(386) Area Community Blog

Introducing Michele McCarthy Interiors to the 386 Community Blog

386 Community Blog has a new contributor out of Ormond Beach, Florida. Michele McCarthy owner of Michele McCarthy Interiors has joined the blog scene this month adding monthly design tips, hot trends and interior recommendations. Subscribe to this blog today to not miss a beat.

Why Email Marketing is Important

E-mail marketing is one of the best ways to nurture relationships with customers and potential customers. Although social media is hot, e-mail marketing has an important role to play in online marketing and content distribution.

Why e-mail marketing is important

 

• Speed: It’s instantaneous.
• Efficiency: Send one e-mail or 1,000 e-mails with one mouse click.
• Management tools: Track who receives your mail, who reads it and what they do next.
• Coverage: Most everyone reads their e-mail.
• History: E-mail is in your inbox, while social media is dynamic. If you miss a Tweet, it's gone.

 

These factors explain why e-mail marketing is a popular way to reach out to new and existing customers electronically. It’s a way to send word of deals, reward loyalty or simply get your brand message in front of new eyes.

The Direct Marketing Association reports that 23.8 percent of marketing e-mails were opened in the most recent quarter, up 7.1 percent from the previous quarter. E-mail is bringing in $40.56 for every dollar spent on it in 2011, compared to catalogs' ROI of $7.30, according to DMA.

“As we come to the end of 2011, e-mail is not just alive, it's thriving,” said Martin Lieberman, a managing editor with e-mail marketing vendor Constant Contact. “More messages are being sent, [and] people say they prefer e-mail over other communications methods.”

Avoid spam and send quality messages

Even with the best tools in hand, a savvy business owner approaches e-mail marketing with a degree of caution. There’s a fine line between marketing e-mail and spam. No one wants your spam.

While all of these services have special tweaks to help keep your message out of the spam filter, that doesn’t mean it isn’t spam. The heart of the distinction is content. If your mail fulfills a need and desire, if it serves a purpose and adds value for the recipient, it’s legitimate marketing.

Like many other national companies, the Callan Group is committed to personalized service handling all aspects of e-correspondence for the client. Business owners save time and money by outsourcing different aspects of their business...e-newsletters need to be handled in the same way. Other national e-newsletter companies offer small fees, however you have to do everything yourself from uploading email addresses to providing high resolution graphics to guessing the sizes of tables to maintaining opt out options. Do you or your company have the time for that? Contact us!

These few tips help ensure that all of your e-mails are quality messages.

• Know your audience.
• Write to your audience.
• Use great subject lines.
• Don't write too frequently and don't write too infrequently.
• Review your e-mail analytics to learn which topics are most clicked on, and what times of the day are most popular for sending e-mail.
• Keep your content interesting and relevant.

 

Happy e-mailing!

Source

 

Pro's and Cons of Doing Your Own E-mail Newsletters

The Callan Group provides: 

• Creation of a customized electronic template to mimic the look of your website
• Monthly design and creation of the e-newsletter content with guidance from you
• Upload of new constituent email addresses (manually or electronically)
• Storage of unlimited email addresses and ability to send up to 10,000
• Come from the reader’s perspective
• Create actual marketing concepts monthly (interview clients, talk about community involvement, capture pictures, etc.)
• Vehicle to drive traffic to every other form of marketing (social, website, billboards, buses, benches, etc.)

 

This saves their employees time in creating and managing the entire process of the e-Newsletter for just $250/month.

There is a $200 set up fee associated and we ask for a 12 month agreement. At anytime that they want to get out of contract we can short-rate the service since we have a tiered approach for monthly requests.

 

Here are cons in managing your own e-Newsletter:

• Too often the content is written from an internal viewpoint instead of reader perspective, we come from a reader’s perspective that will decrease the number of opt outs and be more friendly to read.
• Not consistent – without having a consistent message you loose the total effect of an e-Marketing campaign
• Gets overlooked – many times this process is overlooked due to time sensitivity of other projects
• Doesn’t look professional – in house and national companies offer templates that sometimes do not look professional because of too many words in a text box or borders not lining up properly. You want a professional message going out to your clients.
• No time – staff is being asked more and more to do more and more – The Callan Group’s program takes this off their plates.

 

 

How to Start an Investment Club

Does the thought of investing in the stock market give you the shakes? You're not alone -- many Americans know that it's smart to invest for the future, but are too intimidated to take the plunge.

If that sounds familiar, "Good Morning America's" Investment Club could help.

Mellody Hobson looks at the growing trend of clubs dedicated to learning about and investing in the market.

 No Men Allowed

It's no secret that the world of finance has long been dominated by men. But a growing number of women are making waves, forming all-female financial clubs.

In Sacramento, Calif., a group of women formed the Millennium Money Makers Investment Club.

The women are a group of moms who met when their children got involved in theater together; the women founded the group in 2000 as a means of learning more about the world of finance.

The club's No. 1 rule -- no men. They feared that by including men, they wouldn't really learn to think for themselves.

"The main goal of the club is about education," said Anne Becker. "It's also about having a good time, but education is our main goal."

Over dinner and drinks, the group of 22 mull over stocks, share insights and pool together their combined financial wisdom.

The women say the only way to learn about the world of finance is by jumping in -- and sometimes failing.

"I've recently learned that in order to learn how to invest, you have to be willing to use your own money -- to invest your own money and put it where your mouth is," said Nancy Bergold.

"We all are into the ups and downs of the stock market and it doesn't bother us when it's up or it's down. We like to laugh when it's up and also like to laugh when it's down," said Carol Crosta.

After a tough first couple of years, the Millennium Club women say they are on the upswing. They saw a 37.8 percent jump in their portfolio in 2004 and 8.6 percent increase in 2005.

 

Mellody's Tips

Mellody Hobson has some advice for others thinking of starting an investment club.

Club Advantages

 Reduced Risk: Consistently investing money over time, regardless of market conditions, reduces your risk.

 Lower Fees: By joining forces with a small group of investors -- think between six and 20 people -- you'll pay lower fees and commissions than you would investing on your own, because your purchases with the group will be larger. And with more buying power, you'll have access to more investment choices.

 Diversification: Keeping your portfolio varied is essential for all investors to spread out your risk. Diversification comes about naturally in an investment club because there are many voices coming up with many different ideas.

Establish Rules

 It is critical to establish club rules -- such as how much each individual member will contribute, responsibilities for each member as it relates to investment research, how to handle taxes and administration, etc. -- everything from when and how often to how to decide on the stocks and funds for investment.

 This is not like a book club where if you take a month off, the only thing lost is your enjoyment of the book. Each member needs to be fully committed to the goals of the club and not fudge their way through the process like you might with a book club discussion.

Choosing Investments

 Know what you own: Look at your membership and figure out where your collective experiences and expertise might reside. For example, does your career provide you with some insights into certain industries? Survey your members to determine which industries you understand and can make informed decisions about.

 Keep in mind that your investment club participation should not be your only investment. You should also be investing a retirement plan as well as have saved a rainy day fund in case of emergencies.

Getting Started

 Every club must have an employer identification number (EIN) to use when filing its tax return -- it's like a social security number for your club. To apply for an EIN, you need to complete form SS-4 which can be obtained online at www.irs.com or by calling 1-800-tax-form (1-800-829-3676).

 There are many other tax nuances to take into consideration, so you should consult with a tax advisor.

 It's important to keep in mind that investing is a long-term pursuit. It's impossible to time the market and to pick winners all the time, so make sure your club agrees to stay the course and weather the market's ups and downs. You should also view the club as not simply way to make money, but also to increase your own financial smarts, and use your experience to teach your children about saving and investing.

 You should consider enrolling in Better Investing. Better Investing provides administrative services and excellent educational material for investors as well as a low-cost stock purchase plan to further facilitate the purchase of common stock.

 

When you get an e-mail saying, “Please add our email address to your safe senders list.” they’re suggesting this so you will receive the emails and not have them dumped into a spam folder, or filtered out completely.

Depending on the e-mail server you use, here are little tutorials on how to add an e-mail address to your safe list.
Hotmail
1. Click the "Contacts" tab. This action will open your Contacts list
2. Click the "Safe List" link. This action will open your Safe list.
3. Type in "Email@hotmail.com" in the "Type an address or domain" text field, then click the "Add" button.
Yahoo
1. Click the "Addresses" tab. This action will open your Address Book.
2. Click the "Add Contact" button. This action will open the Add Contact form.
3. Paste or type the email address in the "Email" field, and click the "Save" button.
Gmail
1. Click the "Contacts" link. This action will open your Contacts List.
2. Click the "Contacts" link. This action will open the Add Contact form.
3. Paste or type the email address into the "Email" field, and click the "Add Contact" button.
AOL
1. Click the "Mail" menu, then click the "Address Book" menu item. This action will open the Address Book window.
2. Click the "Add" button in the address book window, to add a new contact.
3. Paste or type the email address into the first "Other E-Mail" field, and click the radio button adjacent to the field, then complete by clicking the "Save" button.
When you give someone permission to put you on their list, this is NOT spam. If you are not interested in receiving the occasional offer from that person then unsubscribe from the list by opting out or simply delete. Do NOT hit spam.
When you hit the “report spam” button on an email from a list you’ve opted in for, or from a list your email is on because of local affiliations, you’re actually harming both the sender, as well as all the people who DO want the content. Each “report spam” click affects the deliverability of that sender’s messages. You make it a lot more likely that the sender’s emails will wind up in the junk/spam boxes of others, if the email gets delivered at all.
Don’t get mad – just opt out!

6 Common Email Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make

1. Emailing Without Permission

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Getting an email newsletter that you didn’t sign up for feels like an invasion of privacy. As House notes, small businesses often start their email marketing campaigns by buying a list and then hitting everyone on that list. “There’s probably not a worse thing you can do,” he says. “You get started off on the wrong foot, and people expect to start receiving spam from you.” The moral? Don’t take shortcuts (even expensive ones). Build up your list organically by having an opt-in form on your website or, if you have a brick-and-mortar business, using a sign-up sheet.

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2. Having Ineffective or Irrelevant Subject and “From” Lines

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You can’t guarantee that someone will open your email, but a good way to make it unlikely that they’ll open it is to use a boring subject line. Mark Schmulen, a general manager at Constant Contact, says a subject line should promise short, digestable information that is likely to be of interest. One example: “2 Things Facebook Can Do to Help Your Business.” The reader only has to worry about reading two things and, if the email is properly targeted, there’s a good chance he’ll click through to see what it’s about.

The “from” lines are also important. Schmulen points out that few people are likely to open an email if they don’t recognize the sender. Plus, make sure you use an email address that uses your company’s domain — a Gmail or Yahoo address is a tip-off that the company is small-time, he says.

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3. Blasting Irrelevant Content

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Make sure your emails are relevant to the audience you’re blasting them to. Suppose you have a family and you signed up to get email from a travel firm. If you get a few emails with information about singles vacations, it’s not only going to be irrelevant to your needs, but it’s likely to sour you on the company, too. At that point, Schmulen says, “even if the fourth one is for families, you’re already checked out.”

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4. Not Looking at the Numbers

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You just sent out a batch of emails — any idea how many were opened? How many bounced back? If you don’t have that information, you’re operating in a vacuum and have no way to determine if the program is a success. Make sure you’re analyzing and comparing the numbers, which can help you get the most out of future email blasts. Metrics can provide useful information to boost email marketing efficacy, including the best day and time to send the email, the most effective subject lines and the content that most resonates with your audience.

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5. Having No Purpose

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According to Schmulen, many people start an email marketing program with only a vague notion about why they’re doing it. “They haven’t really thought about what their true goals are or what’s in it for the subscriber,” he says. So what are your goals? To educate? To start a dialogue? To inform your consumers of news and events in the industry? Having a purpose will dictate your content, so figure it out before you start typing.

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6. Providing No Entry for Dialogue

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House says that a good email is like a good tweet or a good blog entry — if people like it, they will pass it around. So to maximize the chances that your message will be shared, write provocative and interesting content. And don’t be afraid to ask your readers for their own content. “It’s important to state your point of view,” House says, “but you should ask readers to share their thoughts, too.” A good conversation sparked by an email marketing campaign can easily go online and manifest on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Video e-Newsletters - A local business bringing you the latest in e-Marketing

The Callan Group strives to bring you the latest and greatest of the newest technology and we've done it again! We proudly bring our clients and prospects another means of communicating electronically. Our video e-Newsletter campaign is up and running!  

Contact us to see if video e-Newsletters will work to attract more attention, gain higher returns on your marketing investments and bring more awareness of your business electronically.

http://server.thecallangrp.com/web_display.php?f_email_id=4704

Video e-Newsletters - A local business bringing you the latest in e-Marketing

The Callan Group strives to bring you the latest and greatest of the newest technology and we've done it again! We proudly bring our clients and prospects another means of communicating electronically. Our video e-Newsletter campaign is up and running!  

Contact us to see if video e-Newsletters will work to attract more attention, gain higher returns on your marketing investments and bring more awareness of your business electronically.

http://server.thecallangrp.com/web_display.php?f_email_id=4704

Mobile Marketing Connect with your customers through their phones!

SMS messaging is a feature built into every cell phone, many chat programs, and several major email programs, as well. It is so pervasive and easy to use that everyone from the youngest of children to the oldest of grandparents have embraced it and use it many times daily.

 

Signing up is easy, you come up with a keyword and have people text that keyword to 90210. This will put them on your text messaging list and they will automatically receive your messages. Super simple…we can do everything for you! We help you to promote this easy marketing for your business in all your marketing pieces.

 

Imagine owning a restaurant, have people text the name of your restaurant to 90210 and they will immediately receive the message that we came up with, for example: Welcome to our exclusive VIP club. Show this message to your server for a free glass of wine.

 

Statistically, a recipient of a text message is more likely to open and review the message than the recipient of an email from the same sender with a faster response time.

 

This is a powerful tool for any small business or large corporation looking to connect directly with their target audience. Mobile advertising platforms are taking off and growing at an extremely rapid rate. Be one of the first businesses to take advantage of this!

 

The Callan Group is offering an introductory rate of $175/month for up to 2,000 texts. We train your staff, provide you with comment cards to acquire emails and phone numbers, we come up with the promotion, send the texts for you and manage the responses. Don’t worry about remembering how to do this, what your password is on your account or figuring out a new system. It’s all done for you by us! This is just another way for The Callan Group to be all things electronic for our clients. Call or click today for a complimentary consultation on how mobile marketing can compliment your e-Newsletter program or if you just want to try texting on it’s own. 

 

How do you Feel When you see a Spelling Error on an E-newsletter or Website?

One of the things that a large number of webmasters forget to do is spell check their website. This is an essential part of making your website appear professional, ensuring readability and to ensure better indexing for search engines.

Visitors usually give a website a quick glance over before deciding to stay, this is why the first impression is the key to gaining popularity. Misspellings and grammatical errors have no place in the kind of impression you want to make on your visitors.

 

To avoid making some of these common mistakes visit the spell check website we use at: www.texttrust.com

Spell check software does not make some important distinctions which your readers will notice: “there” vs. “their”, for instance, therefore always double check your content even after a spell check.

 

Check out this quick video to learn more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWTzYAIkBdE&feature=player_embedded

 

Better Results with Email Marketing on Mobile Device

Picture this scene.
A reader of your blog and a loyal subscriber gets a new mobile device.

No problem: You’ve taken great care to make your site mobile friendly.

You’ve even taken the right steps to convert more mobile readers to your email list.

So you feel pretty confident that all your bases are covered.

Until your subscriber gets her first email from your latest marketing campaign. It’s all squished up on the screen, it’s impossible to click on any of the links, and the message overall is terribly hard to read.
Your loyal reader really wants to get the benefit of your great content. So she spends some time fumbling around trying to make sense of it.

But eventually frustration wins. She gives up and hit the red “delete” key.
Think this doesn’t happen? It sure does. I’ve seen it, more than once.
Mobile email marketing design is smoking hot. If you can manage to make sure your mobile readers are satisfied with those subscriber-based emails, then you have covered what may be the largest of your readership. And here are some tips to help you out.

1. Include a plain text version of every message

Including a plain text copy of every HTML message you send will help eliminate potential issues for those subscribers with mobile readers that do not support HTML.
Any good email marketing service lets you include a plain text version, make sure you’re using it.

2. Keep links uncrowded

If your email message has links that you want your readers to click on, such as navigation back to your main site (recommended), then make sure those links stand out on their own.
In other words, keep them uncrowded so it’s easy to click them within a very small space.
Imagine your loyal reader flicking around on a tiny screen to get to that link — and how frustrated you get when the links are so close together that you can’t land on the one you want. If you want clicks, make it easy.

3. Pull the reader in with your subject line

Hop on over and read Brian’s article on the three key elements of irresistible email subject lines.
Now … actually use those three key elements for your email marketing messages.
Like any headline, an email subject line has to capture attention quickly and drive the reader to click through.
By the way, the current best practice for subject lines for mobile devices is to keep it within 5 words. That’s right, you have about 5 words to grab the attention of your reader. Why? Because after about 5-7 words, the subject line gets truncated and thus it’s a lost opportunity.

4. Use the right tags for your images

If your email marketing message includes images, make sure you include an alternative (alt) tag to describe what the image is. (You should be doing this for any HTML content you create — mobile readers aren’t the only users who may not be able to see your images.)
Don’t stuff this tag full of keywords, it doesn’t work. Use it for what it was meant for — to briefly describe what the image is, in a way that lets your reader make sense of it if the image isn’t visible.
Many devices can display all your images correctly, but not all of them will, so it’s just smart to use alternative text to make sure every reader gets the message that image was supposed to convey.

5. Is your call to action clear?

People using mobile devices spend a little less time taking in the content due to the smaller screen sizes and the fact that they are usually on the go, so make sure your email marketing has a clear call to action.
Put it either near the beginning or somewhere where it will stand out. Don’t make it hard to find … after all, it’s the key to getting the response you want.