New Blog Address

Hello,
Thank you for stopping by, Please not that I will be blogging at http://almcleary.com/blog from now on. That blog is update at least 3 times weekly, while this blog is updated once monthly.

Thank you
xoxo
Al
http://almcleary.com/blog

A house with no doors

A website that has not been optimized is like a house with no doors. A site needs to be designed and coded so search engines can find their way in. Once your site is optimized, that’s it, the doors are open! Now you just need to focus on developing rich content and building quality links to your site.

Don't be stingy with business cards

• Have some with you at all times - leave them at restaurants, banks, gas stations (however, please do not litter)
• Give them out to anyone and everyone - give them more than 1, maybe the will pass them on to someone else.
• Do you still mail your bills, include one.
• Send them along with invoices
• Use them as hang tags - attach then to your products
• Be Green, print your cards on recycled paper or be bold, print them on discarded cereal boxes.
• Try using 'odd shapes - make them stand out.

10 places to leave your business card

1. Doctor's office
2. Dentist's office
3. Obstetrician's office
   
4. Deli notice board
5. Veterinarian's office
6. Mechanic's waiting room
7. Hair or nail Saloon
8. Laundromat
   
9. Realtor's office
10. Daycare center

If you are required to wait - leave a business card

6 Viral Marketing Ideas

1. Publish an e book with your product links and allow your affiliates to add in their own affiliate links.
2. Make a entertaining video that features your product.
3. Make a video that others can re-brand with their affiliate links.
4. Have a promotional competition. Example 'Free gift to the to the next five people to become a fan on Facebook'.
5. Make your site interactive - give people something fun to do online.
6. Offer redistributable mp3 downloads.

10 E-mail Tips to Reach your Customer Inboxes

I am a huge proponent of email marketing. It is an effective marketing method with a very high ROI. Unfortunately, spammers and scammers have made it more difficult for legitimate senders to get their e-mails past Internet Service Provider (ISP) junk filters and into the inbox. Here are a few steps you can take to avoid the spam label and increase your e-mail marketing effectiveness.

1. Avoid using these words in your subject line:- Urgent, money back guarantees, and why pay more?

2. Do not use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS and exclamation marks (!) in your subject line and in your E-MAIL CONTENT!!

3. If something sounds too good to be true, the junk mail filters probably agree. For example “once in a lifetime opportunity” etc.

4. Never send out an e-mail that is one giant image. The filters will likely filter it but even if it gets to the inbox, the recipient will have no enticement to turn on images. A good balance is 60 percent text and 40 percent graphics. Do not forget the ALT text.

5. Try to avoid excessive mentions of money in your e-mails as the spammers and scammers have made that hard to get through.

6. Keep your emails simple to maximize your chances of getting into the inbox. Avoid e-mails with red font, flashing objects, etc

7. Do not buy a list. This violate the terms of service of almost all E-mail Service Providers (ESPs) and your recipients are more likely to hit the spam complaint button. More than one complaint out of each 1,000 e-mails sent is very likely to get you blocked by one or more ISPs and make it more difficult to get emails through to your best customers.

8. Do not harvest e-mails from the web to send in bulk. Not only will you run into the same problems as when you buy a list, you will also be violating the CAN-SPAM Act.

9. Keep your e-mail frequency reasonably steady to keep your sending reputation intact. For instance, if you send only once every six months the ISPs and the recipients may have forgotten about you resulting in delivery problems and spam complaints.

10. On the other hand, do not send so often that you annoy your subscribers. Send at least once per month, carefully consider what volume will start to annoy your subscribers—who will unsubscribe from your list or worse, hit the spam button, sticking a label on you that can be hard to remove.

More Tips for Growing Your Business

Have a contest where visitors and customers submit a favorite picture of them wearing a handcrafted earring (jeweler), favorite dog picture (groomer/kennel/vet) or favorite pose or strut (retail clothing). Ask them to post the video or picture to Picasa, flickr, or YouTube so you don’t have to host anything. Then post information about the contest to your web site and send an email campaign to your current email list announcing the contest. They’ll upload their content, and send their friends to see it, and you’ll end up getting more traffic. Make sure you reward the contestants with discounts or other cash and prizes.

You may also ask your customers to take videos of themselves talking about how they love your product or service. Then upload the videos right to YouTube. Tag the video with your company name and some keywords so you’ll come up high in the search engine rankings. There’s no better advertising than your customer testimonials. This can get you a better ranking in the search engines as well.

Marketing for Mother's day

Mother's Day is the perfect time to reach out to potential customers with gift ideas. Our lives are hectic, and trying to find the perfect gift can be stressful. By giving your customers something of value such as gift ideas and special holiday offers, you are showing them that their interests are the motives behind your campaigns — building greater trust in your brand." Here are six tips for successful Mother's e-mail promotions:

1. Promote your special holiday offers up front: Make sure your customers can immediately see that you are offering Mother's Day specials starting at the subject line. If your customer sees an offer they can't refuse, your email will be opened.
2. Offer gift ideas: Rather than letting your customers browse your site, offer gift ideas. This is a great way to help your customers find the perfect gift. Consider creating a 10 Popular Gift section to help aid their search.
3. Welcome those last minute shoppers: Let last minute shoppers know that they can shop with you. Offer guaranteed shipping or pick-up options to reel them in to shopping with you. This is a sure way to make an impression with a customer and to make sure they remember you next holiday season.
4. Offer additional incentives: Offering additional offers like online-only coupons, discounts off future purchases, free shipping upgrade, or special membership pricings, are enticing ways to grab the attention of potentials shoppers.
5. Think outside of the box: Flowers, and jewelry aren't the only things that make good Mother's Day gifts. No matter what kind of business you have, think of creative ways for people to want to do business with you. If you are a restaurant, offer a special Mother's Day menu.
6. Gather additional customer information: If you don't already have customer 'friends and family' profile data, or an email list, Mother's Day can be a good opportunity to gather additional information from your customers such as important dates for them, friends, family and significant others, including birthdays and anniversaries.