Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn | Guy Kawasaki

When Guy Kawasaki blogged about the Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn, LinkedIn had 8.5 million users in 130 industries. Since then we’ve grown to over 12 million users covering 147 industries, but many of Guy’s suggestions on using LinkedIn (see below), still remain a great way for professionals to strengthen their online brand reputation and leverage their professional network. Happy Reading!

1. Increase your visibility.

By adding connections, you increase the likelihood that people will see your profile first when they’re searching for someone to hire or do business with. In addition to appearing at the top of search results (which is a major plus if you’re one of the 52,000 product managers on LinkedIn), people would much rather work with people who their friends know and trust.

2. Improve your connectability.

Most new users put only their current company in their profile. By doing so, they severely limit their ability to connect with people. You should fill out your profile like it’s an executive bio, so include
past companies, education, affiliations, and activities.

You can also include a link to your profile as part of an email signature. The added benefit is that the link enables people to see all your credentials, which would be awkward if not downright strange, as
an attachment.

3. Improve your Google PageRank.

LinkedIn allows you to make your profile information available for search engines to index. Since LinkedIn profiles receive a fairly high PageRank in Google, this is a good way to influence what people see when they search for you.

To do this, create a public profile and select “Full View.” Also, instead of using the default URL, customize your public profile’s URL to be your actual name. To strengthen the visibility of this page in
search engines, use this link in various places on the web, For example, when you comment in a blog, include a link to your profile in your signature.

4. Enhance your search engine results.

In addition to your name, you can also promote your blog or website to search engines like Google and Yahoo! Your LinkedIn profile allows you to publicize websites. There are a few pre-selected categories like “My Website,” “My Company,” etc.

If you select “Other” you can modify the name of the link. If you’re linking to your personal blog, include your name or descriptive terms in the link, and voila! instant search-engine optimization for your site. To make this work, be sure your public profile setting is set to “Full View.”

5. Perform blind, “reverse,” and company reference checks.

LinkedIn’s reference check tool to input a company name and the years the person worked at the company to search for references. Your search will find the people who worked at the company during the same time period. Since references provided by a candidate will generally be glowing, this is a good way to get more balanced data.

Companies will typically check your references before hiring you, but have you ever thought of checking your prospective manager’s references? Most interviewees don’t have the audacity to ask a
potential boss for references, but with LinkedIn you have a way to scope her out.

You can also check up on the company itself by finding the person who used to have the job that you’re interviewing for. Do this by searching for job title and company, but be sure to uncheck “Current titles only.” By contacting people who used to hold the position, you can get the inside scoop on the job, manager and growth potential.

By the way, if using LinkedIn in these ways becomes a common practice, we’re apt to see more truthful resumes. There’s nothing more amusing than to find out that the candidate who claims to have caused some huge success was a total bozo who was just along for the ride.

6. Increase the relevancy of your job search.

Use LinkedIn’s advanced search to find people with educational and work experience like yours to see where they work. For example, a programmer would use search keywords such as “Ruby on Rails,” “C++,” “Python,” “Java,” and “evangelist” to find out where other programmers with these skills work.

7. Make your interview go smoother.

You can use LinkedIn to find the people that you’re meeting. Knowing that you went to the same school, plays hockey, or shares acquaintances is a lot better than an awkward silence after, “I’m doing fine, thank you.”

8. Gauge the health of a company.

Perform an advanced search for company name and uncheck the “Current Companies Only” box. This will enable you to scrutinize the rate of turnover and whether key people are abandoning ship. Former employees usually give more candid opinions about a company’s prospects than someone who’s still on board.

9. Gauge the health of an industry.

If you’re thinking of investing or working in a sector, use LinkedIn to find people who worked for competitors—or even better, companies who failed. For example, suppose you wanted to build a next generation online pet store, you’d probably learn a lot from speaking with former Pets.com or WebVan employees.

10. Track startups.

You can see people in your network who are initiating new startups by doing an advanced search for a range of keywords such as “stealth” or “new startup.” Apply the “Sort By” filter to “Degrees away from you” in order to see the people closest to you first. [Republished from: Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn via "How to Change the World" -- Guy Kawasaki's blog]

Guy is known for bringing the concept of technology evangelism to the masses through his pioneering work at Apple’s Macintosh group. In addition to blogging the above post earlier this year, he has also blogged on topics ranging from LinkedIn Profile Extreme Makeover to LinkedIn and the Art of avoiding an Asshole Boss.
[Source: Guy Kawasaki's weblog -- How to Change the World - http://blog.guykawasaki.com ]

E-Mail Marketing Trends: E-Mail Gets Bigger by Going Smaller

Ten years ago, I’d get about 50 to 100 voice mails a day. That message volume has now moved into e-mail–and exploded as e-mail has become the dominant method of business communication. And just like we took our phones to go, now we’re taking our e-mail along, too, moving out of the office and onto home computers, laptops and handheld devices like BlackBerries and Treos. And we mix business and personal e-mail together more than ever. 

The increase in the sheer volume and diversity of e-mail has significantly changed the ways we interact with our inboxes. First, we’ve become experts at quick, visual sorting. We have to be! Otherwise, we risk falling into a perpetual state of e-mail backlog. Technology is also changing how we digest our daily e-mail intake. Here’s how:

• Sneak peek: Programs like Outlook give users the option to read a portion of e-mail message contents in a preview pane, without actually opening the e-mail.
• See no evil: E-mail software now includes “block images” as a default setting. This is an anti-porn measure that blocks all images–including your advertising graphics. Users who want to receive images need to manually turn the images setting back on.
• Handheld nation: Busy professionals, parents, students and consumers are reading their e-mail on the run. E-mails viewed on PDAs and even cell phones leave no room for anything but the basics. Thumbs up to e-mail portability. Thumbs down to HTML formatting.

Are these changes challenging to marketers? You bet. But don’t get discouraged. These trends and innovations are opportunities for smart e-mail marketers to be seen. So how do you win?

1. Identify your business’s brand, and spell out your subject.
People are far more likely to open an e-mail when they know who it’s from and what they’ll get if they click. Put your business name in the “From” line–not the name of the employee who distributes the e-mail campaign. Make sure the “Subject” line is specific and spells out the e-mail’s contents. Don’t make readers guess at the who or what of your message (because they won’t). Give them a good reason to click.

2. Put newsletter contents and promotional offers up top and on the left.
You want readers to see this portion of your e-mail in the preview pane. Now how do you entice them to read more and take action? Reduce your newsletter’s header space by putting the content links at the top of the screen and moving other, less-critical information, like administrative details, further down. Put a promotional campaign’s main product, benefit, offer and promise up top along with your call to action. You have just a few precious inches to entice readers to open your e-mail to full-screen size and click through on your offer. Use it to your best advantage.

3. Create text-only versions of your e-mail communications.
Send subscribers using handheld devices text-only versions of your e-mails. Use a professional e-mail marketing service that sends HTML and text versions so the right version shows up in the right place. Keep text-only readers in mind when you write, and ask yourself, “Does this campaign work when it’s stripped down to bare-bones text?” Remember, your subject line and first few lines of copy are more powerful than any snazzy graphics.

4. Don’t let your pictures do all the talking. 
Sure, a picture’s worth a thousand words, but these days, those images could be blocked.  Make sure your HTML version still looks good and makes your point even without the images. 

5. Get to the point.
Well-chosen words can cut through any medium–even the small spaces of preview panes and BlackBerry screens. Think about your campaigns, and choose your words wisely.  Don’t make your readers work to figure out what your e-mail’s about. Do make it fun and useful. The goal of any e-mail marketing campaign is to get customers clicking through to your world. That’s where your relationships can grow big.

Gail F. Goodman is the“E-Mail Marketing” coach at Entrepreneur.com and is CEO ofConstant Contact, a web-based e-mail marketing service for small businesses. She’s also a recognized small-business expert and speaker

By Gail Goodman

The Basics of Local Online Advertising

 For a downloadable checklist of the top 15 sites you need to advertise on locally, go to www.entrepreneur.com/checklists/localsites

The promise of the web has been a global one. It connects companies to telecommuters, outsourcers, far-off countries and customers around the world. But a new trend in the web is bringing it closer to home . . . and business. The “local web” is the way the internet helps connect people with places in their hometowns as well as their business and travel destinations. For local entrepreneurs, it’s about using the web to reach customers and vice versa.

We’re not here to preach the value of having a website. You already know about that. This is a look at how to use your site and the many other internet resources available to help customers find you. It’s not so much about e-commerce as it is about getting people to your door. “What we have now is a complicated world where people use many different sources of information to find local businesses. They’re using the traditional mediums that they’ve always used, but now the internet has become a very powerful–and in many cases, [the] primary–resource for people,” says Greg Sterling, founder of Sterling Market Intelligence, an Oakland, California, consulting and research firm with an emphasis on the local search marketplace. 

“You need to be where your customers are, and more and more customers are on the web,” says Sheryl Sandberg, vice president of global online sales and operations at Google. Take a look out over the web. There’s no one-stop shop for marketing your local business online. People use search engines, online Yellow Pages, industry-specific directories, referral and review sites and online communities. They follow links from other businesses’ sites and click on ads while browsing. So here’s a primer to help you plan your local web strategy.

Get Started
The first step is usually the hardest one. This initial stage requires a little patience and a lot of groundwork. Here it is: Get listed. That sounds pretty straightforward, but it actually means you have a roster of websites to visit. The three big search engines–Google, MSN and Yahoo!–should be your first destinations. Submit your site to each engine and then visit their “Local” sections and submit your company information. For example, go to http://listings.local.yahoo.com. The “Local Basic Listings” link takes you to the service. You can fill in information about your business, including hours, services, payment methods and descriptions. Once processed, your business will appear on Yahoo! Local maps and in searches that correlate to your description and category. Google works in a similar manner through its Local Business Center, and MSN partners with Citysearch to generate local information. Basic listings are free.

Ask.com recently launched AskCity for local searches, and AOL also generates its share of search traffic, so be sure to include them in your local web strategy.“You should absolutely get your content into every free directory or listing service you can,” says Sterling. “It’s important to [do this] because you don’t know where your potential customers are coming from.” Don’t overlook vertical sites that serve your particular market and that maintain business directories or listings. Local newspaper websites can be smart and affordable places to post an advertising link. Sites like Craigslist that feature a strong local component can be powerful tools. Not only do local customers browse the ads, but the ads are often indexed by search engines, providing yet another avenue for people to find you.

Look No Further
In a recent study by ROI Research Inc. and Performics on the offline impact of internet search, 55 percent to 65 percent of respondents said that search is at least somewhat influential in purchases they make at retail locations. That number is on the way up. Beyond retail products, more consumers are looking for local services online as well. The same goes for other businesses seeking local partners, suppliers and services.

Newspapers and physical Yellow Pages haven’t been abandoned, but they’re now pieces of a larger puzzle. A report by Borrell Associates predicts that local online advertising will grow by 31 percent to $7.7 billion and local paid search will balloon by 86 percent to $1.8 billion in 2007. If you want to be found in your hometown, you need to be found online. But being found isn’t always free.

Many businesses allocate some of their marketing budgets to search engine advertising. First Crush, a restaurant and wine bar in San Francisco, subscribes to the Google AdWords program. “We started with Google because it was such a big name,” says Shahram Bijan, owner of First Crush. “[We] reached a big audience without having to spend a lot of money.” First Crush uses 20 to 30 different keywords to trigger its ads in Google. Bijan’s goal was to drive search traffic to www.firstcrush.com, where visitors could learn more about the restaurant, its extensive wine list and event catering options, and use its online reservation system. “The great thing about the internet is people are looking for specific information,” says Bijan, 29. “You’re not just bombarding them with ads.”

Get Advanced
Search engines aren’t the be-all and end-all of a local web strategy. Most businesses will benefit from a multi-faceted approach. Outside the top general search engines, a handful of sites have popped up with a specifically local bent.

A big trend is convergence websites, which combine local business listings and directories with search functionality and paid advertising. Citysearch, founded in 1995, is the elder statesman of this type of site. Its focus on city guides with restaurants, services and reviews has made it a must-list place for a lot of businesses, particularly those in larger cities. First Crush uses Citysearch in combination with its own website and Google AdWords. This multipronged approach helped the restaurant reach $3 million in sales in 2006, with an expected 5 percent increase for 2007.

Although Kenai, Alaska, has fewer than 10,000 residents, nearly 50 local businesses have signed up with MerchantCircle.com, a local business listings service. Tina Showalter, 43, opened the Blonde Bear Bed & Breakfast in 2005. “Our first summer, we did great with word-of-mouth advertising, and then we got involved in the internet, and it has pretty much exploded from there,” says Showalter, who runs the Blonde Bear with her husband, George, 46. They expect sales to double in 2007.

The Blonde Bear’s MerchantCircle.com site combines a business description, reviews, a blog, coupons, a map and links to other businesses listed on MerchantCircle.com. All those Kenai businesses on the site got there through word-of-mouth; Showalter estimates she’s brought 30 other businesses onboard to help build up the cross-promotional and networking benefits of the site. Look for more services like MerchantCircle.com to hit the scene as the local web market heats up. 

With all the avenues available for reaching customers online, it’s important to be able to determine what is working and what isn’t. “This is all about discovery, trial and error, and refinement,” says Sterling. “Be willing to try some stuff and change course if it doesn’t work.” To find out if your strategies are effective, Sterling suggests entrepreneurs simply ask how their customers learned about them. Online coupons can also be an effective way to track how many customers are visiting your website and then visiting your location.

Search engine advertising services come with analytics and reports that show you how many click-throughs and unique visitors you’re getting. These numbers can help you determine which search terms are working, which to spend more money on and which to abandon. It has been a simple equation for First Crush. “When we put up the website, we were getting about 150 to 200 unique visitors a day,” says Bijan. “After we started using Google, we’re seeing 600 to 800 unique visitors a day.”

The Future of Search
There are some subtle shifts happening with the local web. Site-building tools like those offered by Yahoo! and Microsoft Office Live make it easier and cheaper for businesses to build a web presence. As more businesses arrive online, more services will appear to help them launch and manage their local web strategies. “Over time, advertising will continue to get more complicated, but there will be a layer of middlemen there to provide services,” says Sterling. These services won’t be free, but the most effective ones will be worth the investment.

Looking ahead, you’ll be hearing a lot about local going mobile. As cell phones become location-aware, a whole new set of advertising and services will come to life. Look for the leaders in local web search to branch out into mobile search. Both Yahoo! and Google already offer search methods tailored to mobile devices. Yahoo! features an SMS search service that works with most mobile phones and can direct users to local businesses.

The local web is both significant and scattered. It all comes down to making it as easy as possible for internet users to find your business so you can convert them into offline customers. It’s a trial-and-error process that combines marketing smarts and experimentation. Get listed, find out what has worked for your peers, try out search engine advertising and get on locally oriented listing and directory sites. The next time someone searches for products or services in your town, be sure you pop right up.

Websites That Do The Work For You
Most entrepreneurs don’t have time to become experts in marketing their businesses locally through the web. These sites can take that chore off your hands.

• Dotster Local Site Promotion: An example of a web domain registration and hosting company offering a local web advertising package; includes an intelligent keyword optimization tool, pay-per-click search engine ads and the ability to create online coupons and special offers.
• Froogle Local: Google’s shopping search engine accepts listings for free from local merchants. Users can search for specific products by location. It’s another way for brick-and-mortar stores to be found whether they use e-commerce or not.
• Local.com: Online Yellow Pages and search engine that offers a free listing for businesses. The Paid Local Promote option gives businesses more control over their listings and distributes your information to other online networks.
• ReachLocal: A central location to set up, maintain and track local search advertising campaigns. Pricing is variable.
• RegisterLocal: A service that lets you create a Master Business Profile that RegisterLocal submits to search engines and directories on your behalf for $199.95 per year. When you make changes or updates, they’re automatically distributed.
• TrueLocal: A local search engine that also offers advertising opportunities for businesses. Features full-text searching.
• YellowPages.com: Large online local directory site that also includes city guides and advertising solutions. Basic listings are free.

Videos and Blogging Make a Great Marketing Combo

Ignite a publicity wildfire on the web with a video blog.
By Catherine Seda

 

Blogs are hot. Vlogs are hotter. A vlog, or video blog, is the newest way to engage your audience while kicking up your buzz factor. You can use video to enhance your blog, or you can use it as your blog’s main content.

Why vlog? It’s got publicity power. A good video clip gets attention online–it’s instantly talked about and linked to by bloggers. Every day, ordinary people are becoming superstars thanks to online video. And business professionals who jump in early and publish “infotainment” will generate a whole lot of traffic.

Don’t use vlogging as a hard sales pitch. Boring. Not wildfire-worthy either. Create commercial-style clips like those you’ve seen passed around the web. Or, promote a contest where vloggers create videos for your company’s marketing campaign. To boost the contest’s viral potential, you could invite the web world to vote for the best clips on your vlog.

Less entertaining, more educational videos are good, but they rarely have the fun factor that’ll catch fire on the web. Like blogs, successful vlog marketing requires the enlisted help of raving fans. Reach out directly to bloggers and vloggers; ask them to rate and rant or rave about  your videos. And post your clips on social sites such as iFilm, My Space Video and YouTube.

To evaluate if vlogging is right for you, host a meeting your marketing team is sure to enjoy: Brainstorm video ideas. Nothing is too wacky, so long as you tie ideas to your business and create a call to action for this campaign. That’s key. Always tie a promotional campaign back to a valuable action you can track–a newsletter sign-up or a sale, for example. The buzz about your business might last just 15 minutes, but that could be all you need to capture an entire new community of customers.

Vlogging can provide your business with instant, massive exposure on the web. Are you up for the challenge?

Catherine Seda is an internet and search marketing expert. She’s also a dean of LA College International. Get her “Top 10 Internet Marketing Mistakes” report at www.catherineseda.com.

The Power of Social Shopping Networks

Looking for ways to get people talking about your products? The new social shopping trend can help you build buzz.
By Kim T. Gordon

With the vast majority of Americans researching products on the internet before they purchase them in stores or on the web, it’s no surprise that a whole new form of shopping is emerging. “Social shopping” is the intriguing offspring of social networking and online shopping, and it can offer your growing business just the marketing leg up it needs.

Unlike the many retail sites that display products for sale, many increasingly popular social shopping sites (some still in beta testing stages) consist of product listings from site users who recommend their favorites, often with a strong emphasis on what’s hot, new and exciting. And insiders know that listing their own products on the right social shopping sites can build buzz that leads to sales.

This accessible form of word-of-mouth marketing offers a wealth of opportunities for entrepreneurs with limited budgets. To help you navigate these new waters, let’s take a look at why and how social shopping works.

1. Online research leads to sales. Almost 90 percent of respondents to a BIGresearch “Consumer Intentions and Actions” survey conducted in June 2006 said they occasionally or regularly research products online before buying them in a store. When it comes to online purchasing, a study released by Yahoo! and OMD found that nearly three-quarters of the people surveyed use trusted, familiar websites when purchasing online, and the majority (54 percent) say the internet is their most trusted shopping information source. So no matter whether you sell exclusively online, through a brick-and-mortar store or both, influencing online shoppers can have a profound effect on sales.

2. Peer-to-peer recommendations deliver credibility. Social shopping websites allow for word-of-mouth marketing at its best. The internet empowers consumers and accelerates the flow of information. Product recommendations that come from peers may be more trusted, so site visitors may return more often and be more likely to spread the good word and purchase the products they learn about on the sites. Social shopping sites reflect users’ personal tastes and allow for online conversation. Visitors can learn what’s popular, get shopping ideas and follow links to products they wouldn’t necessarily find on their own.

3. Sites have distinct personalities. Here’s a sampling of the hottest social shopping sites.

• ThisNext.com: Users can browse recommended products, add them to their wish lists, recommend or find out where to buy them, and create themed lists of their own.
• Crowdstorm.com: This site measures the buzz around products based on user recommendations. Popular items go to the top of the list.
• Kaboodle.com: Users create wish lists with photos and links to products for sale online. It’s easy to post a summary of anything found on the internet.
• Stylehive.com: This is the hot site for women’s fashions and interests.
• Wists.com: Users tend to focus on interesting new products and share links to the ones they want to buy.

4. Social shopping sites are An open door for entrepreneurs. Right now, any business owner can use them to build positive word-of-mouth that leads to sales. But you’d better move quickly. Some sites are testing free-use models as they build traffic and will likely adopt paid structures as they reach critical mass, perhaps through revenue generated by marketing agreements with vendors and retailers or by selling the trend information generated by users.

As with any marketing campaign, your first step is to get to know the media. Bookmark your favorite social shopping sites and learn how they work. Test the waters by posting one or two products with their URLs, taking special care to send your click-throughs to specialized landing pages so you can measure your results. Then have fun and stay active–and keep your postings interesting by sharing products others will want to buzz about.

Kim T. Gordon, author ofMaximum Marketing, Minimum Dollars: The Top 50 Ways to Grow Your Small Business. Her new e-book, Big Marketing Ideas for Small Budgets, is available exclusively from Entrepreneur atwww.smallbizbooks.com.

Tracking Your E-Mail Marketing Campaigns

Understand your e-mail tracking reports, and learn to up your numbers.
By Gail Goodman

 One of the best features of an e-mail marketing service is tracking and reporting. When people are first introduced to e-mail marketing, they’re thrilled to find that they can see who is (or isn’t) opening their e-mails and what they’re clicking on.

But after experiencing the initial delight that comes with discovering this helpful tool, the next reaction can be one of confusion or disappointment. I’ve heard questions like, What’s a good open rate? Why is it that only 40 percent of my list opens my e-mails? When I first started sending, I had a 60 percent open rate, and now it’s dropped to 37 percent. What happened?

First, you should know what your open rate is telling you. Basically, it’s the percentage of your e-mail recipients who opened your e-mail (bounced addresses are taken out of the equation). The reporting feature of your e-mail marketing service tracks the number of unique opens, which means that no contacts are counted twice, no matter how many times they open the e-mail.

Open rates aren’t an exact science; unique opens can be undercounted or overcounted. E-mails don’t get counted when people view them with the images turned off or when they’re read on a handheld device like a BlackBerry or Treo. Unique opens can be overcounted when someone views your e-mail in a preview pane (which sends back tracking information) but doesn’t actually open the message.

So when you’ve got your percentage, how should you feel about your open rates? One place to start is by comparing them to industry standards. According to “MarketingSherpa’s E-mail Benchmark Guide 2006,” the most common range for B2C open rates for 2004 and 2005 was 30 to 39 percent; the B2B range was 10 to 29 percent. Open rates also vary widely by business type. According to the “Harte-Hanks Postfuture Index for January-June 2006,” restaurants had the highest open rates of any of the 13 business types considered during that period, while retail businesses had the lowest.

What does this mean for you? According to industry standards, if you have a 35 percent open rate, you’re doing well. But don’t just judge your open rate against these statistics; judge it against your past performance. To examine your own results, map out your business’s open rate trend line. Over the past 12 months, when did you get the best open rates? Look at the e-mail communications you sent and ask, What did I do that made this successful? Then try that tactic again.

If your e-mail open rates aren’t where you’d like them to be–or you think you can do better–here are five easy things you can do to improve them:

1. Send more targeted e-mails. The better you know your contacts and their interests, the more you can target your e-mails and increase your open rates. Have you thought about how you can segment your list into interest groups? It’s worth the effort. Don’t you love it when you get an e-mail about something you’re truly interested in? And aren’t you far more likely to open it?

    

2. Improve your subject lines. A good subject line will always increase the chances of an e-mail getting opened. Lead with a benefit that lets the recipients know what’s in it for them. Make it interesting, and try to pique the readers’ curiosity. You want them to feel compelled to find out more. Also, remember to avoid using all caps, exclamation points and words like “free” and “sale.”

    

3. Test your sending times. Try sending your message on a different day or at a different time of day to see if you achieve a higher open rate. We’ve seen customers improve their rates 15 to 20 percent by changing when they send. It has long been thought that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days to send, but a report released by eROI in 2006 showed that open rates were higher on weekends–38 percent on Saturdays and 37 percent on Sundays–and Monday was the best weekday at 35.7 percent. Because open rates are different for every type of business, it’s important for you to figure out the best time to send to your contacts.

    

4. Check your “from” name. Is your “from” name easily recognizable? Will your contacts know who your e-mail is from? If they don’t, they’ll likely hit delete, so you need a name your receivers are familiar with in your “from” line. In most cases, this isn’t your name (or the name of the person in your office who sends out your e-mails). Best practice would be to use your company’s name, though you could use another name if it would be easily recognized by your customers and make sense with your campaign.

    

5. Evaluate how often you send. You might send too often or you might not send often enough. Send too often and readers will stop opening; send too infrequently, they won’t recognize your name. Consider asking your contacts how often they want to hear from you. You can do this by giving them the option to sign up for weekly or monthly e-mails.

By using e-mail marketing to connect with your customers or members, you have the benefit of knowing who’s interested in what you’re saying or selling. And every time someone opens your e-mail, you’re planting a seed, reminding them, “I’m here when you need me.” With tracking and reporting, you can know how many seeds you’re planting, and you can watch them as they grow.

Marketing Your Business on Craigslist

 Learn how to showcase your products and services on this popular online marketplace.
By Shanon Lewis

From e-commerce websites to furniture wholesalers, small businesses both online and off are realizing the marketing power of Craigslist.org. Founded in 1996 by Craig Newmark, Craigslist.org gets an estimated 10 million unique visitors per day. With an online classified ads format organized by either region or city, Craigslist connects buyers and sellers in more than 300 communities; for the most part, posting on the site is free.

If you’ve never heard of Craigslist or never considered using the site to market your business, the following tips will help you determine whether it might be a good fit for you and offer another outlet for marketing your products and services.

What Sells Best on Craigslist
From services like tutoring, car repair and real estate to products such as wholesale furniture, consignment goods and retail e-commerce, Craigslist is the ultimate destination for online marketers. If you manufacture goods, provide services directly or sell products regionally, Craigslist is a marketing tool you should consider. You can also easily promote an eBay store, a franchise operation or a referral partner. And it’s a bourgeoning business opportunity for affiliates and webmasters looking for new ways to find customers.

Identifying Your Market
Like any other advertising medium, Craigslist requires some strategy, though paramount to its usefulness is simplicity. To start, you need to determine which city or cities you’re going to post an ad. If you’re a service provider, you can identify available cities on Craigslist that encompass your service region. Keep in mind that some regions overlap. For instance, if you’re a mobile groomer working in Orange County, California, but service from Los Angeles to San Diego, Craigslist reaches your service area across four cities. So you’d want to develop your messaging and a posting schedule in each of these regions to increase your exposure. If you sell a product or offer a service nationwide, the opportunity to reach new customers is even greater.

Posting on Craigslist, either nationally or locally, requires an understanding of the rules. Craigslist has in place–a set of rules that prohibits advertisers from over-posting or spamming users. You can follow these rules and still get excellent exposure. To start, develop unique ads for each city you post in, focus on specific products and rotate them on a promotional schedule. Never post the exact same ad within 48 hours, and be careful to delete your old ad. Craigslist users are quick to spot businesses that misuse the system and can be quite unforgiving. The Craigslist flagging system puts the power of spam control into the hands of the users.

Building Ads
Building an ad on Craigslist can be as simple as typing in some text, or you can incorporate html and images. Typically, what works best is the direct approach. For instance, if you’re a real estate agent using Craigslist to promote properties for sale, build a text ad that incorporates images of the properties for sale–you don’t need to know html to do this. Simply define what property specifications best sell the property and keep the sales pitch to a minimum. Be sure to include important search words, such as “three bedroom” or “condominium,” as well as regional identifiers including a ZIP code, city or community name. You do this so that people who search for specific items find you in the search results.

Craigslist’s search function isn’t based on a search algorithm; instead, search results are displayed first by date, then by keyword. This makes the text content of your ad extremely important. Ads with images only increase ad effectiveness. And adding images to your ad isn’t difficult. If you’re not web savvy, use the “upload image” function available during the posting process. (If you want to feature a large image or more than one, you’ll need to upload your images to your own web server and reference them inside your ad using basic html.) Images, however, are not required. Often the best performing ads on Craigslist are simple text ads that get straight to the point.

Tracking Results
If you plan to post in multiple cities and offer specific promotions, tracking which ads produce the best results is important. You can track a Craigslist ad by e-mail, phone number or website referral. Each tracking mechanism should feature a unique component like a custom e-mail address, telephone extension or website referral code. How you choose to track should depend on your industry and the typical methods customer use to communicate with you. Unlike eBay, Craigslist does not provide you with any demographic or tracking data.

Regardless of whether you sell a product or service, it’s important to understand the competitive landscape on a daily or weekly basis. Supply and demand for certain products or services will fluctuate. Take the time to get to know the other players in your cities or categories. If you see a rush on a certain product, focus on something complimentary. For instance, if you’re a mattress wholesaler and see that a large number of a specific brand and/or size mattresses are flooding your market, either price match or focus your energy on a different size or bed frame until the market stabilizes. Also, take into consideration the season and the demographic (both income and recreational) of the cities in which you post. In the winter, a snowmobile will not sell nearly as well in California as it will in Vermont.

Community Commitment
As an open market, Craigslist welcomes sellers from all walks of life. Keep in mind that as a business owner, you’re just as likely to compete with everyday people selling the contents of their attic as you are a national brand retailer with sights on breaking into your market. The community element sets Craigslist apart from its competitors. Harness the power of your community by doing more than just posting. The most trafficked area of Craigslist is the forums. Use the forums to communicate with fellow sellers and potential buyers or to establish an active, ethical voice for your business.

Selling Safely
Fraud exists in every corner of the business world, both online and offline. The anonymous nature of Craigslist–the very thing that makes it so popular–is also the reason you should take measures to protect yourself against fraud. With no member or seller ratings system, Craigslist can fall prey to scam artists. Make an effort to talk to each new customer via phone, only ship items once payment is received, and always use your best judgment when it comes to business transactions.

Craigslist continues to experience rapid growth–additional cities have come online in recent months and more are expected to launch throughout the next year. The buzz about this great resource is sweeping the nation, and every day people from all over the world are visiting the site, looking to buy from trusted sellers and service providers. Get in on the action by harnessing the marketing power of Craigslist.

Shanon Lewis is a web-marketing expert who specializes in marketing on Craigslist. She’s also the author of The Unofficial Craigslist Book and regularly shares her wisdom on Craigslist and online marketing at her popular blog.

Convert Your Website Visitors into Customers

Turn web surfers into paying customers by combining pay-per-click advertising and e-mail marketing.
By Gail Goodman

 

For many small businesses, paid search has become a new avenue to acquire customers. Its speed and reach make it an effective way to welcome new visitors into your small-business website door–prospects have found you and you’ve found them! But most online visitors don’t convert to customers on the very first visit, and unless you capture some contact information and follow up immediately, they may be gone in a mouse click–never to return again. In today’s advertisement-filled world, it’s important to not only maximize your marketing dollars but also those key opportunities to find and keep a new prospect.

You’ve paid for those clicks; now how do you convert new website visitors into customers? Most marketing experts agree that it takes an average of seven contacts with a prospect before they’ll buy. So the way to convert site visitors into prospects and prospects into customers (and first-time customers into repeat customers) is by building relationships over time. E-mail marketing supports pay-per-click advertising efforts by giving businesses a tool to reconnect immediately and directly with new visitors by:

• telling them more about products and services,
• learning more about visitors’ specific interests,
• offering value through content prior to purchase, and
• initiating those critical business-to-customer relationships before those leads go cold.

Being found online is a start, but communication is what builds the relationship. Here are three basic steps to unite e-mail marketing with paid search advertising.

1. Collect Visitors’ E-Mail Addresses
The first step is getting new site visitors engaged enough to share their e-mail addresses with you. A “Join My Mailing List” box is fine for people already engaged with your business, but for newcomers who don’t know you, it’s not enough. You need a direct call to action and a reward. Entice them with something valuable that you give them for free in exchange for their e-mail address, such as:

• A free white paper that educates them about the problems your business solves.
• A free educational seminar or webinar that helps them evaluate what you sell.
• A free consultation or evaluation (which can lead to a proposal for their business).
• Or offer your free e-newsletter as an enticement to sign up. (See “Creating Newsletter Content” for ideas.)

Don’t feel squeamish about asking for contact information upfront. It’s a classic marketers’ dilemma–whether to use that first communication to passively educate visitors toward conversion or to directly ask for contact information to learn more about them over time. Given you’ve paid for that click, it’s better to entice them to share their e-mail address immediately than risk their leaving without it. Because when they’re gone, they’re gone.

2. Send Paid Clicks to a Special Landing Page
You may want to drop pay-per-click visitors onto a specially designed landing page that provides more direct communication and less other distraction than your regular homepage. Landing page content should be geared specifically to the search term the visitor clicked on, while putting your other navigation and content section links lower on the page. A sporting goods store that bought the search term “tennis” may create a special landing page with tennis content and offers, rather than directing paid-click visitors to its general web store, where tennis content might not be so obvious. Make it easy for them to find what they were searching for while engaging them and building confidence in your business. Put your “Join My Mailing List” box and free offer right on that landing page. It’s your one chance to grab ‘em while they’re interested.

3. Think About Ways to Re-Engage New Signups
Now that you have their e-mail address, you can re-engage these potential new customers through a multi-step e-mail marketing campaign combining promotional and informational content. Follow through on their signup with a thank-you note targeting what you know about them based on their encounter with your website. Invite them to sign up for your e-newsletter (if they haven’t already), and when they do, track which links they click on and target mailings to their interests and habits. You can even segment people who found you through search engine marketing in a separate mailing list from your general list and think about ways to connect your online and offline customers. (See “5 Key Ways to Build Customer Relationships” for other engaging ideas.)

Paid search advertising combined with e-mail marketing is an opportunity to say something meaningful about your business to potential customers. Picture yourself at a networking event meeting the perfect prospect. You wouldn’t shake hands and walk away. You would want to spend some quality time getting to know them and understanding how you might do business together. Think of your pay-per-click prospects that same way. Make sure that first virtual handshake is only the beginning of a long, valuable relationship, and that your website is never just a one-hit wonder.

Gail F. Goodman is the “E-Mail Marketing” coachat Entrepreneur.com and is CEO of Constant Contact, a web-based e-mail marketing service for small businesses. She’s also a recognized small-business expert and speaker.

Top 5 Traits of Successful E-Mail Marketers

What’s the difference between a good e-mail marketer and a great e-mail marketer? These 5 traits.
By Gail Goodman

 

E-mail marketing is an easy and cost-effective way for anyone to reach their target audience. We’ve seen it work for all kinds of small businesses, franchises and other entrepreneurs as well as organizations, nonprofits and associations. As we’ve watched e-mail marketing help thousands of businesses grow, we’ve discovered some common traits that differentiate good e-mail marketers from great e-mail marketers.

Successful e-mail marketers:

1. Know Their Audience. As you move from being a good e-mail marketer to a great one, you learn things about your audience along the way. It’s a mix of targeting, segmentation and relevant content. Say a sporting-goods store e-mails a promotion on kayaks, canoes and accessories to its entire list. Hikers and cyclists might not care and won’t open the e-mail. “Batch, blast and run” is not a desirable approach. But if the same sporting-goods store segments its general list into boaters, hikers and cyclists–now they’ve got the basis for three targeted mailings based on customers’ interests.

Segmenting can divide groups by other characteristics, too. Are you a prospective customer, a casual buyer or a VIP club member? Profiling can occur on different levels as you get to know your customers’ needs, interests and how they interact with your business.

Quality wins out over quantity. To put it another way: List size doesn’t matter. It’s about targeting meaningful content to smaller audiences.

2. Give Subscribers Valuable Content. Successful e-mail marketers provide a mix of informational and promotional content that shows their expertise and offers useful or entertaining advice or insights. Treat customers special. Don’t always ask for the order; give something back. A savvy wine merchant doesn’t just advertise specials, but offers a short article on why this year’s French Beaujolais are so fabulous. Useful, little hints and tips are appreciated, making it likely that you are the go-to business when the customer is ready to buy. Coupons, sales alerts and advance peeks at new merchandise are all valuable. Just be sure to mix in some interesting contentthat’ll separate your e-mails from the other promotions bombarding customers’ in-boxes. Become a trusted advisor and your e-mails will always be welcomed.

3. Have a Goal for Each Campaign. Know why you’re sending an e-mail and what you want to happen. A clear “call to action” produces the best results. As I mentioned above, it’s not always about making a sale. I know an HR consultant who sends a monthly tip just to stay connected to customers. The whole reason for sending the e-mail is relationship building.

Make sure your call to action is placed “above the fold” and doesn’t get lost amid other links, copy and graphics. It may be a click to buy something, sign up for a service, fill out a form, read an article or get more information, visit your website or store, or call for a consultation. Yes, sometimes you’ll judge your success based on open rates, click-throughs and sales. But often it’s how much the phone rings after you’ve sent your campaign. Your goal is to make sales and engage your audience, cultivating relationships while respecting customers’ time and privacy.

4. Adhere to the Basics of Best Practice. Permission is more than polite; it’s the mantra of all legitimate e-mail marketers. It’s a commandment. And it’s the law. Get permissionbefore putting any name you’ve collected on your e-mail list. Make sure your “From” line includes your business name, and your “Subject” line is specific and free of screaming CAPS and exclamation points. Let them know who it’s coming from and why they should open the e-mail. We’re living in a world of information overload, where only thoughtful, welcomed e-mails have a chance of breaking through the static. For more on best practice, see ” Creating Spam-Free E-Mail.”

5. Pay Attention to Their Reports. E-mail marketing offers wonderful, real-time intelligence on the people reading your e-mails. Take the time to review your tracking and subscriber reports and see what’s working and what’s not. Experiment with segmented lists and subject lines. Write new content. Solicit reader feedback. Respect unsubscribes. Read up on industry trends and set goals for your own improvement.

Great e-mail marketers make e-mail marketing part of their ongoing business plans. They strive to learn more about their customers and e-mail marketing best practices. They pay attention to their reports and try new things to improve their campaigns. They avoid common mistakes. If these top five traits seem like a lot to accomplish, set a goal to work on one a month for the next five months. Before you know it, you’ll go from good to great, and your customers and clients will thank you.