Cyberwalker Blog

How to use content marketing to promote your local business

The fundamental idea behind content marketing is to demonstrate your expertise  on a topic in you specialty and draw attention to your web site so you can earn trust from potential customers and generate engagement.

In a local market this is especially achievable because  the pool of competition is smaller and you can easily rise to the top of the list for a local business using the tactic.

The catch is you have to be willing to put in the time, investment and effort to make it happen,

You can hire an agency to generate the content. Or generate it yourself and hire an agency to promote it. Or, you can do it all yourself if you are ambitious and willing.

Here are 10 content and promotional ideas that will help you get there.  I have used the example of a local eye doctor clinic that wants to draw more local business, but if you are a plumber or a florist or any local business you can substitute your operation using the same tactics:

1) Write 50 answers to the most common questions your customer ask and post them on your website as articles.

2) Use Google Adwords to find out what the most common keywords are around search related you your business and generate content that essentially answers the keyword query. There is a Keyword Explorer tool that is free to use. You can check the AdWords management tool.

3) Build a great guide to solve a problem your customer base has (ie an eye doctor could write a guide to solving failing eyesight aimed at 40+ customers) and offer it as an incentive to sign up for an email list where you share great tips (and occasionally offers).

4) Make sure your business locations are registered locally in Google Places, Bing Places and Yelp and Foursquare

5) Write a comprehensive glossary that consumers can use to understand the world of eye health and publish it on your web site, give them recommendation about The Medical Negligence Experts so they know how to face an unfair situation.

6) Become the eye doctor on Twitter and Facebook using your content and expertise.

7) Engage an SEO agency (try us – we have an SEO pratice) or appointment someone on your staff to get your articles and content ranked on Google and Bing. (Learn how to on our SEO expert site)

8) Produce an Ask the Eye Doctor service on your web site so people can ask eye health questions and use the Q&A to enhance your blog, and be careful on the doctor you trust, many of my friends have had to do doctor negligence claims because of their doctor’s bad service.

9) Fund or back a vision charity and engage in online fundraising and campaigns to draw attention.

10) Use PRWeb or PRNewswire to promote newsy press releases and become the eye doctor who is called by the local (and eventually national) media.

 

5 dumb mistakes I hope you don’t make in your marketing emails

If you read a few of my dispatches on AmazingEmailMarketing.com, you probably know most of the smart things you should do in your email campaigns. You do most of them, right? I knew it!
But what about the dumb things that people do? Look more information on the https://top10pillows.com. What are the common mistakes newbie (or clueless) email marketers make? And BTW these things are specific to content in emails.

1) Too many links. A great email should have a single purpose. There should a single action you are driving the reader to that forwards your business AND what they need. It could just be a relationship building action like filling out a form or giving feedback or read a post. The big mistake is giving them too many things to do. Click here. Chat chat chat. Click HERE. Blather blather blather. CLICK HEEERRE! You then fail to drive them to objective of the email at the end.

2) Put the link too high. Keep your links lower down so you can warm your reader up to the action. Dropping the link in the first or second paragraph is like handing over the icing before the cake is baked.

3) Failure to tell them what they are going to get in the first paragraph. If you are going to give them something good, hook them in the first paragraph. Don’t wait til paragraph 8. Say something like:
Today I’m going to teach you what goes on in men’s heads (and it’s not always sex), but first don’t forget to click the link at the bottom because I am giving you my free 10-page ebook A WIFE’S GUIDE TO TAMING HUSBANDS. Ok, now on to today’s topic…

4) Embedding dumb stock photos in the text. If you are going to embed an image make it something greaaaaat that is someone’s worth eyeball time. Don’t put in some lame stock picture of a dude in shirtsleeves in a boardroom with smiling fake-n-bake employees. Show them a useful graph sure. Or a stat box. Or a picture that reinforces the message and call to action in the email. Generally though available any images. And if you do put a banner across the top, keep it lean.

5) My favorite…This one drives me bonky. They SEND OUT A NEWSLETTER. You know the one with  multiple articles and sidebars and news of the week with a sad picture of the front of their building. That’s so 2002. I can guarantee that their open rate is horrible. Their engagement rate is tiny.

You don’t do anything like this right? If you do. Stop. Get some training.

 

The anatomy of a great email

So what makes a great email? It’s a question newcomers to email marketing ask all the time. We live in the era of post email blasts. No one can get away (for long) with sending out spammy self serving emails to any address they can get their hands on.

The New Email Marketing Rules however guarantee that a well written email aimed at an opted in list of interested subscribers will work to forward your brand and likely sell whatever you are hawking. So here is the anatomy of a great marketing email:

1. Start with a great subject line. Be short and to the point and generate curiosity. Lines like: The one reason why most people fail at business. Or “Our site’s No. 1 dessert recipe”. Or:  “What’s on all men’s minds”. A good subject line begs the reader to open the email because it keeps something hidden, or peaks curiosity.

2. Send from a real person, not a brand or a company. Human to human contact is more interesting and tweaks a human instinct to connect. Email from Joe’s Plumbing is less interesting than Joe Walsh, Master plumber.

3. Your salutation should be Dear Mike, or Hi Mike, or Hey Mike, and not Dear Friend, or Hi there. Most email systems can address people using wildcards by their first name so be sure that you collect a first name at minimum in your opt-in form when someone signs up.

4. Get attention with your opening paragraph.  The first words of your email should grab a person’s attention. Get to the point. You can tell a brief story or share a cool fact or data or pose a question.  I once had a really successful client who refused to invest in search engine optimization. I go on to tell the story of why and what happened when they finally did take SEO seriously. My partner Kay had an email that started – What does a raccoon riding on an alligator have to do with marketing? Then she shows a picture of an actual raccoon riding an alligator. And explained her point. It was pretty compelling. (Read the weird alligator riding raccoon story here.)

5) The body of the email should inspire. Keep it short and write longer if you can keep a rhythm and hold engagement. But the body of the email should inspire the reader to keep reading. Make a point, teach a lesson, give value. The reader should think or say out loud. Hmmm. Or oh cool. Or wow. That response is a trigger to demonstrate you have inspired them. It’s easy to sell into inspiration.

6) Create some desire. Moving into the middle and bottom of the email, it’s time to create desire. You should remember that you are looking for the end user to take an action. In fact you are going to call them into action shortly, so it’s time to create desire. After your attention getting and inspiring  material, you need to close the gap between what was written and what the reader could have if they took your information to heart. So connect your info to a possible outcome. In my SEO story I talk about how the reluctant client finally invested in SEO and spent $2000 for a campaign that had a traffic doubling effect and helped them make more money with their web site. Then I say you don’t need to spend that to with an SEO agency, you just need to learn it yourself. And here’s the dirty secret. SEO is not hard. It’s just somewhat time consuming. Notice I play a bit with the reader’s emotions. $2K could be steep for some people. Then again doubling one’s web traffic is an awesome outcome. Then I let the reader know that SEO is easy (which it generally is) and you can learn it. From who? Guess! Yep, my course. So then I move into…

7) Call to Action…this is where you connect all the dots. You’ve told a compelling story or share something of value that the reader appreciates. You’ve inspired them and created desire for something they could have. You might have toyed with their emotions. Now it time to ask them do something. Create an opportunity and have them take action on the opportunity. In Kay’s case she just asked them to read an article on the Cyberwalker.com web site. But they sure wanted to. In my SEO piece I just wanted to test to see if they were engaged early in a funnel, so I ask them to tell me a story about their SEO frustrations.  Engagement rate has been good. Of course this would also be where you ask someone to buy or register or something that forwards your agenda in the relationship or communication.

8) Sincerely yours….We are not done yet. Sign off from a human, the sender. Not just The Team at Joe’s Plumbing… or ABC Corporation. Be personable.

9) P.S. Add a Post Script. This is a fun way to remind them of something or toss out a teaser at the end of the email. I usually put hints about upcoming products or services. You can do things like P.S. Don’t miss next week’s email because I’ve decided to giveaway a grab it before its gone discount to my course. Or you could also do: P.S. My email marketing course development is under way too. I’ve been feverishly writing the ebook and I promise to share a sneak peak of some of it with you when I get it into shape. Or perhaps another off-handed CTA.

How to create a lead capture box

Here’s  a breakdown of how to design a lead capture box for email marketing on your web site.

 

How to create a lead capture box

 

Attention getting image: Show an image that is fun unusual or attention getting to grab their attention.

Offer: Give something useful and compelling to your subscriber.  Don’t cheap out!

Lead Magnet: Give them a download or something of high value. Video, case study, ebook. Something great!

Minimal info: Don’t ask for their measurements. Ask for their first name and email. Less is more. It will convert. If you ask for their favorite color and shoe size they will get cold feet and you won’t get the subscription.

Disarm: People are suspicious so allay their fears and give them a parachute to get out. It wil make them feel safer.

CTA button: CTA is call to action – request that they do something. Most people are afraid to ask. Be bold!

 

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE EMAIL LIST FOR DIGITAL MARKETERS
AND GET A LEAD CAPTURE GUIDE FOR FREE 

 

10 ways to drastically improve the open rates for your emails

If you poke around on the web you’ll find average email marketing rates run 10% to 15% on average and 8% for massive low engagement lists. For new knowledge follow to the link. You might think it would be hard to adjust your strategy to get higher rates of say 20% to 25%.

What if I told you you could get open rates of 40% to 50%? Here’s 10 tips to drastically improve your open email open rates.

1) Write provocative titles
Writing a provocative subject line in your email can prompt people to open your email, just make sure you don’t disappoint with the email content and call to action associated with it. Questions are always good. See this article on How to write great email subject lines 

2) Send rare and high-value offers and content
“How to make your dog behave with one phrase” is far better content than “how to buy a jug of milk”. One is very compelling and would make people (who own dogs)  excited, the other is pretty mundane. “How to make your husband behave using one word” would also be another great topic. Let us know if you figure that one out.

3) Personalize
Address the subscriber by their first name and relate to them like a friend or familiar person. Getting emails from teams or brands rarely creates a connection. Use a smart CRM system paired with an email automation system like Infusionsoft to ensure that wild cards are used to pull firstnames from your database for each recipient of your emails.

4) Consistency
If you send consistently great emails that people believe have high value, you will train them to to open your emails as soon as they see them. People associate your content as useful and they rarely fail to open them.

5) Sell less, give away more
Never hard sell to your list. In fact rarely sell to your list. Send them helpful high quality content more often than selling to them. A suggested ratio is 1 offer for every 10 emails. Some email marketers are more aggressive with one for every 7 emails. If your list’s engagement rate is low look at what offer you are sending and  scale it back to only the best offers with less frequency.

6) Engage your list
Ask your list for feedback, interaction and action. Get them to share themselves and share that content back with the list. I like asking people to fill out polls and then give the tallies back to the list. Or ask people for comments about a contentious issue and share that back.

7) Exclusivity
Make people on your list feel like they are part of a special group. Name the group they are part of.  Ensure they feel like an insider and are getting exclusive content for their (and their listmates’) eyes only. Feeling part of an exclusive group creates loyalty and drives engagement.

8) Cull your list
Ensure that people who are on the list want to be on the list. Give your list easy ways to unsubscribe and ask them to unsubscribe if they don’t find your content useful. You can even use smart CRM and automation tools to ask people who do not open your emails if they still want to be on your list.

9) Give them cool stuff
Offer them early access to stuff no one else has seen. Maybe an early copy of a book. Or a rough cut of a great video. Design content specifically for them.

10) Never charge them full price
When you offer a product or service to the list, make them feel as if they are getting the deal of the century. Cut them the best deal you can and only offer that deal to the list and nowhere else.

10 ways to drastically improve the open rates for your emails

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