this sounds too good to be true, you’re not alone. The best way to break down this incredibly high return on investment percentage is to take a look at the true value of email marketing ROI when it comes to different aspects of your business. You’d be surprised to know that the percentage of digital marketers who actually understands their marketing funnels’ ROI and the factors that affect it is only less than 30%. So below, I will explain two different ways that email marketing offers your business a return on investment and how you can measure ROI over the course of your email campaigns.

Email Marketing ROI #1: Increase Company Revenue

Though there are many different tools in your digital marketing toolbox, email marketing continues to be the greatest driver of revenue for many businesses. Revenue from email marketing ROI continues to improve year over year. This suggests that consumers are continuing to engage with brands through email marketing year after year.

There are a few different reasons for this. The number of email users in the U.S. continues to grow each year. This year (2020), the number of email users is estimated to grow to about 259 million. As more and more people sign up for an email address and use it on a regular basis, they also start to use this communication channel to keep in touch with their favorite brands. As a matter of fact, in another recent study, more than 50% of users prefer to get updates from the brands they follow through email.

The number of new email users is not the only contributing factor to high email marketing ROI when it comes to revenue growth. The general affordability of this digital marketing tactic also makes it an attractive option for brands that want to grow, reach, and engage their target audiences, while still enjoying the fruits of their labor.

When it comes down to the amount of revenue your company can stand to gain through email marketing,

Constant Contact reports that for every $1 a company spends on email marketing, they can expect to earn $38 of revenue on average. While another survey reveals that email marketing drives 25% of the overall revenues from those companies surveyed. The affordability coupled with the potential for excellent revenue growth makes email marketing one of the best digital marketing tactics for small businesses with limited marketing budgets.

With proper attribution, your company should be able to determine how much revenue is generated through your email marketing campaigns, down to the very email that finally convinced the consumer to make a purchase. Using email analytics to track and measure purchases made by consumers after they click on email content, you can add the sums of these purchases together to determine revenue.

If you are unable to track the exact revenue of each email directly, you can still calculate the average return on investment when it comes to email revenue. Multiply the number of conversions you have made through email by the value of an average order. This helps give you a better idea of how much revenue you are generating through your email marketing even when exact numbers are not available.

There are a few other indicators for Email Marketing ROI. It also helps businesses improve the number of sales and conversions. That’s because email marketing helps nurture leads and move them through the marketing funnel closer to making a purchase.

There are a number of different metrics you can measure to determine the return on investment from email lead nurturing. In the end, it will depend on what your goals are and how you measure the success of your lead nurturing efforts. For example, is revenue your only concern? Or are you interested in tracking how quickly your emails help move consumers through the funnel?

Here are a few different measurements you can look at when trying to determine your email nurturing ROI:

Engagement – By measuring engagement, you are able to see how well your company is interacting with customers. To accurately measure engagement, you’ll want to consider the following metrics: open rates, click rates, unsubscribes, and conversions.

Lead Acceleration – Measuring how long it takes your nurtured email leads to move from the awareness stage to consideration and from consideration to the decision stage is another way you can determine your email marketing ROI. For a better understanding of your email nurturing campaign success, you’ll want to look at how fast non-nurtured leads move and compare this to those who have engaged with your campaigns.

Impact on Revenue – Though it is not common for a user to make a purchase based on one email, you can measure the impact your campaigns have on your revenue over time across multiple touch points. In order to measure this metric, you’ll need to consider the value of each engagement across your digital marketing campaign, including nurturing tactics beyond emails.

Measuring the return on investment for your email nurturing efforts can get a little complex as it can be challenging to determine the value of each touch point. This is where a CRM or email automation program can come in handy. These programs have algorithms that can help you more accurately and consistently determine the ROI of your email nurturing campaigns.

Email Marketing ROI #2: Increased Website Traffic

One of the greatest marketing challenges that businesses face is generating website traffic. In fact, 54% of those marketers surveyed said that this was their biggest obstacle. Though there are a variety of digital marketing tactics that can help you improve website traffic, like SEO and social media management, email marketing can also help provide a return on investment when it comes to driving traffic to your website.

Not only does email marketing help increase traffic back to your website, but it helps make sure that the traffic going back to your site is relevant. If consumers are regularly engaging with your email marketing content then they have already shown an interest in your brand. This suggests not only that they are qualified leads but that they may be likely to make a purchase. The more high-quality traffic that you can drive back to your website, the more opportunities you have to engage these qualified leads and influence more conversions.

One of the most common ways to measure the return on investment for email campaigns meant to drive website traffic is by looking at the click through rate for your marketing emails. This shows you how many users are clicking on links in your emails that lead to certain pages on your website. You can measure the click through rate, or CTR, by dividing the number of clicks by the number of emails that have been delivered. However, since the CTR compares the click rate to the number of emails sent, sometimes this rate will be influenced by the time of day that the email was sent or a subject line that was not quite successful.

If you want an even better idea of how effective your email content is at driving these clicks, you can also measure the click-to-open rate. The click-to-open rate is measured by taking the number of clicks and dividing this number by the number of emails that have been opened. The content of your marketing emails is often the primary factor influencing your customers to click on your links, and the click-to-open rate is much more indicative of how engaging your actual email content is. This can help improve the accuracy of your ROI measurements when it comes to driving traffic back to your website.

“Increased brand awareness” is another benefit that Email Marketing has to offer, marketing emails work to foster positive and impactful relationships with your leads over a longer period of time. This helps you establish a relationship, build trust, and influence more conversions over time.

It certainly has a potential outcome of an effective email marketing campaign. However, it’s important that you are able to measure just how important this awareness is when it comes to generating email marketing ROI. In order to effectively measure just how effective your campaigns are at generating brand awareness and to tie this back to return on investment, you’ll need to first define what exactly awareness means to you.

Are you trying to make sure that leads are aware of your brand? Or are you trying to make them aware of some certain attribute that differentiates your brand from others? The way that you define awareness will not only impact your strategy for achieving your brand awareness goals but also the metrics that you will use to measure campaign ROI.

Another metric that can help you better measure brand awareness is external links back to your site. Link building is an important part of your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, but it also helps you better understand how aware others are of your brand. Look at where your external links are coming from, and see how many of these links may be coming from those who have received email communications from you.

Take Advantage of Email Marketing ROI

Now that you know some of the ways that email marketing can provide a return on your marketing investment, it’s easy to see why so many companies continue to develop and implement effective email marketing strategies. Looking at the different ways that this digital marketing tactic can provide value helps you better understand how you can use email marketing to grow your small business.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you think we could assist you in your digital marketing endeavor. And one more “please”…:

Three tips to improve your website

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 14:55:48 GMT

What makes a website great?

This will be an ongoing series of several tips that you can use to improve your website. For today I will discuss three of them. Stay tune for more!

Since each website has a different target audience, it may offer various types of services or it may have been designed by a different person. So, the answer(s) can sometimes be hard to pin down.

Creating a well-designed website can, at times, be as much as an art as it’s a science.

There are some basic principles that should be followed in the design. Whether you are creating a business site or a personal one. But if you have one already, you may be contemplating the thought of how you can make it better.

In this blog, I will briefly discuss three principles with more to follow in subsequent articles. Hopefully it will help you to see the basic foundation to a great website design by making it easier to use, more effective and it will save you money in the long run. And if you are an e-commerce business, you’ll definitely need to know the importance of a website with great content, user experience, and design elements.

Tip 1. Use white space

First of all, let’s start with a basic principle of graphic design: don’t use the whole page. The space around your content is as important as the content itself. Giving your content space to breathe makes your site more legible, and allows your users to focus on what’s important.

This is a principle that is overlooked very easily. That’s understandable – after all, you are probably so focused in showcasing all that you offer to your potential clients and prospects – but it’s a mistake nonetheless.

Tip 2. Focus on your content marketing strategy

Place emphasis on the small details so that your website loads fast, is secured and consistent. Paying attention to these smaller issues is important, but make sure you don’t lose sight of your marketing strategy and the role of your website within it. Ultimately, your website maintenance costs should be justified against your business strategy.

One of the most common things that I personal see is that companies have too much information on their site’s homepage. While your managerial structure and company history info-graphics might be interesting to you, your customers are unlikely to be as interested as you are. Your website visitors are only interested to see if your products and/or services can help them, therefore, that’s what your site should be focused on.

Great website design starts with a robust strategy. Identify what you want your website to achieve, and who you are talking to, and then focus your content tightly on this objective. Not only does this make website navigation easier for the customer, but it also allows you to cut down the cost of your website when setting up an online store because you no longer need to pay for endless pages that your viewers don’t care about anyway.

Tip 3. Optimize page speed

Another important part of your website design is how fast it loads. Keep you visitor on your website for as long as possible. We are too impatient when it comes to browsing any website. If your website does not load (gets displayed on the reader’s screen) in a few seconds, they will just click “next”.

An extra five to ten seconds of “load” time and your bounce rate increases exponentially by greater than 20%. No meaningful interaction, and they are on to the next website on their browser.

In other words, have a responsive design. White space around your content, deleting unnecessary content and using high-quality images to load correctly will improves your website speed. The analytics in your dashboard will help you to see what needs fine-tuning. However, Google, also offers a free service that helps you to track and improve the loading time and speed.

In other coming posts that will follow in the coming days, I will share with you more tips that I hope will help you improve your website. My intentions are to have you realize that the common internet browser may (initially) not be in interested in how wonderful you are. If they see that what you offer can solve or enhance what they need, then, they will do a deep dive into your business. They may follow-up with a phone call or an email and the rest is up to you to live up to your potential in the client/customer’s eyes.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you think we could assist you in any of your digital marketing endeavor. And one more “please”…

The Difference Between Content Marketing and Blogging

Tue, 11 Feb 2020 16:59:18 GMT

As I get more and more into this thing we call “Digital Marketing”, I try to tell my clients and prospects that they need to start blogging. Then I get asked, what’s is the difference between “blogging and content marketing”.

Ok, so let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. The terms are used interchangeably when in reality they are not the same (at least not 100%).

Content Marketing vs. Blogging

Content Marketing can be described (and it all depends on who is answering the question), as “the creation and distribution of journalistic, helpful, audience-focused material that ultimately increases customer acquisition.”

All of the above is basically saying that one is providing customers with information — ideally backed by data or your unique expertise — that educates them and makes their decision making a little easier.

And to that end, one may be providing different tactics that can be used to support one’s content marketing goals. It can include white papers, video content, eBooks, email newsletters, social networks, and of course, blogging. Each one serves its own purpose in the bigger content marketing strategy, but they all contribute to the same end goal of building trust with your customers.

Blogging, on the other hand, involves posting regular content to a specific site and is updated regularly to keep that website fresh. Blog content is displayed chronologically, so you’ll always find the most recent content first. The goal here is to communicate with your audience, whether you’re promoting a product, providing valuable knowledge to your readers, or working to establish your organization as a thought leader. And it’s an important tactic within the greater content marketing strategy.

So, I guess what I am saying is that basically, content marketing is the umbrella term under which blogging rests. As a result, there’s often a lot of overlap between the two. For many brands, blogging is an essential way to bring value to readers, which is why it’s considered a great starting point for any content marketing strategy.

Why should you consider Blogging and Content Marketing? Well let me tell you from personal experience within my own business.

Blogging regularly helps SEO, gives customers a reason to come back to your website, and is the perfect channel for distributing your existing content. You can write a “whitepaper” and then break it down into blogging articles. This way you will get a lot of mileage out of the whitepaper. In other words, there are several tactics you can use to build your SEO which in itself, will help your ranking on Google.

Content marketing as a strategy is important given how much the customer’s buying journey has changed. There’s no shortage of stats showing that the customer is now in charge, and that the majority of the purchasing decision is already made before they talk to anyone in your company. This means that you need to reach them in other ways — multiple other ways — to influence that decision. Content marketing gives you that power, and if done the right way, it builds genuine trust with your customers. Content that is smart and helpful brands your company as a go-to, expert resource. Why wouldn’t they buy from you?

If at any time you have questions about content marketing, don’t hesitate to reach out and ask us. Or for more on blogging, visit this article.

Want to know how to write an Email Newsletter, here are some ideas!

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 15:06:13 GMT

First of all, let me tell you that Email is a time-tested tool to drive sales and conversions. In fact, the latest statistics show that more than 68% of marketers say that email is their biggest source of ROI. Moreover, consumers across all industries prefer hearing from businesses via email.

Of course, the most effective newsletters take more than simply drafting something and clicking send. To successfully engage with your subscribers, your newsletter must entice readers and encourage them to interact with your content.

The key to doing this? Crafting an email messages that inspire readers to act.

Here are three ideas for writing a Newsletter people actually read

(this is by no means a conclusive list of ideas)

1. Begin with the end in mind

Before writing your newsletter, consider…

• What is the goal of your newsletter?

• Why are you sending it? What do you want your reader to gain from your message?

Having clarity on your end goal helps keep your newsletter intentional and purposeful. This objective will serve as a guide to ensure you’re keeping the subscriber top-of-mind in addition to accomplishing your content goals.

One way to start with the end in mind is to establish your call to action (CTA).

For optimal results, focus on one CTA. For instance, your newsletter might be trying to get users to make a purchase, sign up for a free trial of your service, or something else. Whatever your ultimate goal is, having two or more CTAs can confuse your reader’s attention.

2. Craft an intriguing subject line

Your subject line creates the first impression of your newsletter emails. It determines whether or not your subscriber decides to bother clicking—as such, you need to make it enticing.

To create a click-worthy subject line, keep these tips in mind:

Mention the benefit . What’s in it for the reader? If they can immediately glean value from your subject line, they’re more inclined to read on.
Keep it short —ideally less than 50 characters. The majority of users view emails on their mobile devices, where screen space is limited. Make your subject line succinct and to the point to help subscribers easily digest your topic.
Use numbers. Whether to introduce a list or share an interesting stat, numbers perform well because they are specific and evoke curiosity.
Make your subject line actionable. Use phrases that incite action and a sense of urgency, like “Don’t wait” or “Last chance.”
Don’t mislead your subscribers. In other words, avoid a subject line that deceives or over-promises—you can expect readers to unsubscribe if you do.

Should I use Emojis: yea or nay?

According to Forbes, 66% of brands that used an emoji in their email subject line reported a higher open rate than those did not include an emoji. Adding emojis offers a touch of humanization, making your company relatable.

Of course, it’s worth considering whether your industry is “emoji-compatible.” A newsletter for a legal company may seem overly casual and out of place. Add pizzazz with emojis only if it matches your brand voice and industry.

3. Make the body of your email concise and interesting

Your readers clicked on your email—now what?

The body of your email is your opportunity to connect with your subscriber. But with an average attention span of 8 seconds, you’ll have to capture them right away…and keep them engaged.

I suggest the following:

ask a question
highlight a benefit,
or tell a story.

Whichever route you choose, make it interesting but concise. The key is not to overindulge but to give readers enough information to nurture the relationship and offer solutions.

How long should your newsletter email be? According to Constant Contact, emails with 20 lines of text (or roughly 200 words) generally perform best in terms of click-through rates.

Remember this: your email content should align with your ultimate digital marketing goals. In other words, it should follow a content strategy that supports your end objective. Whether it’s to increase engagement, boost lead conversions, or drive traffic to your site, identifying and documenting your content strategy positions you to achieve your company’s marketing goals.

This is a good one, I am always asked should I use HTML or Plain Text Emails

So, if you are debating between whether to use HTML in your emails or take a plain text approach. However, you don’t know which one performs better for email newsletters?

Just as their name suggests, plain text emails are simple in nature and lack the styling enhancements of their flashy HTML counterparts. This makes them load faster and compatible with every device. HTML emails, on the other hand, tend to be more visually engaging but run a greater risk of getting caught in a recipient’s spam filter. Not to mention, with HTML emails, you need a responsive email builder tool so that your emails will also work on mobile devices.

What does the research say about these two types?

When it comes to email marketing newsletters, there’s a strong case for using both.

According to research from HubSpot, users generally claim to prefer HTML emails. Yet in spite of this, HubSpot’s A/B tests showed that simpler emails generally performed better with regard to open and click-through rates.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you should throw out HTML from your emails, though. Take a hybrid approach instead.

One solution is to give readers the option of receiving plain text versions of your newsletters. Or, use HTML emails but keep the coding fairly simple.

For now, let me suggest to regularly test your newsletter emails to ensure your subscribers are actually opening and reading them. Make any necessary changes along the way—and don’t be afraid to be bold. Experiment. Over time, with more insight, your newsletters will get better and better—and your subscribers will love you for it.

I SEO…They SEO…Do you SEO???

Mon, 20 Jan 2020 20:57:12 GMT

“If you build it, he will come” from the 1989 movie, “A Field of Dreams”, a film about an Iowa corn farmer who hears a voice telling him: "If you build it, he will come.", he interprets this as an instruction to build a baseball diamond in his fields; after he does, Shoeless Joe Jackson and other dead baseball players will emerge from the cornfields to play ball.

Well let me tell you, you can build all you want BUT no one is going to merge from the “market field” and run to your website if you don’t have it optimized with “Search Engine Optimization”.

Sure, you’ll do everything possible offline to direct people to your website by putting its address on your business cards, brochures, ads and so on but the people in the position to find you will be online already.

Here comes “Search Engine Optimization” to your “Field of Dreams”, it serves as the main gateway to Internet information. This means that if your website is highly visible in the results that appear when someone types in a keyword or phrase associated with the type of business you represent, there’s a decent chance that someone will click over to your website.

Now, this article is by no means a complete tutorial on how-to accomplish this subject, but do let me share with you two primary ways to ensure that your website is highly visible on search engines. (…and they “will come”…eventually).

First let me tell you what SEO means and that’s Search Engine Optimization, it’s the practice of increasing the search engine rankings of your web pages so that they appear higher in search results, bringing more traffic to your website.

Search engine optimization efforts aim to increase organic traffic. That’s the traffic you get when visitors click a link in search results to get to your site. That’s in contrast to paid traffic, which comes from ads.

Most SEO focuses on optimizing for Google’s search engine, which dominates the overall search market with a share of over 90%. However, it is also possible to optimize for other search engines like Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, and others.

So now here are the two possible ways to find you.

On-Page SEO, this is all about optimizing content, code, and other parts of our website that you can control.
Off-page SEO, this means taking action to build trust, authority, social signals and inbound links.

If you have a #1 ranking, your web page appears first in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). That puts it at the top of the page unless there’s a promoted result (which is an ad). In another blog I will cover more in detail the mechanisms of SEO. But for now, let me tell you that ideally, you want your web page content to appear as one of the top three results. That’s because those positions get almost half of the clicks in SERPs, and more clicks mean more traffic and more potential for leads and sales.

Even if your web page isn’t in the top three, it’s still great if it shows up on the first page of SERPs. If it doesn’t, you’ll definitely miss out on organic traffic, unfortunately 95% of people will only look at the first page of SERPs.

In another blog, I will explain how SEO and Google search works.

Let talk about Websites!

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 18:00:24 GMT

Although I have been in marketing for the last twenty years (…almost, not entirely), it has been only in the last six or seven years that I have been exposed more and more to the Digital Marketing world.

My services do include Digital Marketing solutions plus Email Marketing (…hence www.thejrsolutions.com ), and as part of building my business, I am involved with quite a few Chambers of Commerce in the area where business networking is the norm.

Besides the networking component to get exposure, I am also a speaker or presenter in what I do best, Email Marketing coupled with Social Media and Digital Marketing. (…actually, Digital Marketing is an umbrella term for the above mentioned)

So, here is what I want to share with you…

Even in today’s marketplace, once in a while, I get asked, “Why do I need a website if I am only a small business?”

Here is my answer as to what I have seen in today’s business world.

Many small and medium business owners still do not believe that they will be able to earn more money if they have a website, or they consider the cost of creating it to be too large for the budget of a small company. However, according to the survey Small Business website in 2018, 64% of small businesses do have their websites.

There are some very valid points to having a presence online. Here are some that I would like to point out, but it does encompass the whole gamut.

Promoting the business (…which goes along with creating a “brand,” which I covered in my branding.blog post).
Informative content about your products, services on a business website helps you gain customers’ respect and attention (…don’t forget building trust). Your web resource demonstrates to your target audience why your business is better than others and promotes your company, ideas, products, and services.
By adding a short company overview to the website, you can tell the world about who you are, what merits and experience you have in the field of your expertise. And besides, you will have an e-mail address connected with your domain, which will be much more trustworthy than a regular email account. You can share your ideas through a blog (..just like I am doing with you right now), it will lead to more confidence in your business.

If you have salespeople out in the field (…or not), you will always be getting questions as to how you do this and that, creating content for your website. (…questions and answers are a great way to build credibility). You can also post a testimonial from satisfying customers which may help you get more clients. Recommendations and opinions (…hopefully positive ones) will instill trust and confidence in your products or services. But even if some of those remarks are negative, that’s also an excellent opportunity to show the world how you can overcome those challenges by answering any negative comments and turning them into a positive outcome.

Whatever business you have, you do have the opportunity to demonstrate your achievements and the best projects on your website. Show that your business is unique with a portfolio and real customer reviews, and your sales will increase with time. If you want your website to gain more customers, then it is better to hire a professional SEO specialist, as their knowledge and experience is not something that can be gained in a short time. (…it takes education and years of experience to do it right)

The advantages of creating a professional website for any company are much higher than described in this article. And there is no doubt that after you have your own website developed and put into business properly, you will discover all of them sooner or later.

“Content builds relationships.

Relationships are built on trust.

Trust drives revenue.”–Andrew Davis, Bestselling Author and Keynote Speaker

Let’s talk about what a “Brand” is and isn't

Mon, 13 Jan 2020 14:25:41 GMT

Let’s talk about what a “Brand” is and isn’t

Most people don’t know what branding is, or they know what it is, but think of it as just their logo. They believe that, if they have a logo, they have a brand.

Branding is the route to making sure that your brand image in the minds of others is perfectly aligned with the brand image you want to have. Whether is on a website, Instagram, Twitter or any other social media platform you may use.

Brands are promises, period. You use it to build trust every time someone comes into contact with you, your name, your message or your business. You can reinforce your brand constantly by keeping your promise. If you don’t stay within the parameters of what your product and/or services provide, you are risking your reputation as a result.

To build a brand, it takes focus, passion, persistence and diligence plus effort and commitment, not only to yourself but to your clients and/or prospects.

Let’s have one thing clear. A logo is a symbol that represents a brand. It is not how you look or what you say or even what you sell. Please don’t forget, a brand is how people come to trust and believe in you.

Side Note…Did You Know…

The concept of brand identity literally comes from branding. Ranchers herded cow across vast plains to take them to market, and often the herds would intermingle. In order to figure whose cow was whose at the end of the cattle drive, the cows carried their ranch’s identity in the form of a brand. Branding products came into practice when artisans began to mark their work with their signatures or distinctive symbols. There symbols became identifiable to consumers. If the product was superior in the mind of the consumer, that mark or brand came to represent high quality.

Here are two examples in today’s marketplace:

Everyone knows that “Starbucks” sells coffee and other beverages but it stands for daily inspiration.
Apple sells computers but it stands for being different.

Your brand lives in your clients’ minds. It creates a belief and perception that must be in alignment what with your brand stands to be. It creates a strong emotional attachment.

As you develop your brand and it gains strength and loyalty in the marketplace, you will begin to reap the following benefits:

* It makes selling a bit easier

* It will prevail over no-name offerings

* It will build equity

Whether you’re selling products to consumers, investment opportunities to stockholders, job opportunities to applicants, freelance or consulting services to clients, or ideas to constituents, a brand paves the way for success by establishing positive awareness of your unique and meaningful promise before you ever present your sales proposition.

The marketplace will understand what you stand for and what unique value they can count on you to deliver. Without a positive awareness, you have to build a case for the value you can deliver every single time you get ready to make a sale.

There are two distinctions I would suggest you keep in mind when you are out marketing, one, you either are a one-of-a-kind brand OR one-is-as-good-as-any-other commodity.

Brands are products defined by and chosen for their unique distinguished attributes and promise while commodities are products that are easy to substitute and hard to differentiate.

Selling a no-name item is a costly endeavor to a brick-and-mortar establishment and it’s an even tougher challenge if your online presence does not reflect a cohesive image with all of you marketing. It’s even more of a challenged proposition online because there is no one standing to explain, inspire confidence or counter resistance with a viable alternative.

Brands that are preferred and valued by consumers deliver a long list of business benefits that turns into higher sales. People are willing to pay more because they believe it will deliver a desirable benefit.

Also, they will stay loyal creating repeat business. If you have employees, it will make it easier for them to stay with you because they will be proud of who they represent and what they can deliver.

Here are some branding lingo:

Brand: The essence and idea of what you stand for.
Brand identity: The name and visual marks that represent you brand, usually in the form of a logo, symbol, or unique type-style.
Brand image: The belief about what your brand is and what it stands for that exist in the customer’s mind as a result of all encounters.
Branding: The process of building a consistent positive perception in your customer’s mind.
Brand position: How your brand fits in with and relates to various other brands within your competitive market.
Brand management: Controlling the presentation of your brand identity, message and promise.
Brand equity: The value of your brand as an asset based on its quality, reputation, recognition, and the demand, loyalty, and premium pricing it generate.

There are other terms related to “branding” and they will be covered in future blogs.

Five Ways to Boost Your Email Campaigns for 2020

Thu, 09 Jan 2020 19:55:15 GMT

Five Ways to Boost Your Email Campaigns for 2020

Email marketing is one of the most dependable tactics in the marketer's playbook. Flashy, new marketing channels come and go every year, many of them promising to yield impressive ROI, but few of them can actually compete with the tried-and-true approach of email.

Email is relatively simple to use, and it delivers great ROI. So it's a no-brainer that companies ranging from financial services to retail would prioritize email marketing as a top contributor to their strategy.

Although easy to use, email is difficult to master if you don't act on insights that can help deliver impact. And, often, the result of that neglect is beautiful emails, with tempting calls to action, but they get marked as spam and don't make it to the recipient's inbox.

As we enter a new year and a new chapter in digital marketing, it's imperative that your email campaigns reach their intended destination. Accordingly, here are five best-practices to boost and maintain email deliverability in 2020.

1. Don't ambush your mailing lists during peak times . Do gradually increase email outreach ahead of major seasons.

It's tempting to blast out as many emails as possible to get your customers' attention and to drown out the competition. But by doing that you risk not only turning off your customer but also having your campaigns flagged as spam, or—worse—you can be blacklisted by Internet service providers (ISPs), which could dent your deliverability rates.

You'll be better off setting a cadence of personalized messages months in advance of an important season for your industry. For instance, if you're a travel company wanting to reach spring-breakers, start by gradually sending emails that play up what's in store for your customers months in advance, to start build momentum as the season approaches.

That gradual approach gives you the ability to build awareness, share brand news with new and existing customers who are the most likely to engage with it, and react to metrics in real-time to maximize conversions.

2. Don't send the same email to everyone on your lists. Do practice audience segmentation.

Email experts never recommend the "spray and pray" method because it's a surefire way to get subscribers to quickly unsubscribe or flag your messages as spam. And you can't blame them—because email marketers should know better than to send an email about new knitting needles to a customer whose brand engagement suggests an interest in action sports.

Use the data available to your marketing team to send targeted, personalized email offers like a birthday deal or a heads-up that an out of stock item a subscriber favorited is back on the shelves. That personalized approach will increase your deliverability rates, and you can also expect to see conversion rates go up since you're providing what customers need right when they need it.

3. Don't suddenly go rogue. Do keep up with what's working.

Though you're often taught that high risk equals high reward, don't take a risk right before your most profitable times of year.

Sure, you may see a surge in sales by pushing out an untested campaign to your traditional audience. But if it doesn't pan out, your ROI may plummet to depths it likely wouldn't have reached had you experimented during safer seasons.

Instead, look at all of your past campaigns; identify what delivery, messaging, and creative tactics have produced the best results—and stick to your brands' best-practices during crunch times.

4. Don't keep emailing to subscribers who aren't engaged. Do practice list hygiene.

List hygiene—regularly cleaning out inactive subscribers—is one of the most important things you can do to maintain the health of your email campaigns all year round.

Persistently emailing disengaged subscribers can have devastating effects on your email reputation. Instead, analyze how often the customer responds and adjust accordingly. Is the customer responding less often? Send fewer emails. This approach will pay dividends in the long run for your email marketing ROI.

5. Don't forget about the competition. Do craft compelling subject lines.

If you're in a particularly crowded industry, check in on the emails your rivals are sending and adjust your strategy accordingly to turn customers' attention your way. An effective way to do that is to master the art of the subject line.

To a customer, your subject line is like a handshake: Too weak, and you risk their scrolling past your email; too strong, and you risk their clicking "mark as spam." Better to be friendly, yet direct, by giving them a factual peek into what's inside your message that they'll find worthwhile.

Is it a time-sensitive price drop on a favorite item? Say that, and don't be afraid to get creative when you do. Just make sure your creativity doesn't veer into ambiguity, because contrary to popular belief, vague subject lines like "Have a second?" piques your subscribers anxiety, not curiosity.

In 2020, the stakes will be high for marketers to make the most out of marketing budgets and deliver tangible results for their companies. Consequently, instead of jumping on the bandwagon of miscellaneous emerging marketing trends that have yet to prove their mettle, master the basics of proven methods like email.

By properly leveraging one of the most established tactics in the marketer's toolbox and incorporating the best-practices outlined in this article, you'll be able to increase email ROI for your company and maintain high inbox reputation with your customers.

10 Reasons You Should Love Blogging

website@sitemodify.com (Website Editor) — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 15:43:18 GMT

Blog posts are a great way to get recognized within your community and share your voice. Here are the top 10 reasons you should love writing blog posts.

Anyone can make one:
For better or worse, anyone can write a blog post about anything they want. Everyone has a voice and that voice will rise to the top.

The writer can show their personality:
In blog posts, the writer has more leeway to add in their voice and personality than other types of writing.

Blogs are a great form of mass communication:
You can help people, learn new things, entertain your audience. The possibilities are endless and amazing. Blogging opens up all of these to a very wide audience.

You can make money:
Get the right blog going and you can make a lot of money through advertising and sponsored posts.

It allows people to craft better thoughts:
Instead of reading haphazard, uneducated Facebook statuses, it's much better to see people's thought process in a well-written blog post.

You can establish a community:
Blogging allows you to connect with other individuals who share the same interests. Sharing ideas and opinions within your community helps establish yourself as a thought leader.

Good for SEO:
Keeping content on your site fresh and relevant. You can use your blog to boost the search engine ranking (SEO) of your site and your business.

It brings people back to your site:
If your blog is strong enough and updated regularly, people will come back looking for more and bring traffic back to your site as well.

It's free:
It costs you a grand total of zero dollars to post to the blog, so if you have something to say, there's nothing to stop you.

You can establish yourself as a thought leader:
A blog is a great place for your original thoughts, and it can be a wonderful way to show off your individuality. If people like your ideas, you can become a thought leader in your industry!

What else do you love about blogs? Let me know!

The John Ramos Blog

Your Competitors May Already Have: A Digital Partner

Here are five signs it may be time for your business to consider working with a digital partner.

You Do Not Need to Do Everything Alone ﻿

Final Thought s

Final Thoughts ﻿

And as always..

BEYOND THE LIKE BUTTON: WHY EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS TO STOP "RENTING" THEIR AUDIENCE

The Digital Landlord Problem ﻿

The Solution: Start Building Your "Home" �� ﻿

Why Your List is "Algorithm-Proof" ﻿

Here is the Challenge ﻿

Final Thoughts ﻿

And as always..

Updated for 2025 Do you know what an Infographic is?

Do You Know What an Infographic Is?

Why Infographics Still Matter (and How They’ve Evolved )

Today, those benefits remain—but the stakes have changed:

Top Benefits Today (and What They Mean for Your Business)

How to Get Started—Smart Steps for 2025 ﻿

Final Thoughts ﻿

And as always..

Email Marketing is Far from Dead

How Email Marketing Works - 2025

﻿ Think Mobile Optimization

And as always...

Email Marketing for Content Kings: A Guide to Sustained Engagement

Unlocking the Power of Email for Content Marketing

Embrace the Email-Content Synergy

Content Marketing vs. Blogging: What's Really the Difference?

Here's What We'll Chat About:

What's Content Marketing, anyway?

So, what's Blogging then? ﻿

Key Differences Between Content Marketing

﻿ and Blogging

Why You Need Both ﻿

How to Use Them Together for Best Results ﻿

Final Thoughts ﻿

And as always...

Building Brand Trust with Email Marketing (Why It Still Works in 2025)

Why Trust Matters (More Than Ever)

5 Ways to Build Brand Trust Through Email

Want to Try Email Marketing Yourself?

Final Thoughts

**Aerial Photography and Video Drone Service: Why Your Business Needs It**

In today’s fast-paced digital world, standing out visually can be the key to capturing your audience's attention.

Who Can Benefit from Aerial Photography and Drone Video Services?

The Top Benefits of Aerial Photography and Video Drone Services

Why Choose Our Agency for Your Marketing Needs?

Why Video Marketing is a Game-Changer for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

In today’s fast-paced digital world, attention spans are short, and competition is fierce.

��️ Benefits of Video Marketing for SMBs:

Why Choose Us for Your Video Marketing?

Let’s Talk About What a “Brand” Is and Isn’t

Table of Content

What a Brand Is

What a Brand Isn’t

The Importance of a Blogging Page for Small Businesses

1. Boosts SEO and Online Visibility

2. Establishes Authority and Trust

3. Engages and Retains Customers

4. Cost-Effective Marketing

5. Enhances Customer Experience

Why Hire an External Content Writer?

1. Expertise and Quality

2. Timesaving

3. Consistency

4. Cost-Effective Solution

Conclusion

Optimize Your Website - [Updated Post]

In a recent post, I wrote about ten reasons a business needs an updated website.

A responsive design is one way to ensure your website is mobile-friendly.

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Another way to optimize your site for mobile is by optimizing images.

Simplifying navigation is another crucial factor for mobile optimization.

Testing your website on multiple devices is also a good idea.

Lastly, prioritize speed.

Ten reasons why someone needs a website updated.

Outdated Design:

Slow Loading Time:

You Do Not Need to Do Everything Alone

Final Thoughts

The Digital Landlord Problem

The Solution: Start Building Your "Home" ��

Why Your List is "Algorithm-Proof"

Here is the Challenge

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How to Get Started—Smart Steps for 2025

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Think Mobile Optimization

So, what's Blogging then?

and Blogging

Why You Need Both

How to Use Them Together for Best Results

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Aerial Photography and Video Drone Service: Why Your Business Needs It

2. Put your audience first

And as always...

Want to run a successful marketing campaign? Then it’s time to clean house.