Liz, Author at Successful Blog Page

Thanks to Week 331 SOBs

February 18, 2012 by Liz

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.
I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

10 Best Ways to Build An Email Marketing List

February 17, 2012 by Liz

An email marketing campaign is one prong in an effective marketing strategy. Email marketing lets you get the word out to clients and potential clients. The email format is especially conducive to sharing and referrals. It allows you to have a conversational interaction with your target market.

Making your email marketing campaign effective relies on a good email marketing list. The quality and size of your list directly impacts how effective the campaign is going to be. Building your email list, however, isnât necessarily easy or intuitive. You might put up a sign-up form on your website, for example, and the find yourself discouraged when no one has signed up after several weeks.

5730518044_07a9b15859_b — Some rights reserved digitpedia

If you want to build your email marketing list, there are some specific things you can do to speed up and increase your success:

Make it obvious. Put the sign-up form for your email marketing list smack dab in the middle of your websiteâs homepage. You want to capitalize on every little bit of traffic you can, and putting it off to the side just wonât do. If you really want to have a successful email marketing campaign, you need to make it a priority on your site.
Donât compete against yourself. Realize, of course, that if youâre operating a retail site you could be drawing views away from your store or sales process in order to pull someone into your email marketing list. For online retailers, using a secondary website to generate buzz for your primary site is a better place to put that marketing list.
Incentivize signup. Give something away to people who are willing to sign up for your email marketing list. This should be something of real value, not simply a worthless token. Free reports are common incentives, as are discount coupons and contest entries. Just be clear about the fact that, in order to get the freebie, theyâre also signing up for your email list.
Ask for permission. Email marketing lists are most effective when theyâre opt-in lists. That doesnât mean you canât use your existing list of email address, but it does mean you need to ask them to confirm any kind of subscription. Itâs been proven over and over again that spammy email marketing campaigns that donât use an opt-in are most often failures. Not only that, there are some pretty specific federal laws you need to be familiar with when it comes to spam, as well.
Leverage real world resources. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, get your walk-in customers to sign up for your email list. Some of the most effective email marketing campaigns consist primarily of customers who have already visited your real-world store. Bring a signup sheet for your email list when you participate in community or networking events, as well.
Be relevant. Itâs one thing to get someoneâs name on your email marketing list; itâs quite another to keep them on that list for more than one or two mailings. If the campaigns youâre using arenât truly relevant and useful to your customers, theyâre going to ask to be removed.
Offer value. In addition to relevance, you need to offer real value to your list. If a customer gets some genuine use out of a mailing, theyâre much more likely to share it with others. Word of mouth is a powerful way to increase subscriptions.
Put social media to work for you. Your Facebook page fans and your Twitter followers should also be email marketing list subscribers. Those formats are great for building authority and rapport, and for interacting with your customers. Your email marketing list, however, is all about increasing sales.
Follow all of the rules. Again, there are plenty of anti-spam rules out there. Know what they are, and follow them carefully. Violating those rules can be expensive, and even having to defend against a single accusation can take a sizable chunk of cash. Include unsubscribe information as well as real-world contact and identification information with each mailing.
Honor unsubscribe requests. Although you hate to lose people from your email list, you need to respect their wishes. Youâre using an opt-in model, which by its very nature means you have to allow them to opt out.

Email marketing can be one of the most effective types of marketing for your business. Making an email marketing list work for you means putting these methods into practice and doing so with both integrity and diligence.

—-
Author’s Bio:
Dominique Molina is President of the American Institute of Certified Tax Coaches, an organization of tax professionals who are trained to help their clients rescue thousands of dollars in wasted tax. In addition to her blogging and speaking engagements, Dominique provides tax training and accounting marketing as a registered educator with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA).

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

25 Secrets to Live and Work Intelligently from the Heart

February 14, 2012 by Liz

Dynamic Tension Is the Art

On Valentine’s Day, 2008, I wrote How to Write Intelligently from the Heart. It explored how to create the dynamic tension between structure and expression that makes our writing live on.

We can think and write. We can craft our sentences to be clever. We can make sure that each part is factually, structurally, grammatically correct. But clever and accurate only go so far in satisfying readers. If we want our writing to resonate long after, our words need to come from the heart.

As I read that post today, it leads me to think about the dynamic tension between head and heart that are part of any successful business and any successful life.

In the same way, our work needs to come from the heart.

How to Live and Work Intelligently from the Heart

We can think and plan life. We can think and plan a business. We can build brilliant business strategy and savvy life design. We can make sure we’re on budget, we manage our time, and delivering high ROI that sees to the needs of work, friends, and family. But savvy and brilliant only go so far. If we want build a lasting business inside a meaningful life we need our head hardwired to our heart.

Here are 25 secrets I’ve learned about living and working intelligently from the heart.

Decide who you want to be and what you’re building. It’s not a process. It’s a decision. We don’t have enough future. See it and be it now.
See it as a quest and a mission. Just having a goal keeps that vision and mission in our head. A quest is noble requires us to invest our heart. /li>
If we don’t believe we’ll get there, We’ll give up as soon as it gets hard. No one else will believe in us either.
When we align our mission with our values, we attract people who share them and want to help. Work and life get faster, simpler, and more meaningful.
When we speak the hard intelligent truth gently from our hearts, we never regret it. When we don’t, we always wish we had.
We can’t love and punish someone, anyone, in the same moment. See with intelligent love and you might be surprised with the response.
Know what’s at the heart of the quest before building the campaign to move it forward. An idea still being formed by a heart won’t survive the plan being built by an intelligent brain. A brain can forget how that plan impacts the people we care about and who care about us.
Make a heartfelt commitment to yourself. That’s how integrity starts. Integrity makes us safe, predictable, and easy to trust. Being trustworthy is intelligent.
Except when a life is threatened, wanting to run fast is a signal to slow down. Knee jerk responses rarely deliver as we expect.
The less time we have for the people we care about, the more that making time to be with them would do us good.
When we want want to hold things tightest is when to let go … Holding something tightly is a sign of fear.
When we most want the light to shine on us is the best time to let someone else go first.
When we want anything we don’t need, it feels better to give something away.
Whenever we feel righteous, we’re wrong. Righteous means angelic, godlike, and saintly. Taking that view is bad from the start.
The universe does not need us to keep it going. The stars do all right without us.
People are made of the same carbon stuff as stars. Even the humblest star shines. We should too.
Everybody cries, but not everybody cares. The best people do both.
We win ourselves when we choose our opinion of ourselves over what we want other people to think.
Gratitude is a giving, gracious attitude given from strength. We never have enough gratitude, but we can be too needy.
Every act of generosity goes both ways.
Everyone wants to look forward to something and needs a safe place to stand. Remembering that can deliver it to us.
Everybody gets lost sometimes, but most of us find our way home. Helping someone who wants to find their way is easy. Helping someone who doesn’t want to move is difficult.
Life is about what things are worth, not what they cost.
To know who we are all that we have to do is look at our friends.
We can’t separate work from life. We’re spending the time of our life when we work. Trying to balance work and life is like trying to balance your head with your body can’t pull them apart.

People who live and work intelligently from the heart share the humanity of who they are. It’s the in the humanity that we connect to them with our minds and with our hearts. They have boundaries to structure their work and their lives but their hearts touch other people. And it shows in the way that their lives and their work are art. You see the intelligence from the heart in the thoughtful unexpected gesture at the moment it’s needed most, in the compassion and forgiveness offered by a human with strong sense of self, in the way they seem to breathe an intelligent heartfelt belief that people are meant to be all they are. Head and heart together make meaning in a way that intelligence alone cannot.

It’s the style, the color, and the light — the playful feeling that took skill and thought to express — that makes this photo more than a heart in a frame.

How do you recognize someone who lives and works intelligently from the heart?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Do You âGetâ How Important Your World View Is?

February 13, 2012 by Liz

What You See Is What You Are

Once I thought other people had a better view of the world than I ever could …

I suppose that’s reasonable the people around me were worldly, experienced, and smart. I great parents, great teachers, and outstanding friends. When it came to some of my bosses and boyfriends, perhaps I thought ideas through before I bought in.

It was as if he were a prince with insight beyond my own and for a moment I believed in his view of the world.

He always thought that only mountains could be beautiful. I heard him proclaim it. Yes, proclaim is exactly what he did when he spoke of them. He found his own thoughts worthy of public decree. Heâd announce that flat lands had their use, but then ask what possible beauty could a man proud as he ever find in a place with flat air?

No matter the metaphor I couldnât convey the lovely feeling and the wide open space of the grassland without trees only blue skies above it. The green is so green and blue so blue, that the clouds must show off for fear of being thought to be boring.

A sky like this, with no mountain in view, would mean nothing to him.

So today as I look out over the lake as wide as the world, I watch the cloud ballet and think of the adventures, of the characters we might have invented had we been here when we were kids.

I watch the changes, breathing in every minute. I drink in gratitude for a world that is made like this. Iâm particularly glad I had the good sense to quit dating that proclaiming brat before I left college. I can’t imagine what a different person I would have become if I’d adopted a world view like his.

No one guy’s view is better, further, or more beautiful than my own.

Do you “get” how important your world view is?
The way you define your world reflects how you define yourself.
In business and in life, what you see is what you get and we slowly become what we look at most.
Surround yourself with colleagues, friends, family — worldmates — who share your view. Fill your life, your heart, and your mind with images and ideas that define what you love and admire.

Don’t take my point of view … “get” your own.

The succcess of your business and your life depend on it.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Where to Find Liz Strauss During Social Media Week Toronto 2012

February 11, 2012 by Liz

Thanks for Asking

It started with a question, “Liz, are you coming to Toronto for Social Media Week?”
The question led to a conversation and a few introductions and the next thing you know I’m making reservations.
Yes, I’ll be there!

As it turns out I’ll be there, and there, and there.
Here’s where you’ll find me.

Monday, February 13 at 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Creating Wildfires, Focus like a Sensei, Be Irresistible

Location: MaRS | Event Page
@SeanMoffitt, @SamFiorella and I (@LizStrauss) are coming together for an interactive debate on the myths and realities of Social Media’s impact on the business bottom line. We’ll be inviting the audience to participate during this rapid fire and highly interactive session.

Tuesday, February 14 at 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

An Empire Avenue evening with the Irresistible Liz Strauss! #SMW12

Location: The Vault at One King West Toronto, ON M5H 1A1 | Event Page
It’s going to be a small group, a cool venue, and an evening of enlightening conversation, cocktails, snacks and fun!! Come meet the engaging Empire Avenue team, including CEO, Duleepa “just call me Dups” Wijayawardhana and me and let us buy you a drink or two. 🙂

Thursday, February 16 at 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM – Networking to follow.

Accelerating Small Business Growth in our Economic Times

Location: BMO Bank of Montreal, (Manulife Centre – 55 Bloor St. West)| Event Page
Sean Stanleigh of the Globe and Mail moderates a panel of social media professionals, which includes , Julie Howlett, Account Director, Global Marketing Solutions at LinkedIn Canada and Chris Eben, Partner at The Working Group.

Then, Ian Portsmouth, editor and associate publisher of PROFIT magazine, moderates a second panel discussion with business owners sharing insights on the issues affecting business growth in Canada. Networking to follow.