Many small business owners are discovering the marketing and customer communication value of creating and sending newsletters. They are a wonderful tool that is effective yet affordable when it comes to promoting the success of your small business. Figuring out how to write a profitable newsletter is an important step, and one that is easier to accomplish than you might think.

The business advantages of using a newsletter:

Using a newsletter as a marketing and communication tool has many excellent advantages, including:

• Direct communication with customers and potential customers
• Opportunities to share information your customers will find of value
• Positioning of your business as the “go to” resource for your type of products and/or services

These are just a few examples; chances are you could think of a few more that are specific to your business with just a little bit of thought. But just deciding to create a newsletter is not enough; you need to put some planning and thought into making that newsletter as effective and profitable as possible.

How to make your newsletter more profitable:

One of the most common mistakes small business owners make when first creating a newsletter for their business is thinking it needs to be all about selling, selling, and more selling. While one of the goals is certainly to increase sales for your business, the best way to go about accomplishing that goal is to make the newsletter less about sales and more about creating value for your customers and potential customers.

Here are a few guidelines for how to make your newsletter more profitable:

Make it worthwhile – The content of your newsletter should be interesting enough and valuable enough to the recipients to be worth their time and attention. In each issue, then, you should include articles, information, suggestions, and tips that are focused on helping the recipients solve common problems, learn something new, and generally gain something worthwhile from taking the time to read it.

Frequency – There’s nothing that will turn off recipients faster than sending them a newsletter too frequently so plan your newsletter schedule accordingly. Whether that’s once a week, once a month or something entirely different will depend on many factors, including your readers and the aim of your newsletter.

Foster a friendly and helpful tone – Throughout your newsletter the tone should always be friendly and helpful. Put yourself in your readers’ shoes; the last thing they want to find in their email inbox is a newsletter that’s pushy in terms of sales. The goal should be for each recipient to take away something helpful or otherwise of value from each issue.

A word about database management:

A big part of sending a profitable and effective newsletter is proper database management. This means you actively manage your mailing list of recipients, giving each person an easy method of opting out of your mailings if they so choose. Keep track also of the response rates you get from the newsletter, especially from specific categories or types of customers. This will help you better manage things such as the content of your newsletter.

How To Write Newsletters For Your Business is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

How would you like to learn the latest techniques for marketing your business on the internet?

Or new strategies for getting the most out of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter perhaps?

Maybe you’re keen to learn how to run professional webinars and, better still, how to get people to attend your webinars.

The next World Internet Summit is being held in Melbourne, Australia from February 9th-12th. Come along and you can discover the latest techniques along with some age-old formulas and principles to help your business succeed.

Plus, it’s a great place to mingle with other like-minded people and make new friends. If you’re going along, please make sure you say hello to me.

Click here now for more details and to register.

World Internet Summit – Australia is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

Nearly four years ago I was introduced to the idea of ‘interviewing experts’ by the legendary Australian copywriter, Brett McFall, either as a way of creating products to sell or just to create content to add value to existing products and services.

Not only was I introduced to the idea, but I was lucky enough to be taught HOW to interview experts … from sourcing and contacting experts, what questions to ask and how to ask them, to how to record the interview and then edit it professionally and turn it into a product.

These skills and knowledge have been incredibly valuable to me – and my business – over the last four years, and I know many who have listened to some of these interviews have also found them valuable.

Andy Sacker also learnt these skills and has gone on to earn thousands of dollars from the sales of his interviews. What’s more, he’s just published his first book – How To Make Money Interviewing Experts.

This isn’t an eBook – it’s a physical, paperback book, full of step-by-step instructions on how to follow in Andy’s footsteps and interview experts for yourself.

Whether you’re looking for an extra stream of income, a way to help spread the knowledge about your chosen industry,  or a good method of providing more content for your clients (and potential clients), I encourage you to consider this media.

You can purchase a copy of Andy’s book here.

How To Make Money Interviewing Experts is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

Yesterday I was looking through the stats and comments from the webinars I ran earlier this year as part of the Business Breakthrough Magic series.

I have to admit, I loved running these webinars and all of the guest speakers were absolutely delightful to work with. However there were three that really stood out, receiving an overwhelming amount of ‘thank yous’ and positive feedback.

One of those was the one we did on Terrific Testimonials – How To Get Amazing Testimonials Without Losing Your Soul with Australian Copywriter, Ingrid Cliff.

Here’s a short snippet on part of that webinar:

This webinar covered all aspects of gathering testimonials, from how to ask for them, how to use them, what legal pitfalls you need to be careful of and what to do if you can’t get testimonials. If you’re a business owner, this is worth watching.

If you’d like to see the entire webinar recording, I’m making this available again for a short time. Please grab yourself a drink, get comfortable, click the link below to go to the recording … and enjoy!

Terrific Testimonials

Rules For Terrific Testimonials is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

Below is a short snippet of the recent “Inside Secrets Of Marketing Your Business” webinar I ran with Australia’s leading advertising expert and copywriter, Brett McFall.

In this section, Brett shares one of the best ways to get your marketing noticed and grab your potential customer’s attention.

For more simple, effective but low-cost ways to market your business, watch this free video – The Truth About Why Your Marketing Sucks – now.

How To Get Your Marketing Noticed is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

I’m so excited!

After much time spent planning, we’re ready to launch the Business Breakthrough Magic webinar series!

This is a free weekly webinar series where we’ll be show-casing a variety of guest presenters who are specialists in particular areas of business.  These specialists are going to share with you a range of tips, tools and tactics (most free or low-cost) that – when implemented correctly – will take your business soaring to the next level.

We scoured the world for these presenters and will be bringing to you some of the best of the best in their industries.

Registration is essential!

Full details and registration are available on the Business Breakthrough Magic site.

Business Breakthrough Magic Webinars is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

Yes, you read that headline correctly.

In order to make more money, don’t focus on the money.

Sometimes in business everything seems to be about the money. How much you’re making compared with how much you’re spending. To some extent, that’s fair enough. After all, you need to be making a profit otherwise there’s no point being in business.

But here’s a suggestion…

Try setting aside time for planning financially, to work out your budget and set your prices and so on. Then set aside regular times to review these things and make adjustments as necessary.

Then, outside of those times, forget about the money and focus on helping your customers and clients. Focus on really getting to know them and what they need, and on helping others and solving your customers’ problems.

Believe it or not, you’ll usually find that your customer relations will improve and profits will increase. All because you spent more time focusing on your customers and on truly provide products and/or services that helped them, instead of focusing on how much money you were making (or not making!)

In Order To Make More Money … Don’t Focus On The Money is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

As a small business owner you most likely spend a fair amount of time focused on effectively marketing your products. From price lists to promotions to marketing materials and more, much of your small business management activities are centered on describing your products and encouraging customers to buy them.

But if all you do is market your products you are missing out on a huge opportunity to make your business more successful. If you want to maximize the potential of your small business then you need to learn how to market your service as well as your products.

Your products and the competition

It doesn’t matter what kind of products you sell in your small business; from auto parts to furniture to books to candles, your products are probably not entirely unique. There are competitors out there selling the exact same (or nearly the same) products as well, and their number one goal is to convince customers to buy from them rather than from you.

And when the products are virtually the same, the next area where you of course attempt to compete is on price. The problem then becomes what happens if your competitor offers the same or similar products at lower prices? Maybe they cut a better deal with their suppliers, or perhaps they have lower overhead and administrative costs; regardless of the reason, if they sell the same thing at a lower price it’s going to cut into your business and reduce the amount of money you make.

So what are you supposed to do?

Using service to differentiate your business from the rest

The answer lies in successfully marketing your service as well as your products. The term “your service” refers to everything you do surrounding the product itself and related to how you interact with your customers. Examples of service might include:

• Free or discounted delivery
• Expert advice and consultation
• Expanded access to customer service specialists
• Personalized order taking and attention

So as you’re looking for ways to differentiate your business from the competition and create effective online marketing strategies, paying attention to service can be a huge winner in terms of creating greater small business success.

A really good example of this comes from the world of retail, where giant retailers have gone in to communities and many smaller businesses in those communities have gone out of business due to the substantially lower prices the larger companies charge for the same or similar items. Small business simply can’t compete directly on price in these situations.

But some small businesses have managed to succeed and even thrive in areas where larger companies are in place because they have smartly found ways to market their service as something of value beyond the value of the products themselves. Perhaps it’s a small grocer who takes phone orders, makes home deliveries, or insists that a courtesy clerk helps each customer carry their groceries out to their car. Whatever it is that sets them apart from their much larger competitors and is viewed as having value by their customers is a terrific tool for marketing their business in terms of service as well as in terms of products.

You can put this concept to work for your small business as well. Think about the service you provide and how it contributes to the value your business offers to customers. Once you have identified these things you can incorporate them into your marketing efforts and chances are you’re going to see positive results.

Market Your Service As Well As Your Products is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

So … what is ‘The Automated Traffic Bot’ and what makes it different ?

Automated Traffic Bot

Surprisingly, very few online businesses take advantage of the traffic benefits of issuing Press Releases, preferring instead to follow the mundane routines of article marketing, which is far more complex and time consuming. Consider this – with article marketing, the business owner has to focus on indirectly driving traffic back to their web site by writing about a variety of topics, all without being able to clearly promote their business activities.

Press Releases on the other hand, allow the business owner to write short, compelling pieces directly about their business activities and present them to the media.

Online, there are dozens of FREE web services dedicated to the collection and distribution of Press Releases, which are in turn picked up and displayed on other, related web sites via RSS or News Feeds. Depending upon the news worthiness of the Press Release, it’s not uncommon to find them picked up by the media as filler material, which adds instant credibility to your online business!

The Automated Traffic Bot makes writing and submitting press releases easier than ever before.
The ‘Automated Traffic Bot’ Features:

Automatically Submit Your Press Release To 15 Syndication Sites – This will send out your press release to the key sites that will automatically spread ‘the word’ about your business or website in under 24 hours!

Complete AUTO ACCOUNT Creation – The sites that you will send your press release to will require you to create an account first, this can be time consuming, but the automated traffic bot will do all this for you*

(*Note: All you will need to do is confirm the registration by clicking a link in your email)

Unlimited Account Profiles – Now you can add as many account profiles as you wish meaning you can have MULTIPLE Accounts on all the syndication sites to really give you more exposure

Unlimited Company Profiles – You can add as many company profiles as you wish too. If you want to have a separate profile for each of your website’s you can, or even run this press release submission service for other people and charge them a fee to distribute their press release for them! – GREAT for Local Business Marketing!

AUTOMATIC CAPTCHA Solving* - To prevent mass spamming of sites many of the sites will require you to input a random ‘captcha’ code, again this can be done manually, but using Automated Traffic Bot’s Captcha solving service (* third party Captcha account req) you never need to input another captcha coder allowing you to submit tons of press releases over and over.

Supports Keywords - Keywords are the KEY to ranking your website and press release in the major search engines. Now you can tailor the press release submission to the EXACT keyword to ensure you get the maximum exposure.

Supports ALL PC Formats – Will work on Windows XP, Windows 7 without any upgrades or annoying additional framework downloads and installs. (sorry there is currently no MAC version available)

Grab Your Automated Traffic Bot Now by clicking the link below:

Automated Traffic Bot

However it is ONLY available until Midnight Sunday 14th November 2010, so you need to be quick!

NB: If you purchase Automated Traffic Bot through the link above I will receive a commission. I won’t recommend something I don’t believe is worthwhile (and yes, I have purchased this myself at the full price). 

Title: So … what is ‘The Automated Traffic Bot’ and what makes it different ?

Surprisingly, very few online businesses take advantage of the traffic benefits of issuing Press Releases, preferring instead to follow the mundane routines of article marketing, which is far more complex and time consuming. Consider this – with article marketing, the business owner has to focus on indirectly driving traffic back to their web site by writing about a variety of topics, all without being able to clearly promote their business activities. Press Releases on the other hand, allow the business owner to write short, compelling pieces directly about their business activities and present them to the media. Online, there are dozens of FREE web services dedicated to the collection and distribution of Press Releases, which are in turn picked up and displayed on other, related web sites via RSS or News Feeds. Depending upon the news worthiness of the Press Release, it’s not uncommon to find them picked up by the media as filler material, which adds instant credibility to your online business! The Automated Traffic Bot makes writing and submitting press releases easier than ever before. The ‘Automated Traffic Bot’ Features: Automatically Submit Your Press Release To 15 Syndication Sites – This will send out your press release to the key sites that will automatically spread ‘the word’ about your business or website in under 24 hours! Complete AUTO ACCOUNT Creation – The sites that you will send your press release to will require you to create an account first, this can be time consuming, but the automated traffic bot will do all this for you* (*Note: All you will need to do is confirm the registration by clicking a link in your email) Unlimited Account Profiles - Now you can add as many account profiles as you wish meaning you can have MULTIPLE Accounts on all the syndication sites to really give you more exposure Unlimited Company Profiles - You can add as many company profiles as you wish too. If you want to have a separate profile for each of your website’s you can, or even run this press release submission service for other people and charge them a fee to distribute their press release for them! – GREAT for Local Business Marketing! AUTOMATIC CAPTCHA Solving* – To prevent mass spaming of sites many of the sites will require you to input a random ‘captcha’ code, again this can be done manually, but using Automated Traffic Bot’s Captcha solving service (* third party Captcha account req) you never need to input another captcha coder allowing you to submit tons of press releases over and over. Supports Keywords - Keywords are the KEY to ranking your website and press release in the major search engines. Now you can tailor the press release submission to the EXACT keyword to ensure you get the maximum exposure. Supports ALL PC Formats – Will work on Windows XP, Windows 7 without any upgrades or annoying additional framework downloads and installs. (sorry there is currently no MAC version available) Grab Your Automated Traffic Bot Now by clicking the link below: YOUR_AFFILIATE_LINK However it is ONLY available until Midnight Sunday 14th November 2010, so you need to be quick

Very Limited Time … Increase Your Web Traffic Now is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

No doubt we’ve all been there … some guru tells you how to do something for the best results, then another expert tells you to do the opposite!

Who do you listen to?

Well, sometimes it is possible that one of these people doesn’t really know what they’re talking about. However more often you’ll find they are, in fact, both correct.

You see, there are so many different business models and different reasons for doing things. So those pieces of conflicting advice may each be correct for THAT PARTICULAR BUSINESS MODEL.

For example, someone may tell you that they make a lot of money from having AdSense ads on their web site. Yet another leading marketer advises not to have any unnecessary ads on links on your site in order to achieve the best results from your site.

This is a classic example of both experts being correct. For some web sites including ads is a great way to make money online. While for sites set up for other purposes, it’s vital to have as few links on your site as possible.

So the first thing to do in this situation is to determine the aim of your web site. Is your aim to sell a product or service, to share information on a topic, to grow your database, to get industry recognition and credibility, for like-minded people to come together and share or to make money the easiest way possible?

Once you know the aim of your site, look for someone who’s able to advise on the best way to set up a web site for that particular purpose.

Once you are clear on the purpose of your site you’ll find it so much easier to know who to listen to.

Similarly, if the conflicting advice you’re receiving relates to your business in general, advertising or other forms of marketing … whatever area it relates to, again consider first what your main aim is.

You can, of course, try the different strategies for yourself and see which gives you the best results, but usually, from a general perspective, you’ll find the expert’s advice does work best for that particular model.

Who To Believe When Experts Give Conflicting Advice is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins