Email Marketing - Marketing not Spamming

Email Marketing has become a hot topic recently with a lot of clients. The benefits of email marketing are the cost effectiveness and ease with which you can run it. Yes of course it does require work. Many business owners dread the thought of writting a newsletter or email campaign once a month. But when its done right, and you compare the results in my opinion it is well worth the time and effort. If you are considering email marketing these are some things you must consider.

1. The quality of the list - It is much better to build your own organic list then to purchase a list. If you build a high quality list of your customers and high level prospects, you will get a higher opening and conversion rate.

2. The message - You have to find a way to have a meaningful message to send to your list. You can't just say "hey everybody we're still in business" you have to find creative ways to ensure your email gets read. The two best messages are either informational (and information your customer wants to read) or special offers (new product launches, discounts, coupons). Your message will depend on the industry that you're in and the type of audience you have.

3. The Frequency - The frequency that you send your message can also be critical. Too often and you will bug customers into unsubscribing, and not often enough and you risk losing your customer to your competitor and when they finally get your message they have forgotten who you are. The key is to be frequent without being seen as a nuasance. We know of clients who are sending weekly or even daily emails. The frequency will depend on your audience and your message.

4. Tracking and Testing - If you are running an email marketing campaign and you are not tracking and testing your results you are missing out. With today's technology you can track open rates and click through rates and even conversions to sales. If you are not testing and tracking your campaign then you are leaving sales on the table. Things that you should be testing: Headline, offering, images, links to your website, and content. All of these things can have a significant impact on your sales with even a small percentage increase.

Indexing and Ranking

After launching my first blog Max Kalles to test how fast it would get indexed and then begin to rank, I'm happy to announce that Yahoo has finally indexed the site and I'm now ranked first for the keyword phrase coolest red headed canadian. Yahoo was the first search engine to index this blog, followed by MSN, all the web, and Alta Vista. Google still hasn't indexed the site which may be because of their sandbox feature.

When launching new websites from our experience it is much quicker to get indexed in Yahoo and MSN and start to rank on their first pages before Google. The main reason is the Google sandbox, and this is important for people to take into consideration when a new site is created. You can't expect to rank number one overnight and have to plan your marketing accordingly. One of the ways to guarantee that you rank in Google right from the beginning is to take advantage of Google adwords in the sponsored links section of the search engine. Google adwords is a great way to drive traffic to your website. If you are interested in learning more about Adwords and how it can benefit your business you can attend one of our Internet seminars.

Traffic VS Conversions

The trend on the Internet these days is all about traffic. Everyone wants to know how can I rank high in the search engines? how can I get more traffic. Don't get me wrong traffic is important; however it is the companies that focus on conversions that will get better results. Traffic is finite. There are only so many people searching in the search engines for your product or service. Of course it is beneficial that you are the first to show up in a search but once your there how do you grow your business? The ability to take a finite number of traffic, and increase the number of them that do business with you is far more valuable then increasing traffic. Converting your existing traffic is much less costly then working on growing your traffic. You will also notice faster and better results on your bottomw line. Unfortunately too many businesses are only focused on bringing traffic to their websites and not on converting that traffic to customers. And here's the kicker, the number one reason why conersions is more important then traffic. The websites that have a higher conversion rate will earn more money, and be able to invest more money into getting traffic and will rank higher in the search engines.

Simplify the Internet Briefing Almost Full

WSI's launch of the Executive Briefings has been a huge success, and although we are still two weeks away from the first briefing, there are only a few seats left. If you are frustrated that your website isn't getting the results that you would like it to get, then don't hesitate and sign up before it's too late. www.simplifytheinternet.com If you are unable to make the first briefing, we will be holding these briefings on a monthly basis. You can visit our schedule to find out when the next briefing will be held.

WSI eBusiness Solutions Launches Blog

One of our fellow Internet Consultants at WSI in Jacksonville Florida has also launched a blog. If you are located in Florida, you may want to visit their site. Here is there message:

We have created this blog to provide our clients and other small and medium sized business owners with access to a resource of information about the internet and how it affects their business. Some of the topics that we will be covering include: jacksonville florida web site design, pay per click, ppc, florida web design, and best practices on the internet to ensure that websites become an effective web solution and achieve a return on investment.

WSI Seminar Launch

We are proud to announce the launch of our new seminar series and executive briefings designed to help business owners and marketing managers understand the key concepts about their website to help turn it into a profitable web solution. We believe that through the right education, any business owner can succeed online. The best part is that these executive briefings are currently free of charge. It is one of the best two hours you will ever spend on your business. If you'd like to get more information on these seminars, please visit our new website www.simplifytheinternet.ca. Our first executive briefing will be held on March 29th.

WSI Quick Net Solutions Launches blog

We have created this blog to allow our clients and other small and medium sized business owners to have access to a resource of information about the internet and how it affects their business. Some of the topics that we will be covering include: search engine optimization, web design, search engine marketing, and best practices on the internet to ensure that their website becomes an effective web solution and achieves a return on their investment.