Five Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Online Newsletters

Do you subscribe to any Online Newsletters? As Virtual Assistants and online business owners, we often talk about Email Marketing from our perspective, but often it’s helpful to turn the tables and look at it from a subscriber’s perspective.

In an earlier blog post, “Mastering the Art of Email List Building,” we discussed the new Email Marketing 2.0 system and how it’s about adding value and building relationships, loyalty and trust with a niche group of subscribers rather than direct selling and building a huge generalized list of subscribers.

Infusionsoft CEO and Co-founder, Clate Mask, gives a terrific definition of this innovative marketing system:

This way of approaching Email Marketing has implications for the communications we send out to our email list and certain expectations that can turn people away or attract them to our business. So, given that definition, what would make you unsubscribe from an Online Newsletter?

The blog posts “5 Reasons Why No One Is Reading Your Email Newsletter” and “Email Newsletter Do’s and Don’t” have some great advice.

We did some thinking too, and here are the five common mistakes that might make us unsubscribe from an Online Newsletter:

1.    Boring, irrelevant content – There’s nothing worse than wasting time reading a newsletter that has no value or practical application to your business. Life is too busy for that, so be sure to provide your subscribers with valuable high-quality content that means something to them.

2.    Too many graphics – If there are too many large graphics, the images may be blocked by an email server or may be too difficult to load for people with slower Internet connections. Next stop – the Unsubscribe link!

3.   Inconsistent communication – Be sure to set a consistent schedule for your newsletter. If you call it a “monthly newsletter” but miss a few months here or there, people will begin to wonder if you’re serious or may even just forget about you.

4.    Too many ads or promotions – Even if you have a great product that you’re eager to sell, don’t be too heavy-handed with your promotions. Also, be sure to promote products that are appropriate for your target audience and that will be useful to them and their business.

5.    No options to provide feedback – As a way of building trust, it’s important to always encourage feedback and interaction somewhere in your newsletter. It’s frustrating to receive an old-style Email 1.0 newsletter that sounds like it was sent by a used car salesman who has no interest in anyone’s opinions or concerns.

So the next time you’re writing an Online Newsletter, step out of the Virtual Assistant shoes for a moment and take a look at your Email Marketing from the subscribers’ perspective. If you wouldn’t subscribe to your newsletter, chances are they wouldn’t either.

Now tell us your opinion! What mistakes do you notice in some Online Newsletters, and how do you think they affect a business’s relationship with its subscribers?

The Power of Article Writing in a Web 2.0 World

Does article writing still have a place in this new interactive Web 2.0 world? It’s a question many Virtual Professionals and online business owners may be asking themselves as Social Media Marketing and Video Marketing gain prominence.

Well, we would argue that article writing does have a place and that it is still a prolific marketing channel in this Social Media Arena. Here are some of the key reasons why:

• Increases brand visibility and interest.

• Establishes authority and thought leadership.

• Ignites SEO potency (Tons of backlinks).

• Creates opportunity for your content to go viral.

• Generates targeted website traffic and sales.

As an illustration, check out this case study described in “Article Marketing – An Hour A Week To Web 2.0 Success!”

Here the author reports how spending 45 minutes writing three articles (targeted to his sites and online products) yielded the following results one week after being uploaded to a professional online article submission service:

• 55 pages indexed and live in Google showing his resell rights article

• 43 pages indexed and live in Google showing his Article Marketing article

• 51 pages indexed and live in Google showing his Affiliate Marketing article
He summarizes the results this way:

“That's 149 more places for people to run into my name and solid info from me online, 149 more links back to my sites, each capable of attracting tightly-targeted traffic to my salespages and affiliate marketing pre-sell pages. For one hour's work, total. That's the immediate benefit to article marketing - almost instant spidering by the search engines, and a number of new profit conduits set up aimed at your payment button or affiliate links.”

In addition to uploading your articles to online submission sites like EzineArticles.com, you can use Social Media channels to further maximize the exposure of your content. Here are some common ways of doing that:

• Use the EzineArticles.com Bookmarking feature.

• Schedule article tweets in HootSuite. (Send it out 2-3 times.)

• Share your article in targeted social network groups and forums. (Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning)

• Include the article link in a relevant blog post.

• Submit your article to other general and niche social bookmarking sites. (Digg, Delicious)
We cover this in more detail in our Internet Marketing Specialist 2010 course since it is such a crucial step in harnessing the power of Social Media to mass-distribute your articles.

And when you’re writing, always remember the Golden Rule of Article Marketing: CONTENT IS KING! The credibility and influence of your Virtual Business will grow if you consistently provide valuable content that is directed towards your target audience.

Now we’d like to hear your thoughts! Have you used articles to promote your Virtual Business? Do you feel Article Marketing is still an effective marketing channel in the Web 2.0 world?

Mastering the Art of Email List Building.

In keeping with this week’s theme of “Continual Learning,” we wanted to touch on Email List Building, an important Internet Marketing skill that requires Virtual Assistants and Online Professionals to keep up to date and informed of the latest trends and skills.

Despite the fact that other marketing channels like Social Marketing and Video Marketing have gained prominence, Email Marketing is here to stay for the foreseeable future and will continue to thrive because it is still the top converting marketing activity and is very easy to deliver and test.

However, it’s important to take note of how this type of marketing has changed and evolved in 2010 so that you can form an appropriate strategy. It’s now a very different animal from the traditional brand of Email Marketing that was used in the past. Most importantly, the new Email Marketing 2.0 is about adding value and building relationships, loyalty and trust with a niche group of subscribers rather than direct selling and building a huge generalized list of subscribers.

In the blog post “Email Marketing 2.0 Explained,” Tyler Garns from Infusionsoft compares traditional Email Marketing 1.0 with the new Email Marketing 2.0 and says that Email Marketing 1.0 is like a bad sales rep:

“A bad sales rep will typically memorize the spiel and “data dump” on the prospect regardless of what the prospect says, regardless of the person’s body language and regardless of any buying signals. They are robotic and sell much less because of their rigidness and inability to adapt the message for different people.”

On the other hand, he says the new Email Marketing 2.0 is like a good sales rep:

“A good sales rep, on the other hand, will listen (a lot) and adapt the message to the prospect’s needs. Good sales reps sell significantly more because they are always able to share something relevant to the prospect. They listen, adapt, and share the right message for every individual prospect every time.”

So, given those differences, how do you master the art of Email List Building so that you can create a targeted list and start to build relationships and trust? Here are some simple tips to get you started:

•    Brainstorm the type of audience you want on your list.

•    Develop a free offer that would entice that audience to subscribe and make sure your landing page is optimized with the right keywords that are relevant to the offer.

•    Develop valuable follow-up content that would benefit the audience and help build relationships with them (i.e. emails with lists, tips or strategies they can use in their business).

•    Figure out where to promote or display your free offer and opt-in box (i.e. post in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blog posts, Squidoo Lenses, Hubpages, targeted forums and industry websites).

•    Promote a free web event using event tools in LinkedIn, Facebook or other Social Networks.

•   Publish relevant articles with a call to action and a link to your free offer in the author resource box.

•    Identify the right email program for your campaign, one that will allow you to adapt autoresponders to suit your subscribers’ needs and responses.

We cover this topic in more detail in our Internet Marketing Specialist 2010 training program because it is such an important skill for Virtual Assistants to know. Remember that the important thing is to speak to the needs of your target audience and share high-quality content so that they benefit from your email communications and become part of a valued community of subscribers.

Developing that trust and relationship will help you build a niche audience that will stay tuned in to your communications and remain loyal customers as time goes by – a mutually beneficial relationship for you both!! In the new Email Marketing 2.0 world, you can even say that Email List Building becomes social too!!

Is Your Website or Blog Perfectly Optimized?

Do you ever watch those home renovation shows on TV, the ones where someone is having trouble selling their home and needs some help? Often there’s nothing wrong with the house itself, just an important design element missing. A team of experts is called in and, voila, the house gets noticed and sells! The home owners are amazed and anxious to learn the skills those experts used to make such a difference.

In your work, do you wish you could optimize your website or blog so that it attracts more attention? Are your clients anxious to optimize theirs too? The initial SEO work begins in the HTML, and consequently clients are now, more than ever, requiring their Virtual Assistants to have some level of HTML knowledge and skills. For some, that’s exciting… for others, worrisome. ;-)

SEOmoz has put together an excellent blog post that summarizes best practices for “Perfecting Keyword Targeting & On-Page Optimization.” They provide a diagram of the “perfectly” optimized page and list all the elements that contribute to its ranking. Many of these elements are quite technical and require a good knowledge of HTML.

Below is a list of the important elements to optimize in on your webpage:

•    Keyword Targeted URL
•    Page Title
•    Meta Description
•    H1 Headline
•   Image File Name
•    Webpage Body Content
•    Internal links

Now, if you’re starting to break into a cold sweat at the thought of tackling such technical aspects, you’re not alone. HTML is a very important task and one that requires specialized training in order to do it well. For that reason, we recently offered a special 3-hour HTML Training for Internet Marketing Success Clinic. The Clinic was taught by our very own VAClassroom Faculty Member, Christina Greenway, who helped demystify HTML and unpacked the important skills you need for your business and your clients.

So there’s no need to call in a team of experts to optimize your website or blog! With some HTML training, you can make Google stand up and take notice, and that’s as good as a “Sold “ sign on the front lawn!

6 Attributes of a Great Affiliate Manager

Have you included Affiliate Marketing in the overall strategy for your business or your clients’? If so, you are leveraging one powerful channel for widening your exposure and generating sales. However, this strategy is destined to fail without a great Affiliate Manager at the helm. If your Affiliate program isn’t being managed effectively, it’ll sink like the Titanic!

But what attributes should you be looking for in an Affiliate Manager? Below are some of the important skills and qualities this key team member should possess:

1.    Good Interpersonal Skills – An Affiliate Manager should be a “people person,” willing and able to provide assistance when needed and to interact with affiliates to keep them informed and encouraged. According to the blog post Characteristics of the Proper Affiliate Marketing Manager, “affiliate managers are the face of any company when they go to different conferences and anywhere else where there is contact with their potential affiliates.”

2.    Knowledge of the Business – A great Affiliate Manager has a good grasp of the product being sold and the ultimate goals of the company. This is essential when networking with potential affiliates and also in targeting affiliates who are the right fit for the company.

3.    Knowledge of HTML – It is essential that an Affiliate Manager know HTML so that they can assist affiliates with links and code. The blog post Common mistakes with hiring an in house Affiliate Manager puts it this way: “If your Manager cannot guide them through placing html or altering it, even basic html, then guess what, they are useless to that Affiliate and that Affiliate will move on to your competitor who can create and place their links with and for them.”

4.    Consistent Communication – It is essential to keep affiliates motivated and engaged, and a great Affiliate Manager will have the creativity and consistency to produce monthly newsletters, special incentives and contests, special product discounts, new banners, updated marketing materials and periodic web events to teach affiliates how to improve their sales.

5.    Ability to create Affiliate Broadcasts that are simple and that include tweets, Facebook updates, blog posts, etc. for communication – Your Affiliate marketing campaign will be much more successful if your affiliates are provided with a good variety of targeted content to promote your brand and products. A great Affiliate Manager will be able to create Affiliate Broadcasts that are concise and include all the important elements needed for the affiliate’s communications.

6.    Ability to teach Affiliates how to use Social Media to promote their Affiliate link – There’s no doubt that Social Media has become one of the most effective advertising channels around, so it’s imperative that an Affiliate Manager is well-versed and active in Social Media and can guide affiliates through this complicated landscape so that they can promote their Affiliate link. Recruiting an Affiliate Manager with Social Media Marketing skills is a wise move for any business!

These are just a few of the attributes that make a great Affiliate Manager, and the list could go on and on. Because building a thriving Affiliate Program is key to the success of any online business, we devote more time to this topic in our newly updated Internet Marketing 2010 course.

What attributes do you look for in an Affiliate Manager? Please share your comments below.

Six Keys to Building a Thriving Virtual Assistant Practice in 2009

Happy New Year! I definitely took a long hiatus from my blog, but have re-charged my creative batteries and am officially ready to go!

I have had the privilege of working with a whole variety of Virtual Assistants over a number of years and have been able to assess the particular traits or characteristics that make some of them  very successful. As we head into a New Year full of much promise here are six keys to building a thriving Virtual Assistant Practice in 2009:

KEY #1 - Be Active in Social Networking - I continue to hear great testimonies of some of our VAClassroom students finding new ideal clients through such popular Social Networks as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. They are building their network with a target audience and are finding opportunities emerge through these connections! So, one of the keys to sustaining a Thriving Virtual Assistance practice in 2009 is to become a "Master Networker" in the key social networks, forums, groups and online communities!

KEY #2 - Build a Compelling Web Presence - I have also had the opportunity to review many different VA websites and I noticed that some of them still do not market themselves super well. The page sometimes is super text heavy, with no multimedia or compelling images. As an Internet Business Owner (who currently works with 4 VAs), I love coming to site that has a YouTube Video, compelling graphics, an optin box to a free PDF guide, Twitter & Facebook Badges and possibly a blog. This shows me that this business is cutting edge and savvy! So, here's a test....

Go to your website right now and ask yourself: "If I was a prospective client, would I be drawn to my website?" Now is the best time of year to make changes!

KEY #3 - Participate in Blogging and Social Media Content Sharing - Many of you who are blogging right now know the value of being of thought leader in the VA industry and building credibility with your prospective client base - not to mention the great SEO value of regularly updating your blog! The key with your blog is to create content that would be relevant to your target client audience. For example; I saw a PDF guide that a VA was offering called "101 Reasons to Use a Virtual Assistant in 2009" - this was great and relevant content for small busineses, which certainly could pave the way to new client opportunities!

It is imperative to build your traffic and web presence through sharing content in such sites as HubPages, Squidoo and EzineArticles. This again positions you as a thought leader and drives traffic and Search Engine results back to your website!

KEY #4 - Establish a Clear Business Niche - As you know, the Virtual Assistant role is constantly in flux and means many different things to different people. Many VAs are bloggers, web-designers, social media marketers, bookkeepers, event planners, PR specialists and so much more! The most successful VAs have been able to establish the right niche at the right time to create the best opportunities for their business. For example; businesses are screaming for VAs with Social Media Marketing expertise, which is why we recently launched our Social Media Marketing Specialist Training Program.

Also, it is important to identify the niche audience you are targeting. Is your ideal client audience, Real-Estate Agents, Business Coaches, Women Entrepreneurs, Internet Marketer, Ecommerce Sites etc..?

KEY #5 - Proactive Marketing Strategies - I always love the saying "The squeaky wheel gets the grease"! Translation: A Pro-active Virtual Assistant will create the best opportunities for their business! As you know, the clients may find you on Social Networks or via your website, which is great, but for the most part, you will need to go out there and connect with your ideal client audience in creative ways. For example; One of our VAClassroom Students mentioned that she was putting on workshops for small business associations in her local area on "The Power of Social Media Marketing". Well, this served as an excellent avenue for her to position herself as an authority and build some new client opportunities.

KEY #6 - Highly Committed to Continual Learning - Of all the industries I have be apart of in my career, none has moved faster than the Internet Business. New technology and web trends are evolving at a rapid pace and 6 months is like 5-10 years in another industry! It is paramount that you are actively pursuing learning and training opportunities in your niche to ensure that you remain on the cutting edge and at the top of your game in 2009.

So, there you have it.... Six keys to building a thriving Virtual Assistant business in the New Year!

I am sure there are other "Keys" and would love to hear yours!

6 Reasons Your Clients Should Invest More In Internet Marketing During a Recession

I probably shouldn't be using the "R" word in my title as it tends to get people a little jumpy, but inevitably that is the obvious direction we are going in light of the current economic crisis. Typically during recessions or financially difficult times, businesses cut advertising and marketing dollars and wait out the storm until they can resume business as normal. But interestingly enough, it is being forecasted that businesses will be investing more time and money into Internet Marketing during a potential recession as it is more cost-effective and measurable than traditional ad channels. Typically Internet Marketing efforts require more of your time and less of your money over other types of advertising. I have been loving the blog, HubSpot as of late and just read a great post pertaining to this issue: Six Reasons to Invest In Internet Marketing During the Recession In the blog post, they cite a study by emarketer that reveals the shift in spending to Internet Marketing over traditional channels. Many of you are working with "Brick and Mortar" clients that likely do some offline advertising. This is the perfect opportunity for you to enlighten them as to the power and cost-effectiveness of Internet Marketing activities over offline ad channels. Further to that, this might also be the perfect opportunity for you to look at our Internet Marketing VA Training Course at VAClassroom in order to sharpen your Internet Marketing know-how during a time when Internet Marketing investment is only continuing to grow......Even during a "R_____N" (Didn't want to say the word again:)