Successful Blog

3 Email Subject Lines Lies that Lose My Business

by

Give Me a Thief Before a Liar

cooltext443809558_authenticity

I don’t like liars.

My mother used to say,

Give me a thief before a liar, because then I’ll know what he took.

I don’t like people who say things to purposefully mislead my thinking.
If you want me to read what you send me, then do the honest work that will get my attention.

Don’t lie to me.
It will backfire every time.

3 Email Subject Lines Lies that Lose My Business

Sometimes I wonder who’s teaching the folks who write email subject lines that if they trick us into opening the email, that we’ll be so excited about what’s inside we’ll forget that the subject line was a lie. Here are three lies that come in subject lines, that had the emails had other subject lines I might have considered what was offered.

A Special Offer for Only Our Best Customers

One big company likes to use this one. The first time it came to me. I thought I might find something special, but I clicked through to find an ordinary sale — a sale with prices available to anyone who visited their site. I didn’t feel so special. It made me feel like they thought I was stupid. No sale!!

A Partnership Opportunity

They send an email saying if we’re interested in a partnership, we should respond. Then. they’ll send details. Even the smallest research reveals that what they want is someone to write blog posts for $5.00/each. That’s less of a partnership than working a register in the food service industry.

And then my favorite …

Following Up

To received an email with this subject line, from someone who’s never contacted me is an outright lie. Not only will I not do business with the person who sent it, but I’ve on occasion been moved to call her to tell her why.

A lie might get me to open your email, but it won’t get my business.
It will make you unforgettable as someone I don’t want to do business with.
It’s clever in the same way as shooting yourself in the foot is.

Do you know other email subject line lies?

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

6 NICE Marketing Tricks to Boost Your Small Business

by

cooltext443809602_strategy

If you are the owner of any small business, the most serious problem that you face is to arrange the required finances. This is very important since you require fixed as well as working capital to run your business. Here, it is to be noted that you have a wide variety of financing options too. You can take out a commercial mortgage loan or you can opt for a commercial mortgage refinance. But, anyways, you need to ensure that you can repay the mortgages. Besides this, another thing that you must look into very seriously is the marketing. Through proper and intelligent marketing you can open the various channels to sell your products. This in turn helps you raise your business revenues. Here we discuss about some successful marketing strategies that you must take into consideration.

Use free classifieds

One excellent marketing strategy to promote your small would be to use free classified ad services. You can explore various online classified ads to prop up your business. Apart from these, there are some other free offline classified ads options in your local area. Even options are there for free inclusions of ads in local print media. Through these routes, you can indeed boost your business. In order to know more about these options, you can conduct online searches.

Tread social media routes

In modern times, social media platform has opened up excellent opportunities to promote your business. Various social media websites offer you wonderful and free way to market your products and services. This platform can be gainfully utilized to enhance business connection, gain leads and to bring in more customers. You can also participate in various online forums to enhance your knowledge.

Resort to mutually beneficial advertising

One smart way to market your products and services is to engage in reciprocity advertising. You can look for cross promotion of the products and services with other business owners located in your area. You can easily find out some business owners who are also willing to do this. The aim of this marketing strategy is to raise the customer base of your business.

Marketing through writing or blogging

If you have knack of writing, you can take the help of different article writing and blogging websites and can write articles about the products and services that you sell. This way you can surely bring in some customers for your products and services.

Advertise through press releases

You need to regularly write press releases and need to send those releases to appropriate routes. After going through those press releases, many buyers may become interested to the products and services that you offer.

Explore networking options

You need to keep yourself updated about various networking events that are taking place in your locality. These events and meet ups are like mini-marketing campaign. Moreover, these help you keep yourself updated about different developments related to your business.

These are only few marketing strategies which help you raise your sales volume. Apart from these, there are various other marketing strategies that you can follow for your small business.

—-
Author’s Bio:
Samantha Taylor is the Community Mentor of MortgageFit and has been contributing her suggestions to the Community since 2005. She has made notable contributions through the articles written on subjects related to the mortgage industry for the MortgageFit community.

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

Do Your Homework, Listen, and Don’t Buy It Back!

by

cooltext443809437_relationships

A curious thing happens during the first two months of a new year.

Whatever the cause, for the first few weeks of the new year, I find myself restating boundaries because a subtle sort of bad behavior starts showing up. Let me explain what I see at this time every year that I’d like to see less often …

  1. my string of “talk at me,” inappropriate email pitches increases.
  2. more strangers act as if I work for them — as if it’s my job to review their book, their blog, their strategy for free — and they act out “feelings” if I mention that my time is committed to projects and my family.
  3. more people try “clever” tactics to get me to buy in — Do they really think the subject line “Following Up … ” will earn them points when I find that they’ve simply tricked me into opening their email?
  4. more people waste time trying to convert me long after I’ve made it clear that I declined their offer.

    5. And saddest of all

  5. more people who have my attention keep on pitching and selling even after I’ve said a definitive YES!

Maybe it’s a rebound response to all of that holiday generosity. It could be simply that we’ve depleted our resources contributing to the celebrations and now as bills come in, we’re tired, feeling poor, and “peopled-out.” Or perhaps it’s just a new resolve to “hit the new running” that gets people starting off on the wrong foot.

Do Your Homework, Listen, and Don’t Buy It Back!

All five groups don’t believe in what they’re “selling.” So they use words to override the objections they’re expecting. And to keep safe from the possibility of rejection, they make sure to keep pushing the offer.

Here are three things to keep in mind when you’re about to make an offer.

  1. Do your homework. They say it’s a game of numbers and that you have to work hard. Yet, the successful people would rather spend their time identifying 5 people who have a high probability of wanting the offer than blanketing 5000 in hopes of capturing a few more. They like the confidence of knowing as they go in what the person is about and why that person might want what they’re offering. Those successful people also know that it takes time and is often embarrassing to set things straight when someone hasn’t done their homework — if the offer is a business success program and I just sold my last business for billions, more talking isn’t going to change that situation.
  2. Shut Up and Listen Successful people understand relationship can only strengthen the transaction. Saying hello and establishing a conversation lets people know you have confidence in them and in what you’re saying. Pushing through to the pitch before you’ve made that personal connection allows the person you’re talking to (or at) the latitude to also not consider you a person. More words, longer emails, sent to the wrong person won’t get anyone the right connection. Clever tactics that get attention soon backfire — people don’t “buy in” to ideas from someone who tricked them. Talk some. Ask questions. Then listen. You may hear some reasons your offer is a great match for your audience. If you’re using email, try an email or two to get to know the people you’ll be making offers to in the future.
  3. Don’t buy it back! When someone says, they want what you’re offering. Stop talking. Start listening. Let the person tell you why they’re buying. Don’t continue explaining how great the offer is — even if you didn’t get to your favorite benefits. Start making it easy to get the offer going. If you keep talking, you’re likely to “buy it back” by talking so much that person decides that you love the offer more than getting it going.

Luckily by spring, these behaviors settle some, though they never fully fade away. So be aware of them. We all could do with a little more homework and planning. We all could be a little better at listening instead of talking. We never want to be buying back what we’ve already successfully sold.

What behaviors would you like to less often?

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

5 Social Media Marketing Lessons Learned from People’s Chatting Nicknames

by

A Guest Post by
Rahil Muzafar

cooltext443809602_strategy

Social Media Marketing is easy for those who understand the nitty-gritty of sociology and human’s need to share anything substantial, with their loved ones. Everybody likes to share, even the people who appear to be a little unsociable have this underlying desire to let somebody in on what’s going around in their lives. Any social media marketing campaign that manages to trigger this desire is sure to make it big. Sharing is made extremely easy by all those social networks out there, all you need to know is exactly why, when, and what people want to share with their friends, families, or colleagues. When looking for the answers, there are some invaluable lessons that you can learn by looking at the people’s nicks in your contact’s list (given that you have a fairly large one), let’s take a look at some of these lessons.

Like to share something inspirational:

People look to share whenever they come across something that touches their hearts in a positive way, giving them something good to think about, something to cheer, and something to help them see a silver lining in the dark clouds, that’s the reason you will see people using the phrases like “You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true” or “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves”. Therefore, if you can come up with an article, image, or video which is inspirational in one way or another, you will surely find people who are keen to share that with the friends.

Like to share something hilarious:

Another thing largely shared by people at social networks is anything which is downrightly funny. People love to share a good laugh with their friends, doesn’t matter if it is coming from a witty one-liner, funny incident, videos, or an article. Hilarious videos are one of the most commonly shared types of videos at social media and you don’t need to see any statistics for that. You can simply go to your Facebook page and take a look around. You will surely find a couple of funny videos shared by some of your contacts at any given point of time. Lesson for you; come up with something funny, which is directly related to the theme of your blog/website. It doesn’t necessarily need to be outrageously humorous, anything that brings smile to someone face will do.

Like to share something adorable:

That’s especially popular amongst the female users, apart from the nick names; you can see the popularity by looking at the number of views at videos with babies, pets, and the likes. To make the most of this trend, you need to offer something cute, anything having to do with family and the loved ones, something that ignites the feelings of love, affection, bonding, and care.

Like to share the ironies of life:

This is cynic’s reply to people sharing that cute stuff. You will often see nick names like “It may be that your whole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others” or even the more crude ones like “We are born naked, wet and hungry. Then things get worse”. It’s not easy to come up with something that true yet funny, but that’s probably the most commonly shared type of content amongst adults, especially if it has something to do with their profession.

Like to share something that’s closer to their heart:

At times you will see people keeping nick names, which are not funny, cool, witty, inspirational, or doesn’t even make any sense at all, the only reason for choosing these nick names over the more interesting ones is because there’s something that’s closer to their hearts. Lesson to be learned? Put yourself in your customers’ shoes, and then try to come up with some slide, video, or article that they can relate to, something that’s directly related to their age group, profession, ambition, views, likes, or dislikes, and chances are that they will be sharing that with the like-minded people in next to no time.

_______

Author’s Bio:
Rahil is an Internet Marketing and social media expert. Feel free to visit his website and avail a yahoo domain code and coupon for midphase. In addition to these yahoo and midphase deals, you will find many different coupon codes and discounts for web hosting services.

Thanks! Rahil!

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

Is Mountain Dew’s Marketing Campaign too Tough for Even Mice?

by

We have all heard the stories over the years of how some soft drinks can corrode one’s teeth and other body parts.

The question now is can a soft drink like Mountain Dew actually dissolve a mouse carcass?

A current small court battle involves an Illinois man who claims he discovered a deceased mouse in a can of Mountain Dew at work three years ago after taking a sip.

From a marketing standpoint, such a claim certainly can’t be good for the soft drink maker that goes by the slogan — “It’ll tickle yore innards”. Worse yet, the man claims he forwarded the mouse to PepsiCo, the soft drink’s parent company, only to reportedly have the rodent’s remains destroyed.

Call in the experts

In order to fight the court case (the individual is seeking $50,000 in damages), PepsiCo has called in experts to say that the claim of a rodent or any other foreign body in one of their soft drink products is simply false.

The experts pointed out that the Mountain Dew drink would have dissolved the mouse, turning it into a “jelly-like substance,” had it been in the can of fluid from the time of its bottling until the time the claimant opened it, 74 days later.

According to a spokesperson with the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, he believed it was plausible that the soft drink could dissolve a mouse over a few months’ time. “But dissolving [the mouse] does not mean it will disappear, because you’ll still have the collagen and the soft tissue part. It will be like rubber,” he made clear in his remarks.

According to a 2004 study where human molars were soaked in Mountain Dew for 14 days (a period of time similar to about 13 years of normal beverage exposure, the researchers calculated) the molars’ enamel lost more than 6 percent of its volume. Meantime, molars placed in Coca Cola for two weeks lost slightly more than 1 percent of their enamel volume.

Will marketing take a hit?

While sales of Mountain Dew may not be impacted by the ongoing legal case, it does make it a little harder to market the soft drink, given the fact some may wonder what is coming out of each can.

In early 2011, a Washington State man claimed to have also discovered a dead mouse in a Monster Energy Drink product.

According to the man who filed a lawsuit, “Any time somebody talks about Monster I get a sick feeling in the bottom of my stomach. “I looked in the can and I saw the tail – the tip of the tail. And I just vomited everywhere,” said the young male, who sued for physical and emotional damages.

Needless to say, such reported incidents make it a tad more challenging for any brands to market their goods.

That being said, Pepsi has heavily invested in the marketing of Mountain Dew products over the last decade, securing some 80 percent of the citrus flavored soft drink sales nationwide.

While these two incidents do not appear to have impacted sales in a negative way, you can bet such claims will leave a bitter taste in the mouth of marketers at the respective soft drink companies.

Photo credit: bossip.com

Dave Thomas, who covers among other items starting a small business and business proposals, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

Even Cheap Is Expensive When the Model Doesn’t Work

by

What IS Reach?

cooltext443809602_strategy

Once upon a time, I subscribed to the Chicago Tribune. (I apologize to the New York Times and my friends who Yankees fans. I also live in Wrigleyville.) I subscribed to daily delivery during the period that the Tribune won 11 Pulitzer Prizes. I’m not certain that I read any of the winning articles. Though the paper came as promised, with a job in the city, my schedule often didn’t offer me the time I wished to read it. Even when it did loosen a bit, I didn’t read every word of it.

So though the paper reached me. I wasn’t exposed it. I was on their list and I would bet that I was counted in their ad fees based on circulation.

My point is that reach only meant I was paying for it.
They didn’t have my eyeballs, impressions, or attention.

The traditional model of impressions, circulation, subscriptions has always been false.

The model of impressions and circulation numbers sold ads and justified advertising costs. I was the product the Tribune was selling. I was the demographic they were basing their numbers on. The people who bought the ads knew that I was supposed to be seeing, reading, and paying attention to those ads, but that there was know way to know if I was.

They were access to subscribers — much like the subscribers to my blog.
Do you believe for a second that they got access to every subscriber? Do you supposed every subscriber read every ad in every paper. Do you read everything you subscribe to — even most? (If you do, perhaps I should talk with you about some ads in the email that goes out with my blog.)

The impression, circulation, subscription model never delivered the numbers that it sold.

Now we’re applying that model to social media.

If I pay close attention and “prune” my power network just right, I should be able to connect to the perfect 150 power people who have each also connected to another 150 power people and so on outward. A mere two generations out would be a network of 3,375,000 power people. But just to hedge the bet, perhaps I should connect to 150,000.

Thing is any message I send to my own group only gets read the same as the Tribune did … when they have time. I’m not foolish enough to believe more than that.

Reach is not a guarantee of engagement, participation or even exposure.
Reach is merely a possibility.

Andrew Smith at marcom international points out,

“For decades, PR has been seen by many marketeers as “cheap reach via editorial” – in other words, the goal of PR was to gain editorial coverage that provided the greatest number of opportunities to see – at a significantly lower cost than advertising.”

But even cheap is expensive if no one is paying attention.

How do we tell the folks who don’t want to know?

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