by Tracy Needham

So what works when it comes to building your email list?
According to Marketing Sherpa’s Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008, that depends on who your target subscribers are. They surveyed more than 1,200 businesses as to what techniques generated the highest volume and best quality subscribers (i.e. people who are good prospects). 
If your customers [...]

Actually, a better question is, “Who are the people who could have a BIG impact on taking your business to the next level?” It could be a huge client, a mentor, a key referral source, or a journalist from your favorite business publication. Do you know who they are? Are you trying to figure out [...]

Last week’s ezine discussed how to improve your chances of closing the sale during an initial consultation or phone call by pre-selling the prospect ahead of time. Done right, the prospect shows up knowing they want to work with you instead of still deciding if they will.
We also discussed one copy element which is critical [...]

When you’re selling services, closing the sale often requires an actual conversation, whether you call it a sample session, free consultation, or just an appointment. But savvy business owners know you can improve your success—and make that conversation shorter and easier—if you do a good job of pre-selling the prospect ahead of time.
Instead of having [...]

For one glorious day in Minneapolis, MN, we were treated like movie stars. A few weeks ago, my mastermind group gathered there a meeting and video shoot. This is a new service fellow mastermind member Viki Vertel of Digital Buddha Studios is launching for small business owners, but you would have thought she and her [...]

Click on a link in an email or online ad and most likely you’ll end up on what’s called a “landing page.” A landing page is a specific type of web page, designed to prompt the reader to take one action—whether that’s signing up for a free report, buying a product, or contacting you for [...]

A blog can be a valuable business-building tool because it showcases your expertise, increases your visibility, enhances your Know-Like-Trust factor with prospects, clients and other contacts, and improves your search-engine ranking.
In fact, I think every business can benefit from having a blog—but I don’t think every one should have one. So here are four reasons [...]

I listened in on a call with the Blog Squad last week, where they shared the top mistakes they see in blog design. They include FAILING to have:

Good, interesting content
Your name on the main page–and leaving visitors to wonder who is behind the wheel
Photo on either the main page or [...]

Wait—wasn’t email supposed to kill direct mail? Despite the dire prophecies in the early days of the internet world, direct mail is not dead. In fact, with everyone else focusing their efforts online, your message sent via old-fashioned “snail mail” now stands a better chance than ever of getting read.
Email is definitely an important tool [...]

Fun, fun–The rules to keep you from running afoul of the 2003 CAN-SPAM law continue to grow. Four new ones will go into force at the end of June 2008 and will apply to all “commercial” email campaigns, regardless of list size.
If you’re already trying to play by the rules, the rules do include one [...]