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Promoting Your Website Part IV: Email

August 26, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

In Part I of our series about promoting your website, we discussed the importance of SEO. In part II, we looked at branding. And in Part III we looked at how to use Social Media to promote your website. Today, we are putting email up to the task of website promotion and will be sharing how email done right can work both alongside and for your small business website.

Ways to use email to promote your website range from simple to elaborate - and each will be effective in their own way. First, for your business email, have a signature built in that has a link to your website. Each time you contact a customer, they'll see your name and contact information including your website link and this will give them one more way to get to know your business better through your website.

In addition, you can take the larger step of creating an email newsletter. An email newsletter will include all of your clients' email addresses and you can reach out to them in a personal yet professional way to lead them to your website to create more business. MailChimp and Constant Contact are both well suited for creating and sending email newsletters.

Your newsletter can feed your customers information about what your business is about, what's new, and attract them to your website to seal the deal.

Some important things to consider when crafting an email or newsletter to subscribers:

Make sure it's mobile friendly - you want to keep the customer engaged and to do this, both your email and your website should display well on mobile devices. They will delete the email, maybe even unsubscribe and if they get as far as clicking on your website from the email and your website isn't mobile friendly, they won't stay long. MailChimp now offers mobile friendly options in their templates.
Find a good information balance - you want to share information - drive traffic to your website and build sales. With too much information and too many choices, customers won't choose anything. They will be too overwhelmed to act at all and your email will be deleted.
Target the right thing to the right customer - The ability to reach potential customers in so many ways is enticing. Knowing who is reading your Facebook posts and how they respond to them, or who visits your website and what they do there are important - and so is knowing who is receiving your email: You can't predict all of these things, but consistency is key. If you are selling your 9-5 Monday through Friday business, don't send your email on Saturday when you can't be reached.

Get Your Message Heard: How to Increase Your Email Open Rate

May 13, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

One of the best ways to keep your customer base engaged is with recurring contact with an email newsletter. One hurdle in this segment of marketing is getting the customer to actually open your email. Here are some strategies for having your message heard after you've spent the time crafting it.

Be Specific: Your subject line should be short, sweet, and tell the customer exactly what you are going to say in the email you've sent. Email subject lines are not a place to get too cute or too casual. Make it feel important and interesting.

Get Personal: This seems like a no-brainer these days, but it's worth repeating that it's important to use the customer's first name if you have it. Make them feel valued in this small way.

Experiment: Try short subject lines, longer subject lines, informative subject lines, and ones that tease the viewer into clicking to see more. Analyze your email response open rates and go with what seems to work with your clients. First and foremost, knowing what YOUR email base wants to read is important and what they are looking for will be obvious once you analyze your email statistics after experimenting with different formats.

Get to the Point Fast: Many email programs now display a preview of the email so the more valuable information you put in the first two lines, not just the email subject line, matter. Give the reader a glimpse of what is coming when they click your email open to draw them in and promote your business.

Do you need more small business marketing ideas? Old City Web Services specializes in helping your small business grow through online media and marketing.

Give us a call or email us today! Call us (904.829.2772) or e-mail us today!

Email Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

April 22, 2015 by anoadmin

Email marketing is an excellent way as a small business owner to reach your client base and build your business. It is inexpensive and a way to keep a personal connection with your customers. Remember with your email marketing strategy that people are very particular about who they share their email address with - make sure what you share is mutually beneficial in that it gets your message across and doesn't waste their time.

Here are some tips for making email marketing effective and useful for both you and your customers.

Make it Easy to Subscribe. Have a way for customers to sign up for your email list either in your brick and mortar business or your online website. Don't ask for too much information - just their name and email address is sufficient. Don't make them jump through hoops!

Design Your Email to Fit Your Brand. Your email campaigns should match your brand's look and feel. If you're using a template, you might want to customize it to include your company's colors and logo in the header. Keep your brand consistent so they feel comfortable and familiar when they receive your messages, and they always know it's you that is talking to them.

Make it Scannable. Providing line breaks and making your content easily readable for those who are in a hurry is imperative. Get to the point and do it well. Most people scan an email for the most relevant content and skip ahead to it. Use italics and bold to draw attention to the most important aspects of your message.

Keep it Relevant. To ensure this, you can break your mailing list up into groups and only send what certain groups are looking for. You can also know your audience, know what they respond to, and why they are signed up in the first place. Knowing your business and having confidence in what you do and the services you provide and sticking with this is very important. Don't try to be something you or your business are not. Be consistent and trust your brand.

Be Consistent. Your customers will come to know that you send your email at a certain time or a certain day and they will come to look for it. Be consistent in your message and in your timing so you can always be a brand your customers trust.

Old City Web Services can help you with all of your marketing needs. Just contact us today and let us get started!

At Old City Web Services, we specialize in marketing so that your online presence is optimized to its maximum potential. Call us (904.829.2772) or e-mail us and we will be happy to offer our services!

Expand Your Concept of Customer Service

March 27, 2015 by anoadmin

There are so many ways we are told daily that will help us boost our business. Expanding your concept of customer service is key to your business model and has to be part of a larger strategy for customer engagement. It is important not just to engage customers, though, but to meaningfully engage customers while delivering excellent service.

Customer service isn't just something you have to do once - it needs to be an ongoing conversation using a variety of modes of communication. Using the web in addition to your face-to-face interactions is vital to your customer's experience. This interaction needs to be genuine and relevant - with those things you will build trust and form a positive relationship with your customers that will keep them loyal to your brand.

Use Email - Email marketing can be a very effective tool when used properly and in a way that both engages your customers and encourages them to buy your products or services. Email messages should be clear, concise and enticing. Emails should both inform and entice. Share what you are doing as a business and entice with a deal, special or freebie.

Use Social Media - You need to clarify your audience's needs, wants and challenges-not to mention where they're spending time online. You can discover these things by surveying your customers. Once you know where they are online, you can use your company's social media presence to interact with them. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or Linkedin - having a presence and interacting with your clients where they are the most is vital.

Blog - Having a blog connected to your business website will help you present a more casual yet useful and informative side of yourself and therefore your business. Share information is current and relevant, add a personal flavor to the writing you put on your blog. Even use your blog for promotions to encourage sharing on social media and shopping online or in person.

Helping you write content or set up social media accounts and train on best practices are things we can help you with here at Old City Web Services. If you want to take your customer service to the next level by engaging your customers in these ways, let us know how we can help you by contacting us today!

If you'd like for us to help you in taking your business to the next level, call us (904.829.2772) or e-mail us and we will be happy to offer our services!

5 Effective Email Tips

September 24, 2014 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Whether for business or personal purposes, email can be a very effective way to communicate.

The ability to compose efficient and effective email is very important for productivity and responsiveness. When not done correctly it can have the opposite effect you are trying to achieve when you send your message off.

Here are 5 tips for sending an email that will get read, be understood, and acted upon.

1. Have an attention-grabbing subject line The first thing the recipient sees in your email is the subject line. The purpose of a subject line is to summarize the content of the message, specify urgency if there is any, and make it easy for the recipient to find later. The purpose is not to be witty, boring, or vague - don't leave the subject line blank or with a greeting like "Hi".

2. Keep the message focused No one wants to get an email that is disorganized, vague, or leaves the recipient wondering what the point is. Be clear, concise, and organized. If you have more than one point, suggestion, question, or request, break them up into different paragraphs. Don't ramble. Get to the point quickly.

3. Be Polite Urgency and being concise do not mean rudeness. Say please and thank you. Offer lightness and fun while still maintaining professionalism. No one wants to receive an email that makes demands or makes them feel unappreciated.

4. Edit, Edit, Edit Make sure you proofread your message before you hit send. Email is a casual form of communication but is still a way for you to send the message that you are well-educated and a good communicator. Don't let poor spelling or grammar make your message look bad.

5. Don't Overcommunicate If you have 3 questions for someone, put together one well-thought out, clear concise email with your questions. Don't send someone 9 emails with one line each that will just annoy them and lead them to get frustrated and respond less.

Remember, using email is a time for you to put your needs in writing for a reason: you want them read, understood, and met. Following these tips will help you achieve that goal.

Holiday Marketing Tip Challenge

November 20, 2013 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

FACT: St. Augustine attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each holiday season.

Whether a visitor stays for one night or all month, it is widely known that during the holidays, tourism in the nation's oldest city is thriving. If you own a B&B, restaurant or tour company, you're probably busy answering the phone and responding to email inquires this time of year.

Even though you're busy, don't forget to engage your customers with holiday marketing initiatives! This season, Old City Web Services challenges you to try at least one of these three marketing tips. Test it out and then shoot us an email or give us a call to let us know if it was a success!

1. Dress-up your Facebook page

As you dress your turkey for Thanksgiving, why not dress-up your Facebook and Twitter pages while you're at it! Create a holiday-themed cover photo that includes one incentive to customers--a promotion, discount or giveaway. What better way to engage customers while getting into the holiday spirit at the same time.

Not sure what a Facebook cover photo is? Old City Web Services specializes not only in custom design, but in Social Media too! Contact Us for more info.

2. Invite your website to the party!

Is your website holiday-ready? Make sure your site is updated with holiday flare, such as photos from Nights of Lights, a video featuring how to make a delicious holiday treat or a new Christmas package/special. Add a minimum of one piece of holiday flare to your website that will let customers know you're the go-to business to visit during their stay in St. Augustine.

Do you have the flare, but not the web expertise? Contact Us for a quote on giving your site that extra holiday glitz you need!

3. Give thanks to your customers

This is the perfect time of year to give thanks to those who love and support, not only you, but your business too! Send out an email to your past and present customers, letting them know you appreciate their brand loyalty. It's almost guaranteed this will bring back at least one new sale or prospect. After all, what harm can it do? If anything, you will put smiles on your customers faces...what more could you ask for?

No way of getting the message out? Old City Web Services can design an e-mail template using your photos, logo and colors & text, upload your contact list(s) and send out a mass e-mail blast to all your customers for you! Contact Us for more info.