Despite its effectiveness, HTML email marketing is a trend many businesses are afraid to tackle. This is with good reason too. While HTML can enhance email messages by making them easier to read, it can also lead to increased costs in terms of creation, as well as numerous compatibility issues. Fortunately, there are a few ways to deal with these problems and make the most of your email marketing campaign. Here are a few formatting tips that should come in handy when designing your HTML messages.
Go with a Simple Layout
HMTL email layouts range from simple and intuitive to advanced and incredibly complex. If you want the best results for your business, we suggest keeping things as simple as possible. This will help you save a lot of time and spare yourself of a headache in the process. It will also help to ensure that emails can be read faster and easier by your customers.
Good Coding Practices
The overall effectiveness of an HTML email marketing campaign mainly boils down to the quality of the coding. Sometimes it is just that simple. Therefore, you need to ensure that whoever is handling your design creations is proficient at HTML programming. Whether it is you or someone else, always make sure they are working with clean code and double check for any errors that may have been overlooked. This will also aid in better performance when your recipients go to read the message.
Adequate Amount of White Space
If you are using HTML to create your emails, then it is absolutely critical to have a proportionate amount of free white space in the layout. There is a very fine line between having too much and too little, but it must be determined in order to maintain a professional appearance. If you cannot find a way to balance this out, then excessive white space will make your messages look bland and unappealing while too little will make them appear congested and untidy. You should play around with the template until you find the balance that gives your emails the perfection you desire.
Give Your Customers a Choice
Your customers will really feel valued if you give them the option to choose between HTML or text emails. You have to consider that some email clients do not support HTML and others may not properly display the contents of the message. For this reason, it is better to play it safe and provide your customers with the power of choice. While this will call for a little more work, it could be worth it in terms of maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction.
Test and Review
It is a good rule of thumb to always test and review your HTML email before launching the marketing campaign. You might want to check to see how it looks on various devices for the benefit of your recipients who may read their email on a PDA or mobile phone. Once you have been assured that no …
Martial Arts Business Internet Marketing Reminders
Just about sixty-three percent of consumers will go to the internet to do research about your martial arts business before they contact you. About eighty-percent will start with a search engine.
Once they land on your site your you have about three seconds to capture their attention. If you don’t have some sort of lead generating and capture device your prospective martial arts student will go right on to the next martial arts business and forget about you.
Use compelling offers and give good value to get a lead into your marketing funnel.
When it comes to search engines.
To stay ahead on Internet Marketing trends it’s best to watch the big boys…
The big boys like Google of course – but also big internet retailers. Why? Because the competition for search engine placement is fierce for these companies.
Competing in your local area for search engine placement is easy compared to what these companies fight for!
So here’s what happened…
Back in April of 2010 Google made changes to their algorithm. One retailer, Ham-Go Dot Com, dropped from 5000 visitors per day to just 1200! OUCH!
Search Engine Optimization is something that needs to be kept up on if you want your martial arts business to remain visible.
Why?
– Changes like the one described above.
– New Competition coming into the market.
– And competitors who get savvy.
An 80% drop in your web traffic would not be good thing.
Of course – and 80% increase would be nice wouldn’t it?? So be sure your website for your martial arts school is based on solid marketing principles. Then, maintain your search engine strategy.…
9 Simple Steps To Get A Strong Web Presence For Your Local Business Without Ever Having A Website
If you are any sort of business owner the you are probably aware that not having a web presence can be a real drawback when it comes to the true earning potential of your business. This is especially true for local small business owners. You see, years ago small business owners didn’t have to have any sort of web presence to make money and compete with other businesses offering the same services. Those days are long gone. These days it is essential for your offline business to have some sort of internet presence to compete in today’s business world.
It most cases when you think of promoting your business online you think of having a website, correct? Many local business owners think this is the only way to accomplish this and many of them are turned off of the idea either because they do not know how to build a website or because they do not have the budget to hire someone to build one for them.
What if I told you that you do not necessarily need a website to have a strong online presence? Would that interest you? I am about to share with you 1 strategy that you can use to get your local business more exposure and ultimately more customers from the world wide web.
OK, one of the best ways to do this is by creating YouTube videos. This method if used correctly can dramatically increase the amount of exposure your business gets and can have your business well known in cyber space. Don’t worry, you do not have to be a rocket scientist to create your own YouTube videos. In fact it is very easy to do!
Here is all you need to do:
Step 1 – Find some easy to use video creation software. If you are using a PC you can use Windows Movie Maker which should already be on your computer. If it isn’t then you should be able to download it free somewhere.
Step 2 – Get some pictures related to your business together. These can be either pictures that you take or pictures that you grab from the internet. Put all of your images somewhere easy to find on your computer.
Step3 – Find some royalty free music to use. You can find this by doing a quick Google search.
Step 4 – Load your pictures in to your video creator software. Put them in the order you like.A�
Step 5 – Create a slide to place at the end of the video with all of your business details such as name, address, email and phone number.
Step 6 – Save the video on your desktop. Make sure it is saved in a format applicable for YouTube.
Step 7 – Create a YouTube account for your business.
Step 8 – Upload your video to the site. Make sure that you use a catchy title that has your business name in it and the area that you’re located if possible. …
Affiliate Marketing – What Are the Keys to Get Success in Affiliate Marketing Business?
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular online businesses. At this time lots of people are trying to make money through affiliate marketing, but more than 90% of new affiliate marketers fail in their affiliate marketing business according to researches. So, make sure that you are avoiding some common mistakes that are often done by new affiliates. Avoid hypes and take affiliate marketing as a business.
Here are the keys to get success in your affiliate marketing business:
1. Find good products to promote:
One of the must-be-done things for making sells is to find hot products to promote. Choose a product which is really hot in online market. Invest a little time to find hot selling products. Promoting hot selling products will help you for making your sells. It is always easy to sell hot products.
One more thing you should consider that you are not promoting a product which is making too many hypes about itself, especially if you are promoting an Internet-marketing product.
2. Proper keyword research:
Once you choose some products to promote, then you should do proper keyword research. Keywords are the searched words, people use these words when try to find something on Google and search engine.
You should find the keywords related with your niche which has low competition and high in demand. Keyword research also takes time, but it must to find profitable keyword before writing and submitting articles to ezine directories. You must write articles on keywords and it is better to find at least 25 profitable keywords for each product you are going to promote.
3. Setting up a blog or website:
A blog or website is a platform for you to promote digital products. It makes a picture about you. So, when you set up a blog or website, you should consider about the design and the content of it. Your content should offer something unique to be read. Post 5 to 10 informational articles about the product you are promoting. Give them information again and again for free, and make them eager about your niche. Eventually, you will find that your visitors are willing to buy the product you are promoting.
4. Generating quality traffic:
High quality targeted traffic is the key for all types of internet business. So, concern about your traffic and its quality. Article marketing, PCC advertising and Search engines are the best ways to get targeted traffic. If you get more targeted traffic, then you will have more sells and more affiliate money.
Affiliate marketing is like a business. If you put efforts to grow your affiliate marketing business consistently, then there is no reason for failure.…
Letting Your Competitors Know You Mean Business Through Article Marketing
Any website owner who aims to get more exposure for his website to increase profitability knows that he needs to maximize all possible avenues to drive traffic to his website. After all, the more people who click on your website, the more hits you get, and the higher your potential profit will be. Here are a few tips that you can keep in mind when it comes to creating content that matters:
Keywords totally matter. Many people underestimate the power of keywords! If you are serious about driving more traffic to your website, these are the words that will make the difference, so choose them wisely. Remember that you are competing with countless others who have similar websites, so you need to stand out. Use keyword research tools like WordTracker and Google AdWords if you must.
all about benefits. The number-one question readers will be asking when they read your content is “What’s in it for me?” Understandably, it’s all about how your content will benefit them – otherwise, there is really no point in reading it. Make sure that your articles address these needs directly in a way that will motivate them to respond. Make it all about them, not all about you.
Make a good first impression. In article marketing, this translates to creative titles that grab attention immediately. Never undervalue the importance of great titles. Studies show that attention-grabbing content catches the reader’s eye for the first few seconds. Your content should be able to do this if you want them to devote time to reading your articles. Also, your titles should be keyword-savvy – meaning all the right keywords are injected in it so they also rank high on search results.…
3 Affiliate Marketing Tips – Turn Your Business Into a Win-Win Adventure
Affiliate marketing involves promoting someone else’s products in order to collect a commission every time you bring in leads or help make a sale. The exact terms of what you have to do in order to earn that commission will vary from one opportunity to another, but anyone with a solid knowledge of online marketing techniques can turn this into a business that wins in terms of finances as well as personal enjoyment.
Stick with What You Know
The easiest products to market are going to be those that you know at least a little something about. It is very difficult to come up with compelling ads and write informative, accurate articles and web content if you don’t know what you are talking about and have no foundation of information on the subject at hand. It is also not as enjoyable to work with a product day after day that you don’t understand.
For instance, if you have been an avid runner since you were a teenager you could easily market an eBook about running but might really struggle to effectively market a product related to boxing. You would do better to find a variety of products related to running or physical fitness and weight loss and create an affiliate marketing business around those things that you are already informed about.
Select Products with Integrity
There are thousands upon thousands of products out there that you could include in your affiliate marketing business, but many of them simply are not worth marketing. You should find products that you really stand behind and believe have some value to other people and disregard the low quality trash and products that don’t have a wide receptive audience. You are going to be attaching yourself to these products and marketing them, so it’s best if you believe in them and allow that conviction to carry through to sales.
For instance, a weight loss eBook that simply regurgitates all of the basic old school information that can be found online for free is not going to sell as well as a very unique, in-depth exercise program that delivers video workouts, an eBook packed with workout moves, and innovative information on how to eat healthy.
Imagine yourself on TV doing an infomercial for the product. Everyone you know will see this infomercial and maybe buy the product because you are recommending it. If you would be uncomfortable doing that then chances are you can find better products for your affiliate marketing business.
Know a Product’s Value
When determining how much money and time to spend marketing a specific product you need a realistic idea of what you may earn in commissions from helping make sales. If you are likely to make very little then it is a losing battle if you spend a lot of money trying to bring in interested buyers. This is why it is beneficial to select a variety of products within the same niche so your marketing efforts will all be directed …
5 Internet Marketing Tips to Fast Track Your Online Home Based Business to Success
Internet marketing can sometimes be an overwhelming topic for people who are just starting out online with their home based business. However, if you break it down into its most basic components and research each part one at a time the topic becomes much less intimidating. Bearing this in mind here are 5 tips to help you get off to a fast start with your Internet enterprise:
1. Driving traffic to your website is one of the most important strategies you’ll have to devise during your online career. And one of the first things you must understand is you aren’t going to get thousands or even hundreds of visitors to your web page overnight.
This is a scalable progression that builds over time and with patience and this is how you should approach it. However, you do need a plan when you’re starting out and you must have a system in place for tracking your results so you can make adjustments if, and when, they’re needed.
2. Of course increased traffic usually translates into increased sales; unfortunately most people just starting out on the Web have limited budgets and can’t afford the faster, paid generation methods such as AdWords. Therefore, these people should consider more cost effective methods such as article marketing, video marketing, blog and forum commenting as well as forum banners.
3. Try to make friends with your fellow Internet marketers, especially the more experienced ones, as soon as possible. Networking is just as important with an online home business as it is with an offline enterprise. Therefore, when you associate yourself with successful people and establish relationships with them a whole new world of opportunity will present itself for your Internet venture.
4. Always try to give your website visitors what they want. People are on your home page for a reason and more often than not they’re trying to solve a problem they have or they’re looking for more information on a certain topic, which led them to your website. So try to keep your target market in mind at all times when you’re adding new content to your website.
5. To ensure a steady flow of constant targeted visitors to your site try to concentrate on generating organic traffic. These are people who are directed to your website by Google and company as a result of unpaid techniques which is often defined as search engine optimization.
The most successful SEO tactics you can use include optimizing your website for your related keywords and creating back links to your home page through methods such as article marketing and forum and blog commenting.
If you can use these Internet marketing tips on a regular basis your road to success with your online home based business should be a shorter and much smoother ride.…
Why Your Credit Card Processor is Holding Your Business Funds
You’ve had a very promising start to your business and are looking forward to reinvesting funds to chase your goals. However, you check your merchant account and find that a hold has been placed on your funds. Plans stall, frustration sets in, and now you’re wondering what it all means and where do you go from here. Most importantly, how are you going to pay bills on time? What should you do when card processors hold funds?
First, it’s important to know the difference between a merchant account hold, also known as a “funds hold” and a merchant account freeze.
What is a Merchant Account Hold?
A merchant account hold happens when a credit card processor pauses settlements and holds all processed funds in security. This is why you’re not seeing the money deposited into your merchant account. (Keep in mind a hold differs from an ACH delay or rolling reserve; these are an internal issue at the acquirer or processor level.)
There are many reasons why your provider might choose to withhold your funds. In the event that your provider says you broke the terms of your contract, you could wait up to 180 days to receive your funds. Common reasons why a hold might occur include limiting risk and chargebacks. The primary reason a processor will hold funds is to limit the risk of a merchant closing their account while they still owe fees, chargebacks and fraud.
They may also choose to hold funds to ensure there is money available in case chargebacks occur. Having funds on hold helps to shield them from suffering losses due to a merchant conducting fraudulent transactions, and to ensure they can pay any accompanying fees.
What is a Merchant Account Freeze?
A merchant account freeze is similar to a hold, but a freeze is a worst-case scenario for merchants. When a freeze happens, your business will no longer be able to accept credit and debit card transactions. To complicate matters further, any and all income from recent transactions will not be deposited until the processor lifts the freeze.
How to Avoid and Fix Account Holds
The most important thing is to be transparent and communicate clearly when it comes to your merchant account. Before partnering with a processor, spend some time going over the terms and conditions in the agreement so you can avoid unnecessary holds and freezes. Make sure you only use your merchant account for your business (not another business or person), and only sell items that you agreed on initially.
It’s also important to keep in touch with your processor over any and all changes to your business. For example, if you starteded out processing around $10,000 in transactional volume per month, but you suddenly experience rapid growth and it jumps to $40,000 per month, you’ll need to let your processor know. Another big thing to manage diligently is chargebacks. Find a processor that can help you fight against and protect your business from chargebacks.
All in all, …
10 Great Strategies When You Establish An Online Business
Building an online business is an exciting time. There is so much to look forward to – and a lot to get wrong as well.
So here are my top 10 considerations to think about when you are first thinking about starting out:
Tip 1 – Select a niche you are keen on:
You will probably be spending quite a bit of time on your new online business, so select a niche that you enjoy, not one that you just consider will make the largest profit. There is money to be made in pretty much every niche if you approach it sensibly, so you may as well enjoy the ride.
Tip 2 – Don’t get ahead of yourself:
There is a lot to take on board when you are starting out online for the first time. Take it one point at a time and only think about developing a new area of expertise when you have mastered the last one, otherwise you will end up struggling with "information overload" and begin making mistakes.
Tip 3 – Be mindful of the LARGER picture:
Whatever niche you select will have a direct influence on the overall size of your marketplace. Decide upon a relatively small sector and you will reach fewer potential customers than if you specialize in a bigger marketplace. It does not mean that you are bound to make less profit in a less significant niche, but you ought to think about your long-term goals and how big you want to eventually make your internet business.
Tip 4 – You MUST be prepared to work hard at it:
Developing an internet marketing venture is identical to building any offline business – you need to be ready to commit the time, effort and work at the beginning if you are wanting to benefit from the rewards later on. Do not expect to do well by devoting only half an hour here and there on your new venture, it will call for a more dedicated and consistent approach if you want to be successful.
Tip 5 – Grasp the basics before you start:
Getting appropriate internet marketing coaching and advice before you start is crucial. Spend time learning as much as you possibly can before creating your first blog. It will prevent disappointment and heartache later on and considerably improve your likelihood of success.
Tip 6 – Get your finances planned properly:
Building an internet business can frequently be accomplished on a surprisingly small budget, but you need to be prepared to "speculate to accumulate" as the saying goes. Work out a sensible budget at the outset and be ready to spend this if the need arises. You might wish to invest in a paid advertising campaign, or subscribe to a niche membership site, or outsource your content creation for example. If you have not allocated a budget to underwrite this expense, this may cause your new business to suffer a bit.
Tip 7 – Learn to test every bit of marketing …
As a Small Business, Can You Afford to Waste Half Your Advertising Budget?
John Wannamaker, founder of the east coast Wannamaker’s Department Stores, is credited with having once observed, “I know I waste half the money I spend on advertising, the problem is figuring out which half.”
This is an insight that is often lost on inexperienced marketers, particularly new businesses.
Wannamaker understood that for a variety of reasons only half of those who were seeing his ads were customers or potential customers for his store, and that he was wasting his money advertising to the half that were not. The irony of Wannamaker’s observation is that it was made more than 100 years ago, when his media choices were a tiny fraction of what they are today — maybe he had the local newspaper, some billboards and perhaps handout fliers to choose among, but certainly there was no TV, cable, radio, the Internet, bus signs, logo wear…
Wannamaker clearly understood he needed to target his marketing efforts specifically at those people who were or were likely to become customers. Like Wannamaker, as a marketer you need to know your customers or potential customers because if you don’t know who they are, then you could very possibly waste half or more of your promotional dollars on media that will charge you lots of money for viewers / readers who are not and likely will never be your customers.
Here’s an extreme, but true, example of someone’s misguided media buy: I once heard a high-end jewelry store advertising their pricey crystal glassware on a hard rock station. Yes, the station was the number one in the market, but that “number one” included a great many young people (high school age and below) who were certainly not in the market for expensive glassware.
As a small business can you afford to throw away half of your marketing budget like this?…