MacDonald on Marketing

You spend a lot of time and money to get visitors to your website, and then the majority of them will leave again without contacting you or making a purchase, never to return.  Turn some of those “not today” visitors into future customers by persuading them to join your email list.

Here are the five steps to building a healthy opt-in email marketing list for your small business:

1. Use a third-party email marketing service provider.  I prefer Aweber.com — other providers include ConstantContact.com and GetResponse.com.  Why should you pay for a third-party service?  Your website host or ISP is not really geared to handle your email newsletter needs; if you don’t use a third-party provider, you’ll find that many or even most of your subscribers do not receive your emails.  Packages start at $20 a month and it is well worth the investment.
2. Put an email collection box (the little form your visitors fill out with their name and email address) on the front page of your site, and ideally on every page.  Make it easy for your visitors to sign up to your list.
3. Make an irresistable offer to induce your visitors to subscribe.  Offer free information, a discount coupon, insider deals:  anything that will appeal to your audience.
4. Tell your visitors exactly what they are going to send them in their email.  A weekly newsletter?  Special discounts?  Recipes?  And then stick to your promise.  Give them what you promised them, and not a bunch of other stuff.
5. Send marketing emails on Wednesday.  Statistics show that emails sent between Tuesday and Thursday stand the best chance of actually being opened.

Need help getting your email list and website collection boxes set up?  Contact me at catherine@macdonaldonmarketing.com

On Saturdays I’ll be sharing great posts from other bloggers — fresh perspectives on online marketing for small businesses.  Today’s post is about the value of a custom 404 page for your site, with a tutorial that shows you exactly how to create your 404 page.

What’s a 404 page?  It’s the file not found page that comes up when you click on a broken link.  Ideally, your website will not contain any broken links, but hedge your bets and create your own 404 page to help your site visitors get back on track.  ConversationMarketing.com writes “How To:  Create a Great 404 Page Not Found Error Page”.

Photo credit: raster

This is the first post of a weekly feature, Five Minute Fridays, in which I’ll suggest something to boost online marketing for your small business in just five minutes. This week we’re talking about your email signature.

Do you have an email signature? An email signature is the block of information that your email program can automatically insert at the bottom of every email you send. Just think of how many times emails are forwarded and you’ll realize that this is a free marketing opportunity you should not miss.

A good email signature should contain the following five lines:

1. Your full name.

2. Your website URL (make sure this starts with http:// so that it will be clickable in every email program.

3. A brief description of what you sell or offer.

4. Your telephone numbers (this is optional of course — depending upon whether you want to encourage telephone leads).

5. Your email address (make it clickable by prefacing your email address with mailto:).

Here’s an example:

——————————————————————-
Catherine MacDonald
http://www.MacDonaldOnMarketing.com
Internet Marketing for Small Business: Tutorials, Tips, Fresh Ideas
Office: 555.555.5555 Cell: 555.555.5555
mailto:catherine@macdonaldonmarketing.com.
——————————————————————-

There you have it, a five-minute way to increase your online visibility.

Have you seen a particularly creative or effective email signature? Please comment!