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GetResponse: More Than Just an Email Marketing Tool

September 27, 2016 by Jessy Troy

Being a marketer in the age of the internet makes me one of the luckiest people in the world. I get to reach audiences across the world from right at home, and I can do it with a limited budget, based on the merits of my brand and my creativity. I love my job… usually.

I will admit that there are times when I get frustrated. Sometimes I feel so annoyed with the tedious, never ending tasks of promotion that I feel like selling my computer, moving to the Appalachian Mountains and starting a llama farm, never to see another piece of analytics data again.

Given my endless search for ways to fob off those pesky to-do tasks, and my inability to do so on my team without them wishing me dead, I am slightly obsessed with marketing tools. I have been signing up for free trials in the search for the perfect one, and so far I have found a number that I like.

This is my latest attempt at seeking marketing platform perfection, and I am happy with what I have so far found.

What Is GetResponse?

GetResponse is, at the heart of it, an email marketing platform. You use their email creator to apply templated (of which there are many), and launch campaigns that are targeted to segmented email lists you can upload from your hard drive backups. Pretty straightforward, right?

Actually, no. I went into signing up for GetResponse thinking I would be using a MailChimp clone, like so many others on the web these days. What I ended up with was a unique, helpful marketing tool that covers a number of tasks that I normally hate doing, and makes them easy. And emails are only a part of it.

An Expansive Features List

Email Creator and Templates – There are a lot of templates available, as well as their email creator for your own designs. What I love most about these – other than how simple they are – is that they are responsive. So no matter where the customer is viewing them, they will look the way I intended.

Marketing Automation – In order to create automated tasks, you make a workflow chart using drag and drop. Each connects to different commands, triggered by the behavior of the customer. These automated tasks are a quick way to improve conversions, without having to manually draft messages.

Landing Pages – A solid landing page is a great tool to turn those leads into sales. But making them can be time consuming, and using services that make fast ones cost a lot of cash. Having such a feature available to users built in with the price of their other tools is a great move by GetResponse.

Form Generator – Want to get some feedback on your site or products? You need a form, and they happen to have a generator for you to use. You select the type (scroll, popup, ect), and fill in the different areas. Then they do the rest, hosting the form on your site where it will hopefully catch some interest.

A/B Testing – You have to be regularly A/B testing your materials if you want to make sure you are getting the best possible results. I love that this dashboard has a tester right there for you to use, alongside past campaigns that might offer clues for future success.

Webinars – You have so much to teach and give. Why not host a webinar? You can get this feature with the second tier and above account, and it is worth it.

Auto Responder – Whether it is a message stating that support will be in touch, or a happy birthday message to your customers, you can set up an auto response quickly.

Multi-Source List Import – Build your lists by importing from your hard drive, or pulling them from services like Gmail and MSN. Segment them quickly and easily.

Analytics – Get solid data on your performance with their analytics charts and insights. Make smarter decisions moving forward by seeing the real time successes and failures of your campaigns.

My Experience With GetResponse

I signed up for their second tier plan, for $49 per month. My plan was just to try it for a month and consider the cost an investment that I may possibly lose. I am happy to say that didn’t happen, as I have been loving GetResponse all month.

The email creation is surprisingly easy to use. I am not a designer, which anyone who has seen my attempt at building even simple sites can attest to. Emails are no different, and I have had trouble getting templates to work for me as I customize them on other platforms. Here, I had no trouble at all. Knowing that the emails were responsive also really helped, as I knew they would look good no matter the device.

I had a bit of a tough time figuring out the automation feature at first. But with some tinkering I managed to work the drag and drop automation lines, and created some cool little tasks that I could run in the background. I mostly focused on ecommerce messages, such as if they put things in their cart but didn’t go through with a purchase. They would get a message reminding them of the item.

I also created several landing pages, and A/B tested them to see which led to a greater subscription rate on our newsletter (the biggest source of marketing success for our campaign to date has been through email outreach).

My Rating: Five Stars

I really like GetResponse so far. I haven’t had time yet to try all of their features; webinars has had to wait, but I am eager to give it a shot. Everything else has been awesome, and I couldn’t be happier with how their features have improved the time I have spent on marketing tasks.

All in all, this is a five star product.

5 Ways to Get to Success

September 26, 2016 by Jane Boyd

It’s the week after the official book launch for Anything You Put Your Mind To. For more than a year, Liz and I were working toward September 21, 2016. Toward the day we would get to share Alice, Larry and the dog with the world.

And . . . now we are here — with the published book in hand.

Since then, I’ve been reflecting on success. In particular, I’ve been thinking about the things I’ve been learning and working toward over the last year. Below are 5 of the ways I’ve been using to get to success — not only for the book launch and GeniusShared — but in all areas of my life. Perhaps some of these ways will be helpful for you too.

1. Be Patient

No matter what you are trying to do in life or where you are trying to go — be patient. Getting to success takes patience. Not only with yourself — but with others too. Each of us express our thoughts differently. And we all come from different perspectives. Sometimes our definitions of success are different. From getting our laundry done to completing that big project at work — each of us have different ways of doing things. Be patient with yourself when you are trying to learn new ways, skills or strategies. Be patient with others when they are trying to understand you. And be patient with how you approach next steps and the execution of new ideas.

Understand that patience is an essential ingredient of success.

2. Learn and Keep Learning

Remember when you were a kid and you thought your parents knew everything. And then when you found out they didn’t. Guess what? There’s no one person that knows it all. Every single person has the opportunity to learn new things. It takes curiosity, an open mind and a desire to be better at something. Be open. And do everything you can to keep learning. Expose yourself to new ideas, to new people and to different opportunities.

Learning opens your horizons in a way that allows you to sail toward success more easily.

3. Change the Stories You Tell Yourself — Change Your Life

If you’ve read Anything Your Put Your Mind To — well then you’ll understand why this one matters so much. How many times do we tell ourselves we can’t do something? That we’re not good enough? Or that something is just not meant to be? Getting to success requires you to break out of your old ways of thinking, to take calculated risks and to execute on things that sometimes make you feel uncomfortable. This is okay.

Eliminate the stories that hold you back and you will find success in ways you previously thought impossible.

4. Surround Yourself With the Right People

I’ve written about this before — but it just can’t be said enough. Your success in life, at work and in everything you do is very dependant upon the people you have around you. Let go of the people who don’t believe in you, those who are constantly negative or who have values that are in conflict with yours. When you surround yourself with the right people they will become invested in seeing you succeed. And they will help you get to the places you seek. It takes trust, hard conversations and commitment — but it’s always worth it.

The right people won’t let you fail. They will help you on your journey toward success — however you have defined that success.

5. Know It’s a Marathon — Not a Sprint

Midway through the book launch a wise friend said to me — “Remember this is a marathon, not a sprint.” And how right they were. Now that we’ve launched the book, I know the quest is not over — it’s just farther along. We have met a major goal but — there’s still more to do. More to create. More to understand. And that’s as it should be. It’s important to remember that success takes pacing. And — over time — the way you define success will likely evolve. As will your projects, plans and the people you meet along the way.

Commit to the long haul — the marathon. Spend your time and energy wisely as you seek your definition of success.

Remember . . .

There are many ways we each get to success. Find the ways that work best for you and actively practice them on a daily basis — in all areas of your life.

Put Your Mind To It

Spend some time thinking about just one of the ways listed in this article about getting to success. Choose just one thing to work on over the next week that will move you toward the success you seek in life.

Listen to your branding

September 22, 2016 by Rosemary

Quick…when I say “branding,” what’s the first word that pops into your head?

Is it logo? Style? Design?

Probably something visual. Maybe your mind goes to “brand guidelines” for fonts, colors, and artwork.

Have you ever considered your auditory branding?

Now that live streaming, podcasting, and voice commands are pervasive, you need to add audio to your branding checklist.

Here are some key considerations to make sure that you’re up to speed:

If you are using live streaming tools, what’s your tone of voice? Is your speech clear? Do you use profanity or not? How formal/casual are your words?
For podcasting, are you using professional audio tools? Do you do leveling or post-production, if you’ve got multiple input sources? Do you have a “voice for radio?” If you don’t have a pleasant cadence or tone, what can you do to improve your speaking voice?
If your company name or product name is spoken into a natural language voice command system (like Siri or Amazon’s Echo device), is it easy to produce correct results? Do you have hyphens, apostrophes, synonyms or other roadblocks to easy voice entry?
Think of all possible customer touch points where audio might come into play…from your “on hold” music to the background sounds in your office when you’re on a conference call. Are you projecting the right sensation to your customers or partners? (Do they hear your dog barking and realize you’re working from home, or do they hear Starbucks noise and wonder about your professionalism?) Nothing wrong with either of those scenarios, as long as they match the rest of your branding.

Take some time today to do an “audio audit” to make sure that this important aspect of your branding is supporting your mission.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Featured image via Flickr CC: Patrick Breitenbach

Putting the Internet to Work for You

September 21, 2016 by Thomas

In today’s Internet-driven world, it should not come as a major surprise that both businesses and consumers rely on it far more than most people might come to expect.

For instance, businesses use the worldwide web to promote their products and services on a daily basis. While companies still use what might be regarded as “old-fashioned” methods of brand promotions (newspapers, radio and TV ads, business cards etc.), the Internet has become the go-to source for countless businesses.

Flip that over and look at how consumers are using the Internet.

Millions of them turn to the web when they want to do some browsing and shopping, not to mention oftentimes ultimately buying goods and services online.

In the event you need the Internet as a business owner or as a consumer, turn it on and let it go to work for you today.

Consumers Plugged in to Internet

For countless consumers, it is nothing short of a no-brainier that they use the worldwide web to research myriad of items.

Whether that inquiry involves looking for real estate, a new vehicle, a license plate search, healthcare options, home improvements, the list is literally endless.

In doing a search, consumers want to be able to come to company websites that are full of information and low on fluff. Consumers also want websites that are easy to maneuver around, not filled with broken links, pages that load slowly and/or crash regularly, and provide contact information or a FAQ section that is easy to find and understand.

With that information in mind, how can your business best display its website offerings, increasing the odds that consumers will find your brand’s site to be one they trust and come back to time and time again?

Investing in Your Brand

For starters, review your website on a regular basis? Why is that?

First you want to make sure you have all the necessary information required to put your brand in the best possible spot available.

If your site looks like a junkyard, full of broken links and pages that simply have no rhyme or reason to them can you really expect consumers to want to visit them time and time again?

Secondly, what does your brand say about you as a business owner if your website is not up to par with your competition?

For one, it makes many consumers think that you have not invested a lot of time or money for that matter into it. Now, what if they get the same perception (rightly or wrongly) about how you would go about investing time in them too?

Remember that mention a moment ago about making it easy for consumers to contact you?

That should always be a top priority of putting together a first-rate website for your brand.

One of the areas where this can become a major stumbling block is if you also have an online store up and running.

Let’s say a customer is in the process of ordering something, and then the site crashes or freezes at that point. In many cases, customers will not give you a third or fourth try in an attempt to complete a sale. If it doesn’t work the first, perhaps the second time around, most will move on and find the product or service they need through one of your competitors. Now, imagine if you would have just sunk a little more time and effort into your website?

Lastly, do your best to promote your website as often as possible.

One of the ways to go about this is via social media, something far too many businesses simply do not take advantage of.

Be active on a variety of sites, notably those such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, even posting some videos to YouTube.

When all is said and done, your social media activities can go a long way in swaying consumers one way or the other to consider doing business with you now and down the road.

Even though the Internet is not for everyone, it should definitely be a prime focus of your business, something that will ultimately translate into dollar signs.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers financial and business topics on the web.

Anything You Put Your Mind To – Paperback Released Early #LizBook

September 18, 2016 by Jane Boyd

GeniusShared Press is excited to announce that the paperback version of Anything You Put Your Mind To by Liz Strauss has been released early! You can be one of the first people to hold Liz’s incredible new book in your hands by ordering today!

Anything You Put Your Mind To

An adventure in remembering

we decide the stories

that decide our lives

by Liz Strauss

with Foreward by Jane Boyd, Story Editor

What People Are Saying . . .

In Anything You Put Your Mind To, Liz uncovers one of the great secrets of success in both business and life: the potential of narrative to forge one’s own path. People underestimate storytelling, but its power is infinite: the stories we tell ourselves constitute our reality.

With verve and clarity, Anything You Put Your Mind To brings home the importance of reconnecting with our stories, and demonstrates how anyone can follow Liz’s lead and bring direction back to their self-narratives. The verities of this book–that the roads to every kind of both success and failure start inside our own heads–are striking, challenging, but ultimately liberating. Liz’s account is searingly honest and her writing is compelling and lyrical. I loved how she skillfully manifests the clamoring forces we all internally wrestle with on a daily basis. Larry and the dog, the central characters of the book, are rendered with the weight and force of a fable. Every last word is heavy with the power of Liz’s personal investment in her vision. No one else could have written this book.

Anything You Put Your Mind To will benefit anyone who wants to tell themselves better stories; that is, anyone who wants to change their life. Knowing which of our narratives to discard, which to alter, which to champion–this is the road to so much of what we call prosperity. This book is rich with the hard-won wisdom of one who has walked this road, and returned to tell the tale. Start reading. Now.

— AJ Leon, Founder of Misfit and author of The Life and Times of a Remarkable Misfit

There is no one like Liz Strauss. Liz is living insight, jumping over boundaries. Conversations with Liz are legendary for dizzying changes in perspective, unexpected connections, and bright ideas. This book is like a conversation with Liz, only portable. And more intense.

— Becky McCray, Entrepreneur and author of Small Town Rules

Liz Strauss is a world-renowned storyteller, so it is only fitting that she would use stories as both the framework and roadmap to help you to achieve success and everything that you want out of life. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a busy professional, or someone who’s just asking, “what’s next,” Liz’s unique, humorous, and insightful parable provides the perfect inspiration.

— Carol Roth, Billion-dollar dealmaker, Judge on TBS’s America’s Greatest Makers, and author of the New York Times bestseller The Entrepreneur Equation

Liz Strauss shares stories that illuminate who she is and at the same time will help you understand who you can become. This book will twist, bend, and batter your reality and that’s a good thing. All of us need to make great leaps in our mind, and yours will start when you read the first chapter.

— Tim Sanders, Author of Love Is the Killer App: How To Win Business and Influence Friends

It would have been easy for Liz Strauss to pump out a business book. Or an inspirational book about conquering cancer. Or a series of ebooks on social media marketing.

Instead of taking the expected path, Liz zigged when she might have zagged. She’s written a beautiful, jaw-droppingly original story that calls to mind Og Mandino, or perhaps Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Her unique and incisive perspective shines through, hitting the reader right between the eyes by becoming fully vulnerable. If you’ve ever caught yourself “hiding in your thoughts,” looking for human connection, or seeking to be understood, this book will become a treasured keepsake.

You’ll understand what I mean when you read it. And you must read it.

— Rosemary O’Neill, Co-Founder, Social Strata

“Wouldn’t that be cool?” Whenever I’d hear Liz Strauss utter those words, I knew I had just been given a gift from a dear friend–a tiny but yet oh so significant tidbit of wisdom that had been processed, analyzed, and delivered from one of the most brilliant minds I have, or will, ever encounter. So it was with great anticipation and pleasure that I dove into Liz’s new book, Anything You Put Your Mind To.

It’s a book that reveals the emotional and personal heart of this “65th Crayon”–a poignant and unflinching glimpse into a fertile and wondrous imagination, revealing rich textures of insight, wonder, and in the end, many simple truths we can take with us to guide and instruct our own lives.

She takes us on this personal journey with her “time machine”–a rich musical and lyrical accompaniment, a library of touching stories from her childhood, and two special friends–Larry and the dog.

And, there’s the sky, where Liz gazes up and finds her place and part in the universe. The truths that she so eloquently notes ultimately leads to a larger life lesson–the way to find yourself is to look back, AND up–and just BE, with child-like curiosity and a reflective innocence.

Experience this wisdom yourself by reading this wonderful story, and then embark on your own journey of personal discovery. Wouldn’t that be cool?

— Terry St. Marie, Portland, Oregon

A seemingly simple awakening of personal growth–set in modern day. Readers will meet the woman who is an “everyman”: successful but unsure, loving yet controlling, happy and unbalanced, as well as righteously hypocritical. She is we.

The writer’s distinguished intelligence and prose tell us her story in a wax-on, wax-off parable that is rich with clever insights and self-deprecating humor, which beckons the reader to relate and then question our own place in this world. All this is accomplished with introduction of a mysterious character named Larry and his dog.

As a reader, I cherished each word and chapter. This is a book you take your time with because, just like the main character, you will have to stop, pause, and listen to your inner voice. That voice might be telling you to address your buried Freudian issues, learn self-love, as well as how to give and receive, before you can enjoy your success.

Anything You Put Your Mind To will become the contemporary life-lessons business allegory for the 2010s; just like The Alchemist and The Legend of the Monk and the Merchant were for the late 90s and early 2000s. I will regularly pick this book up, again and again, to reread chapters, especially Liz Strauss’ explanation of the “65th Crayon.” I highly recommend this book for anyone who thinks they might be stuck, or who thinks that they already “have it all,” or maybe they just want to reach further in their career.

—Jon-David, Author of 9 Amazon ebooks, and a world-leading social media expert in the Salon Industry

It doesn’t take long to recognize the truth behind Liz’s recommendation, “Be curious about everything.” In this dazzling, rippling adventure tale we are given the ride of a life. The secret ingredient propelling this story of stories is the thirst for knowledge driven by an unquenchable curiosity. Ever questing, Liz offers us a path to reflection and self-understanding both accessible and divorced from the step-driven, self-help of the past.

Through Liz’s passion, her vision, and her unbridled willingness to explore we are offered a model for making and remaking ourselves. For those who know Liz and her work, this is a welcome glimpse into “the Way of Liz” and offers revelations and surprises of all sorts. With wit she disarms and with wonder she instructs. All you have to do is keep up with this Alice in the wonderland that is her imagination.

— Andrew [Drew] Marshall, CEO, Primed Consulting, LLC

The best stories let you get lost in them and come out with new insights and actionable ideas; Liz creates that journey for you with this book. Liz has been an amazing friend and mentor for almost 10 years and I know that conversations with her can stretch your mind and open your eyes to opportunities you would have never seen otherwise. The sooner you read this book the sooner you can begin to live your new, exciting life stories.

—Mark J. Carter, Founder of ONE80 and creator of Idea Climbing™

About Anything You Put Your Mind To

In Anything You Put Your Mind To, master storyteller Liz Strauss hooks us into an adventure of remembering that we decide our future. We discover that by deciding the stories we believe about ourselves we decide our lives. Strauss offers a fresh energy and approach, bringing something new to the topic and keeping us engaged. Along the way, she offers snippets of insight and wisdom on the human condition that take us beyond the theme, helping us find “our own normal,” and making the experience memorable worth returning to again and again.

Alice, a quirky, intelligent, and outright funny book editor, who is on quest because her job isn’t working for her and she has “edited out” the rest of her life. She’s seeking out a new purpose by going “running” through her mind, revisiting stories she believes about herself to get her back to a life she wants to live. While running through her mind, she meets two strangers — a guy and his dog — who already seem to know exactly who she is. Who are they? How did they get in her mind? They join Alice’s quest, asking questions, lending support and compassion. Will these two, seemingly invented, characters give her the clarity she needs to find her way or send her on a trip through Wonderland? And where does the Lone Ranger fit in all of this?

Authored by Liz Strauss
Designed by eBookDesignWorks.com
Foreword by Jane Boyd
Drawings by Jackie Lea Shelley
Cover design or artwork by eBookDesignWorks.com
Consultant editor Richard Balkwill
General editor Jane Boyd
Edition: First Edition

Beach Notes: Some Oars/Oarsome Volunteers

September 18, 2016 by Guest Author

By Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

These oars are part of a great Australian story of the volunteer lifeguards (we call them lifesavers) who patrol surfing beaches around Australia every weekend in summer.

The oars are for the open boats that were traditionally used for rescues that were too hard for an individual lifesaver to get to. In today’s inflatable boats with outboard engines and jet skis world, the boats are no longer used as part of the rescue apparatus, but happily the tradition lives on with clubs maintaining boats and crews and competing in the “surf carnivals” held around the country through summer.

Probably because the boats are not part of the basic rescue setup these days, they all need sponsorship to be bought and maintained. Typically, that seems to be by local businesses.
It’s a thrill to see one or more of these boats, each with a crew of 5-7, two or three each side and the “sweep” steering from the stern, breaching the surf, sometimes elevated at such an angle you wonder if they are going to tip over and be swamped – and that does happen.

Until fairly recently crews were all male – as were the lifesaver patrols in earlier years – and the boat crews were traditionally pretty tough. In recent years there has been a big uptake of surf boat racing by women crews.

One joke about the selection of crews in older days was that contenders would line up and others would throw house bricks at them: the ones who didn’t duck were selected.

In the photo here you’ll see that in the daredevil tradition of surf boat racing the crew are not wearing any special safety protection such as inflatable vests or helmets.

Men or women crews – seriously tough, seriously fearless, seriously dedicated. All volunteers devoting their weekends to saving lives. Inspirational? We think so.

More about the boats here. And about the Australian Surf Life Saving Association here.
Image credit: Alexandra Headland Colts Manipulate Shore Break in a surf carnival: by DonJeffFranky, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Authors’ Bios: Suzie Cheel is the Heart Whisperer at Suzie Cheel You can find Suzie on Facebook and on Twitter as @suziecheel. She also shares her inspiring Beach Notes here on Sundays.

Des Walsh is a Digital Disruption Navigator at Des Walsh Dot Com You can find Des at LinkedIn and on Twitter as @deswalsh