I find it amazing that small business owners and even major corporations still do not get it when it comes to capturing emails when visitors come to their site.  Email is still the number one way to stay in contact with customers and prospects. It is still the number one way to build a relationship with people who like your brand or products.

With Facebook, Twitter, Penterest, Linked-In and many others, studies have shown that people still prefer email as their main source for contact online.

With that being said, if you are a small business owner with your own website or considering starting your own online business there is no excuse for you not having  an opt-in form to capture email. Why? Well, first when someone agrees to give you their email they are saying that they trust you and that they are raising their hands saying “I want to know you and your business better”.

Second, capturing emails is a great way to build relationships with those who are following you and your brand. As you know, business is all about building relationship. I have a friend who’s a sales rep for a major coporation. He has to literally make cold calls and go door to door to get business, however; he’s really good at it. One of the reasons he says he’s good at is because he has learned  to build relationships.

Whether with the owner of a business that he’s potentially trying to sale to or the secretary in the office of the business he’s trying to do business with. He says it’s all about building relationships. Well, the same goes with email marketing. You basically email your followers to build relationship. This could all be done by providing quality content and solving problems that your followers have.

If you do that without any strings attached, I promise you, people will follow you for life.

Now that being said, you have to know more about your customers to know how to send emails to them. This means, knowing their interest, their pain (in relation to your business) and their culture. For instance, I had a business where I helped artist learn how to make money with their art.

The more I got to know them, I found that they only really read my mail during the weekend since most of the artist had full time jobs and their art business was a part-time thing. So, what I did was start emailing them on Sunday evenings and I found I got more click through rates versus sending out email messages on Monday.

This little piece of information helped me so much in my business.

The main take away is that you need to know the people who are on your list.

There are a lot of email services out there that you can join to began your email marketing campaign. I prefer Aweber because they are easy to use and have great customer services. A lot of my mentors use Aweber and they have all said they are pleased with their services. Every email subscriber companies have their pros and cons.

I would suggest take a look at each one and go from their; however, I am a little bias to Aweber because their have been fantastic in helping me grow my business and my clients.

Thanks

-Ahmad

YouTube is one of the top five visited sites in the world and has been a great resource for providing information and entertainment. Also, it has become one of the most successful marketing tools on the web hemisphere. Major companies are using videos as part of their marketing campaign to rev-up sales. Many have learned to use Youtube videos to get viewers to take some kind of action, whether it be join their mailing list, visit their website, or purchase goods or service from the marketer. 

Well, what does this have to do with small business owners, a lot. Just like major companies and independent companies are using YouTube as a way to market their products small business owners like you can too. Here’s how. 

Videos are different from text and still images because videos allow viewers to get a glimpse of who the person really is on the video. Viewers can tell whether you are entertaining, funny, informative, or boring. So if you have a video of you or someone using your products or services, people can see you and maybe like you, resulting in them doing business with you in some form or fashion. If you do decide to go the YouTube route there are a few things you as an business own should consider when wanting to brand your business via Youtube.

First, post videos of you talking about your business, products or service. You want to allow people to see a taste of what it’s like to used your products or services. While you are shooting the video you can talk a little about how your product or service works from beginning to end. This type of video can serve as a business mission statement to whom ever comes in contact with your video. You can post this type of video on your blog or site to serve as just that, a mission statement.

Second, create videos of you having success with your business or products. This is not to boast or brag about your business but this lets people know that others have bought your products or services and was satisfied with their results. It’s also good to create videos of you or your business presenting as speaker or managing a booth at a workshop or seminar. This gives viewers a chance to see people socializing and mingling at one single location that’s devoted to you. So definitely post videos of yourself or your company at various events. I was suggest that you or someone from your company always keep a camera on hand. You never want to miss a good opportunity catch some good footage to help promote your brand.

Third, use your videos to lead people to your site, blog, Facebook page, or what have you. This is the most important thing you can do. You definitely want to have people to go to the main location where you sell and promote your products and services on the web. Again, whether it’s Facebook, a website, or blog you want to have the link or url somewhere in the video. It’s been said that it’s best to have it at the beginning of the video and at the end. Also you want to have a direct link to your site or fan page first thing in the description box next to your video. You can put this right after you upload your video.

If uploading video and making video is new to you don’t be too frighten by it, it’s very easy to get started. If you don’t know anything about video and YouTube just ask a family member especially a teenager or college student and I promise they can point you into the right direction. If you remember these few things I mentioned you can’t go wrong with getting a response from using videos to market your artwork. For the best starter camera to start shooting your videos I recommend the Flip Camera. It is easy to carry and inexpensive. As you get more comfortable using the camera and uploading videos you can advance and move up to a more advance camera like the . If you use aSony HDR-XR160 and you want to skip the flip camera and go right ahead to the Sony HDR-XR160 just click hear

 With Today’s growing number of entrepreneurs growing online businesses, you start to wonder is business cards even relevant in today’s world. If you have no office to go to, no brick and mortar store to open or close and only communicate with new prospects via social media sites, you really don’t have to use you a business card as a means of contact and branding.

So the question I posed today is, do you need still need business cards if you are an online business and if so why. According to most online marketers that I personally know there still is a need for having business cards.  They all say that business cards still can be used as a form of contact. You see, business cards are made for people to know who you are and what your company does. You can’t be online 24 seven.  You will have to come in contact with the real world someday, so it’s best to have some business cards handy.

This leads to the first reason online business owners should have business cards. That reasons is simple, you need business cards to let others know what you do when you are casually talking to someone out in public.  For instance, if you are at your son’s baseball game and you are casually talking about the line of work you are in, you can easily hand that person a business card.  

Another reason online entrepreneur should have business card is for the people you come in contact with  at workshops and seminars, even if it’s a seminar just for online business owners. Though you work online with other online business owners you still should have some business cards to connect with those owners. I would suggest some good ones too. Having business cards at these events shows that you are serious and professional and not just someone who work most of the day in their pajamas.

If you do get business cards, here are a few tips that will help set you a part and stand out from the crowd. We all know the basic of what you should have on your business cards like your name, business phone and website but there are of couples on things you can add to help your card wow people. One is, put a picture of you on your business cards.

This will help people remember you when you give them your card especially if you have a conversation with them. Many people have not used this strategy for their business cards. Another thing you could add to your business card is to add your social media urls. That being facebook, twitter and linked. If people don’t go to your site they can easily find you on facebook or other social media sites.

 Another thing you can add to your cards is a list of your freebie that you give away on your site. Whether it is a report or a newsletter you can easily gain more attention and get more interest by putting this on your card. I would suggest putting this on the back on your card because the front of your card is already filled and having it alone on the back draws all the intention on your free offer.

In all, any online business owners should have their own business cards. This will connect with people that you may not meet online and ultimately help your business in some form or fashion. I would suggest that you add these few changes to your current business cards. You can then begin distributing them out to others you casually meet while waiting in the doctor’s office or when attending seminars and workshops. The main thing is to have your business cards handy and ready to connect with others. A great place to design your new business cards is a Vista Print. This is where I get all my business cards. Their website allows you to design your cards just the way you want with unbelievable prices. For more info Vista print just Click Here.

This blog post is about me trying to find the right niche or the right path for my internet business. I have tried so many things. Right now I am thinking of just sticking with the painting niche. This is something I’m good at and something that comes very easy for me. So in the near future you should hear me talk about my new site and new challenges that I overcame.
I hope you stay tune, if anyone is reading this. The picture above is a image of my classroom where I am typing this blog post.