Marketing

email opens

Email Marketing: When the Opens are FALLING – Do THIS

I’ve been an email marketer since the beginning of email marketing.  It’s just my jam.  I love writing, I love getting instant feedback – and yea, I’m not going to lie, I love seeing open rates in the 30’s and 40’s.

And then came Covid.  Everyone was Zoomed out and Emailed out.  There was very little room for fluff.  Unless it pertained to your job or your kid\’s homeschooling or staying in touch with a shut in loved one – no one wanted to look at another pixel on the screen.

My email open rates dropped – and dropped big time.  I even had some of my most loyal followers apologize to me that they haven’t been reading because well…life.

Here’s how I reacted:

  1. I added more emails.   If they missed one on Monday, they may get one on Thursday – or Friday.  I surely didn’t stop.  I ended up broadening my reach and collective open rates went up.  In other words – someone may not have read both Monday and Thursday – but they may have read one.  I’ll take it.
  2. I started videotaping my emails! Yes – you heard it.  I was always an email purist. If you don’t sign up for my list – you aren’t getting my email.  People do have time to listen to a short 3-5 minute video – so I did it.  Grab the replays on youtube.com/cindydonaldson.  I’m getting engagement from NON-email followers!  Double win.
  3. I didn’t judge or worry. I put on my big girl panties and my empathy hat – everyone is in the same boat. It’s not me.
  4. I didn’t change the structure or the time of my emails – my followers know my drill. Why add confusion?
  5. I encouraged followers to save them – toss them in a folder for later.
  6. I dumped in VALUE. Now wasn’t the time to sell them “stuff”  – it was the time to over-serve – I mean OVER SERVE.

I still 100% believe email marketing gives marketers the biggest bang for their buck – and that means brands.  The cost is in the time and creativity – oh and paying for a good platform, but the cost pales in comparison to a huge digital advertising campaign.

Here are my rules of engagement:

  1. Keep the subject line intriguing, genuine, and short. I love the 2-3 word ones.
  2. Keep it conversational – tell a damn story
  3. Tell them what the main goal is in the first paragraph
  4. Dump in the value
  5. End with something for them to do – a call to action
  6. For service businesses like mine – only sell a couple of times a year

It’s not that hard.  Write like you speak.  Don’t overthink it.

Email marketing isn’t going anywhere.  If you aren’t on my list – what are you waiting for?  Join HERE.

Email Marketing: When the Opens are FALLING – Do THIS Read More »

experience

How’s your Customer’s Experience?

Ah, the customer experience. When you are the customer, it’s very easy to describe your experience with a business – what you liked, what you didn’t like, what you wish they did differently or did more of – the list goes on. However, as a business owner or employee – trying to figure out your customer’s experience – and making sure it’s a good one – can be really hard.

Let’s first define what “Customer Experience” actually means – it’s the impression your customers have of your brand as a whole throughout all aspects of the buyer\’s journey. It results in their view of your brand and impacts factors related to your bottom-line including revenue.

The two primary touchpoints that create the customer experience are people and products/services. Positive customer experiences are crucial to the success of a business – not only do you get loyal customers, but they can also refer you more business! There is no better marketing than a customer who is willing to promote your business for you via word of mouth and is a brand advocate.

Creating an excellent customer experience is something that you should obsess over.

When it comes to purchasing products and services, it’s not the business owner who has the power, it’s the buyer. Why? Because customers not only have the internet at their fingertips to research anything and everything, but they have options – usually both locally and online when it comes to purchasing products or services.

It’s not about getting just ONE sale from a customer, it’s about creating sticky customers – repeat buyers. If you want customers to continue doing business with you, then you need to provide a remarkable experience and make them WANT to continue doing business with you.

 How to you measure your customer experience?

  1. Send surveys – Use customer satisfaction surveys on a regular basis, and at meaningful times through the customer journey – to get insights into your customers’ experiences with your brand, people, and product/service. This is where that Net Promoter Score comes in handy! Analyzing NPS from multiple touchpoints across the customer journey will tell you what you need to improve and where you\’re providing an excellent experience already while showing customers you\’re listening to them and care about what they have to say.
  2. Look at customer trends – Look at your churn rate. How often and how many one and done customers do you have – and why? You need to understand if your rate of churn is increasing or decreasing and why so you can prevent it from continuing. Is it a faulty product, is your time to perform service to long, is it a bad employee experience, did they move, etc.
  3. Look at your FAQs and support tickets/returns. If you are constantly being asked the same questions from customers, be proactive, and put more information on your website or in your brick and mortar to make their experience better. Are you getting a lot of return requests or service issues about certain products/services? You need to analyze all this information and distill how you can make a streamlined and enjoyable experience for customers.

Want to make a great customer experience? Make a customer journey map, create buyer personas, establish a positive connection with customers, ask for and act on feedback, create helpful content, and build a community.

How’s your Customer’s Experience? Read More »

social media

How to do Social Media the Right Way

When you think about posting on your business social media pages, do you start to panic, feel overwhelmed, and just feel all around uncertainty about what the heck you are even doing? Don’t worry, you aren’t alone. The funny thing is, social media for personal use can be fun, informative, and doesn’t require much effort or deep thought – for the most part. See a lost dog post, share it. See a post looking for recommendations for a plumber – put the info for Joe’s Plumbing because you wouldn’t think of calling anyone else.

When it comes to using social media for business, it seems like there are so many rules and the information can be conflicting. But doing social media the right way can be very simple, straightforward, and dare I say – rewarding and fun. When you start to get more followers and increased engagement, you’ll agree on the last two!

Here’s some simple and easy tips to help you get your business social off on the right foot or to improve what you are doing now:

  1. Pick the right channels. The easiest way to get overwhelmed is to try to post on every single social media channel out there. And yes, I purposely used the word try. Because unless posting on social is your full-time job, it’s almost impossible to keep up with every platform. Choose the platforms that your ideal clients are on. For example, if you cater to women in the 35-55 range, yes you should be on Facebook, Pinterest, and even Instagram.
  2. Be consistent. Posting 2x a day for 2 weeks is great, but it’s not going to help you if you come to a screeching halt and stop posting for 6 months. Find a cadence that you can keep up with. 3x a week – great, start there. If you can increase to 1x a day, even better. But start small and work your way up as you get more comfortable.
  3. Plan ahead. If you post daily at 1 pm, don’t wait until 12:45 to figure out what you want to post. Use a spreadsheet and create your content in advance. Use Hootsuite or other scheduling platforms to set up all your content at least a week ahead so that you don’t have to panic at the last minute.
  4. Engage. Social is meant to be social. Engage with other people, pages, and groups. If you are a florist and you see a post in a group asking about the best plant food for roses, feel free to chime in and share your knowledge and how you know so much (because you are a local florist) and if they have any other questions, here’s how to reach you. You are being helpful, but also noting your business. If you want people to engage with you, you have to engage with them. If people comment on your posts, make sure you engage back with them. Serve not Sell.
  5. Follow others. A little quid pro quo is par for the course when it comes to social media. Want to increase your follows, start following others. If you want to keep an eye on the competition, don’t follow them from your business page, use your personal. But otherwise, follow any associations, chambers, and complementary businesses that make sense. If you are a florist, following a bridal boutique, wedding venue, and catering companies just makes sense.
  6. Always look at your metrics. I know, I get it. The metrics can be confusing and well, boring for many to look at, but trust me, you won’t know if you are successful unless you look at your metrics. How many new followers did you get? What topics got the best engagement? What timing got the best engagement? You get the idea. Does video or pictures or text get more engagement? You can look at so much data!

Hopefully, you made it this far and didn’t get stressed out. These rules are meant as a guideline. Start small and take them one at a time. Rome wasn’t built in a day so don’t expect to get 500k followers in a week. And don’t forget to have fun with it!

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feedback

How to Tell if You are Getting Sincere Feedback

Asking for feedback is a pretty normal part of life, right? You ask for people’s opinions all the time: Do they like a new recipe you made, do they like this color paint for the living room, does this new shirt make you look fat?, etc. Do you always get the truth… maybe not? In fact, I recently saw this post on Facebook that said, let me know if you want to vent or you really want advice. It’s an honest question too because sometimes people just want validation and they really don’t want your opinion.

When it comes to getting sincere feedback at work, it can be even harder. Why? Well, to be honest, some people just don’t care to give you honest feedback. Some people don’t like confrontation, so they say great job regardless. There are others who are jealous and want you to fail, so they give you bad advice or won’t point out mistakes. Either way, it’s not sincere and it’s not helping.

People always telling you that you are doing a great job is nice to hear, but it’s really not effective and it’s completely unhelpful for growth and development.

In order to improve at anything in life, you need three things:

  • A clear goal
  • A genuine desire to achieve that goal
  • Feedback that indicates what they are doing well and what they are not doing well

Not only is sincere feedback hard to come by, but low-quality feedback is not useful, positive feedback is undervalued, and negative feedback delivered unskillfully can actually cause physical pain. When delivered thoughtfully, however, sincere feedback can provide you with actionable data needed to become more effective.

If you make strides towards receiving sincere feedback, try these steps:

Create a Safe Environment for Sharing.  You can do this by showing your peers that honesty doesn’t have repercussions. Be curious about them and ask them questions, show vulnerability, and let them know you want to learn. Acknowledge your weaknesses or mistakes – we are all human.

Be Skillful. Just asking for feedback rarely results in useful information. Try asking more specific questions like “Was I talking too fast”, “Do I talk over people or cut them off”, “You know Jason well, how can I better connect with him” – this helps people break down feedback into bite-size pieces.  

Ask for the Good and Bad. When you only hear the good or only the bad, you miss out on a lot of specific information that’s useful. If you just hear the bad, you won’t know the good things you do and risk making changes to those when you shouldn’t. If you just hear the good, you won’t know what bad stuff to fix – you need both for feedback to work. Also, just getting praise does not give you enough information to understand what you are doing effectively – “great job” doesn’t say the same thing as “Hey, your slides are kick-ass, but you should probably just slow down your presentation by 5 seconds”.

Be Receptive and Attentive. When getting feedback, focus on the person giving it so they know you are listening and value their opinion. Even if you disagree with some feedback, don’t challenge or debate them, or you may decrease the likelihood of that person offering you feedback in the future.

Say Thank You. Even if it wasn’t the most helpful information, always say thank you. The person giving you feedback likely spent a good amount of time considering your performance and how to thoughtfully discuss it with you.

Evaluate, Plan, and Act. Review all the data, consider what parts to work on, what parts to disregard and plan to fix what needs fixing. Pick one or two capabilities you want to improve, get really clear about what “improved” looks like, and then map out the action steps that you need to take. If you struggle with the action part – check out this blog.

People who are great leaders are great listeners and great learners. They are always looking for more information and ways to improve themselves. Getting and learning from feedback isn’t always easy, but it is necessary if you want to become better.

How to Tell if You are Getting Sincere Feedback Read More »

website

How do I know if I need a website makeover?

Truth be told, no one wants to hear that their website sucks. It can be a very awkward conversation especially if a business owner is in love with their current site and is in denial. What may have been cutting edge 5, 10, or even 15 years ago is just no longer going to cut it today. #TruthBomb

We get it, having your website created probably took a lot of time, decision making, and money, but if your website just isn’t converting anymore or it’s very clunky for your viewers to use – then it’s time for an overhaul.

The goal of any website is to convert visitors into customers and if your site design and/or structure is a barrier in that, it needs to be fixed. Identifying the problems that hinder your site from being conducive to conversion and visitor engagement is an important step in the right direction.

Below are a few reasons why a redesign should become a priority for your company\’s web presence and some negative effects you could face by not taking action now.

  1. Your bounce rate is too high. Every website should have Google Analytics installed so that you can review your bounce rate – this the percentage of visitors that only visit a single page on your website during their session. The average bounce rate is about 40% to 55%. Anything higher suggests that your visitors are having a poor user experience.
  2. Long load times. Is there anything more frustrating than when a website takes FOR-EV-ER to load! There are several tools, like pingdom.com, that can help you figure out your load time. If it takes longer than 3 seconds, you should make some updates to speed it up.
  3. No on-page SEO. In order for your website to rank on search engines like Google and Bing, your website needs to have on-page Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Each page should have its own unique keywords and title tag or H1 tag. Search engines use these tags and keywords to create listings and how your customize these can affect how and how often your website is displayed when someone searches your keywords. There are other ways to increase your SEO as well including adding links, meta descriptions, alt tags, etc.
  4. Stale content. Yes, adding fresh content to your website matters – without it you will struggle to attract and retain new visitors. Fresh content increases your site’s exposure in search results – one of the easiest ways to add content is a blog!
  5. It’s still an HTTP. You need to have a secure site and upgrade to an HTTPS site – this lets visitors know that your site is secured by an encrypted network communication protocol. An HTTPS scrambles the data transmitted to and from your site to prevent unauthorized users from reading it.
  6. It’s not mobile responsive. This is a big one! 3 in 5 users will visit your site on a tablet or mobile device. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, visitors may abandon your website. A mobile responsive website means that not only does your website look good and function great on a desktop, but it’s compatible on a mobile device – the design uses proportional units of measure rather than fixed so it can adapt to the device it’s viewed on.
  7. It’s clunky aka hard to navigate. Visitors should be able to easily find the content they are looking for on your site. Whether you put the information on your homepage or in your menu, visitors shouldn’t have to look hard to find what they came for. Navigation can affect every aspect of your website performance!
  8. It doesn’t match your brand. You already know how important branding is to us here at Red Barn. Your website is a direct reflection of your brand, your colors, logo, styling, pictures, and even font should all match your brand.
  9. You aren’t using CTAs. A Call to Action tells your visitor what to do next. It can be something simple like read this article, download this whitepaper, click here to email or call, etc. it gives them direction on what they need to do next to get information or to work with you.
  10. You have bad links or 404 errors. Having broken links or links to pages that are no longer available can really affect a user’s experience on your website. It can also slow down your site’s speed and performance. If you don’t want to check every link page by page, a great resource is com.

In addition to the list above, you should also make it very easy for people to find your contact information and social media profiles – make it easy for them to contact you and follow you. It’s also important to note that if you are in an industry like banking, you may be required to have an ADA compliant website – that’s a whole different animal, but you can read a previous blog about it here.

Don’t look at upgrading and updating your website as an expense – it’s all part of your marketing strategy which should be seen as an investment. After all, marketing is designed to bring in leads that convert to sales. If your website is crappy and outdated, odds are you aren’t making the best first impression to your prospects and could be losing sales and not even know it. Need an honest assessment of your website or thinking of giving it an overhaul, give us a call!

How do I know if I need a website makeover? Read More »

How to grow your email list

Email is not dead.  In fact, email is by far the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to connecting with your tribe – especially email automation! So how do you grow your list? The key is you need to do it consistently and always be adding to your list.

Just the facts:

  • 91 percent of US adults like to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with (MarketingSherpa)
  • Email is almost 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined in helping your business acquire new customers. (McKinsey)

Where to start to grow your list?

Everyone starts at zero – everyone.  So to grow and build a list of thousands will take some time.  Here are my tips:

  1. Understand that 90% of your email content is to serve – not sell. This is all about building credibility and gaining trust.
  2. Understand that you need to be consistent and that in fact – more is better. We suggest a weekly email to your list – and more if you are in the middle of a launch.
  3. Choose your email platform – don’t use Outlook, Gmail, etc. – you need to be able to see the metrics.  Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Drip, Infusionsoft/Keap – choose what works for you.
  4. ASK people to join. All email platforms offer a sign-up function – so share that URL everywhere on social media – and ask them to sign up.  You can incentivize them if you like!  When I do public speaking I offer to donate $1 to the local soup kitchen for every new email sign up.  It works 🙂
  5. Put a sign-up form on your website – this makes it easy for people to find and sign up for your list.
  6. Use lead magnets such as downloadable checklists, quizzes, e-books, free mini-courses – anything that brings value and someone is willing to give you their email in exchange for it.
  7. Make sure you deliver GREAT content. If your content sucks – your email engagement will too.  Not sure what to write – survey people on your list, your customers, etc.  I do it often.

Remember you own your list – you don’t own your social media followers. What does that mean? Even if you have 100k followers on social media, you are relying on the platform and their algorithms to market to your people. You can\’t export their contact info and use it elsewhere. Email marketing should be a huge part of your marketing mix!!

Need some help?  Grab a spot on my calendar and we can hash out what’s working and what isn’t!

How to grow your email list Read More »

clients

How to Get the BEST Clients

This month in our private  “The Thursday Club” we are diving into the Law of Attraction – think friends, clients, acquaintances, etc..  What you put forth, you attract. What you say, you become.

I’m coaching on how to create a personal brand that attracts the right people and clients into their inner circle.  Because you are who you surround yourself with – yes your Mama was right.

Here’s where many businesses go wrong – they think that brand trumps people.  When your brand excludes the people connection it becomes a commodity and then often the price is the point.  Not always – but often.

How to attract the BEST clients?  Be authentic.  Don’t fake it.  Be honest, be real and deliver on what you promise.

 Some stories…..

I’d like to share why I bought a Tiffin Motorhome

I did a bunch of research and found that it is a family-owned business, that customer service was their #1 priority and they stood by their word.

ALL of their marketing talks about it.

ALL of their social media screams to it.

ALL of their EMPLOYEES honor those values.

Their tag line is “Roughing it Smoothly” – it just sings to me.

They have Clubs and Get Togethers for Tiffin owners – and again they go above and beyond.

They charge a premium for their products, and I’m willing to pay that because I want to be able to pick up the phone and talk to Bob or Trent Tiffin if there is a problem.

Their brand is ALL about the people!  Their employees – their owners – their family. 

Not everyone cares about the level of customer service I do – some are more concerned about the price – and that’s ok!

Not everyone wants the RV I have – again that’s ok.

Tiffin Motorhomes is a prime example of using Attraction Marketing to woo people like me.

What they put forth – they attracted.  They think of all the little details and they have an avatar of ME in mind.

Now let’s take my company  Red Barn Consulting

 If you look at our marketing, what we put forth, who we are – we are very intentional.

We aren’t for everyone.  We know that.

We want to work with people who we like, who we can bring value to and who can afford us.

Jenn and I are not corporate, we are more country than city – and there isn’t a suit in either of our closets.  We go above and beyond to make sure our clients are happy and if you aren’t for us, we will let you know.

So if you attracting clients who aren’t a good fit and your “perfect client” eludes you – go back to your marketing and your messaging – there is something off.

Tell YOUR story – make it about people, not your logo.  You’ll see a shift.

How to Get the BEST Clients Read More »

size doesn't matter content

Size…Really Doesn’t Matter

What size should my content be? How long should a Blog be – what about White Papers?

How long should my email copy be?  How often should I send them?

The answer is – there isn’t an answer.  Size and quantity IMHO don’t matter – QUALITY does.

My email subscribers get at a minimum of 2 emails per week.  Sometimes more depending on what is going on.  The length of those emails ranges from 250 words to over 1000 – to be honest I never look at the word count because I don’t care.

What I care about is the content.  Is it engaging?  Is it relevant?  Is it entertaining?

You will NEVER nail this for everyone – because everyone is different.  What is engaging to one may be boring as all hell to another.  What is relevant to one will be obsolete for another what is entertaining for one will ghastly for another.

My advice to content writers is to be authentic (you can read more on that there), be transparent and know your audience.  Write for the majority, write from your soul – write as if you are sitting down and drinking a glass of wine or coffee with someone face to face.  Write as you would speak.

How do you know if you are engaging, relevant and entertaining?  Look at your metrics.  What are your open rates on your emails?  Dive into your Google Analytics to see who’s reading your blogs (PS don’t forget to share them on social – that’s where we get our biggest engagement).  If your numbers aren’t where you want them to be – review your content.  Something is off – chances are you aren’t writing to your audience.  Take a step back are dive deep into your Target Client Profile – who are they REALLY?  Then regroup.  It may take you several iterations to nail it – so don’t give up!

Consistency wins each and every time.

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Social Media – Quality vs. Quantity

Does even thinking about posting to social media stress you out? How many times to post, what to post, when to post, etc.? Are you putting content out just for the sake of putting content out on social media? Are your followers just not engaging and your audience isn’t growing? When it comes to social media posts, quality beats quantity every time.

The norm has always been that consumers expect companies to have content readily available to consume – blogs, social media, enewsletters, downloadable ebooks, white papers, etc. They still look for this type of content, however just having a large library of stuff isn’t enough – consumers want quality of resources from companies they do business with – not just fluff.

First, we need to back up and define what quality means to consumers – it’s targeted, more personalized, highly creative messaging. Content that is focused on better understanding and interacting with your clients. Even small brands can easily produce content that looks just as good as the big dogs.

When a prospect is looking to learn more about your company, yes, they will Google you and visit your website, but they will also look to see what social media channels you are on, the type of content that you post, and how long ago you posted. Just throwing posts up that your customers and prospects don’t care about is not going to help you engage with them. However, one good quality post on Facebook can do way better than five poor quality posts.

Some tips to posting high quality content are:

  • Photos – they don’t need to be done professionally, but make sure they are well lit, not blurred or grainy.
  • Videos – also need good lighting and good sound.
  • Sharing Blogs – need to be interesting and relevant topics but also have good spelling, punctuation and grammar. It should be around 500 words or more to keep readers on your website for longer which is a good SEO signal to Google.
  • Sharing 3rd Party Content – share content from reputable sources that don’t require signing up for memberships. Articles from newspapers, magazines, etc. are usually good sources
  • Your content – only 20% of your content should be around your business – if you are constantly pushing a sale people will unfollow you

I get asked a lot about the best times to post on social media. There is no concrete answer to this. You need to post when and where your audience is going to see your posts. Why post on Twitter if your audience is on Facebook? If your audience primarily engages in the mornings, don’t wait to post until the afternoon.

Don’t get hung up on the numbers. Many people will engage in campaigns to buy likes or followers. This might seem great in the short term, but these people are most likely not your ideal clients and will never engage with you. At the end of the day, your goal is to be seen as an expert, a trusted advisor, and of course to get traffic to your website as that is where the sale is. If your engagement is low, then ask yourself if it is the quality of the post or is that the content isn’t resonating with your audience.

When it comes to social media posts quality will always beat quantity. You aren’t Gary V or Jenna Kutcher – you don’t need to keep up with the quantity of posts that they put out daily – they have teams of people who do this for them. For the DIYers – just focus on the quality. That’s all you need to do.

Social Media – Quality vs. Quantity Read More »

customer experience

Marketing Trends 2020 – customer experience

What we do as an industry has dramatically changed over the past decade.  We’ve shifted from trying to convince people to buy, to do, to act, to honing in on our customer’s journey and customer experience.

CX will rule Marketing and Advertising in the next decade.

The Customer Experience (CX) is king. People no longer want to be told what to do, instead they want to be educated, they want to be wooed and they want an AMAZING customer experience – one that they willingly will pay more for.

Read that again:  They will pay MORE for a better experience.

Not that cheap, one and done is gone – there will always be price shoppers, but the trend is more on “show me what’s in it for me” as in the customer not the vendor.

So how do you have a Fab CX?

  1. Put yourself in YOUR customer’s shoes. You need to know them inside and out.  What makes them tick, why do they buy from you – and why do they not?  Knowledge is complete power here.
  2. KNOW your Value Proposition and make sure your team does too. It comes from the top.  Empower your team to make decisions on behalf of bettering your client experience.  Be it a refund, sending flowers, giving a bit more – the list goes on.  In the end you’ll not only increase client retention – but employee retention. Happy Employees = Happy Clients.
  3. Over Deliver – I mean OVER DELIVER. Just woo the socks off them.  Be Chewy – train your team to LIVE your value prop and DELIVER. DELIVER. DELIVER.
  4. Share your happy client stories – but let it be focused on them – not you. There is an art to it as to not look self-serving.  Again, put yourself in their shoes

Marketing today is less about telling people what you do and more about showing people how you can improve their life and help them – even if it doesn’t involve what you sell.

CX should be at the core of your 2020 business and marketing strategy.

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