Marketing Muse from Silver Square

It's not too late to start your holiday email schedule

If it's important for you to sell a lot of product through your website for the holidays, I hope you have a great e-mail schedule planned to support your effort. If not, it's not too late, but you need to get started now.

Morley Brands, LLC hired Silver Square to get them through the holiday season with an e-mail schedule starting with Sweetest Day in October. We gave their e-mails a design format to be consistent throughout the season and have scheduled out products and offers now through the end of the year. Let us help you make your fourth quarter push with e-mail.

The convenience factor

How often do you make your purchasing decisions based on convenience? How often do you base your life decisions on convenience?

Convenience is an often underestimated factor in your marketing plan. Convenience allows your clients to know you're there, you're willing to help, you have a commitment to making things easy and you will get the job done. We have clients asking us to do projects and services that are not really under our umbrella of services. They do this because we are easy and convenient for them to work with. They know we will get the job done and do it well. We make it very easy to work with us as a team.

Look at how your business functions and ask yourself it you make it convenient to do business with you. If you have any hesitation to this answer, rework your model. Don't underestimate how convenience brings you business.

Reach for something big

We have a new, very pressing deadline and agressive goal from one of our clients. We are all pumped and ready to tackle the goal. When discussing the goal, Angela shared the below quote. I liked it so much you get to share in its message too. Go reach for something really big.

"The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it."

--Elbert Hubberd (philosopher, author, publisher)

Boring is best for e-mail open rates

Think boring is, well, boring? A recent study on open rates will have you thinking again. MailChimp monitored more than 40 million e-mail campaigns, each with over 100 recipients, to learn that boring is indeed best. Below are the top open-rate (60-87%) subject lines for e-mail campaigns.

1. [COMPANYNAME] Sales & Marketing Newsletter
2. Eye on the [COMPANYNAME] Update (Oct 31 - Nov 4)
3. [COMPANYNAME] Staff Shirts & Photos
4. [COMPANYNAME] May 2005 News Bulletin!
5. [COMPANYNAME] Newsletter - February 2006
6. [COMPANYNAME] Newsletter - January 2006 [ *|FNAME|* *|LNAME|* ]
7. [COMPANYNAME] and [COMPANYNAME] Invites You!
8. Happy Holidays from [COMPANYNAME]
9. ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] Staff!
10. ATTENTION [COMPANYNAME] West Staff!!
11. Invitation from [COMPANYNAME]
12. [COMPANYNAME] Jan/Feb 2006 Newsletter
13. Website news - Issue 3
14. Upcoming Events at [COMPANYNAME]

What is your web strategy?

Let's begin with some facts:

• 43% of all retail sales are expected to be influenced by or made on the Internet by 2012 (Forrester research and the U.S. Department of Commerce)
• 83% of businesses use the Internet to research and find potential vendors (Enquiro b-2-b survey, 2007)
• 75% of web users admit to making judgements about the credibility of an organization based on the design and its web site (Fogg, B.J., Standford Guidelines for Web Credibility)

We all know website play a big role in business and the way an indivdiual interacts with your company - but did you know it was this significant? Do the numbers make you feel a little uncomfortable about your own website and strategy or are you ready for the world to bring it on?

We recently helped one of our clients position himself for his online introductions with the kind of face he needed to achieve his long-term business goals. Corinthian Construction was a remodeling company based in Indianapolis with big dreams to expand services and further position themselves as an estate custom home builder. Nothing says custom home like construction, right? Well, the first thing we did was adjust his company name to Corinthian Fine Homes and likewise take his branding up a notch to fit the level of client expectations for someone building a two million plus home. He had a cumbersome portfolio on his website with before and after shots that also did not speak to the type of client he wanted to reach, nor did it really show off his talents and great work! We changed that too.

Below is his new identity and we welcome you to visit his new site and browse his portfolio...he's ready for the web to start working for him. Visit Corinthian Fine Homes

Expect to Succeed

My mom use to not want me to hang out with a certain group of friends when I was younger. She use to talk about how you want to surround yourself with good people at all times. When you're young, you don't really get this. You just believe your parents are deranged; but now I do.

We spent a lot of time with family and friends over the weekend and there was a lot of talk about the current state of the economy and political campaign. A couple of our friends are also business owners and we discussed how business has or has not changed in light of the times. While most of the news is of doom and gloom, I'm very glad to say my network of family and friends were upbeat, doing well and positive.

Surrounding yourself and beginning each day in a positive manner is paramount. You have to keep yourself up and continue to strive toward your goals and dreams. While there are many factors that would lead to a business, a person or a project's success, it begins with believing you can be successful. You have to expect to win. You have to think you can do it. You have to surround yourself with like-minded individuals and keep on keeping on.

Five tips for getting growth in a downward market

Well, it’s here. Dare I say things aren’t so hot in the economy? While it’s true that the world-at-large is up and down, your business doesn’t have to be. Here are five tips for getting growth in today’s market.

1 – Know your mission
We had a business meeting yesterday with an executive director and board member of a local non profit who, when asked, couldn’t really piece together their mission. They knew what they WANTED their mission to be, but it wasn’t in line with what their actions were to date. This needed fixed before anything else was touched. Knowing your mission, whether you’re a non profit or otherwise, helps you know exactly where to put your resources. Each time you’re faced with an idea, budget concern or task you can simply ask yourself “does this fit our mission” and if it does, it’s money well spent; if you cannot answer yes 100 percent, guess what, don’t do it.

2 – Budget smarter
You can be a little more free with your budget when times are good and the cash is rolling in. You can try things and take risks. Times when things are not as stable call for you to be smarter with your dollars. Look to your numbers – is that sponsorship that you’ve done for years really bringing in the clients? Doing something just because you always have isn’t a reason to continue. Tighten up and spend smart.

3 – There is always an upside
Whenever someone is losing, someone else is winning. It’s just natural. Find out how you can fulfill the winning niche in your industry. It’s there; you just need to find it.

4 – Client retention
Sure it’s a lot more fun to go out and find those new, big clients, but looking within and adding more value to the clients you already serve allows you to create client loyalty and spend less money. Make a matrix of all your products and/or services across the top of a sheet and list all your clients down the side. Match up what clients are currently getting what products and services. Where are the gaps?

5 – Competition pounce
Knowing your competition and their activities is always important and now isn’t any different. Devote some of your marketing effort to hitting the areas where your competition isn’t. My favorite story on this is something I read with Lance Armstrong. He always made sure he went all out on the hills because he knew everyone else was tired and drained. Well, it’s same with business. Push hard right now because you know your competition is most likely tired and drained.