Holiday Cards - Why the Direct Mail Touch Should Not be Lost

Tis the season!  

Well, tis almost the season, and you need to start thinking about…Holiday Cards! (Insert rolling eyes and sighs.) October is a few days away, so now is the time to begin thinking about your Holiday plan of action.

For many businesses, sending Holiday Cards can be a time demanding and fund draining activity. Because of this, more and more companies are opting to forgo the card sent via snail mail, and reach for the convenience of the computer instead. An e-greeting can be pretty and send a caring message, but more often than not, gets lost within the Holiday email shuffle or sent directly to spam. And let’s face it, opening an email is far more impersonal and leave many reaching for the delete button as soon as they begin rolling in.

Holiday Cards should be seen as an investment, and spending that time and funds to invest in your clients and prospects speaks more than flashy animation and sparkly graphics. Think of your clientele as family. They help keep your business home up and running, and if you’re doing your job right, they will have your back when the opportunity arises. Would you send your loved ones a birthday card via email if a CVS is not far around the corner? I’m guessing your answer is, “no”.

Printed Holiday Cards are a great way to thank your clients and partners for their support and loyalty over the past year, and to let them know how much you value their relationship. Most Holiday Cards are opened and displayed throughout the busy holiday season, keeping you at the forefront of your clients’ mind. If you keep up the tradition, those on your list will look forward to receiving your card year after year. There’s power in that; knowing you are important enough to make it on THE LIST.

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When you take that step to send out Holiday Cards via direct mail, make sure you do it right:

Personalize it. If you can’t afford to write a unique note in each card, create and print different messages per recipient. In other words, categorize your list into three or four different groups. A message to a client vs. a vendor or business partner should be different.

Leave sales at the door. This is a time of thanks for past and current business, not a time to generate more sales. Greedy Holiday givers who create expectations in return show poor taste.

Be sincere. If you send flowery words full of caring sentiments to a client you typically butt heads with, the message could come across as sarcastic. Always use kind words of course, but if you are generally a playful person, have fun with your messages. If you are a sentimental bird, allow your thanks to flow plentifully.

Design smartly. Catchy, yet simple, designs will stand out from the crowd. Incorporate your market niche within your design. For example, if your business is centered around fresh produce, use an image of a broccoli Christmas tree within the design. Remember to keep your logo small, perhaps even on the back of the card. This is about them, not you. (No business cards within either…)

Be a friend, don’t offend. Avoid including content, including words or images, that could come across as offensive or is inappropriate for the workplace. One would think this is common sense, but you would be surprised.

Time your sending. The first or second week in December is the best time to get your cards in the mail and in their hands. Any time after that, you are risking your investments to be caught in the mail rush, or lost in vacation pile for your recipients to shuffle through following the Holidays (embarrassing).

So, now that you have all of your contacts organized and in one location...take this opportunity to get them into a Simple CRM (Client Relationship Management) software, such as AddressTwo. AddressTwo was built for small-medium sized businesses who need a smart and cost effective solution for contact management, setting follow-up tasks, email marketing (drip campaigns), and pipeline tracking, to name a few features. Your clients are important around the Holiday Season, don't let the rest of the year stay quiet! Register for a free trial of AddressTwo CRM to see how it can streamline your sales and communication processes year round. Better yet, email your client list to A2, and have a trial created for you with your contact list imported and ready to go!

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Allow PostTwo to do your Holiday cards for you! Simple and easy solution for printing, stuffing, and mailing. Part of your friendly neighborhood, simple CRM, AddressTwo.

Discover what the power of Two can do for you! 

Low-Cost Marketing for Small Businesses

So you’ve taken the leap and started your own business, congratulations! You know how fantastic your product or service is, your business partners and close friends know too, but how on earth do you spread the word to your target audience? We’ve developed this guide just for you so read on and start building your marketing game plan!

Why Choose You?

What you’re offering is special and unique, so let everyone know! The first step in setting up your first marketing campaign is to pinpoint exactly what makes your business stand out from all the others.

Are you creating a stir with a new twist in an established field?

Or blazing a brand new trail with your product?

Whatever it is, find it, label it, and shout it from the rooftops! Maybe not shout, but plaster it on your website, social media, business cards, and essentially anywhere your business is in the public eye. Whether it’s online or physical.

Assemble Your Tools

Once you have your professional schtick, it’s time to assemble your marketing tool belt, and your list of choices is ever increasing. This allows you to pick the cream of the crop for your business and most of these tools are very low-cost or completely free!

Social Media

*Image Credit via Flickr Creative Commons Sean M. TR Online Marketing

A go to marketing technique for many new businesses is to take to social media. Create an engaging Facebook page, up to date Twitter account, Instagram feed, and  keep your current or potential customers in the loop with the latest and greatest developments for your business. Remember to link your business website to these accounts!

Email List

A helpful tie-in to your online theater of operations is to create an email list. This will allow you to continually communicate with potential customers who are already interested in your offerings, without requiring them to visit your website directly. We won’t go into the nitty-gritty details of how to set up an email list here, but check out how I was able to add 500 subscribers to an email list in a week.

Quality Over Quantity

Remember! For an indestructible marketing campaign, quality over quantity are words to live by! It’s easy to create a fistfull of social media accounts and smother the web with news of your products, but if these small pokes about your company aren’t backed up with quality content then your target audience will slip right through your fingers.

Take the time to develop and publish in-depth articles about your new business. Remember that professional schtick you created earlier? Elaborate and explain what makes you unique!

●     Who are you?

●     What are you trying to achieve?

●     What what makes you different?

This is also the time and place to incorporate a little SEO (Search Engine Optimization) into your marketing campaign as most consumers will actively search for your product as opposed to stumbling into it on social media. For a few more tips and advice on balancing in-depth marketing with social media, take a look at this article from American Express Open Forum.

Shake Hands (In Real Life Networking)  

While it’s easy to be swept into the power and outreach that virtual marketing offers, don’t ignore the real-world theater of operations!

Attending networking events or conferences is an excellent tool to get your business brand out in the open.

Whether it’s investors or potential customers, they’re already interested in the field and that’s a foot in the door for you! So don’t ignore it!

When attending these events, keep your eyes on the ball and remember that you’re the first impression for your entire business, and you want to build lasting professional relationships.

Scribbling your business email or phone number on a napkin at a luncheon hardly screams ‘professional business owner’ to your target. So plan ahead!

Think about how you’d like to introduce your company, and stock up on business cards. 

Conclusion

We hope the options presented here set you on your way to developing a top-notch marketing strategy! While marketing is an important aspect to developing your business, there are several more levels to creating a well-rounded company, and becoming a successful business owner. You have the tools, now go out there and strengthen and grow your business!

Doug Cunnington is a small business owner and writes at Business Credit Workshop. He’s passionate about helping people make smart decisions on the path to get business credit.

Tips for Small Business

Starting a business can be stressful. Up to now, you seem to have done everything. You have the website up and running, social media pages have been created and your products are starting to sell. Yet, you haven't had time or even looked at ways to network your small business. Don't fret because it's really not that hard. Try these techniques and before long you're going to find yourself on top.

First, contact the local media. Within your town there is likely a major newspaper or television news station. If you haven't already, set up an appointment. Have them interview you about your business and how it's going to benefit your community. Let's say you run a pond installment service. If you just started your small business, people are going to be curious about what your do. They'll want to know what types of ponds you install, for instance, and what types of fish they can put inside them.

*Check out this example of one of the first things I did when I got hired here at AddressTwo: Click Here to view an example Press Release.

Another networking tip is to get on social media. Find social media pages that are within the niche of your business. More than likely, these pages will allow promotions. Take advantage of this by advertising your business. On that note, your business should also have a social media page. Aim to be Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter. These are the main social networks. As your business grows, you may consider hiring a social media manager. Anything to do with your business should go on your page. This includes promotions, events and so forth.  

*Like, Follow, Tweet with us (Click each link)

"A Taste of Muncie, Indiana" 

Lastly, don't forget to attend community events. It doesn't matter the niche of your business; you need to get your business out there to the community. Think of events such as Taste of (your city). Try to a booth at a festival, a trade show or a home show. If you have a wedding business, there are plenty of opportunities to get your business out there. Always have business cards on hand because word of mouth travels faster than anything else. Also, you may want to give away freebies at the events so the customers come back to you, such as a free hat with your company name on it.

Small business doesn't have to be that hard. As you start to get comfortable with your business, explore different methods to get it out to your audience. While they will eventually find you, these techniques will work in your favor. 

Staying Organized in Small Business

Small business can be a lot of work. There are tasks to delegate to each person, messages to answer and marketing to do daily. Not to mention your social media presence and your public appearances. It doesn't have to be stressful, however, if you take the time to efficiently organize your small business. In essence, you are making it work for you and create passive income. Here's helpful tips to do just that.

First, schedule out each minute of your day. There are approximately 168 hours in a day, equating to roughly 10,080 minutes. How are you spending it? Factor in everything. This includes your meal breaks, sleeping, daily errands and when you run your children to daycare. Factor in how much time you spend marketing your business, when you talk to business clients and so forth. Each minute should be accounted for because this going to help you fill in the gaps. It's also going to help you see how you can change your working habits.

Another habit to start doing is to go paperless. There's no need to send clients paper invoices or fax them through an out-dated fax machine. Both these tasks can be completed directly through your CRM system. You're going to find that you save money not only on paper but on energy. Since anything uses energy when it's plugged into an outlet (even if it's not turned on and being used), the printer will be one less appliance driving up that cost. In addition, sell that shredder. You won't need it because you won't have anything to shred as a paperless office.

On another note, you should consider buying your office supplies in bulk. If you use a lot of pens, for instance, order them from Amazon. They sell large quantities of office supplies at a discounted rate. Almost all of their products are at a discount. And, if you spend over $50, you get free shipping on your merchandise. Moreover, you may want to invest in organizers for each desk. We each have that junk drawer in our desk where our supplies disappear. With organizers this won't happen. It's an easy way to go to your pens or supplies without having to worry about it. 

You may also want to clean house. By this I don't mean clean your actual house, but consider your online presence. Clean up your social networks and remove old posts that aren't relevant anymore. Remove posts from your blog that aren't attracting visitors. In addition, you may want to remove those that have lost interest in your business all together. Start fresh and organize everything, including your e-mail inbox. If you get a lot of spam, consider putting a stronger spam filter on your e-mail. This is going to help you be more organized in the long run.

Being organized in your small business is so refreshing. If you're organized, then you're more relaxed. Try these techniques to get organized and you're sure to take your business to the next level. It's worth it. 

 "I have known that I needed help with my prospect follow ups and accountability for a while. As the CEO of my company, I have lots of tasks and big ideas, and I need to make sure my contacts didn't get neglected or pushed to the bottom of my "to do" list. AddressTwo has helped me stay organized, stay in touch, and stay on task. I would recommend it for anyone in sales, account management, customer relations--you name it. You need it." - Mel McMahon, CEO of Indiana Orginals 

For more great reviews of AddressTwo: Click Here

Small Business Marketing Tips

Simple CRM & Marketing with
 www.addresstwo.com.

As a small business, you may feel at odds of how to find your tribe. Your products are out on the market. You have paid for advertising and hired a team to handle your social media. Yet, the anticipated sales you expected are sluggish to role in. This is all the more reason not to give up. Instead, go into the conference room with your team and brainstorm fresh, new ideas to bring in customers. And, take note of the following suggestions to help your business thrive.

First, you may want to host an event. If you have a new product, have your team metaphorically shout it from the roof tops. Invite your clients and customers to come to an event at your company where the product is featured. Draw them in with freebies such as a free bag of samples. Or, if you run an online campaign, give your buyers a promo code so they can purchase your product and try it out. Not only is this the best way to get sales, but the reviews will be overflowing. And, positive reviews ultimately mean more money in the bank.

Another helpful tip is paying attention to how your customers discover you. Let's say you run an online store. Unless you have a craft booth, a hundred percent of your customers and profits come from the website hosting your store. So what can you give your customer? Coupons, gifts and anything to get them to return. Think about Kohl's and their Kohl's cash. You spend a certain amount and you get $10 Kohl's cash to use on anything in the store. They want you to come back and you should be this way with your customers.

It's also important to connect directly with your customers. Anyone can visit a website, but what they do there makes all the difference. If they click on a story but not the advertisement, you're not necessarily making money. Yet, say you have an affiliate program and they click on your ad. Now you're making a percentage of their purchase. Other ways to connect with your audience are to collect their email addresses. You can later use these to distribute an email newsletter with AddressTwo to alert readers of freebies, promotions and your company news.

 On another note, if you want to take your marketing to the next level, try hosting a meet-up. This is an event where you invite your customers out for the purpose of networking. It may be a chance to push your latest product, host a workshop or seminar, or give your customers a behind-the-scenes look at your company. This type of marketing usually is really effective. It helps create positive relationships with clients and buyers, putting them on a first-name basis.

Marketing can be tricky. If you're stuck in your marketing campaign, try one of these techniques to reach out to your audience. Chances are they will more than likely reach back. These techniques will help your business take off and your sales will prove it. 

What’s the Best Thing You Can Do for Your Business This Year?

It’s the New Year! Woo-hoo! Yippee!

A fresh start to make a real difference. We all have great hopes and big plans – well sort of.

You may or may not make resolutions, but odds are if you do, you will not achieve them. Now I am not being a wet blanket here – just honest.

I ALSO WANT YOU TO KNOW IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY.

Part of the problem with those big hopes, dreams, plans, goals and resolutions is that they are wishy-washy, nebulous and “just kinda out there.” They feel like “wouldn’t it be nice if…” rather than “THIS WILL HAPPEN.”

Besides making your goals SMART (specific – measurable – attainable – relevant – time-bound), you have to get your mind right and then take action using good tools like AddressTwo.

I could write a book on getting your mindset and beliefs in order (there are LOTS of books out there already), but establishing your own library of John Maxwell books will be the fastest and easiest way to make it happen. Here’s a great one to get you started:

How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life by John C. Maxwell (HARDCOVER)

We all have hard heads when it comes to different things, and developing positive, productive and effective thinking takes years of work and practice – a lifetime! So, it’s never too early nor too late to work on that.

That being said, one of the most remarkable actions business owners can take for their personal development and professional success is to join a Mastermind Group. For the last two decades I have consistently participated in Mastermind Groups. It’s exciting and energizing and makes a real difference in each member and their business.

I facilitate avariety of coaching sessions including the Grow Your Business Mastermind Groups and each one is as powerful as the next for the members. The collaboration, sharing, honest feedback with differing ideas and perspectives, and accountability bring a whole new level of thought – and because of that, businesses shift to new, previously unrecognized, levels. Everyone and every business grows.

So, don’t think, “wouldn’t it be nice if…” when you set your goals this year. Be SMART when you set them, and then join a Mastermind Group to really bring those goals to fruition. That would be the best thing you could do for your business this year!

To Your Success,

 

                                                                    

Status Quo Requires No Leadership

It may seem saying, “Status Quo Requires No Leadership” is pretty radical, but when you really look at how the business environment is, and always has been, it’s not radical at all.

Some businesses feel that things are just fine, they are making enough to pay the bills, don’t have to work TOO hard and days go by relatively pleasantly. But is that what owning a business is all about? Is “just getting by” all you wanted when you made that first sale?

Just about every SBO I talk with wants MORE – more clients, more sales, more challenge, more profits more, more, more. Once they achieve one goal, they set another. It’s not all about money, although money is a measurement of where you are and where you want to go.

When you want more, as I see in my coaching and with participants in the Grow Your Business Masterminds, the inevitable is change. And if change is the password, learning is the key to the lock. The lock is held firmly in the hands of the leader.

Suwit Ritjaroon, 123rf.com

Not only does a leader have to help set direction, but also facilitate the path. The greatest leaders pull in all their resources to develop a plan to address all the changing conditions and ripples caused by shifting sands and new pebbles thrown into the mix. They have to constantly increase their knowledge base through both personal and professional development.

Remarkable leaders push and pull people through the status quo to bigger and brighter levels. Remarkable leaders also broaden the vision and inch the line forward regularly. They remove the status quo because the status quo is never the finish line. Leadership is what propels the change and growth.

Do you really want to maintain a status quo and an easy, non-leader position, or do you want more and to go further and build something remarkable?

Take a look at all the resources you have at your fingertips – coaches like me, tools like AddressTwo, other like-minded SBOs, social media, and your expertise and knowledge. You probably have everything you need to pull up your leadership socks, put on your track shoes and run a successful and growing business.

Take a few minutes to objectively look at where your business is flying and where you want it to fly. What change is necessary? What resources and tools do you have and need? What do you need to learn or discover? If you need help with this exercise, let me know. You can do it.

To Your Success, 

                                                                     

-Jack Klemeyer, (I pull on my red leadership socks every morning…)

The Five Important Business Metaphors from the Book Twelve Seconds

Though many of us can’t imagine a time without flight, the idea of taking flight is an undoubtedly comparable accomplishment. Nick Carter, the founder of AddressTwo, uses the momentous occasion of the first flight as the foundation for his book, Twelve Seconds. This book is unlike other business how-to books. Nick doesn’t give you specific rules to follow or the secret to doing business, he gives you relatable dialogue and lessons learned from his own experiences. Being an entrepreneur is much like being a pilot, and using flight as a business start-up metaphor is a fascinating concept. Here are five basic pieces of his metaphor to summarize the book.

1. FLIGHT: THE BUSINESS PLAN
   Years ago, in what seems like a very distant past, flight seemed nothing short of a dream. For Orville and Wilbur Wright, they were able to make this dream a reality with a flight that lasted only 12 seconds. In those 12 seconds, the Wright brothers succeeded- they had conquered the task of lift. Though the duration of the flight was short, it was a success because of what they had set out to do. It wasn’t about just getting off the ground; that historic flight was about the package deal of lift off, flight, and landing. Additionally, this flight became repeatable. The fundamental physics of lift are still used in flight today.
   
   
   As many in the business world know, more than 50% of businesses fail in their first five years (some experts even estimate as many as 90% do not succeed). Planning a business isn’t just about the concept of getting the business in the air. You have to have a plan for the beginning, middle, and end of your business venture.  
   
   
2. THE PILOT: THE BUSINESS OWNER 
   The concept of the business owner as the pilot is simplified, as it often is. But the idea is that to be a business owner, you have to THINK like a business owner. It’s both that simple and not that simple all at the same time. Without an entrepreneurial mindset, your business may never get off the ground. It’s kind of like the concept of “attitude is everything.” 
   
   
3. MOMENTUM: MARKETING 
   To create momentum, one must have something better than just the perfect product. Momentum is all in how you market your product. One concept that is covered in Twelve Seconds is marketing your product as an object. Marketing isn’t about what YOU can do for your customers, it’s about what your PRODUCT can do for your customers. This is the age of customer centric marketing. Your customers need to know what pains your product is addressing to feel a personal attachment to your brand.
   
   
   Additionally, momentum is established through a sort of business law of inertia. There is always the idea of recurring revenue in your business, as is the case with many software companies. Subscriptions and memberships create this recurring revenue, and create momentum for the business in terms of continuous and predictable income. Beyond recurring revenues, Nick covers the ideas of planned obsolescence and captive consumables as marketing and momentum tactics. Without a plan for momentum, your business will remain grounded. 
   
   
4. FUEL AND GAUGES: CAPITAL AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 
   Relating back to his book Unfunded, Nick compares the idea of fuel and business capital on a whole new level. He explains how your capital must have a gauge when going in to business for yourself. The instruments measuring your capital will allow you to know when there is real trouble in your business. It is important to keep an eye on how much money is being spent where.  
   
   
5. THE CREW: EMPLOYEES 
   It’s about incorporating your business venture with the people you hire. Creating accountability, success, and even failure into your job descriptions. It is important to determine the crew that can man your business flight. If your “ground crew” would not adapt well to a change in your business industry without hand-held guidance, then it is probably not the crew you want to take flight with.
   
   

PAGES AT THE PROP: BUSINESS EDITION

Nick Carter will be at the Indianapolis Propylaeum to promote these metaphoric messages in Twelve Seconds on Tuesday August 11^th at 11:30am. If you are a particularly entrepreneurial individual looking for ideas on how to get your current or future business venture off the ground, this is the event for you. Just as in his book, Nick’s speeches reach out to you on a personal level. Lunch will be provided alongside the lecture. Buy your tickets on Eventbrite TODAY. Group tickets are available at a discount and early bird tickets are discounted only through the end of July. You don’t want to miss out on this experience.

DOWNLOAD BEFORE YOU BUY

You can download the first chapter of the book and buy a copy for yourself on Nick's biz website. Whether you are in a struggling business, starting a new business, or just learning about entrepreneurship, Twelve Seconds is an easy reader packed full of Nick’s business know-how and interactions. It always helps to understand things from another person’s perspective, especially when they have learned as much about business as Nick Carter has.

How a CRM Can Help Relieve Small Business Growing Pains

View image | gettyimages.com

Small businesses have the reputation of being a more personal business experience. As a customer of a small business, you expect more intimate customer service than a big box business. The down side from a business perspective is trying to live up to expectations as your business grows. Having a CRM can help you to maintain that personal customer service experience even as your business expands. AddressTwo’s simple CRM for small businesses has three simple features to help relieve small business growing pains:

1. Personalized marketing, no matter your business size

There are multiple ways a simple CRM helps you to personalize your marketing. In particular, trigger email campaigns and history recordings are your best personalization tools in the system. With these tools, AddressTwo helps you maintain that personal touch with every customer of your small business.

*Triggered email campaigns

Email marketing has no doubt become a personalized norm today, but triggered campaigns (also known as drip campaigns) add to that personalization level. They allow you to launch a campaign of personally cordial emails triggered manually or by a formal event such as signing up for a free trial. These emails help to align the customer experience with your brand and make them aware that your company cares about their personal experience.

*History recordings

History recordings are a great way to personalize your messages to your customers. Any interactions you have should be recorded in your history so when a different employee takes the time to reach out to that customer, they are aware of everything that has happened in that customer account. This information allows you to relate to the past events your customers have experienced in your company.

2. Multiple users

With the ability to add more users to the system at any time, the owner isn’t the only person who can deliver a personalized message to the customers. With the click of the history button, new users can learn all they need to know before reaching out to different accounts. The ability to add more users also allows you to lighten the load of following up as your customer base grows exponentially. Tasks can be assigned for different users to reach out to certain customers within their department as well so that the right employee is taking care of the right customers.

3. Task list reminders

When dealing with multiple customers, it is easy to forget an interaction you had last week when you told them you would call them with product offerings. Don’t let your brain do all of the remembering, leave that up to your CRM and the ever-vast memory of the cloud. When tasks are assigned to a certain user, that user receives a task list in their email. In this way, both the CRM and the email task list will remind employees of their work load for the day. This helps to ensure that no customer slips through the cracks as your business grows and flourishes. 

Establishing and expanding your business is no simple task, but having a CRM can ease these business growing pains. With a CRM software, it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. The time is now to start maintaining and managing your customer database so that your business doesn’t miss another opportunity. Personalization is just one way a CRM will help you keep in touch with your customers past, present and future, giving our business that small business personality with a bigger business customer potential.

Start your 14 day free trial with AddressTwo today and find the simple CRM solution to personalizing your marketing while growing your small business. 

Why Moving to a CRM Can Be a Pain in the Butt

CRM’s promise to make your business life so much easier. Having all of your customer information in one place can really improve your sales and business efficiency, but that information won’t just appear. Whether your information is manually entered or uploaded from a comma separated value (CSV) file, it’s not always easy to get started in your CRM. Here are some cons (and pros) to really starting to use your CRM.

Contact Manager and Data Entry

To start in your CRM, you have to have the patience to enter all of your contacts.  

As mentioned before, there are multiple options for uploading information into your CRM. You may choose to manually enter all of your contacts from your paper and pencil customer management method, or you can upload your information from Excel using a CSV file.

If you have been using the pencil and paper method to keep track of all of your contacts, this can be a very timely process. Opening a business now a days, it is very important that you see the benefits of starting in a simple CRM system early because using technology like this will be beneficial from the start. This will avoid having to manually transfer data. But since there is no going back in time to the beginning of your business without your DeLorean handy, it is important to take the time to transfer this data**. As a note, when adding contacts into your system one must simply add all of the information they know about each contact. Getting yourself into this habit will keep you from having to use your very full memory banks to recall information about these customers later.

CSV files must be properly cleaned and organized before they can be uploaded into a CRM like AddressTwo. This method is riskier due to the nature of transferring data. Before you upload your CSV, you have to clean the file, this is called data cleaning or data scrubbing. Column headers, filled in values, and other important features of this file will affect how well it uploads into the CRM system.

For more on how to add comma separated customer information, click the link to view the AddressTwo tutorial video on uploading CSV data.

Old Habits Die Hard

It’s easy to write up a sticky note to remind yourself to call Frank back, but that isn’t how you’re going to get used to using your CRM. Your CRM will remind you to call Frank next month, but a sticky note can end up in the trashcan before then. Getting yourself into the habit of entering everything you do or need to do into your CRM will help you immensely; these features are called history and tasks in AddressTwo. After a week of forcing yourself to use these features, it will start to come as second nature. Additionally, with AddressTwo as shortcut on your phone's home screen, you can have all of your business reminders and upcoming dates in one place- your CRM.

The Facts

Starting to use a CRM can most certainly be a tedious task, but there are so many benefits to forcing new user repetition. CRM software helps to:

• Increase sales
• Increase leads and quantity of customers
• Monitor and maintain business success
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Improve quality of staff to customer interactions

It is important to get into the habit of using your CRM before you allow yourself to miss another customer opportunity. With small businesses, one opportunity can be all you need to get your business off the ground.

For more on launching into your CRM software, watch this tutorial video with 3 Simple Steps to Just Getting Started with AddressTwo.

4 Email Marketing Tips to Creating an Open-Worthy Email

AddressTwo email marketing tools help you keep in touch with your database of customers and prospects. Using our email template builder and list feature, you can blast your emails to help increase sales or provide your customers with beneficial information. Email marketing can be tricky, so here are four tips and tricks to building and blasting content your customers will care about.

1: DEFINE YOUR AUDIENCE

As with any marketing content, it is important to determine your audience. You can identify contacts by zip code radius, prospective product purchasers, current customers of your business, etc. Remember, however, that email is an opt-in marketing process. Your customers must choose to receive your emails.

Whoever you choose to target your email campaign towards, know that they all have different content desires. Understanding your audience and building a list of recipients is an important first step in AddressTwo. This list will allow you to determine what you are going to say, and how you are going to get that email opened.

2: WHAT SAY YOU?

Once you know who you are talking to, you will be able to determine what to say. Are they current customers? They might want to know about a new product/service offering or an upcoming event.
 
Are they prospective customers? Offer them a little incentive to get them on board.

Additionally, personalize the email to help deepen relationships with your customers. Using our mail merge fields in AddressTwo will allow you to pull the recipient’s name into the email and help them to feel a deeper connection to your message.

3: ENGAGE YOUR READERS

An engaging subject line, email body, and a call-to-action (CTA) and/or hyperlink can make or break your email success.

Subject Lines

The subject line is the most important part of your email. Without an exciting subject line, your message may not even get viewed. It is important to note that:

• Using all CAPITAL LETTERS in the subject line can get your message booted into the junk mail folder before your audience ever sees it. Make sure you are careful to make the subject engaging, but not junk-box worthy.
• *Asterisks* are commonly used to grab attention in the subject instead of capitals, but don’t go overboard.
• Using [brackets] around offers in your subject line will help intrigue your audience to open the message.

Email Body
You want to make the body of your email easy to read through bulleted lists and small paragraphs. Brief and to-the-point emails with a little bit of humor will help keep your audience engaged, but make sure it’s appropriate. Think about how you would want to receive and read an email.

CTA’s and Hyperlinks
These will help you track the success of your email campaign. AddressTwo allows you to see how many of your recipients clicked on links in your email. These clicks will allow you to determine the success of your campaign. Be prepared to send them to a blog where you can track page views or to your website so you can determine if they are actually reading your message and taking the action you want them to.

4: TEST IT. THEN TEST IT AGAIN.

AddressTwo offers a “send test email” field in the full email editor to allow you to shoot the template over to yourself (or maybe even a coworker) for review. In any content marketing, it is important to test and retest your content. Though our email template builder is easy to use and visualize your final message, it is important for you to view the email as your recipients would. Plus, testing an email will allow you to click through your hyperlinks or embedded videos to make sure they work properly.

IN CONCLUSION

Defining your audience, deciding your content, engaging your readers, and testing your email will certainly help you to be a better email marketer. Don’t take email for granted, it is one of the most powerful marketing tools we have in this technological age.

If you can’t get enough about email marketing, HERE are some previous blog posts with email tips and tricks.

If you need help with specific AddressTwo email features, head on over to our tutorial videos to learn about how to create sender profiles, add email signatures, and insert images into your email campaigns. 

GO FORTH and send those emails with confidence!

Managing Your Simple CRM: Tips for Clean Data in AddressTwo

Duplicates and inaccurate data in your CRM can ruin your ability to properly market and contact prospects in your database. Use these tips for ensuring your CRM system is in tip-top shape.

Avoiding Duplicates

Regularly review your data for duplicates. The most fastidious CRM database user is bound to create a few accidental duplicate accounts. This can also happen after uploading contact lists without removing duplicates first.

When removing duplicates from your CRM, first choose your duplicate criteria (step 3). There are multiple ways to remove a duplicate and it is okay to run multiple searches.

Email Contacts to update

Emailing your contacts for updated contact information regularly will help keep your contacts current. You can send a verification email requesting they update their contact details or you can set up an email template to send out to contacts on an as-needed basis. 

Using Holiday Cards and AddressTwo to Grow Your Business

Yep, it's almost that time again. There's a crispness to the air, the first snowfall has come, and the kids are bringing home Thanksgiving decorations from school. That means it's time to start working on your holiday Christmas cards and holiday gifts for your clients. "But I can't! My database isn't ready." No problem, here at AddressTwo we've dealt with that challenge. Not only have we dealt with it, but below is a short (less than 5 minutes) video chock full of tips and tricks for the best way to turn this database cleanup into a sales generation activity to finish the year strong!

Database Tips for the Holidays

So, as you can see, Troy was able to turn his database cleanup into a real sales opportunity. How many sales opportunities are just waiting for you in YOUR database? Go get started reaching out to those customers and prospects. Then, when you're done, come back and tell us all about your experience!

About AddressTwo, the Simple CRM for Small Business

Never used AddressTwo? Tired of your current CRM? AddressTwo can help you with your contact management, tasks, email marketing, even your web forms. Sign up today for a free trial and learn just how much AddressTwo can improve your sales opportunities!

One Fun Way to Boost Your Social Media List

Sitting around wondering what email content I should post in our September Monthly News letter was taking me forever.  So what did I do?  I went and surfed around Facebook for a little while trying to come up with a topic for my headline story.  After about an hour of getting lost in Social Media it hit me, I could use a boost of fans on our AddressTwo Facebook Fan Page.    Here is a picture from my main story in our monthly newsletter.

Guess what, it worked!  Over the next few days we gained 77 new facebook fans of AddressTwo.

So what did I learn?

• Sometimes the most random ideas are the best ideas.
• When you "like" another company's fan page with your fan page, it doesn't count for a "like."  Check out the story on Social Media Travelers.
• A good idea is worth repeating.

Social Media List Building #2

With my facebook idea going well in September, I’m going to try it again this month….

Follow us on Twitter and we’ll follow you back – It’s that easy!  - Read our October newsletter for more details.
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Those With the Biggest Win ... Databases That Is!

Are you looking for a better and more effective way to increase your email address list?

Adding Mobile marketing to your arsenal has proven to increase email databases by as much as 300%

Mobile marketing technologies by way of action based text offers has proven to build our clients mobile lists dramatically.  But did you know that you can grow your email list this dramatically as well?

When you engage your customers by using our exclusive web widget collection device, YOUR prospect or customer fills in their information and receives an instant text message coupon, message and/or link.  You have now captured a mobile device to re-connect with instantly. However, the stats show as high as 75% of these mobile consumers also enter their email addresses even when we do not make it mandatory

.

Over the last year, Email open rates have increased by upwards of 20%, so adding new emails to get your message across to your target markets is a good and smart business decision.

When you are ready to double or even triple the size of your email list, call Baytech Mobile today for a FREE consultation and mention the promotion code ADDYTWO for a 15% off of your managed monthly service of the first YEAR!!

First there was direct mail, then email…now there is mobile.

         www.baytechmobile.com

         888-374-0555
         info@baytechmobile.com