Get contacted by any Nigerian princes lately? How about being sent an exclusive offer for cheap Canadian drugs? Or a free trip to Jamaica if you just fill out a survey? Spam email is an epidemic that has existed since the earliest days of the internet, and, despite promises every few years, it doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. There are few things more annoying than spam email filling your inbox with unsolicited offers or attempts to scam you. As an entrepreneur, there is a good chance you know the frustration of your carefully crafted, targeted emails being…
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Have you ever wondered what makes the difference between a great email marketing campaign and an unsuccessful one? A successful email marketing campaign depends on many factors, from the size of your email list, to the products or services you are promoting, to the service you use to send them out (I use Mad Mimi, for the record). Designing a great email marketing campaign isn’t easy! But one of the most important parts is the content that you include in it. We aren’t just talking about advertisements here, we are talking about genuine and interesting content that will get your…
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Email marketing is an exciting and complicated arena in the field of business. For the affordable amount of money that you put into it, it can deliver remarkable results, with high levels of conversion. It can also be time-consuming and confusing to create a pitch-perfect email blast campaign. After you’ve worked so hard to develop a fantastic email list, you want to make sure that you will only be delivering them the best marketing blasts you can. An experienced virtual assistant can be the key to writing better email marketing blasts to send to your email list. With their copywriting…
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For a small business owner, taking a vacation often depends on staying ahead of clients’ needs. You can’t afford to let things slip or have radio silence reign in your absence. I’ve always found that clients appreciate an entrepreneur who makes every effort to maintain continuous service no matter what time of year it is. However, that doesn’t have to mean skipping your vacation(s)! Some clients are wonderful, and understand that everyone needs a break now and then. Others may have (unrealistically) high expectations and not want to see any break in the service they receive from your business. You…
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Product launches are exciting for small business owners, whether they’re for a new webinar, e-book, online course, or physical product. Seeing the results of your labor being used and appreciated by dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of people, is extremely satisfying! However, it’s also a lot of work to get to the point of launch, especially if you’re doing everything on your own. [Tweet “Make a big deal about your launch! Think Facebook ads and online promotions to mark the occasion.”] Have you ever looked at other entrepreneurs and wondered how they get new products ready to launch so quickly?…
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For a small business, building up a large mailing list of people interested in your products and services is one of the best marketing tactics you can invest your time in. An email list can consist of current and previous clients, but the majority of it should be made up of prospective clients. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways of reaching a targeted audience, because potential clients will only sign up if they’re interested in something you’re offering. [Tweet “For small businesses, email marketing is a high-impact, low-cost way of getting your message heard.”] I know when…
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Well, we’ve almost made it through another year! I hope it was as good for your business as it was for mine, although I have some great suggestions if you didn’t meet all of your business goals this past year. The perfect time is coming up, in the lull between holiday gatherings and the new year starting in earnest, for you to take some steps for envisioning your next year in business. [Tweet “Come up with concrete plans and goals to make the New Year, your best year yet!”] One of the key practices you should adopt if you want…
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Do you have the right team in place to support your business? Your goals probably involve the growth of your business, taking on new clients, expanding your services or product line, tackling more and larger projects, etc. No small business owner wants to get stuck in a rut or have their business stagnate. However, growth means more work. A lot of small business owners view hiring an additional person to work on their business as a scary prospect. They worry about paying a salary, whether their need for support will remain consistent enough to warrant the commitment of a new…
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Planning ahead of time is one of the most important skills for a business owner to develop, because the success of any small business depends on how well it flows. Unfortunately, most people are only good at planning a day or two in advance, or for the very long term—setting goals for the year or beyond. It is merging the two, and sticking to a plan for the week or month where most people get tripped up in their calendaring and organization. Successfully planning ahead and maintaining business flow becomes even more difficult around the holidays, where clients and collaborators…
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