VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business

Day 2 - Governor's Conference on Small Business & Entrepreneurship

Yesterday morning I was lucky enough to participate on a panel with David Fischer, VP of Online Sales, Google, moderated by a fantastic young speaker Arel Moodie. Arel is also a great motivational speaker on the college circuit, getting college students excited about the possibility of being an entrepreneur.

The questions we got from the crowd were really prevalent to small  business. We talked about how small businesses can use online tools to help them be a more global business. Questions came about like: "Why should I blog, what will I get out of it?" and "Tell us what we need to do to get noticed by the Google search engine" and more. I'll post the video when it's available.

Lunch was served and I sat with some really great small business owners including, to my surprise, Mark from PetCamp. You may have remembered my blog about his great business and all of the marketing he's doing.

Facebook & WIRED Magazine

revenue will come from in the future. More and more small businesses are looking to other vehicles like Facebook and Twitter to drive more customers. He also spoke about the risk you take from doing something with Facebook is worth it, however I disagree, I don't think it's risky at all, in fact I think it's easy. He did say that because of the transparency that Facebook offers, now small businesses need to be authentic, build a better product, and be real. I couldn't agree more.

Louis Rossetto then spoke. He started WIRED Magazine (and now has the chocolate company Tcho). He showed us his rocket ride to stardom, which was pretty powerful as WIRED has been a real cornerstone of the tech movement for the past 10 years. He touched on the complexity of the new network since he started the publication 5000 days ago. He also talked about how millennials are the largest demographic in the US and it's really their destiny to make the web even more than it is today. He previewed this fantastic Coke video to show the power the millennials have with this new network. It's a great example of millennials in fast action.

Marty Keller, Director, Office of Small Business Advocate, brought the house down with his moving speech about how small businesses should be awakened and get stronger with the power of all of the new collaboration tools to enable us as a group to rise up and take advantage now. Believe it or not, the crowd was teary eyed.

VOTE

Then it was time for the recommendation of issues from the previous day and a vote from all of the attendees.

Using remote voters, we all voted on the issues to put forth to the governor enabling small businesses to have their voice in CA. The lobbying got crazy! 

The day ended with the top 11 issues small businesses are facing today. Here are just the top 3 to give you an idea of the types of issues that are important.

1. Restore investment in programs the support small business.

2. California Air Resources Board needs to assess costs for AB 32 (the Global Warming Solutions Act) while assessing how it effects small business.

3. Small business need to be a larger part of the regulatory process.

The day ended with a wonderful bevy of speeches from small businesses on how this conference could and can change our lives. There was talk about doing this every year and growing it beyond belief because the business power in our nation is in the hands of the small businesses.

I met a ton of great people that I'm sure I'll keep in touch with.

Marty, let's do it again next year, I pledge to bring 20 people!

How Using Twitter Can Grow Your List

If you didn't know, VerticalResponse is on Twitter! Follow us, we're VR4SmallBiz. We're having a blast with it, watching more people follow us every day. Why should you start to "tweet"?

1. You want to be where your customers are and you can bet many of them are on Twitter. You can tweet about what's going on at your company, include links to some great articles you run across, and give your followers up to the minute information about your company and product. Remember, keep it short and sweet.

2. You can grow your list! Think of it as a boost for your email marketing program. When you create your newsletter or email blast using VerticalResponse, make sure you use the feature that enables you to host your email on a web page. Then you can use Twitter to let everyone know you've published your email and make sure you include the hosted version's URL.

Computerworld published this great article with tons of Twitter tips. It's easy, now follow us and tweet!

 

Assessing Your Marketing Budget in This Economy

Last week I talked about how to reduce costs across the board, today I'll talk about how to continue to grow while cutting back a bit on marketing. You never want to completely cut back on all of your communications but you can take steps to reduce them a bit.

Print ads - First of all make sure your print ads are working for you. Ask your customers how they heard or read about you in the first place. One simple thing you can do is to reduce your ad sizes if the publication will let you.

Google Adwords - Don't cut Adwords spending altogether, but assess what's working for you. If you sell locally make sure you're not spending to show ads in other areas of the country, spend locally only. Google let's you do that. If you have campaigns that just have not pulled you might want to pause them for a few months.

Email Marketing - You don't have to cut here at all and it's not just because you might be a customer of ours. Now, VerticalResponse let's you send unlimited email for a low fixed monthly fee in addition to our flexible pay-as-you-go option. This enables you to increase your email sends and keep growing your business.

Tradeshows - Instead of cutting tradeshows out of your budget altogether, you might be able to reduce your presence. Why not share a booth with another complementary business? Do you really need 3 people to go or can you do it with 2? Maybe you can have a smaller table or booth? Make sure you don't skimp on printing business cards, but use the back of your card for a promotion instead of printing on a larger datasheet. There are simple ways to reduce, while still promoting your business.

Start a Refer-a-Friend Program - Ask you customers to refer their friends and you'll give them a discount or free gift every time their friends purchase. This only costs you your discount or gift and it's a fantastic way to spread word of mouth.

Just a few quick ideas for you to save some $ or get new customers.

We Want You Back! Winning Back Customers That Have Left You

I got an interesting piece of direct mail the other day from a company we used to do business with. It was in a rather large box that had "Perishable" printed on it. Was I curious? You bet. I dug in. It was from a company we used to outsource our HR, payroll and benefits. So granted it was a very expensive idea but we did pay a lot to this company.

At first blush I said "Wow, didn't they look at their list of companies that left them?" Because we left them a few years ago so I was sort of surprised to even get a mailing from them let alone this big box.

I was shocked at the answer: they actually did look at the companies that left them. It was a "We want you back" campaign and under the top of the box was a "We want you back" CD, a "We want you back" offer note and a letter saying that they'd pretty much do anything to get us back.

When I lifted the hood of this box I saw a "We want you back" coffee mug with a pound of really good coffee. If we weren't so entrenched with our own in-house systems, I may have even given them a call. They definitely got my attention.

Great targeted mailing. It made me think of the customers that we have lost over the course of many years (I'm sad) and what we could do to get them back or raise their eyebrows. It also could be as simple as a great offer in an email marketing campaign.

Do you have any customers you'd like to get back? Do you have any experience with customer win-back campaigns? Love to hear from you!

Get Holiday Ready - 6 Quick Things You Can Do Now

The holidays are going to be here before we know it so what better time to start planning for them than the present. It may seem early, but we're hearing a lot of our customers starting to get ready now. So here are six things you should be doing in October to get the holidays started for your business.

Plan Now - Plan your email campaign dates NOW using a calendar. Take an hour over the weekend or weeknight and plan out what you'll want to start offering and put that stake in the ground now! You can always change it later based on what you learn but it's a great starting point to keep you on the right track.

Spend a Little - Beef up your Google Adwords spend, yes even in this economy. You'll still need to capitalize on any new customers you can get so what better way than one that you can cap daily spending limits on. If you need help with swimming your way through Google's waters, tap into our partner MerchEngines who will guarantee traffic flowing for you through the crazy holiday season.

Create Now - Check out our Holiday Pre-designed layouts for your email campaigns in our Email Canvas tool. They're ready for you to input your own copy and images and away you go. It's a real time saver. While you're at it, create a bunch of campaigns by using our "Copy" campaign functionality in the Actions menu. If you don't use our layouts talk to your web designer or get yourself going now. Time can be of the essence and no one wants to wait until the last minute.

Confirm Confirmations - Take a glance at any confirmation emails you send to people who have purchased from you and make sure they're up to date. Make sure links still work and information is correct.

Staff Up - Will you be ready for the flux inbound emails and calls that you'll generate from your site or your email campaigns? If you ship a product do you have the bodies you'll need to pack and ship?  Here's an idea; there are a lot of college kids home on break that need some cash so you might want to start asking around now or advertising it in your email marketing campaigns and on your website.

Get Shipping Ready - You'll obviously need to know when the last date you can take orders for guaranteed holiday shipping will be so make sure you include this all over your website and emails.

If you do this now, you'll be in great shape for the holiday season so start planning now!

Drumming Up Biz at the DNC

The topic? Should you give away your product free and hope someone buys more or should you offer a "Buy One Get One Free" promotion?

Last night we visited a local establishment and a bunch of people were coming in with free drink tickets that were probably included in some package at the convention. I would say half left after they got their free drink and half stayed. Maybe it was worth it for those half that stayed and bought more to cover those that had left.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Do share!

We're off to Invesco Field for the last day of the convention.

Live from the Democratic National Convention

We got into Denver on Monday for the Democratic National Convention. Now for those of you who are going to “booooo” me for blogging about the convention, if I got an invite to the GOP Convention, I’d be there too, so no nasty comments please.

Denver is insane right now. 15,000 media people and 4,000 delegates. What’s even better are the businesses capitalizing on marketing opportunities. There is not a square inch in this town left for marketing & advertising. I’m proudly wearing my VR schwag and giving away VR buttons for people to wear.

We made our way downtown; but not before me getting my mug shot with the lovely Charles Barkley in our own hotel. Then we ate at a great restaurant where the famed Video Professor John Scherer sat in front of us mildly annoyed by all the DNC fuss in his hometown. It’s almost over John.

So what are businesses doing here to capitalize on the fuss?

• Restaurants are playing it up big time with DNC specials and parties. One great place Lime, not only extended their hours, but had a “DNC week at Lime” special. Buy one entrée get the second half off. They said they’re going crazy with new clients.
• The author of a children’s book at a bookstore on Larimer St. was signing books outside. Tons of foot traffic happens on Larimer St. so that was a great idea.
• Hotels turned their room keys into DNC sponsored keys.
• YouTube is here with a booth asking people to give a one liner sentence on why you like the candidate. Great for viral, they’ll be posting them all as they’re shot.

The media? They’re EVERYWHERE. Makes me feel kind of funny walking around with my little Flip Camera, but I love it.  Oh and I got my one second of fame on CNN during Hillary’s speech.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some more ideas I’m uncovering for business.

Last Minute Back To School Ideas

I can't believe summer is almost gone. How do I know? The BTS promotions are filling up newspapers and inboxes. Do you have your email marketing promotions in motion to capitalize on this short time frame? Seems like the big boys are focusing on free products and discounts in these tough economic times.

• Toys R Us is giving away a free lunch kit when you buy a backpack.
• Office Depot is giving away a free item for school each week with a purchase. This week in my zip code it's Sharpies, smart since Sharpie is putting a ton of ad dollars into TV lately.
• Dell is doing a fun spin on back to school: Upgrade Your Parents.
• Target has Dorm Deals targeting the college kids. They also allow you to "Create a List" where they ask you for your email address. Nice list building idea.

Almost any business can have a back to school promotion, check out what some VR customers are doing:

Spa/Salon - Frantic about the money you're spending getting the kids ready for school? Come in for some relaxation and get a 15% discount on any of our services.

Winery - Back to School Sale for adults. Check out this clever idea.

Hotels - Offer a discount for the whole family for one last hurrah before the school year begins. Alternatively offer a "The Kids are off to college weekend discount."

Restaurants - Offer "Parents, Give Your Kids a Break" gift certificates for eateries near their school.

Are you doing any back to school marketing? Share your ideas!

Summer Olympics Are Coming! Do You Have an Olympic Promotion?

The Beijing Summer Olympics are right around the corner and here at VerticalResponse we can't wait. Almost any business can have a summer Olympic promotion. We've come up with a few fun ideas to get you thinking.

Retail

• For every medal your country wins, offer a 5% discount (cap it at a certain level).
• How about getting behind your favorite athlete? Go Michael Phelps! If he breaks a record we break prices!

Restaurants & Bars

• If you're showing the Olympics on your TVs, make sure to send an email to your customers getting them to come back in.
• Why not have a special when your country wins?
• Offer appetizers on the house if a record is broken.
• Offer up a special Olympic concoction.
• Pasta on the menu? Have an Olympic Pasta night while the games are playing.

Salons/Spas

• Wax Your Legs Like An Olympic Cyclist! 50% Olympics Discount on Waxing This Month Only! (That's a fun one!)

B2B

• Countdown to Beijing - Discount or Bundle of the week all the way up to the Olympics.

What kind of Olympic-themed promotion can you think of for your business?

Janine Interviewed on Duct Tape Marketing Podcast

John Jantsch is the hero of Duct Tape Marketing, a hot company that gives great marketing ideas to small businesses. He asked me to talk a bit about the new rules of CAN SPAM which we never really got to, because we were having too much fun! Check out the podcast and check out his site.