How and Why to Send Out Electronic Newsletters

Hooray for websites! They are cool and sexy, the slick digital way to present your business to the online world. But email is the real internet work horse. Too bad email is not as sexy as websites. Mostly it is associated with spam.

But don't knock email! When email marketing is done properly then it becomes the most COST EFFECTIVE way to market your business.

In fact the best online marketing strategy uses BOTH websites and email - in synergy.

KC's Online Marketing Rule of Thumb:

Split your online marketing budget equally between website and email marketing.


How do YOU do email marketing?


Are you already sending out some marketing emails? Are you using your emails software (e.g. Outlook, MacMail, Thunderbird...)?

Then you probably have dealt with BOUNCES and BLOCKS, both common occurances.

What are BOUNCES?
BOUNCES occur when an email address can't be reached. They happen when an email address is DEAD, the In-Box is FULL, the service was UNAVAILABLE and so on.

What are BLOCKS?
BLOCKS occur due to the many blacklists used to fight spam. They can be quite overzealous and even if you are not a spammer it is easy for you or your email server to be listed on one.

KC's Email Marketing Rule of Thumb:
Do NOT use your regular email software for mass mailings

How should YOU do email marketing?

1) NO SPAMMING!
2) Use double opt-in email marketing
3) Use a reputable email marketing service (the most popular one is Constant Contact)
4) Any mail that goes to over 50 names should use an email service

Did you know that email newsletter services are a much more effective method of marketing?
Let us know if you need some help setting up an Email Marketing service with Constant Contact.


If you have a nonprofit you can even try a FREE email newsletter service from Vertical Response:
http://www.verticalresponse.com/non-profits/

Cheers,
Alex

Optimize your website for Humans and for Search Engines

By now most small businesses have become proud owners of their own website, their window to the web, their digital business card and brochure.

Even if the website is just a simple static brochure-style website it serves to market a business on the net. But that is only if your website is designed with your audience in mind. Not just your human visitors but also your machine visitors, i.e. the search engine spiders and crawlers that study the content on your site and then position it in the search engines accordingly. Small business web developers such as Kahl Consultants can help you with this work.

First lets talk about how to optimize a website for humans. Since your visitors don't want to read tons of boring text, good copywriting skills are very important. You should talk to an experienced copywriter for more details. At the very least get a seasoned copywriter to help you edit your website text.

Secondly it is valuable to hire a Internet Marketing Consultant to optimize your site for search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the most cost effective long term strategy to make your website work for you as a marketing tool. SEO will help you to rank higher in the free or organic results for the appropriate keywords and thus attract more traffic. Search engine marketing (SEM) such as pay-per-click advertising can also be valuable if you have a larger marketing budget or if you are looking for faster results.

Give Kahl Consultants a call if you would like to discuss any of these marketing options.

Who is KC Small Business Web Services?

KC helps local small business and nonprofit clients to establish their presence on the Internet. Our services include a complete range of steps that can be combined in a modular fashion. This helps to keep your initial cost affordable and you can expand later as your business grows. At the same time you can start to take advantage of the untapped business potential that is found on the web.

We ...

• create or update your website (Webdesign, Hosting),
  
• install shopping carts (ecommerce),
  
• optimize your pages for the search engines (SEO),
  
• setup advertising campaigns (Adwords, PPC),
  
• build your list of newsletter subscribers (Email Marketing)
  
• and consult with you to help you succeed

In this blog we feature some of our current and past clients. We encourage you to check them out and leave your comments, thoughts and ideas. Then contact us with any questions about our services. We'd love to hear from you!