Grow Your Business Exhibition

Email Newsletters are for corporates, aren't they?

When you are starting up your own business from home, you are probably starting with a small(ish) budget and limited resources.  And email newsletters may be a concept that you are familiar with, but feel that you need to spend a lot of money and time to get one published.

Not so.

Email newsletters are useful marketing tools for big companies and corporates and yes, these companies often spend hundreds, if not thousands of pounds, every month getting one published.  But did you know that as a self-employed professional or home business owner you can publish your own professionally designed email newsletter for as little as $15 a month?

Yes, that's right $15 - not £15, but $15!

There are plenty of web based email newsletter systems that you can subscribe to that involve no set-up charges, no design consultancy fees and no software to download on to your computer.

One such system that I recommend regularly is www.ConstantContact.com and is by far the easiest and simplest email newsletter system around.  It does have its limitations - there are no auto-responders on offer nor shopping cart system to help sell your products - but for a stand alone email newsletter system for someone with limited technical experience, it is a great one to start with.

For more top tips on email newsletters, come to my seminar on Email Newsletters at the Grow Your Business exhibition - register here

Do you know it takes 7 times?

7 times to do what?

To get your neighbour to stop parking their car across your drive way?

To get a 5 year old to eat brussel sprouts? To get your partner to buy you flowers on your birthday?

No! On average, you have to communicate with a potential customer 7 times before they will buy something from you.

What! 7 times I hear you cry. If I want someone to buy something from me, I have to speak to them or send them something 7 times before they are willing to part with their hard-earned money?

Yup, that's right.

Now, obviously some people will buy on impulse and buy something or a service from you there and then.

But if the average figure is 7, that also means that it could take some people 20 times or more before they are willing to trust you enough to buy from you.

Think about your own buying habits. You are watching Ugly Betty on a Friday night and an advert comes on for a new moisturiser. You open the magazine supplements on a Sunday morning and there is a full colour page advert for that same moisturiser and you kind of recognise it but you are not sure where from.

On Monday you are chatting away to a girlfriend who mentions that she has recently bought this amazing new moisturiser. And so it goes it on until you find yourself at Boots on the high street and you are standing opposite a big display stand promoting that very same moisturiser.

What the hell, you think and you throw it in to your shopping basket.

If you hadn't had seen the TV advert, glanced at the newspaper or heard your friend raving about the product, there would have been every chance you would have walked straight past that promo stand.

If you are running your own business, there is a very high probability that you do not have the budget to advertise during Ugly Betty nor take out a full colour ad in the Sunday Times Style magazine.

But you can create a buzz and get people talking about you and what your business offers.
Communicating with a potential customer doesn't always have to be about advertising (although it can certainly help if you target the right publications) and as a small business, probably on a budget, there are dozens and dozens of ways of communicating with your potential customers.

From speaking at local events to contributing on online discussion forums. From sending people Christmas cards to forwarding them interesting and relevant emails. From talking to people at networking events to phoning someone up to ask their opinion on something.

Communication opportunities are open to you each and every day. And if you think it can take, on average, 7 times of communicating with someone before they are willing to buy from you, isn't it worth being conscious on how you can improve your communication opportunities?

One of the most effective and cheapest way of ensuring you are communicating 7 times is publishing your own email newsletter.

Karen Skidmore runs CanDoCanBe.com which helps women build successful (and profitable!) home based businesses. She'll be speaking on Email Newsletters Made Easy at the Grow Your Business Event on 30th April.

Email Newsletters - Get Personal

It may be tempting when you run a business from home to “pretend” to be bigger than you actually are. You may not want your customers to know that you work from the kitchen table and sort out your washing between answering emails.

However, when building relationships with potential customers, especially building relationships online, the more personal you make your email newsletters, the better.

You don’t need to share your stories about how drunk you got at your cousin’s wedding last weekend or how your daughter has just been awarded a prize for her mathematical ability. But when you write your articles and “talk” to your subscribers, show your personality.

Be fun, be creative, be serious. You decide – it’s your personality. By showing your personality you will be more likely to open up the doors of communication and start to build relationships with the types of customers you want to work with.

Make it personal. After all it is your business.

Karen Skidmore runs CanDoCanBe.com which helps women build successful (and profitable!) home based businesses. She'll be speaking on Email Newsletters Made Easy at the Grow Your Business Event on 30th April.

Email Newsletter Made Easy - HTML or Text

When it comes to email newsletters a question that is asked a lot is HTML or Text – which is best?

The truth is that it really depends on your business and who it is you are communicating with. HTML makes the newsletter look “pretty” and allows you to add images, photos, colours and design. The downside is that many HTML emails, especially went sent out from a recognised email newsletter server, get stuck in the spam filters. And spam filters are getting hotter and hotter each and every year in stopping HTML emails.

Text emails are exactly that – text only. Black and white, no pictures and your copy writing has to be engaging to make up for the fact that there are no images to capture people’s attention. Yes, they are more likely to get through the spam filters but if your business is in image consultancy, graphic design or sells products that people need to “experience”, text just won’t work.

If you want to have the best chance to get through the spam filters, go for text. But if you want to engage with your audience and stand out in an inbox, a HTML email is the way forward. Yes, not all your emails will get through but the ones that do may make a bigger impact on your subscribers. (And more likely to act on your requests to buy from you!)

Karen Skidmore runs CanDoCanBe.com which helps women build successful (and profitable!) home based businesses. She'll be speaking on Email Newsletters Made Easy at the Grow Your Business Event on 30th April.

Email Newsletters Made Easy - Why lurkers are good for business

I wanted to share a story with you today on the subject on “lurkers” which I hope will show you how powerful a marketing tool an email newsletter can be.

I was at the Ascot Women’s Network last night as I was encouraged by Julia Hart, who hosts the events, to share my story of starting my own business.

A lady was in the audience and we got talking. I was amazed to realise that she first found me more than 2 years ago. She had read an article I had published in ABC Magazine offering top tips to help mums start up their own business. We spoke on the phone briefly and she subscribed to my newsletter.

For the past 2 years she has been “lurking”. Reading each and every newsletter and watching CanDoCanBe grow and develop as a business support network for women. She told me that my articles have inspired her and helped her stick to her plan – taking a life coach accreditation whilst she worked part-time with her 2 children at school. Now ready to start a business around her life coaching skills, she wants to work with me on a 1–2–1 basis.

2 years of “lurking” – 2 years of inspiring her with top tips and practical advice – 2 years of building a relationship with her through my email newsletter has meant that I have not had to “sell myself”. She has come to me and wants me to be her Business Mentor to help plan her new business.

Where are your “lurkers” and how can you build a relationship with them?

Karen Skidmore runs CanDoCanBe.com which helps women build successful (and profitable!) home based businesses. She'll be speaking on Email Newsletters Made Easy at the Grow Your Business Event on 30th April.