Godaddy ran a commercial last year on the super bowl broadcast, and because the fine folks at Fox Broadcasting would not approve their racy ad, Godaddy directed the audience to visit their website to see the ending of the ad. Godaddy received over 1.5 Million hits to their site BEFORE the end of the game.

People actually didn’t wait until the game ended (although many did), they wanted to see the ad so bad, they had to visit their website. So, you wonder, how does this affect me? Well this is where you need to think out of the box with your marketing and the overall goal of your marketing. Use your website to complete the ad….then put the first part of the ad on youtube and send it out to your customer base via an email. Track the results after you put the word out and make sure that you are getting traffic to your site.

I have always believe in sending email newsletters, and have always recommended them to our clients. If you want to grow your business then you should consider this as well.

Email Marketing by Constant Contact® is the easy, effective, and highly affordable way to get your message out to your customers, clients, or members—and build strong, successful, and lasting relationships with them. You’ll create high-impact email newsletters and promotions in minutes, no technical expertise necessary. With more than 300 easily-customized templates, a simple point-and-click tool, and award-winning free customer support, you can create professional, compelling messages your audience will act on. And we make it easy for you to manage your contact lists, sign up website visitors, track your clicks and open rates, and send automated communications to new subscribers.

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While you may be into politics, or not, you may just want to connect with Barrack Obama on LinkedIn. Did you know that he has a profile on LinkedIn. You can connect with him here:http://www.linkedin.com/in/barackobama

It goes without saying that it cost less to sell something to a current customer than it does to acquire a new customer. Most business owners don’t know that actual cost of acquisition for a new client, but they always worry about losing one when they get them. This is why customer service is so important. I believe that an educated customer is a happy customer and a happy customer is still a customer.

The pudding….is your website. You have to continually think of your site as a 24/7 employee that is well worth the investment. However, is your employee producing? The proof as I say is in the pudding (or should I say the stats). Check your statistical information that comes with your web hosting account (no idea what this is? Email me and I will help you understand it). Take an overall look at your traffic. Then formulate a worthwhile newsletter, special, educational piece and email it out using constant contact. Then wait 3 days and check your stats again….BOOM! Major stat increase. Clearly there are keys to getting this increase. You need to have email addresses that matter (people that care to read or receive your newsletters) and you need to have something to offer them or you will quickly see your emails become ineffective.
Establish and email list….send worthwhile emails….monitor results…you should find it very fruitful.

Did you know that you can actually talk to someone at google. They don’t really publicize this too much but they do offer a live chat option (no phone calls). To talk to someone at Google, regarding your advertising, click the link below…
Google Live Chat

It’s not a good idea!
We tell clients constantly that they should develop a website that will attract users for the content and that they should focus on finding ways to keep that user coming back. Like many clients, we have tried a number of different techniques to generate revenue using the internet. I created a number of directory based websites whereby the users would use the directory to locate a business that they wanted to work with. For the a low investment, the business could establish an online profile and thus obtain traffic to their site. The business could also raise their profile by raising their investment. This has worked for only a few sites on the internet and it’s rather difficult to pull it off.
At least once per month we receive an inquiry here to create such a site and we always dig deep into the concept, the projected user base, the projected client base, and the business plan. The sole reason for digging deep is to clearly identify to our client the reasonable expectation of performance for the website.
Below is an excerpt from useit.com and how they perceive the advertising website and whether it will be successful.

“The number of companies that chase the same advertising dollars as their only business model is a sure sign that we’re at the peak of Bubble 2.0. It would be much more sustainable if companies aimed to create services that users valued enough to pay for.
Right now, considerable advertising money is sloshing through the Web because most marketing managers remain clueless about how it works. They think that because search advertisements generate lots of business, other Web ads must work just as well. What a fallacy — brought on by ignorance of the basic Web user experience. People go to search engines when they’re explicitly looking for a place to do business. This is why search engines profit from sucking up the work of content sites (where users exhibit strong banner blindness).
Marketing managers won’t remain clueless forever. Sooner or later they’ll discover that Web advertising offers almost no ROI. Only two forms of Web ads actually work: search ads and classified ads (such as eBay and real estate listings). A third type of Internet advertising that might work are video ads, because video is a linear media form (in contrast to nonlinear website navigation). At this point, we don’t have enough user research about Internet video to say for sure.”

Email newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with your audience, and ensure you stay top of mind on a regular basis. Newsletters by email are easy, inexpensive, they promote your expertise on a regular basis and they add to your overall marketing mix by providing you extra face time with your audience. So what’s the best strategy for conducting an email newsletter campaign? Here are a few suggestions that keep your emails out of the deleted folder.

Have a purpose: Promote noteworthy deals, client acquisitions, and most importantly, provide the reader with valuable information and insight into the industry you’re trying to reach. In offering expertise, always educate the reader and do not lecture.

Provide links back to company website: In the actual email, keep your copy to one paragraph and then link them back to your website if they want to read the full article. This keeps the reader interested and drives traffic back to your website where readers can find other valuable information regarding your company.

Make your email forward friendly: Make it easy for readers to forward your email by providing a clear link. Also, creating informational, valuable and sometimes funny content will make readers want to forward to friends and colleagues. This will help to build your email list.

Here are a couple quick don’t to help you avoid an ineffective email newsletter campaign.

Never send your emails on Monday. As we all catch up from the weekend, there’s a very good chance your email will just end up being deleted in favor of more important emails. Do however, try to send your email newsletter on Tuesday, preferably between 10:00am and 2:00pm. Research has shown this is one of the best times for email newsletters to pop up in someone’s Inbox.

Don’t use Outlook to send email newsletters. Bulk emails sent through Outlook can end up in your Spam folder. Use a service such as Constant Contact or another email newsletter provider.

Don’t send your newsletter too often: Sending a weekly email newsletter will surely make you an annoyance very quickly. A monthly email is adequate. You can send them twice monthly if you’re providing timely industry insight.

Follow these simple tips and you’ll be well on your way to having an effective email marketing program that will surely reap results for your firm.