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4 Most Common International Email Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Posted Apr 20th, 2011 By Mirna Bard in Email Marketing With | No Comments

International email marketing is the quickest and most cost-effective means of communicating with consumers across the world. However, there are several different hoops to jump through before you complete a successful email campaign. Sending an email with U.S. focus across the globe is bound to land you with a poor rate of return, and here’s why:

1. Language

The first one is the most obvious issue; language barriers. It would be wrong to assume that all email recipients are willing to receive communication in English; therefore, it is important to have a strong grasp of the native language. If this means you need to involve a native speaker in the process then so be it. On the other hand, some countries prefer to receive marketing material in English even if it is not their first language. It is important to understand the preference of the targeted location or you will find very few of your emails convert.

In addition, it is important to understand nuances of the English language across different English speaking countries. For example, there are many different terms in the U.S., U.K. and Australia that are exclusive to that country.

2. Time zones

Second, but just as important is the impact timing can have on the opening success of your emails. This can cause problems in several different ways. To start with, emails sent at the beginning of the working day are proven to have much better open rates than at other times of day. This of course is made problematic by the fact that the start of each country’s working day is different all over the world; therefore, it is important to be able to automate campaigns to run on different time zones. (more…)
10 Ways to Piss Off Your Readers So They Never Become a Customer
Posted Feb 10th, 2011 By Mirna Bard in Article Marketing, Content Marketing, Internet Marketing With | 1 Comment

Are you unknowingly writing articles that simply annoy your readers? If you are making the 10 article writing mistakes below, then I’m sorry to tell you – but “YES!” you are.

10 Ways to Make Sure Your Article Readers Do NOT Become Prospects and Customers…

1. Over-promising and under-delivering in terms of content.

If you make an outrageous proposition or a huge promise like (Lose 30 pounds in 30 days) in your article title, then you better make sure you back up your claims. For example, when I wrote the article, “How to Promote Your Book to the Top of the New York Times Best Sellers List,” I showed the exact steps we took to help Dr Mark Hyman achieve that status. Within our article, we shared our case study and provided valuable information for authors.

2. Too many errors.

Whenever I make an occasional grammar mistake (or when I pronounce a word wrong) my GetLinkedInHelp.com business partner Kristina Jaramillo has to correct me. She’ll do it in a lovingly way (as she is my partner in business and in life) – but she has to point it out every time because to her it’s like taking your fingers and making the screeching sound on the blackboard. Do you want your readers to have that kind of response because you simply did not take the time to proofread your articles?

3. Not enough beef.

You really expect me to trust you and buy from you when you are giving me bits and pieces of information. Yes, 200-250 word articles are perfect for your blog as long as you produce highly-valuable, highly-informative content all the time. But if I’m reading your articles on someone else’s blog, website or ezine I need to see that you are the expert and I need you to give me a real reason to go to your website to grab even more information.

4. Hard selling.

If you are hard selling within your articles, you instantly lose credibility. Instead of being seen as an expert who truly wants to help others success, you’ll be seen as an advertiser.

Also, trying to sell me within your article is like asking me to marry you on a first date. You have to build and nourish your relationship with me first. Provide rare gems that no one else is offering, then invite me in your bio box to grab a free resource such as a special report, ebook, templates, video etc. And, make sure this free offering provides real value – otherwise you are wasting your time.

5. Writing in gigantic blocks of text.

Big blocks of text are easy to get lost in. They also strain eyes and make reading difficult because it’s hard to scan, let alone read. In fact, a study shows that only 16% of your readers will actually read your article word-by-word. The rest mostly scan. (more…)
What Are the Important Differences Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?
Posted Oct 8th, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Blogging With | No Comments

I still see many businesses setting up their blog incorrectly, and one of the biggest mistakes is not hosting their own blog. When it comes to choosing WordPress as the blogging platform, this question is very common. Many companies and individuals still don’t know that WordPress has two options: WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

I’ve been meaning to write a blog post about this topic; however, I discovered that my colleague and WordPress wizard, Jarrett Gucci has an excellent blog post and video that discusses the pros and cons of each option. So why reinvent the wheel, right?

To read the full blog post, please visit Jarrett’s blog.

If you have already set up your blog with WordPress.com, I highly suggest you make the switch. What did you think of Jarrett’s tips?
Top 3 Costly Email Marketing Mistakes
Posted Aug 30th, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Business, Content Marketing, Email Marketing With | 4 Comments

If you use email as part of your marketing strategy, deliverability is probably among your top concerns. After all, emails need to arrive in the inbox before they can effectively generate leads. Unfortunately, there are a few gaffes that can cost you when you send your next email marketing message.

Here of the top three mistakes:

1. Sending to an Old List

It’s tough to let go of people on your email list but the consequence of sending to people who haven’t heard from you in over six months is quite severe. If you email 1,000 people and two hit the “Report Spam” button, the odds of your other emails being delivered drops drastically. Yes, it’s that serious! The 0.1% industry guideline is mandated from ISPs and burdened by email service providers.

To overcome this, do NOT email people you have not had recent contact with (we’re talking longer than six months). Email permission typically expires after about nine months and spam complaints go up exponentially after six months. Alternatively, you can use a reconnect campaign via direct mail like a postcard or letter to help “ignite” their permission again. Permission is key.

2. Sending the Wrong Message at the Wrong Time

Over the years, small business users grow comfortable sending to their entire list. This can irritate recipients who don’t want every single announcement from your business. What do these people do when they receive a poorly-targeted/timed message? They unsubscribe and report spam. Tough love, eh? This isn’t the time for list scrubbing – it’s the time for targeted, segmented and truly relevant messages to be delivered to your recipients.

The solution is to narrow your broadcasts to smaller groups in your database. Leverage technology that allows you to segment the interest, needs and previous activity of your subscribers so you only send to the ones who expect your email and are interested in getting specific and targeted information from you.

3. Infrequent, Inconsistent Contact

Similar to above, sending infrequent, unexpected emails to your subscribers can be just as damaging as sending too often. Email recipients often expect to be notified on a monthly basis, maybe more or less frequent depending on your expectations when they opted-in. Exercise discipline when maintaining a quality email relationship with your subscribers.

If you plan on changing your email delivery schedule, let them know. Some marketers allow subscribers to self-segment into “Daily,” “Weekly” or “Monthly” communications. This reduces spam complaints and allows recipients to receive messages when they want them (not when you do).

A Costly Mistake

The cost of making these email mistakes will vary by the type of business you have. Undoubtedly, it will often cost you valuable email relationships as people unsubscribe. If you don’t adhere to best practices, your email service provider could drop you for spam.

There is a laundry list of to-dos and don’t-dos out there but it really comes down to one thing: respect. Respect your subscribers’ needs and interests and they will reciprocate. These top three mistakes small business email marketers do are often overlooked until after they’ve shot themselves in the foot. Consider this advice before you send your next email marketing broadcast.

To learn more about email marketing best practices, download a free report about Email Marketing 2.0.
7 Mistakes That Can Kill Your Social Media Marketing
Posted Jun 14th, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Social Media, Social Networking With | 2 Comments

Mirna wrote a list of 50 social media mistakes, so I thought it would be a good idea to elaborate on some of them in this guest post.

Every nine out of ten online buyers visit social media websites before buying anything and around 50% of them take decisions under the influence of information they get from these social media websites. In a current market scenario where social media websites are influencing the 50% purchase decisions it has become impossible for business owners to ignore the power of social media.

Although, building your business presence on social media is not a rocket science but still here are seven mistakes which can turn your entire social media marketing efforts in to disaster if not taken care of.

1) Promoting without a plan – Time and again we see business owners who have no idea of what they to want to achieve from these social media websites. They join them just without a plan which makes their social media campaign like fishing in dark. Like any other marketing, you must have an action plan for your social media efforts too which will contain the objectives you want to accomplish, the resources and time you have.

2) Having Incomplete Profiles – Nothing will frustrate your target audience more than your incomplete profile. Leaving your profile partly filled not only creates communication problem between you and your target audience but also makes you look unprofessional. Make sure that your profile is complete – have your image and correct contact information.

3) Start selling from Day One – It’s true that you have joined social media websites to promote your own brand but social media websites don’t work in that way. Promoting your products from day one will only get you marked as spammer and shunned from the community.

4) Using same strategy everywhere – Every social media website is different. All have their own ecosystem i.e. It might be possible that the strategy which is very effective on twitter could never see the light of the day on Facebook. Customize your strategy according to social media websites. Using same strategy everywhere will limit your success.

5) Not thinking before speaking – Although, social media is a platform where everyone can express his/her opinions freely. But when it comes to using the platform for marketing purposes you must think twice before saying anything. Avoid giving opinions on political or controversial issues from your business account as it may attract the unwanted attention.

6) Not being consistent – Every social media profile you create is a part of your brand that represents your company on that particular site. Hence being inconsistent in updating your social media profiles and disappearing from the community not only creates a bad experience for your target audience on these sites but also affects your brand in a negative way.

7) Not measuring results – Well you would never come to know if you are on the right track or not in case you are not going to measure the results. And to measure results, you must have predefined goals (remember point one). Start your social media campaign only after you’ve decided what you want to accomplish from these social media websites and what metrics you are going to use.

So these are the seven mistakes which you should avoid during your media campaign. Do you know of any other which you would like to add to the list?

Guest Author: Roger is working for Fortepromo promotional products, a promotional tote bags company based in Minnesota.