Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

Why Emails Get Opened: New Poll

By Patsi Krakoff in Email Marketing Tips

The biggest reasons emails get opened is because the recipient knows and trusts the sender, and they previously opened and got value from this person or company.

These are the results from a survey conducted in December 2006 by Return Path with 2,413 respondents, ages 18-54, in the U.S. and Canada. It found that these factors influenced consumers to open and read e-mail:

This means that it is more important than ever to build relationships and trust with the people you email to.

When someone signs up and requests information from you, it is up to you to create value each time you email to them.

Write in a personable way, create a conversation, offer valuable information or tips, and keep your messages short and to the point. Only you can judge how frequently you can contact your subscribers and clients. Use common sense and when in doubt, ask.

This poll was first seen in an article, "Why Consumers Open E-mails" by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Editor, Web Marketing Today.

Book Publishing Secrets – 5 Experts, 1 Day in San Diego

By Patsi Krakoff in Books, Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

Sooner or later you’re going to want to finish writing your book and get published. Thousands of independent professionals are joining the ranks of published authors and you should be too. A published book can boost your credibility and make some money while furthering your career.

But there is a lot of know-how involved in publishing successfully. So if you can be in San Diego this Thursday, February 22, don’t miss this all-day workshop from the San Diego Publishers and Writers group.

This conference is called "Books: Today’s Secret Marketing Tool" and here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn from these five outstanding experts:

Andrew Chapman will teach you how to brand your business with a book.
Karla Olson will show you how easy it is to create a manuscript that achieves your marketing goals.
Jeniffer Thompson will help you create a Website that promotes both your book and your business.
Paulette Ensign will reveal product-line and brand-extension opportunities for your book and your business.
Lee Silber will uncover the unique business marketing opportunities that books afford.

Denise and I have had the pleasure of working with Paulette on Tips Booklets, and can recommend the quality of this workshop. For more information visit www.businesspublishingsecrets.com

A $7 Report Made Us $700 in Days

By Patsi Krakoff in Online Marketing

When you’ve been around the Internet as long as Denise and I have, you get a little jaded – well, okay, we’re down right skeptical about "get rich quick" claims, you know those emails that promise big easy bucks with just a few mouse clicks?

We’ve seen just about every scam that has floated around the Internet from one con artist to the other. So when a trusted colleague sent us this email about a great report for only $7 that made over $3,000 in just 7 days, we just laughed and said, “yeah, right!”

I went to the guy’s sales page, and my immediate reaction was this:

You: A Key Ingredient in Writing Better for the Web

By Patsi Krakoff in Writing Better Ezines

I’ve noticed in working with highly educated professionals that they often write their blog posts and ezine articles like they would a research paper. There is plenty of good information, but no reference to themselves as the writer. Here’s an example:

"One of the most often overlooked skills of being a good speaker is the ability to create effective diagrams or visual representations."

While that is most likely a true statement, I advise writers who want to leverage their marketing skills to include reference to themselves and their business, like this:

"When I’m consulting with speakers on improving their presentations, I’ve noticed that the most overlooked skill is the ability to create effective diagrams or visual representations."

This embeds a message to readers that the writer is a working professional who has solutions to help. Otherwise, the message only gives readers general information, without any implied marketing message. See the difference?

What do you think about this kind of marketing tactic? Do you use it? Does it help turn your articles and blog posts into tools to convert your readers into customers? Did you notice how I used it myself in the opening paragraph of this post?

Sponsored by The All-in-One Ezine Publishing System, everything you need to write and publish an ezine, grow a list of subscribers, and get results with an e-newsletter.

Blogging & Beyond with Kathleen Gage

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs

Tomorrow’s Blogging and Beyond radio show features guest expert Kathleen Gage of Street Smart Marketing. Don’t miss. For details, read the show card at Blogging and Beyond Blog. You can submit questions there and we will answer them on the show, tomorrow Thursday, 8 a.m. PT (11 a.m. ET) on VoiceAmerica Internet radio channel.

Is The Blog Squad Breaking Up?

By Patsi Krakoff in About Blogs

No, we’re not breaking up, but we are having a squabble! Denise wants to discount all our blogging products by half! I say she’s breaking my heart in half! I finally agreed to this sale, but for one day only – Valentine’s Day.

She says I’m stingy. I say she’s crazy. Well, she says she just wants all you aspiring bloggers to have the best help you can get to start a blog and optimize it for getting new clients and making money.

Okay, but you gotta act fast. Stroke of midnight ET Wednesday, these prices disappear.

So click the link below now to benefit from the ‘Break My Heart in Half’ Valentine Blogging Sale.

http://www.theblogsquad.net/VDay

Blog on!

Patsi Krakoff
The Blog Squad

P.S. Remember, this sale ends at midnight Eastern Time on February 14.
http://www.theblogsquad.net/VDay

Recipe For an Ezine Wraps Up

By Patsi Krakoff in Email Marketing Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Writing Better Ezines

This past week I’ve reviewed essential ingredients for a successful ezine, one that gets opened, gets read, and wins the hearts and minds of readers. I’m recapping here the 8 ingredients with the associated blog posts:

Main Article: Recipe for An Ezine- Should You Publish an Ezine?
Ingredient #1: Naming Your Ezine
Ingredient#2: Clarity of Purpose
Ingredient #3: Writing Email Subject Lines
Ingredient #4: Writing Useful Content, part 1
Ingredient #4: Ideas for Content, part 2
Ingredient #5: Call to Action Trap
Ingredient #6: HTML or Plain Text Formatting Debate
Ingredient #7: Attracting Subscribers
Ingredient #8: CAN-SPAM Compliance

But wait, I’m not finished. For all of this to work, there’s more. With an ezine, the content is crucial. When you send valuable information your readers can use, you can’t go wrong, or if you do, it is easily forgiven by your subscribers.

But if your content is not good enough to readers, watch out. If you send too many messages, or ones that don’t benefit your readers, they will get in the habit of deleting, or unsubscribe. Or worse,

Blog to Book: The Easy Way to Write and Market Your Book

By Patsi Krakoff in Teleclasses & Seminars

Denise and I will be presenting about blogs and books to the San Diego Publishers and Writers group in Encinitas, just north of San Diego, this Saturday February 24, 2007, at 10 a.m. If you’d like to come, visit this site and register here.

You will learn:

• The connection between blogs and books
• How you can use a blog as a marketing tool for your book
• 5 features of a blog that make it a good tool for promoting your book
• Tips for optimizing your blog so you attract more readers
• Other tools you can use to build a base of raving fans

For more information, go here: http://www.publisherswriters.org/newsletter.html

Recipe for an Ezine: HTML or Plain Text Formatting Debate

By Patsi Krakoff in Email Marketing Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Writing Better Ezines

Ingredient #6: HTML or Plain Text

The debate continues: HTML graphic formatting or plain text for ezines? We recently ran a poll, over on Denise’s BizTipsBlog. Here are the results of what our blog readers prefer after only a few days:

HTML – 79%,
Plain text – 21%

So where does this leave you? Experienced marketers know you get better deliverability with plain text, but your readers like to see graphics. If you deliver your newsletter in HTML format, make sure your readers have a way to access it online. Include a text announcement at the top of the ezine of where to read it online (the URL) for those people whose email reader does not permit viewing HTML formatting.

If you do use HTML, have the template professionally designed. Do not try this yourself, unless you have design skills. You want your template to appear uniform the way it is intended across many platforms and email systems.