Tag Archive for: Tips

Insider Secret: The Best Day and Time To Send Your Emails

,

Understanding the best day and time to send emails to your subscribers is key to getting high open rates and click through rates on your emails (which in turn can yield you higher revenue through sales of your products or services!)

Now you have a great subject line, what is the best day and time to send your emails?

Now that you have a great email subject line for your email campaigns (using the tips I shared in “The Trick to Getting People to Open Your Emails“) knowing WHEN to send your emails is an important next step.

There has been a ton of research done by all the email providers to understand the best day of the week and time of the day to send emails.

Let’s think about this for a minute…

Imagine you’re sitting down at your desk first thing in the morning on a Monday.

You had an awesome weekend, and kind of have the Monday Morning Blues with an already overflowing email inbox facing you as you log in to your computer.

How inclined are you to open all the emails? 

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably going to delete as many of those emails as possible. Who wants to have to go through them all on a Monday morning. We’ve got better things to do on the first day of the week!

Delete. Delete. Delete. 

Well, this isn’t good news for you, if you’re sending your weekly emails on a Monday.

How about the weekend? 

I’m a skimmer on a weekend. If it isn’t super important, I don’t read emails. The weekend is my downtime. Don’t try to get me to read your email on a weekend!

I think most people are in a similar mindset – they’re more focused on hitting the beach, or catching up on chores. They’re really not going to read your email.

BUT there is a caveat to this – if your emails are to do with leisure, travel or home-related activities, then your emails may have a much higher chance of being read on a weekend when people are in a mindset related to these topics!

Something else to note – this isn’t going to be true for everyone on your list. But you need to cater to the majority of people on your list.

So when SHOULD you send your emails?

Best Day of the Week is…

Drum roll please…

TUESDAY! Tuesday is the #1 best day of the week to send emails, hands down!

Followed by Thursday and then Wednesday. (Weekends are also high!)

So if you send two emails a week, choose Thursday as your second day.

Some studies showed high open and click rates on the weekends. Those are also the days when the fewest emails are sent. So open rates may be higher, but the actual number of emails opened is way lower.

Best Time of the Day is…

Late morning! 10 am – 11 am to be more precise! 

Why? Maybe because people have had time to get through the early morning rush of taking kids to school, getting to work, catching up on calls and reading through ’emergency’ emails. And now they’re ready to cruise through the rest of their mailbox.

Another hot time is: (and this is a weird one) from 8 pm to midnight. 

This is likely due to people checking their email before going to bed.

2 pm is another peak time. People might be needing a distraction from their work at this point in the day.

6 am is the other peak time. According to this post, 50% of you begin your day by emailing in bed… (I admit it, I do this – along with checking Facebook. Sigh. )

A quick note on time zones

A good question at this point would be – “Do I send emails on Tuesdays at 10 am in MY time zone?”

The answer is – yes or no. It really depends on where the majority of your list resides. If you don’t know, then send it in Eastern Time zone.

Now ignore all of this…

What?? Yes, I just went through all of this awesome cool data for you, and now I’m telling you to ignore it.

Ok, not all of you.

Ignore this advise IF you know how to read Google Analytics and your own website and email provider data. If you can read and analyze your data, then you should be able to determine the best days and times YOUR audience is most engaged.

Test it out by sending emails on different days and different times (use the same email subject line/content so you have a clean test). You will soon learn which days are best for you!

Now you know the best day and time to send your emails

You just learned a ton of info that will help you be on your way to more successful email campaigns. Here’s a quick recap:

  1. Send your emails on Tuesdays.
  2. Send them at 10 a.m.
  3. Test the best days and times to find out when your audience is most active
  4. And test again 🙂 

Do you have a specific day/time that works better for you? Share in the comments below! I’d love to hear from you!

by

The Trick to Getting People To Open Your Emails!

,

How important are email subject lines?

Are you hearing crickets when you send out emails?

We’ve all been there – slaved away over an email that you thought was awesome, but no one opened it!

You spent hours and hours pouring out your heart and soul, but  – crickets!

You were worried that the email system might be broken because there is no way that awesome email wouldn’t have been opened. Right?

Wrong!

Your email subject lines are the problem! 

Just like a blog post, or a book, or a news article, your email subject line needs to be enticing so people will open your email. Let’s face it – we all get overwhelmed in our inbox, so your email needs to stand out from the crowd!

Why emails matter

Before we dive in to subject lines, let’s remind ourselves WHY emails matter!

  1. 40% more likely to get noticed!

Compared to Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or Twitter, your emails are 40% more likely to get noticed!

The readers of your emails have raised their hands to be on your list and to hear you news. So make sure your headline is relatable to them!

2. Conversion rates are 6 x higher (compared to other marketing tactics)

Your email list are hand raisers! They’ve opted in to receive your emails – and they want to read them. So they’re way more likely to open your emails than to read your Facebook page, or Twitter post.

3.  Your return on investment (ROI) is $44 for every $1 spent 

For the cost of your time and an Email Service Provider (ESP) like MailChimp, ConvertKit, Active Campaign or Emma (etc.) you can market as often as you like to your Email list.

How to create an enticing email subject line

Now to the juicy details. How do you create a subject line that will actually entice a reader to open it?

Step 1: Don’t write like a robot. Too many subject lines are autogenerated (and you can tell!) So make sure it sounds conversational, like you’re chatting with a friend. Forget the formality!

Step 2: Match your subject line to the content inside your email. The tone and topic should give the reader a sense of what’s inside.

Step 3: Create scannable, easy to digest subject lines. The right amount of words—and characters—can make all the difference in your open rates!

7 is the ideal WORD count. The ideal number of CHARACTERS = 65

Step 4: Use one of these headline starters:

  • Use numbers! (They’re the #1 converting subject line for emails AND blog headlines!)
    • # Things to do before _________
    • # Quick steps to ___________
    • # Ways to __________
    • # Top tips for __________
  • How to’s:
    • How to be the greatest ________
    • How to grow a ____________
    • How to build a___________
  • Informational: 
    • Best places to visit in_______
    • Advice on parenting
    • Ways to save money on________

A couple of other styles that work: 

  • The ______ you MUST check out______
  • The secret to ______ you need to know
  • Want to _______ online?

Kick it up a notch

Once you have a decent subject line, add in an enticing descriptive word to take it to the next level. Words that will create a little mystery so the reader opens the email because they can’t help it! They’re intrigued!

  • top secret
  • surprising
  • mystery revealed
  • lightning fast
  • can’t miss
  • smarter
  • creative

Test it out

CoSchedule has created a cool tool so you can see if your email subject line will work. Copy in the subject line, and hit ‘submit’ and they’ve give you a score!

Check it out here:  https://coschedule.com/email-subject-line-tester 

Test it again

Now you have a new subject line, try it out on a small subset of your list. Are the open rates higher than your prior average? If so, send it to the rest of your list.

So there you have it! Up your subject line game and getter better email open rates!

What questions do YOU have about email marketing? What is your open rate like, and what are you doing to improve it? 

Leave your questions and comments below! I love to hear from you!

by

6 Tips and Tools for Finding the Best Hashtags for Your Content

As an extension to a recent Facebook Live Video I did on my Facebook page (check out the video at the bottom of the page), I thought I’d share a little more on hashtags.

To many, it is one of the biggest challenges of social media and blog writing. These are the two questions I get asked the most:

Number 1: What hashtag should I use?

Number 2: Why are they SO important?

Let’s answer the 2nd question first.

Why are hashtags SO important?

You will find hashtags on almost all social media platforms.  It all started on Twitter, but are now common on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn.  Anyone sharing content on any of these platforms needs to be using hashtags. Why?

Think of each of these platforms as a search engine like Google. When you type a keyword into Google Search, you are shown all the content on the web related to that keyword. It is similar with each of these social media platforms. Each is their own little search engine.

When you type in a keyword into the search bar, content related to that keyword is displayed – whether it is on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

If you want your content to show up (duh! of course, you do!), then you need to use hashtags containing the keywords that are most relevant to your business AND that specific post to show up.

More times you show up = more eyes seeing your stuff = more potential business for you!

What hashtag should I use?

This is the #1 question I am asked about blogging and social media marketing! Using the right hashtag is important to make sure your content is viewed by the right people. So these are the strategies I suggest you use:

Step 1: Use different hashtags for each platform.

This is because the audiences are often different, and are in different mindsets on the different platforms. Tailor your hashtags to each platform and where you think your ideal clients or customers might be in their buying cycle on these platforms.

Step 2: How many hashtags to include. 

Yes, there is a certain number of hashtags you should use on each platform. Each of them is different, so use this guide (which is the current ‘best practices’):

  • Twitter – 1 (maybe 2 max)
  • Instagram – 8 to 10
  • Facebook* – 2 to 3
  • LinkedIn – 2 to 3

*The jury is still out on how effective hashtags are on Facebook. Keep including them, but don’t expect a lot from them.

Step 3: Which hashtag keywords to use. 

The easiest method of finding hashtags that are relevant for your business is to look at other people! Take a look at your competitors, industry leaders, and your ideal client audience. What hashtags are they using?

Step 4: Don’t use super popular hashtags! 

I didn’t explain this well enough in my video, so want to make it clearer here.

The more popular the hashtag, the more content and competition there is for that hashtag. You are going to be competing against millions of other people for your content to be shown.

An example of this (from Instagram): I am going to post a photo of my Australian Cattle Dog – Sidney.

Searching for hashtag #dogsofinstagram there are 108,893,600 posts

Searching for #australiancattledog there are only 1,065,643 posts

So if I want my cute pic of my Australian Cattle Dog to have a better chance of being seen, I will use a hashtag that is more specific to the type of dog he is. The chances are much better of his pic showing up in the feed for that hashtag!
Sidney Australian Cattle Dog
Step 5: Find related hashtags.
Using the search function in Instagram, you can find alternative hashtags that are related to the keyword you are searching for. This will give you a bunch of ideas for hashtags that might work for your content. Make sure you check the number of posts for each hashtag and try to find ones that are lower in post numbers.
Step 1: Type in your hashtag into the search field.
Step 2: Click on the ‘tags’ tab to see all the alternative hashtags along with the number of posts for the hashtags.
Marketing search
Marketing hashtag search
Step 6: Resources/tools for researching hashtags.

There are quite a few very cool tools you can use to research hashtags and trends:

So hopefully this has been helpful to you in understanding why you need to be using hashtags when your posting on social media.

While we’re on the topic of hashtags, check out this post about 5 Tips to Leveling Up Your Instagram Game! 

I’d love to hear from you! What questions do you have for me about this or any other marketing topic? Comment below! And I’ll get right back to you!

Oh, and here is my ‘live’ video where I discuss all of this live!

by

5 Instagram Tips to Level up your Instagram Game

Tips to get more engagement and exposure on Instagram The statistics are staggering: 33% of internet users are on Instagram 60% of Instagram users log in daily Approximately 80 million users reside in the United States Engagement on Instagram is 10x higher than Facebook and 84x higher than Twitter. Are you using Instagram in your […]

Read more
by

Why (and How) You Need to Use Pinterest to Market Your Business.

,

Many of us use Pinterest for our personal use, but who is using Pinterest as a marketing tactic for their business?

Read on to for reasons why and tips on how you should use Pinterest for your business.

In 2010, I started a Pinterest account. Not a Pinterest Marketing account for business purposes, but a personal account – for my own pleasure. I pinned recipes, photos, and inspirational stuff like travel pics, etc. Things I was interested in. I created ‘boards’ containing collections of similar things and followed my friends and ‘liked’ their Pins.

I created a business account in 2012 for a business I worked with. I hadn’t really created any Pins myself until that point, but creating Pins was pretty easy and fun!  We saw some success back in those days of using Pinterest marketing for business. We increased our website traffic and even tracked some leads directly from Pinterest!

Fast forward to today…

Pinterest has evolved into a hugely popular search engine, shopping portal, social website, knowledge portal, and so much more!

Pinterest is a great marketing opportunity for businesses to share their knowledge with a larger audience, with the objective being to draw them into their own website where they can continue to share their knowledge, but also showcase and promote their products and services. The ultimate goal – new customers! 

The stats are mind-blowing!

Here are some pretty interesting numbers*:

  • 175 Million active users per month
  • 50 Billion + Pins
  • 1 Billion + Pinterest Boards
  • 81% of Pinterest users are actually Females.
  • 40% of New Signups are Men; 60% New Signups are Women.
  • Men account for only 7% of total pins on Pinterest.
  • Millennials use Pinterest as much as Instagram.
  • The median age of a Pinterest user is 40, however majority of active pinners are below 40.
  • Half of Pinterest users earn $50K or greater per year, with 10 percent of Pinteresting households making greater than $125K.
  • 30% of all US social media users are Pinterest users.
  • 60% of Pinterest users are from the US.
  • There are over 75 billion ideas on Pinterest.
  • 87% of Pinners have purchased a product because of Pinterest.
  • 72% of Pinners use Pinterest to decide what to buy offline.
  • 67% of Pinners are under 40-years-old.
  • Over 5% of all referral traffic to websites comes from Pinterest.
  • Pinterest said 80% of its users access Pinterest through a mobile device.
  • 93% of active pinners said they use Pinterest to plan for purchases and 87% said they’ve purchased something because of Pinterest.
  • Two-thirds of Pins represent brands and products.
  • Food & Drink & Technology are the most popular categories for men.
  • An average Pins made by an Active Female User is 158.
  • Recipes: There are more than 1.7 billion recipe Pins.
  • Shopping: Every day nearly 2M people Pin product rich Pins.
  • Articles: More than 14 million articles are Pinned each day.
  • Average time spent on Pinterest per visit is 14.2 minutes.

Are you still wondering why you should add it to your Marketing Strategy?

2 more simple reasons:  

  1. It can be a great lead generator (driving traffic to your website)
  2. It is great for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) distributing your content and links that drive traffic back to your website. Google loves this.

 

1. What should I Pin?

One way to see what your niche market likes is by using the ‘search’ tool in Pinterest. Search for keywords that your niche might be looking for – this will tell you what your audience is probably interested in.

On Pinterest, people are looking for ideas and products that inspire to action. So let people find you because of your inspiring content. Build trust by continuing to provide value.

Then make sure your website allows for a smooth transition from Pin to page. That means a beautiful and engaging Pin should link to a beautiful and engaging web page.

A couple of ideas for Pins include:

  1. Memes
  2. Videos
  3. Helpful tips
  4. Infographic
  5. Quotes
  6. Customer testimonials
  7. Customers using your product
  8. Recipes or methods to create something (step-by-step guides)

 

2. Add the Pin-it Button

Once you have a Pinterest account and are Pinning to it, make sure you have a ‘Pin It‘ button on your website. Make your content easy to find and share to get the most exposure for it.

By adding a ‘Pin It‘ button to your website your brand or business will begin to see more activity and traffic.

3. Boards

To get your account setup and active, create 5 boards of a variety of topics that your niche is interested in.

Make sure the board’s title and description have keywords that are commonly used by your niche, align with your overall messaging for your brand and marketing efforts.

Next, create a series of about 7-10 pins in each board, varying the type of pin (quote, blog post promo, video, etc.)

Now you’re ready to go!

What NOT to do:

Promote yourself, your product or service. Instead, be of service. Provide great content that is helpful and useable to your niche audience. Don’t worry – you’ll have plenty of other opportunities to promote your offer or service to them once they are further into your funnel (on your website, etc.)

Create pins about you, your team, your workplace. Pinners aren’t looking for that stuff. They’re looking for inspiration!

Be salesy or pushy!  Pinterest will not reward you!  No “10% off” or “50% off today!” or “Buy Today!” And don’t ask people to “repin” your content.

Stress about the number of followers you have! It isn’t that important! Pinterest’s strategy is to be a visual search engine where the importance of posting high-quality, engaging and relevant content outweighs the importance of building follower numbers.

Pin sporadically or infrequently. It’s recommended to post at least five times a day to get optimal results. I know… that is a LOT. But you don’t need to create all this content yourself. Curating and repinning popular content from others works (but make sure you have a good balance of your own versus other’s content).

Also, you can pin the same content to multiple boards – using social media management tools (like Canva – see below) to space out them throughout the day.

Use hashtags! They’re unnecessary and worthless on Pinterest. Save them for other social networks.

Tools/Resources:

Let’s face it – who has time to spend hours on Pinterest every day posting pins? Make sure you use these tools to help you build your Pinterest Pins.

  • To create your pins (they have great Pinterest templates you can use!): Canva
  • For scheduling your pins (schedule your weekly or monthly Pins in advance!): Buffer
  • Great tips and strategies: Pinterest’s business blog

 

Happy Pinning! 

 

*https://www.omnicoreagency.com/pinterest-statistics/

by

Top 3 Tips to Finding New Clients on LinkedIn!

Is it possible to find customers on LINKEDIN WITHOUT SPENDING ANY MONEY ON ADVERTISING?
follow these tips to start making connections with prospective customers on LinkedIn!

Many businesses are using LinkedIn to cultivate relationships that turn in to leads, for $0! It takes a little bit of time every day, and a concerted focused effort. But it is possible to find customers using LinkedIn – without spending any money on advertising!

Answer these questions for me, honestly.

How much time do you spend on Facebook every day?

How much time are spending on building advertising campaigns? 

How much money are you spending on advertising on Facebook or other social networks? 

How can you find customers without spending a dime on LinkedIn?

TIp 1: Commit to spending time every day on LinkedIn

How? Make it part of your daily routine. Every business day, for 30 minutes. That’s all it should take.

Ok – 30 minutes is doable. So, what should you do?

  • Spend time liking and commenting on content that is relevant to your target industry.
  • Commented on posts from companies or people you’re hoping to connect with or who are influencers in your target industry space.
  • Join groups that are focused on the industry or position that you are targeting,
  • Don’t waste this committed time on your ‘peer’ groups. Most of the time you aren’t going to find clients in your peer groups.
  • Participate.

Did you know – when you ‘like’ or ‘comment’ on a post, that action will now show up on other users feeds?

How does this help you?

It shows you are an active participator, while also helping build your credibility.

But most importantly, it expands your reach. Your name is now showing up in feeds of people who are not directly connected to you (your 2nd-degree connections – connections of connections). Exposure! After a while, LinkedIn may then recommend you as someone to follow!

TIP 2: Post consistent Quality content

Liking and commenting is great for expanding your reach. However, posting consistently on your own account with quality content will build your own credibility as a subject matter expert.

What should you post?

  • Text only. Yes – a bunch of studies has shown that engagement levels are much higher on text-only posts. Test it out for yourself! (Why text only? LinkedIn gives preference to content that stays within LinkedIn, versus links out to external sites.)
  • Keep it short and simple. No one wants to read a novel. However, if you feel compelled to write something longer than a few sentences, then consider using the LinkedIn blogging platform, called “Publisher”.
  • Opinions. Do you have an opinion on a news story from your field or industry? Share your opinion and invite responses.
  • Ask questions of your followers – their opinion on something, or recommendations etc.

If you want to include links to articles include those in the comments.

Don’t forget – this is a public forum, so your posts and comments are a reflection of you and your personal brand.

Extra Tip: Make sure your posts can be seen by everyone! Turn your posts to ‘public’ in the settings section of your profile.

Tip 3: Don’t be that annoying sales person!

Noone likes “that guy”. You know… the guy/girl who tries to connect with you and goes right in with the sales pitch. Or the person who likes to comment on your posts with “what I can do for you!”

I know you’re asking “But how am I supposed to get business from LinkedIn???”

Selling constantly, and badgering people with your sales pitch is annoying. It will alienate you from your prospects, and people find it really disruptive. It especially doesn’t work for people who are selling their expertise (like consultants).

You are more than likely not speaking to a “qualified” lead – meaning you haven’t established a need for your product or service, nor determine if it is the right time for them to purchase.

It really comes across as desperate.

Connect with 5 people a day – this will grow your 2nd-degree connections and increase your reach.

So how are you going to make sales from LinkedIn?

Be omnipresent and engaged.

Be the person who provides value in the content they’re posting, and in the comments they’re making.

Grow your network and reach so you can be discovered by your 2nd-degree connections by liking and commenting on posts relevant to your target industry.

And then people will start approaching you! You are the expert in the field they’re interested in and seem to be knowledgeable and helpful. So perhaps you are the person for the job!

Would you like a BONUS tip?

I have a pretty simple, but relatively secret tip on how to find people who are already looking for your service or product. They’re hot leads! They are looking for you. But you wouldn’t even know it. I have put together this LinkedIn tip post in a downloadable PDF and have included an amazing bonus tip! All I ask in return is that you sign up to receive occasional emails from us. We promise to send you great content (like this post) and to respect your email box.

If you’d like to receive my final (and pretty darn awesome) tip for finding people who are already looking for your service or product, fill out the form below to receive my How To Guide to finding clients on LinkedIn!

How are YOU using LinkedIn to connect with prospective customers?

by