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Best Practices - Call to Action

Read through your email that you are about to send out to your target audience.

How clear is your call to action?  What are you asking your reader to do?

I am amazed at how often this obvious feature of a good email campaign is missing.   Even if you are sending a news item or a transactional email, a clear and well placed call to action will elevate the response of your email. 

Examples include:

• Order by Monday to receive the 10% discount.
• Download the report for more information
• Try our new recipe using Mesquite Marinade.

I enjoy the emails sent by Blue Moon Dueling Piano Bar & Restaurant.  The call to action is obvious in the right top corner, where it says, "$1 Margarita Click Here" and that takes me to a printable coupon.  (However, the same email requires me  to scroll down to find information about the promotional event, which I may never see because I have clicked to print the coupon.) 

Preview emails for the call to action and see what you find. 

Cool Marketing Resource - article2video.com

Wow, here is a bright idea!  I am not sure if the concept of putting an article into video format is a good idea, but if it seems to be worth a test. 

One trial is allowed for free.  www.article2video.com

Check it out, comment here!

Best Practices - Apply the "BEEPD" Strategy...

Struggling to figure out how to manage your social media marketing? 

Struggling to find the right route through the web of social media?

Stop straying in all different directions, quit wasting time in the wrong traffic.

Get BEEPD!

Here's a simple process that will work.  Keep it handy, the world of social media can be very enticing.   And so far, there are a few spots that have proven to be worthwhile for business marketing:

1. Brainstorm at your blog.
2. Elaborate at your web site.
3. Email to announce.
4. Promote at Twitter.
5. Discuss on LinkedIn.

© Kathryn Towner, WinCommunications

Highlight of the Week - PDI Committee Meeting

Ok, this may be the ONLY time I say this...the committee meeting I attended yesterday was the highlight of my day!

Here's why:

1. Our committee of 12 from around the state of Iowa met via telephone.  This cost effective, time-sensative strategy allows me to keep working until the moment we meet and get back to work as soon as we are done.  I am able to take notes and research issues on my computer as we talk.  And we do truly get straight to the "work" of the committee.

2. The first topic of discussion was social media. Our moderator, the Professional Developers of Iowa Director, asked the question, "What social media do you use and what results do you see?"  I learned that among this group of professionals, Linked-In is the most popular social media tool.  Facebook was mentioned, but was used for more personal connections.  Almost everyone had a Twitter account, but almost noone had a real strategy for results.  And YouTube got the nod for posting training and promotional videos.

So, the takeaway?  The three tools worth my time seem to be Linked-In, Twitter, and YouTube. 

The challenge? Integrating the tasks of marketing via social media with existing tools like web site content management, blog posts, email newsletters and online forums. 

So, here is my suggested organizational structure for distributing online marketing content:

1. Begin with the blog.  Jot down ideas and collect responses here.
2. Repurpose for the web.  Refine, support, detail and edit your ideas for posting to a web page. 
3. Summarize in your newsletter.  Email your target audience, explain the relevance of your idea, link to your web page.
4. Promote via Twitter. Write about ideas, link to your web page, ask for retweets.
5. Solicit feedback and create discussion on Linked-In.  Contact your groups, link to the ideas on your web page, and ask a relevant question to open discussion.
6. Go live on YouTube.  Prepare a related interview and post to YouTube.