Category Archives: Marketing

Successful Html Email Marketing Campaigns And Lotus Notes Issues

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As the online world changed in the nineties from informational to commercial and highly competitive, marketers embraced the new technology and the need has arisen to send graphically appealing newsletters and marketing messages. You have only seconds to capture attention, and the right picture will grab quicker than the right copy, as they say, “a picture can be worth a thousand words”. Just ask your clients if they would use plain white paper, rather than letterhead, to send an offline message to prospects and customers.

Today, the vast majority of all email clients can render (that is, display) HTML emails fairly well. Notable exceptions are older versions of Lotus Notes and pre AOL pre version 6.0. So whereas a few years ago the answer to the question was rather complex, today it really comes down to message purpose, subscriber preference and multipart messaging. Studies show that roughly 95 percent of commercial messages sent today are sent as Multi-Part MIME.

Multi-part MIME is an older protocol that allows you to send both text and HTML versions of an e-mail in a single package, kind of like a sandwich. The recipient’s e-mail program then displays the HTML version, if it is capable of reading that, or the text version, if it is not.

MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions and is an internet standard for the format of e-mail. Virtually all human written Internet e-mail and a fairly large proportion of automated e-mail is transmitted via SMTP MIME format. SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and if nothing else, you’ll learn a few more acronyms if you stick around. Internet e-mail is so closely associated with the SMTP and MIME standards that it is sometimes called SMTP/MIME e-mail.

Folks, while nobody can really agree on numbers and stats, we all agree on this: HTML Email Doesn’t Work Properly for Millions of Recipients.

HTML email breaks in a wide variety of email inboxes. This isn’t due to your creative abilities or lack of HTML knowledge – it’s due to the fact that the email client your recipient views your email in routinely breaks your message.

I feel like this is worth defining, as I know a lot of people get very scared when we talk about clients and servers, but will not admit it. An email client (some “big picture” folks also call it Mail User Agent) is nothing but a computer program that is used to read and send e-mail, such as Outlook, Lotus Notes, Thunderbird, etc. A mail server (also called a Mail Transfer Agent or MTA, or a mail exchange server) is a computer program that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another. Most of the time, since nobody has time to learn all the acronyms and terminology coined by those “big picture” people, we are used to know a mail server as the entire contraption (wires and all) that runs the program.

Depending on the email system, your HTML images may be blocked so recipients see a blank white box and/or your live hotlinks may not work properly. AOL 9.0, Outlook 2003, and Gmail are most infamous for blocking and/or breaking HTML, “for security reasons”.

Another big offender for not letting HTML through is Mel, the guy that works in the corporate IT department. Many corporations have IT departments who can’t wait for the day when all attachments and all HTML emails are eradicated. That is because in their world, anything that is not pure text is spam, virii, worms, trojans, spyware, adware, pure evil(ware) that makes mailboxes grow and users growl. As a consequence, most of those cubicle inhabitants – the end users – who have to sign a hundred page policy before they start getting busy on those corporate e-memos, are unable to view and/or send HTML messages, whether the feature is turned off at a server level, or on their computers.

Everything else aside, there is no bigger offender here on Earth than Lotus Notes. Lotus Notes is notorious for its refusal to handle Multi-Part MIME the same way the rest of the civilized world does.

For your amusement, here is a definition of Lotus Notes that was created by one of those “big picture” executives: “Lotus Notes is a commercial workflow and groupware software package that also provides application developers an environment for quickly creating cross- platform client/server applications”. Still with me? Don’t be scared. For the purposes of this article, Lotus Notes is an email client. Ok?

If you work for a company that uses Lotus Notes as the email system, don’t even think about sending newsletters other than in text form from it. Besides the fact that as a general rule, I always recommend to marketers the use of a professional permission based email marketing service, in the Lotus Notes case you just have to.

If you communicate to the B2B market, particularly large professional services firms, large lawfirms, many Global 2000 companies, HTML email compatibility will be a thorn in your side, as a lot of these companies use Lotus Notes.

The issues include:

– Older versions of Lotus Notes (under R5) convert HTML emails to a Lotus Notes Rich Text format. Lotus Notes versions under R5 also do not recognize Multi-Part MIME messages (HTML and text combined in a single email).

– Some companies may be deploying later versions of the Lotus Notes client, i.e., R6, but using an older version of Lotus Notes/Domino server such as 4.6. In this example, the recipient’s email client would also render an HTML message incorrectly.

So for a recipient to view a properly rendered HTML email, a company must use both the Lotus Notes client and server of R5 and above.

Here are some quick tips you can take if you have a significant Lotus Notes subscriber base:

1. Include a link at the top of HTML emails named “View Web Version” or something similar. The link sends recipients to a web hosted HTML version of the email (either on the email technology provider’s server or the sender’s server).

2. Also include an “Update Preferences” link and provide a web site update form that then enables recipients to choose to receive Text rather than HTML.

3. Create complete Text versions for those who prefer not to receive HTML or cannot view HTML.

4. On opt-in forms, include an option to receive a Text version and potentially list tips (i.e., “If you are using Lotus Notes versions below R5, select Text”).

In conclusion, I will say it again: Folks, don’t try this at home. Instead, always outsource email marketing to one of the many professional services. Advantages are: No blacklists and established relations with the major ISPs, ensuring maximum deliverability (plus, you don’t want to be called a spammer and banned from everywhere). They also make it easy to create, send, and track permission-based email, have advanced reporting, message scheduling, the ability to create unlimited lists, bounce back handling (extremely important), subscription management, newsletter templates and many other major industry-standard features. The service I use for my company can be tried free for 15 days, here: https://www.bsleek.com/emailmarketing/

Things To Remember When Using Affiliate Marketing Basics Beginner’s Guide

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Never before has making money online been so simple. If youre staring at a computer monitor all day and wishing for the end, you need to start looking into the many options that are available for people to earn a real income online. If youre not sure where to start or youre flooded with options, then you are a prime candidate for an affiliate marketing basics beginner’s guide course. With proper training, you can not only learn from the mistakes that others have made, you can move forward and not lose money on books, and other media that promise big money and deliver nothing more than basic information. Remember the following 3 things:

Emulation is Key If you dont emulate your trainer when working through an affiliate marketing basics beginner’s guide course, youll be missing the point. Emulation is not a carbon copy, as youre not going to be working on the same niche that your coach will be. If you have someone working with you one on one or teaching you through a tutorial, you need to use the information available and apply it to a niche that is all your own.

Love of Niche The #1 tip that anyone can give you in regards to affiliate marketing basics beginner’s guide is to love what you are going to get into. If youre working on recommending products, doing promotional writing, or anything relating to making a living online, you have to enjoy the topic you choose. If you chase money and arent into the product your promoting, youll give up before you make a dime. Pick something you love, not something that yields the most money, because you can sell a lot of things you love but selling things you dont really care for will show through your marketing attempts.

Do Not Give Up Affiliate marketing basics beginner’s guide, like all other professional training is not going to be easy. You are going to be learning how to navigate the internet seas to make legitimate money. If you think its too hard, or you dont necessarily make six figures on day one, dont throw in the towel. Take the information youre given and master it, then move towards setting up your promotional campaigns accordingly.

Affiliate marketing basics beginner’s guide is available in a variety of ways, and you can learn how to earn a living without having to invest thousands of dollars into a physical location. Its interesting to note that to start a business in the real world, you need to have no less than $50,000. Some people have to get a small business loan to start up with a lot of inventory and more. You could go the traditional route if youd like, or you can learn how to make money online and save time and money. The online option costs nothing to set up, and can generate serious money within a short amount of time. Much like anything else in life, you have to at least try; if you dont ever try you wont see any major strides forward. Take the above tips and run with them, because making money online is possible.

Home Staging Marketing Strategies to Sell Properties

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Is Your Marketing Hot?

The number one question that I always get from all of my clients, whether they are Certified Home Stagers, Home Stagers in Training, Real Estate Agents or Investors, Small Business Owners, Speakers, Entrepreneurs – you name it, this is their question: How do I market my business?

Many have some idea how to market their business, but they don’t know how to effectively market, in order to get the results they desire, which is the key. Usually, they delegate their marketing to an advertising channel such as the yellow pages, some random online marketing or a flyer or two that has been passed out at a meeting in the hopes that everyone that takes one will call you back keep hoping!

I love the coffee cup above as an extra hot marketing tool. Not only is the Bakery advertising with each cup of coffee, but they are in turn selling advertising to other clients on the mug. Super Smart! And of course the mug makes sense to their customer since they serve all sorts of coffee drinks at the Bakery.

Could they have done better with an extraordinary offer and a guarantee? Of course! The problem was lack of space, so they worked with what they had.

The real question though, is what does it take to make your marketing hot?

1) It must speak to your customer- Just like the coffee speaks to the customers buying a croissant, yours must do the same. Ask yourself who your customer is and what appeals directly to them. Is it a real estate agent, an investor, a home seller who is your customer and what speaks to them? Then, make sure your message sizzles!

2) Scare them or speak to their greed- Yes, that is the truth. The best way to capture your customer’s attention is by scaring the pants off of them or appealing to the sense of greed. So, if you are marketing your Home Staging Services, then you would send them a message like; Are you ready to sit on that listing for another 6 months? Or, Would you like to make an extra $5,000 this month?

3) Make in Incredible Offer- You can do this in a variety of ways. It can be accomplished with a 100% money back guarantee, the offer of a FREE flatscreen TV, 50% off, Buy One Get One Free, or even thru a great prize that your customer wins by participating in your contest. The idea is to give them something so juicy that they feel compelled to give you a shot.

4) Market Consistently- One of the most attractive things to potential clients is that they see your marketing consistently. Now they know you are not a, fly by night, home stager, running your business as a hobby instead of as a real company, and that you are smart enough to know how to market. That in and of itself is often appealing enough to some future clients.

5) Surprise them with your Marketing- The coffee cup was a surprise, so it was fun. When we stage homes and hide a pocket of emotion in the drawer and the buyer opens the drawer, that is fun (and it is house marketing). Having a message like the 25 reasons a rubber duck can sell your home is a fun surprise because they don,t expect it. If you really want to have ..hot..marketing, surprise them with the unexpected.

I think the last thing I would say about marketing is to simply look and see what your competition is doing and do the opposite. They are the ones inclined to post an ad and then not get any calls so they quickly determine the ad does not work. Hmmm, maybe they did not place an ad in a location that their customers see, or the ad just was not compelling.

The best example I can give for this is when I started my own Home Staging company, I looked around at all the other Home Stager Certification Program out there talking about making houses pretty and it dawned on me that there marketing was all about them instead of the results they could achieve for their potential clients. That is when I came out with our tag line of “Anybody can make your house pretty, we make it SELL.” Obviously, that did the trick.

So, let’s get you a great list of customers beating down your door so you can show them how extraordinary you really are, while introducing them to your hot marketing.

Sincerely,
Karen Schaefer – Home Staging Training and Certification APSD
Karen Schaefer

Making Use Of An Effective Network Marketing System For Great Mlm Results

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Without an efficient MLM system in place, one of the biggest frustrations for basically 97% of all network marketers is waking up each day with no one to talk to about their Mlm opportunity.

If this appears to be familiar to you, then you should consider working with a network marketing system that will help you comprehend marketing and sales. Understand that most individuals come into Multilevel marketing without any genuine understanding of what it takes when it comes to building your network marketing business.

Once you and other associates on your team have reached the end of your warm market, until you study the marketing and advertising side of Network marketing, the end may be near for you. Rather than let this to happen, consider working with a network marketing system that supplies you the training, schooling, and tools required to build it large.

Your system ought to be an education based platform in not only how to generate your Mlm prospects on the World wide web, but also how to develop beyond your warm market offline. Even though youll want to leverage the power of the World wide web, you still want to get very good at offline techniques.

Why would you want to nevertheless focus on offline strategies? Even if you concentrate all your consideration on the World-wide-web way, you’ll most likely recruit folks who like to hook up offline. You’ll want to have this knowledge to pass to them, as well as within your multi-level marketing system. In addition, following up with your on the web prospects demands offline telephone expertise and your system must consist of top notch coaching in this area to be powerful.

When it comes to on the web lead generation training, your Mlm system needs to train you exactly how to correctly use procedures such as article marketing, video marketing and advertising, social media, forum marketing and advertising, etc so that you can drive targeted traffic to your site.

Your system ought to present you all the tools and coaching on how to use effective internet site capture pages that convert website visitors to leads. You can learn all the traffic producing tactics in the industry, but if your capture pages don’t transform into leads, then you’re losing your time.

One of the very best methods to convert site visitors to prospective recruits is to supply them actual, stable, totally free education on how they, too, can realize success in their business. Since you in all probability don’t have the know-how or want-to in establishing awesome cost-free instruction and followup to your potential partners, you will need to use a multi-level marketing system that provides you this form of info to give away on your site.

The choice is now in your hands. Decide to locate an effective network marketing system that catapults you to real multilevel marketing accomplishment and then use it effectively. Once you’ve mastered on the net Multi level marketing lead generation, youll have dozens of daily leads coming in.

Information On Msn Search Marketing

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MSN search marketing needs you to carry out SEO strategies rightly considering the rules notes through them.

One of the very time consuming task can be to target multiple search engines however this can be beneficial for you as far as searching visitors and customers are concerned. If said in simple manner Google and other search engines such as MSN can increase your web traffic.

MSN search marketing is highly followed through online business owners as it can allow you to attract lot of good traffic and this will help in gaining good business.MSN is one of the very good sources to get targeted search engine market. However for this it is essential for you to hire professional service providers.

At the time of searching for the correct service provider for MSN search marketing there are some of the aspects that you need to consider such as keyword, content, link building strategy and other such factors. You will not have to follow the same strategies like that of the Google marketing. The main reason behind this is that rules followed through different search engines are different. You need to search for the service provider that can assist you with the target visitors through MSN search marketing successfully.

In case you are focusing on MSN search engine it is essential for you to take care of website content. This might not be the decisive factor however it is very significant in order to gain good ranking for your site. MSN will require right content without copy issue and hence you need to make sure that the service provider you search for updates you with content on regular basis.

When you have good content it will be simple for you to gain good ranking and this will improve your website optimization. Good content is always appreciated when it comes to MSN and so it is essential for you to work on it accordingly.

You need to develop website structure with specific them at the time you want it to get noticed through visitors. In case you have website that it is significant for you then you need to concentrate on gaining more traffic and this is possible if you take care of various factors such as content, website structure, seo strategy and other such things.

Significant parts of search engines are pay per click advertisement, searching targeted keywords and other such strategies. These are some of the strategies that will help in making your website visible over various search engines.