As mentioned in my last article, A New Year, A New Business, the beginning of the year is time to reflect on what have worked last year, what didn’t work and what you can do to make things flow better. It’s almost like spring cleaning, or end of the year cleaning. I remember when my mom use to go on a rampage around the house trying to get things in order. She would have me sit in my room and go through all of my clothes. I mean every last one of them. I needed to decide what I wanted and what I didn’t want. Then I had to go through all the clothes that I wanted and try every single piece on . I needed to know what fit and what didn’t. After that was done, I had to do the same with my shoes. Luckily I didn’t have many of those so that process was a lot shorter. We then would go through the different areas of the house and do the same thing. Well not try stuff on, but you get the idea. Can you image how annoying this process could be as a kid? I always wondered what the point was and was this the only way to do this.
I specifically remember doing this in the kitchen. Why the kitchen? Because it took the longest and I never like being in the kitchen. I had to go through all the cups, glasses, mugs, and plates to get rid of the ones that were cracked and didn’t look good. I then had to reorganize the cabinets, so that it flowed better. I usually put things back exactly where it was because I never used the kitchen. In fact I ran away from it. I would rather be outside working on cars then to be in the kitchen cooking. But now all of it made sense. There are certain times during the year that I find myself cleaning up, and finding better ways to do something. Not necessarily changing the outcome or the nature of the task, but to make the process easier and more efficient, especially since I’m a working mom, wife, and entrepreneur. I’m always looking at a better and more efficient way of getting the same things done. And that is what streamlining is all about.
So what in your business do you need to streamline today?
I took a pole dancing class a few months ago and signed up to receive updates regarding additional classes and events that the studio was having. Well as I looked at the email details to see what was going on, I realized that this company was sending a mass email through their personal account. It was a little weird to me that people would still use their personal email account to send an email, but it did not shock me. I remember receiving some kind of notice that I was now a part of a group that I did not ask to be a part of, and when I went to their website just to make sure, they did not have any opt in form. This is what you call spamming. You CANNOT send email to people that did not ask to receive emails from you. Not only that as your list grows, so will your business how can you manage to send mass emails from your own email account. How will you be able to manage your list efficiently?
A Better Email Marketing Set up:
There are a few simple steps you need to follow in order to set up your new email marketing system, and trust me it’s not as hard as you may think.
- Well the first step would be to get an email marketing account with a reputable company. There are many to choose from but my favorite is AWeber. It is a very powerful tool for the price and most successful internet marketers are using it.
- Next you want to set up and optin form and add it to your website. By doing this, you are allowing people to opt in to your email list on their own. Once they provide you with their name and email address, they are saying “Hey I like the information you are providing and I want to stay connected with you”.
- Now you can begin sending them email.
What is great about using an email marketing software like AWeber is that not only can you send out emails and it looks as if it’s coming from your personal account, but you can also customize each email so it looks as if you have sent it out one by one. You can also create newsletters, auto responders, and even schedule emails to go out at later date. This can be very time consuming if you have to schedule this one by one to a list of 100 or even 25 people.
You can also begin to segment your list to send emails to certain people, create and set up surveys, as well as look at statistics on when your emails are being opened, what links are being clicked on and much more. With your new system you are able to do the same thing you were doing before which is sending emails to those that show some interest in your business. Now you have eliminated the possibility of your emails being marked as spam, you no longer have to manually add names to an email group in your personal account or manually send an individual email to each person on your list. In addition, you have gained some trackable information regarding your list that can be so valuable to you to help you market to your list better.
What email marketing service do you use? Share below.
As an Online Business Manager, Felicia Pratt supports women entrepreneurs who run their business online. She helps them streamline, automate, and build their online presence so they can increase their visibility and provide consistency in their branding and marketing efforts. Through various entrepreneurial endeavors including Real Estate, and the travel industry, Felicia has finally found her niche empowering women by helping them manage their time effectively and creating a work-life balance that works for them.
