The Art of Online Marketing

Time Saving Tools To Help You Automate Your Marketing

Adrianne Machina — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:38:35 +0000

With today’s ever changing marketing environment, people are desperately trying to do more in less time. Fortunately, technology has provided us with the tools to do just that. Learn how to boost your productivity with the following easy-to-use and inexpensive tools.

Automate Social Media Updates

Write and schedule your social media updates with tools such as:

Hootsuite – This time saving tool has a Basic free plan that allows you to schedule your posts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many other social media sites. Upgrade to the Pro plan for only $5.99 a month and you can upload all your updates at once for the entire month (or even more)!
Social Sprout – Starting at $39 a month this robust social media manager will not only allow you to schedule your updates like Hootsuite, it will tell you the best times to schedule them and help you find people to follow.

Write Your Blog Posts For The Month

Blog posts are an important aspect of any marketing strategy, but it takes time to research and write valuable posts that boost your SEO ranking and establish you as an industry leader. If you are using WordPress you will save hours by writing all of your posts for the month and then using their built-in scheduling option to schedule them in advance.

Schedule Your Emails

Like with your blogs posts, it is best if you write your whole email campaign and schedule it in advance. There are a number of email schedulers out there that have similar features. If you don’t already have an email scheduler here are a few we recommend:

Email Marketing Tool	Cost for up to 500 subscribers
Aweber	$19/month.
iContact	$14/month.
Mail Chimp	$0 or $10/month with premium features
Constant Contact	$15/month

For more robust options that allow you to manage not only email, but automate your entire marketing system with a built in CRM and shopping cart, we recommend Infusionsoft (and yes, we are an affiliate).

Recycle Your Webinars

If webinars are part of your core marketing plan then you must check out The Automated Webinar. It is the least expensive (that we have found) and most powerful way to utilize webinars. With this software, you will never have to redo a live introductory webinar. Simply record your webinar once, schedule it and replay it to live audiences. It will appear as though it were a live broadcast. Schedule it as many times as you want into perpetuity!

We hope you find these tools helpful with saving time while improving the quality of what you deliver and your overall productivity!

Risky Business

Adrianne Machina — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:06:35 +0000

The secret to converting prospects into customers is making the benefits out weigh the risks. If you can reverse the risk for customers then all that is left are the benefits, drastically increasing the likelihood that prospects will become customers.

Here are three of the best ways to reverse the risk for your prospects.

Guarantees and Warranties

Guarantees should be clear and concise. Long and confusing offers decrease confidence and often turn prospects away. The type of guarantee offered should match the level of risk. The greater the risk the greater the guarantee needed to reverse the risk. For example, premium priced products or services with delayed results might require a “double your money back” type of offer. Offering warranties further reverses the purchasing risk. Warranties show prospects that you stand behind your products or services and the benefits they offer.

Free Trials

Allowing people to try out a product or service without being locked in is a great way to eliminate risk. Free trials are really common when selling software because it is highly effective. But there is more to it than just letting people test a product or service. How many free trials have you signed up for that you never actually used? Increase the likelihood that people will become invested in your product or service by: Allowing ample time to get prospective customers familiar with the product or service. Even better, provide step-by-step guidance to get started. Have a follow up sequence in place reminding people to use the product or service and then asking them for feedback once the trial period is over. Carefully consider whether you want to request a credit card up front. Having to enter a credit card will often detour people from signing up for a FREE trial. However, if people are willing to give you a credit card, their commitment level is much higher, and you’ll see more sales conversions. Be aware that sometimes customers feel “tricked” into paying for the first month because they forget or don’t realize that payment begins after the free trial period. Be prepared on how you want your customer service/billing teams to handle this. Not everyone who signs up for a free trial will want to buy. Free trials are designed to allow people to become familiar with and invested in your product or service, but they are also a great way to spread the word. Even if your product isn’t right for them, they might know someone else who could benefit.

First Time Buyer Rewards

Rewarding new customers or offering them special discounts is another way to get people invested in your product. Rewards can range from, “First Month Free” to cash bonuses. What are some risk reversal techniques that have worked for you?

Make More Online Sales In 2012!

Adrianne Machina — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:32:23 +0000

How much of your business is conducted online? If you aren’t sure, or the percentage is low, then consider adjusting your online marketing plan.

A recent report by the e-tailing group revealed that 46% of those surveyed said online sales account for more than 50% of their overall business. If that isn’t you then it’s time to create and marketing plan that will start generating new business online just in time for 2012!

Website
Your website is your online storefront. It needs to be clean, attractive, and inviting. If it doesn’t have what it takes to grab a visitor’s attention then would be customers will likely pass you by for your competitors. Discover 10 things every website should have.

SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the roads to your company. The more you invest in roads leading to your online storefront, the more traffic you will have. If your sales funnel is well established additional traffic could easily turn into revenue.

Graph from Surviving The Current Marketing Mania With A Solid 2012 Plan by Lauren Freedman, president of the e-tailing group analysis.

Social Media
There is no better tool to build brand loyalty than social media. It also boosts SEO and provides a two–way communication channel between you and customers. In a recent Forbes article Avi Savar said, “In 2012, social media as a bridge to commerce may seem obvious, but the journey will be much more interesting–and lucrative.”

There is no one size fits all marketing plan. If you aren’t sure where to start then contact us for a free 30 minute consultation.

WIN A $1500 Website Or Website Upgrade

Adrianne Machina — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:38:02 +0000

This year we decided to do something fun for the holidays and give away a free website to a deserving small business or nonprofit. We’re calling it the Art of Online Marketing Holiday Website Contest and anyone is eligible.

For a chance to win a $1,500 website or website upgrade, simply create a short video explaining why you deserve a new website. Then upload your video to our Facebook Page before 12:00 AM PT on December 31, 2011 and tell everyone you know to vote for your video before January 15, 2012. If you have the most votes at the end of the contest – you WIN!

To find out more please visit our Facebook Page or feel free to contact us.

Time Saving Marketing Automation

Adrianne Machina — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 18:35:37 +0000

As small business owners, we understand that “time” is the most valuable resource we have. As you probably already know, to run a successful business you need to be able to manage your time effectively.

Too many new business owners hit the ground running before establishing time saving systems and try to make up for it by looking for short cuts. Resorting to quick-fix, short cuts in processes is not an effective long-term time management plan and can generate negative results for you and your customers.

As you grow your business, it becomes increasingly important to have well established systems that allow you to maintain relationships with existing customers, and market to new ones. Investing in a fully integrated and automated marketing system is the key to getting the most out of your time.

The past three years have seen a surge in the number of businesses using automated marketing systems, but there are still far more businesses without an automated system than there are businesses with one. Nevertheless, the adoption of marketing automation technology is expected to increase by 50% by 2015, according to Sirius Decisions. Check out the marketing automation infograph below to learn more.

At The Art of Online Marketing, we use Infusionsoft to automate our systems. We love this fully integrated system because we can store all of our data in one place and don’t have to use multiple systems for marketing campaigns. We have saved tons of time and money, and even boosted our revenue since we made the switch to Infusionsoft over a year ago. We are so pleased with the results that we became an affiliate.

Whether you are about to start your own business, or need to rethink the way you run your business, Infusionsoft is a system that is worth looking into. If you want to learn more about Infusionsoft or need help getting started then please contact us.

To see the full infograph visit Focus Inc.

Measuring Social Media Marketing Results

Adrianne Machina — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:32:21 +0000

Don’t you love to see the results of your hard work? Whether it’s raking leaves or losing weight or building a successful social media marketing campaign, it’s a wonderful feeling to reflect on how far you’ve come.

But what happens when you get no results?

You change your strategy, right? Otherwise you’re wasting your time. A mighty smart man named Albert Einstein defined insanity as: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

As marketers we understand this, which is why we are always testing new marketing strategies and then carefully studying the results to ensure the highest impact and best possible ROI. Sometimes people think you can’t track social media marketing results – but oh, you can!

We get clients all the time who never track the results of their marketing efforts. None of them. When we ask what’s been successful, we get shoulder shrugs or “well…..we think that….” But no measurements because they’ve never tracked the results!

In fact, a recent survey by the Atlanta-based cloud marketing automation software vendor, Pardot, revealed that nearly 30 percent of B2B marketers are not tracking lead generation and sales that come from social media marketing. Even more shocking, 42% of marketers who were tracking results replied that zero or an uncertain number of sales leads resulted from social media programs.

Not tracking social media results effectively is common because so many businesses jumped into social media without having a strategy in place. They knew they had to “do something” with social media; so they did “something” – just not anything that was effective at building their business. Social media marketing is so much more than just gaining Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Part of your social media strategy must include tracking leads and sales that come from social media marketing efforts.

In a recent article, The Tech Journal summarized the other survey findings:

55% of respondents said contacting a social media-generated sales lead by phone or email is appropriate, even if the prospect had not invited the vendor to do so
Meanwhile, 48% said it is appropriate to respond to a prospect via social media, if the prospect contacted the vendor via email or phone first
100% of respondents said it is acceptable to invite a prospect to join a marketer’s online social networks, though some suggested the invites be limited to networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, Plaxo and YouTube, versus more personal sites like Facebook
31% said it is acceptable to critique a competitor via social media
64% of respondents used “internal, free tools”
Only 9% respondents rely on an outside agency or social media expert for help with social media marketing.

Do you have a social media marketing strategy in place that clearly defines why you are using social media and what you hope to gain from it? If you’re using social media, and not getting any results, then it’s time to change your strategy. If you don’t know how, then hire someone who does.

Oh hey, we do that! Click here for details.

Connect Your Facebook Business Page to Your Facebook Profile

Adrianne Machina — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:08:07 +0000

Many business professionals and small business owners are missing an easy marketing opportunity.

At the top of your personal Facebook profile page you have a chance to tell people more about yourself – including where you work. This profile overview is an excellent opportunity to direct potential customers to your Facebook business page.

By default, when you add your business to your personal page, you get an ugly, empty page like this one:

However, it’s easy enough to send people right to your beautifully designed Facebook Business Page. (If you don’t have a beautifully designed Facebook Business Page , this is something we do for our clients.)

If it’s not linked correctly you need to change it manually.
Follow these simple instructions to edit your profile and link to your Business page:
1.   Check that you have personally ‘liked’ your own Business page.
2.   From your personal profile page click ‘Edit Profile’.
3.   Choose ‘Education and Work’
4.   In the ‘Employer’ box type @ before the name of company page. (This is THE key step. NOTE: If you’ve already listed an employer, you’ll have to re-create it because Facebook won’t allow you to edit the company name.)

5.   Click the correct page on the pop up.
6.   Fill out your ‘position’ or Company Title.
7.   Click Add job.
8.   Delete the old employer information.

Now you’ve connected your personal Facebook profile with your Facebook Business Page there is less chance of losing those potential customers!

Save Time By Automating Your Twitter Account

Adrianne Machina — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 21:14:12 +0000

Tired of managing your Twitter by manually searching for people to follow and slowly growing your audience? Wouldn’t it be great to totally automate your Twitter account while still maintaining a personal feel? To do this, one of the tools we use is Tweet Adder. We love this project so much we became an affiliate.

This Twitter automation software has been available for a few years and it has seen continued popularity because of its low cost, high impact. There have been a few glitches here and there, like when Twitter blocked their link shortener, but for the most part Tweet Adder is a great product and one you should be using.

Tweet Adder is user friendly and fairly intuitive. Some of our favorite features include:

Targeted search capabilities that allow you to automatically follow a specified number of users each day based on keywords, location, and more. That way your Followers/Following ratio is balanced.
Automated Twitter Search that adds people using keywords you are interested in.
Multiple account management.
Randomizes automation so it seems more natural.
Automatically unfollows people who aren’t engaging with you.
In depth Twitter stats.
Scheduled Tweets that can be uniquely generated so you can say the same thing in different ways. This allows you to test the best way to get your message across!
Automated direct messages. Release a new book? Send a personalized message to all your Twitter followers and offer them a loyalty discount.

There are many more features listed on their website. Learn more about Tweet Adder by watching tutorials and be sure to download the free demo. We’re confident that once you try it you won’t know how you survived without it.

Infusionsoft Fall 2011 Release Highlights

Adrianne Machina — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:38:52 +0000

As small business owners, we understand how critical it is to be efficient – without being impersonal. We are always looking for ways to save time, make money and still provide excellent customer service. For these reasons, last year we made the switch to Infusionsoft, which we feel is the best automated marketing system out there. Yes, the switch has been a little bumpy, but fortunately, the product keeps getting better, and we keep on learning!

Infusionsoft does a great job listening to the needs of their customers and then following through with frequent product releases to make sure those needs are met. Infusionsoft’s Fall 2011 Release has some features that we are super excited about. One of the primary goals of the product release was to make building a strategic marketing campaign faster and easier. The company was able to do this with an improved Campaign Builder, an Interactive List View, increased Email Deliverability, New and Enhanced Reporting, E-Commerce Set-Up Wizard and other new features.

Campaign Builder

Building a campaign in Infusionsoft has always been a “sophisticated process” – meaning it took many steps on multiple screens, but as long as you did all the steps, you’d have a beautiful result. The new Campaign Builder makes the whole process way smoother and gives you more control.

The new Campaign Builder includes:

A “Big Picture” view of the campaign – You can see how the campaign pieces work together to automate the marketing process and easily access the individual pieces to edit them.
Added Flexibility – In the prior version, campaigns could only be started by a form being filled out on your website. Now, you have many options to trigger a campaign – new lead, prospect converting into a customer, actions taken – it’s your choice.
Visual Status Tracking – Red light/green light indicators make it clear what needs to be finished before the campaign can be launched.
Built-in Reporting – View campaign click-through response rates and completion numbers from the campaign view. You can also use the Campaign Stats widget to monitor multiple campaigns at once.

Interactive List View

The Interactive List View is replacing the default standard Grid View. You can still use the Grid View for the time being, but the Interactive Live View appears to be more user friendly. It is also customizable so you can display the most important fields for each Saved Search list.

The Interactive List View allows you to:

Add or View Notes
Update Tags
View and create a Task or Appointment
Update Follow-Up Sequences
Send an Email

Email Deliverability

Infusionsoft was already an industry leader in email campaigns, but now the company claims to have boosted email deliverability above 99% and made sending speeds up to 20 times faster for high volume email broadcasts.

New & Enhanced Reporting

Infusionsoft has three dashboards in Beta that are awaiting your feedback. They include:

New Dashboard Reports – AFlash-based reporting system with dynamic visual reports that display key performance statistics in graphical format with flexible filtering options.
Email Dashboard- A way to better target your audience with a comparative analysis of email engagement and complaint trends for Broadcasts and Follow-Up Sequences.
Opportunity Dashboard –A stage to stage conversion report that allows you to analyze lead distribution by sales rep and stage, as well as quickly see estimated revenue totals for these leads.

E-Commerce Setup Wizard

The reorganized step-by-step eCommerce Setup guide is intended to make the process of setting up an Infusionsoft shopping cart more intuitive.

For a visual walk through and to learn more about these and other enhancements check out the Infusionsoft Webinar. Not using Infusionsoft (https://crm.infusionsoft.com/go/infs/rperlmutter/ ) yet? Then consider making the switch so you can start saving time and money. Feel free to contact us to learn more.

Facebook For Business VS. Google+

Adrianne Machina — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:13:07 +0000

Google and Facebook are at it again. Shortly after Google+ was launched Facebook for Business went live. The timing couldn’t have been better for Facebook since Google failed to include businesses in the model for Google+.

What is Google+?

It is Google’s newest attempt at going social. Although user numbers are quickly climbing on an invitation only basis, it remains to be seen if this new social networking site will compete with Facebook. Google’s other attempts – Google Wave and Google Buzz – didn’t even come close, but the new “project” certainly shows more potential.

Google+ incorporated its already widely popular products such as Picasa, Google Maps, and others by making them more socially compatible. Similar to the Facebook news feed, Google+ has a Stream where user updates are displayed. There are four main components of a Google+ profile:

Circles – A way to keep friends, family, and work separate.
Hangouts – A virtual gathering for multiple people through live video chatting.
Huddles – A group mobile chat feature that allows you to make plans with multiple people.
Sparks – An aggregate of all the things you like and want to follow.

What is Facebook For Business?

It is an easy to use guide that shows existing users and newcomers how to utilize Facebook for business success. There aren’t any surprises for those who have already been using Facebook as part of their marketing strategy. Instead, the guide breaks down the process for businesses who aren’t using Facebook (or at least not using it well) to promote their brand. The step-by-step guide has four main components:

Pages – Your business profile.
Ads – Highly targeted advertisement
Sponsored Stories – Showing users who of their friends like your business.
Platform – Plugins and custom application.

So who is winning the race to the top? Facebook for now, but that could change very quickly. Google has over a billion users who could potentially join Google+. Facebook has just over a half a billion users, but many of them haven’t been pleased with customer service and privacy concerns.

One major hang-up with Google+, however, is the social networks inability to cater to businesses. Many businesses were ready to jump on board, but instead they were banned from using regular profiles. Google is planning to launch business profiles in the new future, but in the mean time Google+ has received a great deal of criticism for not considering businesses from the beginning.