by Angela Taffs | Feb 11, 2015 | Sales and Marketing
How much thought do you put into your email newsletter design? Do you design it with as much colour and creativity as you can cram in, or do you actually stop and consider how your readers are going to react?
Now, this post may be a little controversial as there are some very successful business people out there whose newsletter design I hate. But the design must work for them or they wouldn’t keep using them. Or would they? Does their business not depend on gaining new clients from these newsletters, or is it, that they have so many subscribers that a small percentage love them and sign up?
Who knows? But one thing I do know is that there are some very over complicated designs out there that really turn me off.
What did you actually take into consideration when creating your email newsletter layout?
With the software available out there such as Mailchimp and ConstantContact amongst many others, newsletter design options are endless. And this is where I think that many people are falling into the trap of trying to be too creative.
I subscribe to a number of newsletters but there are only a very small few that I always read. And why? Because they make it simple for me.
Take Enterprise Nation. I always read their newsletter. It is laid out simply in an easy-to-read format with no constant distractions from flashing images, numerous columns and varying colours and fonts.
On the other hand, and please forgive me those that love it, I cannot bear Dani Johnson’s. There is so much text with so many links I just do not know which way to look first. Trying to scan it fills me with dread as it initially appears as though it will take far too much time to go through everything, so I just delete and the other day finally unsubscribed.
I also have just unsubscribed from another newsletter that hits me with so many different fonts and colours (I only have a few shown on this screen print) that I start to feel a little nauseous each time I see it.
So before you get carried away with seeing how many columns, pictures and flashy bits you can fit into your newsletter, stop and think from the reader’s point of view.
We are all busy and tend to scan things to see if it is worth us taking our valuable time to read any further. Make it simple for the reader to see immediately the message you are trying to get across. Don’t put distractions in their way.
If you would like my ‘9 Top tips for effective newsletters’ simply drop me a comment below.
by Angela Taffs | Feb 9, 2015 | Finance, Tax and NI
Do you take financial responsibility for your business or do you keep getting tempted by bright shiny objects?
One of the things you need to do when running a small business is to keep a close track on your spending and take financial responsibility for every penny spent.
Too often we get sucked into impulse buys and then have a ton of things we don’t really need or use. How many highlighters, shiny notepads, diaries, planners and magazines does one girl need? This all then adds to the clutter on desks and bookcases that in turn takes time to sort through and get rid of. And of top of this, how many courses have you signed up to that you have never completed? I have four outstanding at the time of writing. Shameful I know!
If this resonates with you, go out and purchase yourself a small notebook (or use one of the many shiny, colourful ones you have stashed away. At the top of each page, list how much money you have in your monthly budget to spend on non-essential items for the month and then every time you make a purchase, deduct it from the amount available to try and help you keep on track.
If you aren’t still a feather quill and ledger type of person, there are numerous mobile apps out there that can help you keep a track of your daily spend and the majority of them are for free. You can also use just a simple spreadsheet on your phone. A couple of apps that I use are MyMoney and I have also just downloaded ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner which lets you scan a barcode of a product and then lists where you can buy it at the best price.
Since I have put this into practice, I have already stopped and thought twice about making a couple of purchases and not gone ahead with them. By setting myself a limit, I know that by making those ‘small’ purchases now it will reduce my overall spend and I may see something else that I prefer later in the month.
This is all such simple and basic stuff but what so many of us forget to do by letting our financial responsibility slip. We then find we have overspent and end up feeling stressed when we check the bank balance at the end of the month.
And finally, the best of thing of all that I have done is gone and bought myself (yes, I have entered it in my notebook!) a good old fashioned piggy bank. I love him and have promised to feed him daily with at least one gold coin out of my personal money so that at the end of the year I will have a minimum of £365 to reward myself for taking financial responsibility for my business. Happy times!
by Angela Taffs | Jan 29, 2015 | Running a Business, Sales and Marketing
Three times just lately, I have made contact with someone through social media and expressed an interest in what they do. Each time they have message me and promised to send me some information. And each time, they have failed to deliver! Are they aware this is a classic way of losing clients?
Now, perhaps they are getting so many messages they don’t need my business and aren’t interested in me. But if that is the case, then just tell me in the first place. Bad news travels far faster than good and if anyone ever asks me about any of these businesses, I will not hesitate to tell others not to bother with them.
And quite frankly, it is just bad manners.
It could, of course, be a case that they have simply forgotten. But if that is the case, it is even worse for their business as they are missing out on potential income and are losing clients who could go on to be quite profitable for them. If you are busy and cannot deal with enquiries immediately, ensure you have a system set up to remind you to send out information that you have promised to. If you have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system such as , then great. Enter details into there and allocate yourself a task. At the simplest end, have a paper diary and make a note in there.
At the top of most customer’s lists, by far, when dealing with a company is that they keep their word. So if you promise something and then fail to deliver you will not only be losing clients, you will also lose your business reputation.
Regardless of how this mismanagement of your potential clients affects your business, think how it affects them. There is a saying that it is not what you say to someone, but it is how you make them feel. By promising something and then never getting in contact again, you may make the person feel undervalued and worthless. There is a real danger that some of these people may be having a tough time in their personal life and this ‘small’ omission on your part, could add to their feelings of worthlessness. I am writing this because I have seen this happen, and until I did, I didn’t realise the impact that we, as small business owners can have on other people’s lives. A simple thing that we don’t think really matters, can have a huge impact on the person at the other end.
I am not saying that you have to responsibility for other people’s personal issues, but I am saying stop and think when making promises you are not going to keep. Next time someone asks you for something, think twice before blindly saying you will send something on or do something. Be realistic. Tell them if you are too busy. Tell them if you don’t think you can supply what they want, when they want, or even if you don’t think they are the right client for you.
Being honest could stop you losing clients and save both your business reputation and hurt feelings for your lost client.
by Angela Taffs | Jan 28, 2015 | Business IT, Running a Business
Today I flagged up to a company that I had recommended quite a few people to them and a couple of these had sent emails to make bookings but had received no response. I was informed by the business owner that he did not have time to check his emails as he had an overflowing inbox and people should phone if they want to get in contact.
To say I was dumbfounded is to put it politely. I gently tried to point out how many opportunities he may be missing out on but the response was that his phone number was on his website, Facebook page and business cards so people should use that.
So my next question was why on earth bother putting on contact details of an email address if you have no intention of checking it.
I was hoping to be able to tell you that this is a rare occurrence with small businesses but unfortunately it is not. All too often I come across small businesses with an overflowing inbox that is having a detrimental effect on their business. I know of another business advisor who had been sent a number of clients to speak to. When I asked them why they had not been in contact, they again told me they had too many emails to trawl through so just picked out the most important looking ones.
Please do not let your emails get out of control and fall into this dangerous trap. You never know that an absolute golden nugget may be sat amongst them, hidden from view, and that you let slip by. Don’t bury your head in the sand and think people will make the effort to contact you in another format after a couple of failed attempts. There is plenty of competition out there folks and if your competitor can be bothered to check their emails, then quite frankly, they deserve the business.
The business owner in question took the attitude that if someone was serious about doing business with him, then they would use alternative avenues and make more effort to get in contact with him. My attitude is that if you are serious about building your business and gaining a good reputation, you will make the most of every opportunity to engage with potential clients and make it as easy as possible for them to get in contact with you. And if you give out an email address as a form of contact, people will expect a response if they send you a message.
If you don’t want an overflowing inbox and want to know how to get your emails under control and keep them that way so you don’t ever miss a potential client, drop me a comment below and I will send you an article on ‘How to keep your email inbox under control.’
by Angela Taffs | Jan 24, 2015 | Sales and Marketing
Social media automation
There are so many tools out there today that can save us time and make scheduling social media posts so much easier. But are they always effective?
I have always used Buffer on the free programme that only allowed me to schedule up to 10 posts at any one time. Last week I decided to try Hootsuite as with this software you can schedule as many posts as you like. I sat and scheduled a variety of posts for the next week. I then sat back and gave myself a pat on the back and felt more relaxed that I didn’t need to blog into Buffer every day to keep it topped up.
But what happened?
The reach on my posts dropped from 500+ to less than 50. The interactions on my posts dried up. But why?
I stopped and thought about this as it couldn’t possibly be the fault of Hootsuite. I must have done something differently.
And then it hit me.
With scheduling just a few posts at a time, I was taking more time with each and injecting a bit more of my personality into each. Scheduling up to 50 at a time made me lose my enthusiasm and I just posted the bare bones, facts and links. Quite frankly, they were boring!
So whilst using social media automation and having the ability to post weeks in advance can save a daily check, be careful that you don’t fall into the trap that I did and they all start to become over automated and somewhat mundane.
People buy people first and without your own comments and injection of personality you are in danger of turning into just another faceless site.
So be careful folks. If you are going to schedule lots of posts at once, do it when your energy levels are high and you have enough interesting comments to make. And remember that any industry news you schedule may well be out of date by the time your post appears.
I will most certainly use Hootsuite again when I am going to be away for a few days or on holiday for a week or so, but personally I am going to stick to Buffer for day to day posts where I can give something fresh to my posts each day.
Finally, please make sure that if you do automate for periods in advance that you still check in each day to your social media channels to respond to any interaction on your page. There is nothing worse than putting in all the hard work for someone to ask you a question and they then get ignored. This has happened to me when I asked a question of a business and I never got a response. I ended up unfollowing the business in question as I felt they couldn’t be bothered to get back to me and so didn’t want my custom. What a waste of their effort and time.
What works for you? What social media automation do you use? Let me know over on the Facebook page.
