Archive for Email Marketing Tips

Compelling Newsletter Content:
2 Big Problems

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, October 4th, 2016

newsletter-contentFrom what I see, many small business professionals struggle with writing compelling newsletter content. It’s not easy. You need to be interesting, personal, AND remind them of your products and services.Try too hard to do both… you end up confusing and losing readers.

The trick to creating compelling newsletter content is simple:

You’ve got to connect with readers in emotional ways and offer solutions to their problems. 

When I’m working with my clients on their newsletters, I often find one of two problems (or both): lack of clarity and lack of connection. Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, On Writing Better, Writing Better Ezines
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Managing Your Newsletter Email List:
5 Must-Do’s

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, September 19th, 2016

Email-list

When it comes to creating or growing your newsletter email list, you need to stay on top of managing it so it brings you clients.

Successful small business professionals don’t have a lot of time on their hands, but they understand the importance of staying in contact with their prospects and clients. Sending newsletters with relevant useful information is a great way to keep connected, but it needs to be done as efficiently as possible. Creating a newsletter email list is no exception.

Here are five things you must do to manage your email list effectively: Read More→

Categories : Email Marketing Tips, How to...Tips, List Building Tips
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Great Newsletters:
5 Must-Haves for Better Design

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, September 6th, 2016


eNewsletterHave you noticed what great business newsletters have in common?  They’re easily scannable; that is to say, you can easily scan the newsletter to determine the topic, the key message and what action the writer wants you to take.

That’s why newsletter design is so important.

I’ve been writing about business newsletters (relevancy and branding), and great newsletters also have a lot of thought put into design and layout. 

When readers receive your newsletter the first time, is it easy to understand what it’s about? Is it easy to read? And is it easy to find information they’re looking for? Or, do they get distracted by too many words, images or stuff, so they flee? Read More→

Categories : Email Marketing Tips, Ezines We Love, Writing Better Ezines
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Tips to Get Your Business Newsletter Read

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, December 11th, 2014

eNewsletter 10 TEALDoes anyone read your business e-newsletter?  How do you get your clients and prospects to open that email? In a previous post, I asked if you were sending a holiday newsletter for your business. Here are a few timeless tips to help you get your newsletter read.

Grab Attention with a Compelling Subject Line and Headline

Remember that the singular purpose of a subject line is to get readers to open the mail. The purpose of the headline is to get people to start reading. That’s it.

Research has found that the most compelling subject and headlines cater to:

  1. The three greatest human goals: to make or save time, effort or money
  2. The three greatest human desires: lust, greed or comfort
  3. The three greatest human teasers: curiosity, scarcity or controversy

Read More→

Categories : Attracting Clients, Email Marketing Tips, Getting Read, How to...Tips
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Should You Send Holiday Newsletters?

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, November 20th, 2014
eNewsletter

Shortcuts to Newsletters

Are you sending holiday newsletters for your business? Even though you may be tempted to put all your time and energy into maintaining your business blog, a newsletter is still a vital, viable way to stay connected to clients and prospects. Holiday newsletters are a great opportunity.

Don’t take my word for it. Ask other professionals if they’re getting results from sending out an emailed newsletter, for the holidays, or any time of year, and then judge for yourself if it’s worth the time and effort (and money).

Here’s a great example of what I hear: Read More→

Categories : Article Ideas, Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, How to...Tips
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Email Marketing Promotions: How to Be Annoying

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

AnnoyingMarketingMegaphone It's a curious thing, email marketing promotions. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. I feel it's my part of my job to email people to tell them about good opportunities, but many times there's a price tag involved.

Some people don't like to buy anything, ever, no matter how good. And others only want things in their own particular niche and get mad when you promote anything that doesn't concern them and their needs.

I'm full of insecurities and nervous ticks every time I pull the trigger on an email broadcast.  Why? Because I know I'll get some unsubscribe notices and the occasional complaint from someone who feels email promotions to be annoying.

I hate to annoy people, especially since I feel as if I know my subscribers. 

This past week, I was particularly "annoying," according to one person. I really wanted people to sign up for the iFlashVideo membership service (and I still do, it's that good!).

Well, I did one final reminder email, and sure enough he unsubscribe AND sent me a negative email. I'm telling you this to sort of relieve my bad feelings and to explain myself. I know I shouldn't worry about one email, but I do.

Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing, Pathway to Profits

Does Your Content Marketing Have Personality?

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, January 21st, 2010

PabloCat Signature Do you use creative images to represent yourself and your business? Joan Stewart does a great job of branding herself as The Publicity Hound, using a dog on her blog and sites.

I've used a lot of images from iStockPhoto.com and Shutterstock on this blog. An interesting picture can magnetize readers into your post to find out more.

On my other site I use a blue man because I love the whimsical nature that it adds to an otherwise heavily-text based website.

Here's a fun site that offers you the possibility to create your own graphic image of yourself, adding hair, clothes, accessories for a reasonable price: DesignherGals.com. Here's what I recently created and purchased for use as a personal email signature:

My friends tell me it looks like me, and it's fun. There's even a pic of Huey my cat…

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, How to...Tips, Online Marketing

3 Key Content Questions You Must Answer

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Content_mktg_for_you To paraphrase Doug Kessler, Velocity Marketing:

While there’s a lot of craft in the practice of content marketing, the core of the discipline is very, very simple: you have to be able to answer three questions quickly, clearly and compellingly:

  1. Who the hell are you?
  2. Why should I care?
  3. Why should I believe you?

If you can answer these three questions well, you’ll have done the hardest and most important part of your content marketing job. You'll also make the other parts of your job a lot easier.

While Doug writes this as part of his Holy Trinity of Technology Marketing, these questions are foundational for writing any kind of marketing content.

The devil is in the nuances, of course. I'll give you a bad email marketing sample of how NOT to do this:

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, On Writing Better, Online Marketing

Use Client Comments in Your Content Marketing

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, October 30th, 2009

ClientThumbsUp Are you using client comments like you could and should for content marketing? There's power in people's praise, but also in their comments and email messages.

Remember that there are six universal principles of social influence, as identified by social psychologists, notably Robert Cialdini in the book Influence:

  1. Reciprocation
  2. Authority
  3. Commitment/consistency
  4. Scarcity
  5. Liking
  6. Social proof

Your prospects are probably wondering if you can help them. Until you share what others' experiences have been working with you, how can they know?

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, How to...Tips, Online Marketing

How to Get Read Online: Broken feet, desserts,
money and words

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, August 24th, 2009

Stock-photo-young-woman-enjoying-the-summer-by-the-swimming-pool-26738179 I'm a skimmer. In the 20 minutes since I got my coffee and opened my email, I've learned what happened to these friends and colleagues:

Which of these messages or posts do you think I opened first? Which got my attention the most? The least? (I sound like Keith Olbermann's MSNBC opening line, "Which of these stories will we be talking about tomorrow?"

Easy, I put them in the order I remembered them, and that's the order in which they got my attention.

Here's why, here's the lesson you need to pay attention to if you're writing blog posts or sending email messages to make an impact.

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, Getting Read, On Writing Better
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