Email marketing experts suggest that the "from" line of your emails be something that your recipients will recognize: If readers know you personally, it should be your name; if they don't, make it your organization's name. That's not ground-breaking advice. But take it one step further and check out how your email might look in [...]
You have contingency plans in place for when things go wrong, but what will you do when things go right – or better than right? What will you do when your performance exceeds your expectations? Companies that experience rapid and unexpected growth often stumble. Here’s how to be sure that doesn’t happen to you: [...]
Business is about relationships, and relationships begin with introductions. The good news is that the old social rules about gender and age don't apply to effective introductions in today's online and offline business world. These days, it's all based on precedence. In other words, rank rates. When you perform an introduction, the "less important" [...]
Earlier this week, I attended Spark and Hustle, a conference targeted to women business owners created by Tory Johnson. The speakers were high-energy with great stories and valuable information and ideas. The attendees were primarily women entrepreneurs who were there to get ideas and strategies for their businesses. Tory is on a 20-city tour, so [...]
Email is quick, casual and convenient–and a potential minefield. An email gaffe can be amusing, embarrassing or even career-ending. Use these guidelines for proper email etiquette to make sure your electronic messages don’t come back to haunt you: Remember that readers cannot hear your tone of voice or see your facial expressions and gestures. [...]
To create an effective marketing campaign that will drive growth in your company, you have to know your customer -- and that sounds a lot easier than it is. There are two angles to the issue of knowing your customer. 1. Have a clear picture of your prospective customers. 2. Have a clear picture of [...]
You can’t make it through a day—or even a few hours—without hearing something about social media. A social media policy for your employees is essential. A social media strategy for your company is equally—if not more—important. Do you have one? Keep these issues in mind when developing your social media strategy: • Begin with [...]
If you use the "social media shares" feature of Constant Contact, here's a tip: Edit the announcement that will go out on your social media channels. The basic default message promotes Constant Contact (example: with a hash tag for Twitter and "check out my latest Constant Contact campaign" for Facebook). You can edit that language [...]
A while back I posted a blog about "camel mail," which is a direct mail technique of making your piece lumpy so recipients are curious enough to open it and find out what's in it. Recently I received a piece that took a slightly different spin on that concept: The "envelope" was a brown paper [...]
Sales professionals know that a gatekeeper is anyone they must go through to get to the decision-maker -- and it can be a challenge to get past the gatekeeper. Gatekeepers are typically receptionists, secretaries and assistants, but they could also be first-line managers, other decision-influencers, outside consultants or even your competitors. Many sales reps view [...]
