I have a request for you, dear readers. I want you to suggest your favorite books to me, ones I can take on vacation to read, both for pleasure and for business. I am accepting nominations for 3 categories:
Thanks! Just leave a comment and tell me why you like the book you suggest.
If you want to do business over the Internet you’ve got to write to reach and connect with customers. Writing on the Web is a blog about how to do that: how to use your words to build relationships with people who are looking for products and services on the Internet.
When I started writing this blog in 2004, I focused on writing great newsletters and ezines, hence the name, CoachEzines. It evolved as I included everything I was learning about writing for blogs. Now the name more accurately reflects the content you will find here: this is about all kinds of Writing on the Web.
It used to be to make money over the Internet, you wrote web pages and published a newsletter. The web pages were often a version of the company or professional brochure. Companies with budgets spent it on advertising, such as banners or pay-per-click programs. Marketing over the Internet was done like traditional advertising: all push, hoping for pull.
8 Ways to Market on the Web
Rapidly, as new software and Web tools emerge, the last few years have brought changes in the way we communicate on the Web with words:
If you’re a solo professional, small business, or established company marketing on the Web, your words are all you’ve got to make an instant impression and connect with the people you’re trying to reach. Your words are your customer representatives: they’ve got to smile and be helpful, before they can sell. Do you know how to do that with your Writing on the Web?
Marketing is Changing, Are You?
You can see the changes in TV ads. There is more personality, more personal connection than ever before. Traditional marketing is now influenced by the Internet instead of the other way around.
Today it’s all about pull, not push. How can you engage people’s interests, get them to stay and enjoy their experience, and interact with you?
Have you learned the new ways of writing to connect with your target audience? I listed 8 ways any business must publish in order to have a strong Internet presence. How many of those Internet marketing tools are you using?
Where to Start?
If you’re new to marketing your business, products or services over the Internet, you should know that a brochure-style website, while ‘nice’ to have, isn’t the best way to start for fast results. Start with a blog.
A blog will get you found more quickly by people looking to solve their problems. Getting found on the Internet is one of the biggest challenges for business. Because blogs are keyword rich, search engines have an easy time indexing them.You can even build a strong web presence using a blog platform: a blogsite.
Get Published, Get Found, Get Clients
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? There are a lot of things that go into making money over the Internet. A blog is an important step, but by itself it won’t convert readers to clients.
You must have something to give away in order to build a list of prospects. What information do you have that others would love to know? What irresistible offer will compel readers to give you their email address?
That’s what it’s all about: give readers something so valuable that not only they will give you their email address, but they’ll tell their friends about it too.
A Shopping Cart Infrastructure
Of course in order for all this to work, you must have an impeccable process in place, an infrastructure that confirms their registration, and delivers the free product along with autoresponder email messages that reassures them their email is safe and not shared.
You can’t do that without a shopping cart service working in the background. What has this got to do with Writing on the Web? Well, you’re responsible for writing those confirmation emails and follow-up marketing requests. Your words with solidify your customers’ relationship with you, or they will break it off.
More Writing?
Well, yes. I used to think that to make things simple and easy, I would use the standard confirmation emails that shopping cart services provide. Well, no. You can’t do that.
On the Web, people expect personal attention and each contact is an opportunity to treat them special. You can include their first name in a confirmation email, so why not customize the message?
I could go on and on about what happens after that first point of contact but I think you already get the picture. From your first blog post to your sales confirmation messages, you have an opportunity to make people glad to know you and glad they found you. You do that with your Writing on the Web.
Who’s The Blog Squad?
Many people know me as co-founder of The Blog Squadtm. I’ve been helping people market with business blogs since 2004.
I started out marketing on the Internet in 1999 when I published Coaching Matters, a newsletter service for executive coaches and consultants. Today, that still exists, although it has morphed to ContentforCoachesandConsultants. I provide ezine, blog and marketing services including quality articles for executive coaches.
The Law of Action
If what I’m saying here makes sense to you: that you must learn and practice good writing skills if you want to attract clients to your business, then it’s time to act.
Good ideas and wisdom won’t matter if you don’t take action.
Here’s what you can do: sign up to get updates to this blog so we can stay in touch and I can bring you tips for Writing on the Web.
In the upper right hand corner of this blog is an email subscription form. Sign up by giving us your email address. It’s a secure service and your email is safe with us.
That way you won’t have to come searching for this blog; you’ll get updates delivered into your inbox.
Thanks for staying with me to read this, and I hope you’ve found something of value for your business, so that you can Attract, Sell, and Profit online.
Patsi
Honestly I wasn’t interested in ego boosting, just wanted to check to see where all that content was going that we’ve written and posted everywhere on the Web – articles, interviews, blog posts, press releases, etc.
Plus someone asked a question about how to know if a marketer was real or not, you know, trust-worthy. So we suggested that people check their names through a Google search to see if there were negative comments or reports.
A search for Patsi Krakoff gave 37,900 results on Google, and Denise got over 30,000. So that’s why we encourage our clients to write content: each time you post on the Web it increases your chances of a potential client being able to find you.
Newsletter Nuggets: May 17, 2007
…tips and tricks for writing great ezines and blogs
1. A Note from Patsi: What Are Your Ezine Goals?
2. Blogging & Beyond Mentor Program: Help for Your Marketing Blues
3. June 07 Featured Article: The Leadership Void – The Problem That Isn’t Going Away
4. What’s New on the Blogs?
A note from Patsi –
What is the goal of your ezine? Is it to inform, educate, establish credibility and trust? Or maybe entertain? Obviously you want it to bring clients your way, but how do you do that?
What is the marketing goal? "Relationships," says Chris Baggott, author of Email Marketing by the Numbers. "The goal of all organizations is a better relationship with their constituents."
Baggott is a founder of Exact Target, a large provider of email marketing services, and his book was recently published by John Wiley. I had the privilege of contributing two articles to this book.
Chris Baggott is an expert in email marketing, so I was pleased to participate. He makes a big point that writing email marketing messages should be all about building relationships with readers. Unfortunately, most email marketing and ezines don’t do a good job of that.
In chapter two Baggott asks the question, Is Email the Perfect Marketing Tool? I contributed an article titled "Email is Dead, Long Live Email." I discuss the evolution of email newsletters and ‘new rules’ for successful ezines.
Chris Baggott’s new book, Email Marketing By The Numbers, is now available on Amazon.com. Why are we excited about this? Well, I’m one of the featured authors. It’s a "compendium of ideas" culled from many people.
I was going to wait until I got my copy to sing praises, but heck, why wait. It’s good. I know because I saw the copy before it went to the printers.
It is a great way to understand the power of email marketing, and to get latest best practices for ezines. It doesn’t matter if you are a lone professional or a big company, you need to understand email marketing if you’re going to leverage the power of the Internet for marketing.
Just so you know, the sound of horns in the background is me tooting: I’ve got 2 chapters in there!
Chris Baggott is Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of ExactTarget and we interviewed him on Blogging and Beyond in February about whether or not email is dead. Can you guess his answer?!
We got an email today from The Blog Squad’s mentor, Tom Antion.
Tom is presenting his "infamous" Electronic marketing ButtCamp
(where you learn to make bucks while sitting on your rear end in front
of your computer) July 8th in San Diego.
This is the day before the National Speakers Association convention.
We want you to be the among the first to know. Space is limited to 100 people.
Tom has done these extensive one day Internet camps all over the
world and he guarantees you a fantastic day that will open your eyes to
the Internet riches that await you.
In addition to being in Tom Antion’s mentor program, I have attended two of these "buttcamps" and I get a ton of new, do-able information that helps boost our business every time.
PLUS…
Graduates come to all regular ButtCamps forever with no more registration fees.
Check out all the details for the San Diego ButtCamp.
Patsi and I will be there. We were honored to be asked by Tom to do the presentation on blogs.
We’d love to meet you there.
P.S. You can save $200 if you register before April 30. Plus, for the first time ever, Tom is offering a payment plan, so there’s no excuse not to attend!
Register now before the April 30 deadline.
Can you spare a few minutes of your time for The Blog Squad?
We’d like to know more about you, and what your challenges are so we can better serve you and provide more relevant information and tools for your business.
We can’t do this without your help. As one of our blog readers, we’d like to get to know you better.
At what stage are you in your career or business? What do you need from us?
This is short.. just 14 questions to help us provide better products and services that meet your needs.
It will only take a few minutes to complete. There are no right or wrong answers and your answers will not be shared with anyone, so please answer each question honestly.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=282203642440
In exchange for five minutes of your time, we’ll give you a complimentary copy of our program ‘How to Broadcast Your Ezine and MiniCourse with the Best Marketing System on the Planet’, a product we regularly sell for $57. You must complete the survey to access the program.
Thanks in advance for your time and attention.
Patsi and Denise
The Blog Squad
P.S. The survey will be open for 5 days (until Friday, 4/13). Please take a few minutes now to answer the questions and get your complimentary copy of ‘How to Broadcast Your Ezine and MiniCourse with the Best Marketing System on the Planet.’
Blogging and Beyond: Episode 8
Attract, Sell, Profit! with Articles
with guest expert Christopher Knight, owner of EzineArticles.com and author of Article Marketing Strategies
This past weekend I checked out some new (free) video tutorials on writing email promos that get results. I posted a review of the first 3 videos on Next Level Biz Tips.
Tags: email marketing
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