The Weekend Reader is posted every Sunday with my favorite eye-catching, inspiring, innovative and informative articles of the week.
Weekend Reader: August 1 Edition
Writing an E-Newsletter that Gets Results: “E-newsletters allow a business to stay in touch with its customers on a regular basis. They give you the opportunity to establish yourself as a “thought leader” in your area of expertise, be that in designing toys for rare parrots or providing software to keep your personal finances straight. They are also a great way to create viral marketing, because if your customers find the information useful they may forward your e-newsletter to others, thereby helping you grow your customer base.” [Inc.com]
How Email Marketing Can Supercharge Your SEO & PPC Campaigns: “If you’re investing in search engine marketing and are NOT using email marketing to complement it, you’re leaving a lot of easy cash on the table, particularly if the search engine marketing is working.” [Blue Sky Factory]
10 Steps to Effective Online Marketing For Small Businesses: “If you are a marketing professional in charge of your small/medium sized business’ (SMB) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Inbound marketing, you are not alone. According to Marketing Sherpa, SMBs spend roughly 20% more on staff salaries to handle SEO & internet marketing than do large sized businesses who tend to out-source this activity. For this reason, it is critical that SMB marketers focus carefully. Here are the abbreviated 10 steps to effective marketing online: [Hubspot – Small Business Blog]
How To Develop A Crystal Clear Understanding Of Your Customer: “If you can develop an intimate familiarity of how your target audience operates, what motivates them emotionally, what language they use to describe their problems and how their problem impacts their life in real, external and tangible ways, the easier it is to succeed in that market. All aspects of your business are derived from your understanding of your customer, and if you are working off of assumptions, you’re making mistakes and not likely enjoying the level of success you could.” [Entrepreneurs Journey]
5 Old Sales Tricks Made New Again: “Anyone ever take one of the old sales trainings from back in the day – Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, etc.? There were tons of interesting tips and tricks for sales folks from a time when sales people had to work insanely hard with terrible tools (or no tools at all) and still make their numbers. No Salesforce.com or Zoho CRM to remind you who you forgot to call, no social media or SEO to bring prospects to your door, nothing but your leather binder, day planner, telephone, and a suit & tie. Some of the tricks from those old trainings can be modernized, though, and some can be brought back as huge differentiators in the digital world. Here’s a few.” [Christopher S. Penn]
image credit: ming xia
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