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Email Marketing Tips for Travel Agents

Published on April 12, 2012 in Best Practices. 0 Comments Tags: , .

With the rise of online tour sellers like Expedia and Travelocity, travel agents are competing in a market that’s increasingly competitive. Travelers now have the ability to go online and book their own travel deals, leaving the travel agent completely out of the picture. That why it’s important for travel agents to find low cost ways to market to potential customers. One of the best ways to do that is through email marketing.

Why email? Email is immediate, cost-effective, and it can be personalized. It’s also one of the best ways for a travel agent to develop a long-term a relationship with customers and market to them again and again. If you’re a travel agent, here are some tips for using email marketing to reach travel customers.

Travel Agents Can Use Email to Build a Relationship
Travelers book with agents that they know and trust. If you’ve established a strong relationship with your customers, they’re more likely to book with you again and again. Why? You’ve built a relationship with them, and they know you. People feel most comfortable buying from companies and agents that they trust, especially online. Email allows you to build that trust by sending customers helpful information. The best way to use email is to give customers something of value. “Soft sell” to them by sending a regular newsletter with useful travel information, suggestions for places they can visit and tips for traveling safely and comfortably. How about some of these articles?

10 Things You Should Always Pack When Traveling
5 Tips for Vacationing with Kids
10 Top Travel Destinations to Visit in 2012

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Create a Newsletter You Could Sell, Not Just a Newsletter That Sells

Published on April 6, 2012 in Best Practices. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

You work hard to persuade people to join your subscriber list. You might have created a free product that they can download in return for their email address. You might swear blind that you’ll never share addresses with anyone who looks remotely spammy — or anyone at all. And you’ll have played with the text around the subscription box to make sure that you’re capturing the addresses of as many visitors as possible.

Whatever you do, the assumption is always that the lead doesn’t really want a newsletter, will worry that you’re going to bother him with spam and has to be battled with in order to land the address.

But supposing that your newsletter wasn’t just an easy sell but an asset that you can actually exchange for money. Imagine that instead of paying for subscribers with the use of a free ebook, your leads were willing to pay you an annual fee to read your newsletter.

That happens. It doesn’t happen often for businesses but it does happen for non-profits. When campaigning groups like PETA try to sell an annual membership, one of the products they offer in return is their newsletter.
So what’s the difference between a newsletter that people will pay to read and one that you have to pay them to read?

Join the In Crowd
The content will be slightly different, of course. Non-profit newsletters tend to be much longer than commercial newsletters. They’re often printed too, an easy way for the group to demonstrate the value of the information it’s offering. But there’s really one fundamental difference between a newsletter sold by non-profits and one pushed by companies…

…the brand loyalty.

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Email Marketing for Law Firms

Published on April 4, 2012 in Best Practices. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Email is one of the fastest and most cost effective ways to get in touch with clients.
Sending emails to clients costs nothing, and it’s a timesaver since you can preload a series of messages to send out on a set schedule. You can also use email marketing to build a relationship with clients to increase your future business. Here are some tips for using email to market a law firm.

Give Your Readers Something of Value
People can unsubscribe from your list with only a mouse click, and if they don’t feel like they’re getting something of value, they’ll quickly remove themselves from your list. Give them something to think about. Keep your customers educated and informed with emails that inform them about new laws or court decisions that could have an impact on their lives. An example? A personal injury attorney can send out safety warnings or information about new product recalls or tips on how to avoid a rear end collision. That’s relevant information people can use.

Think about questions that your clients frequently ask and address them in your newsletter. If you discuss what’s on the mind of your clients, you’re quickly gain a following. Keep your eye on the news for fresh ideas to talk about from a legal perspective.

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Easter Email Marketing Tips

Published on March 20, 2012 in Best Practices and Tips & tricks. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Christmas isn’t the only holiday that brings good cheer and marketing opportunities. Easter takes place as spring is arriving. People are eager to celebrate the end of a long winter – and that means opportunity for you. Need some ideas? Here are email marketing tips to kick-start your Easter marketing campaign.

Show How Your Products Relate to Easter and Spring
Some products are easy to promote around the Easter holidays. If you sell clothing, show people how to update their wardrobe for spring, and offer a discount on all floral-themed apparel. Many readers purchase a new outfit to wear on Easter Sunday. Show them what you have to offer before they make a trip to the mall.

Flowers, toys for kids and candy are other easy products to promote around Easter, but you can give almost any item an Easter or spring twist. If you sell home products, show customers how to update their home for spring or the Easter holidays using your products. Give them five ways to decorate a table for Easter dinner. Easter and spring is a time of renewal, and people are open to new ideas.

If you sell beauty products, send an article discussing ten ways to update a look for spring with links to your products. If you’re in the travel business, give readers five ideas for places they can spend Easter weekend while getting a special spring discount. If you sell pet products, show pet parents how to make an Easter basket for their four-legged friends, using your products, of course.

Use a Themed Email Template
Get your customers in a cheerful mood by using a themed email template, but be cautious when using an Easter theme unless you know your audience. Easter has religious connotations, and sending emails on an Easter template may be offensive to some readers. To play it safe, choose a colorful spring theme with flowers, trees and birds instead. You’ll still lift your readers’ spirits and put them in a receptive frame of mind. If you market to a primarily Christian audience, pull out all the stops with an email template featuring baskets full of colorful eggs and the Easter bunny carrying a basket full of savings.

**If you are looking for some colorful Easter email templates, check out this free template pack to use with SendBlaster. The package includes 8 original free HTML templates, fully customizable and compatible with all major email clients.

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Use Your Landing Page to Turn Your Email Viral

Published on March 16, 2012 in Best Practices and Tips & tricks. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

When most companies send a marketing email, they’re usually happy to see that it’s been opened and read. Expecting the recipient to send the message on to their friends would be too much to ask. But it’s not impossible for an email campaign to benefit from viral networks — especially if you make use of the landing page.

That’s what Expedia CruiseShipCenters did when the company wanted to grow and refresh its list of North American consumers aged 55 and older and interested in travel.

In a revealing case study MarketingSherpa explained how the firm was able to find a company willing to sponsor a sweepstake that would give away 25 free cruises. To enter, applicants needed only to complete a short form that supplied their name, email address and location. The form also offered readers a choice of emails.

So far, so straightforward. But the thank you page then gave space to enter the email addresses of up to ten friends who would also be informed about the sweepstake. For every friend who entered, the referrer received another shot at the prize.

And of course, each of those friends was asked to refer their friends. The referral application also allowed subscribers to invite their Facebook contacts.

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Email Marketing Tips for Insurance Brokers

Published on March 14, 2012 in Best Practices and Tips & tricks. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach new customers and develop a stronger relationship with current ones. The number of people who use the yellow pages to find insurance services is declining as more people turn to the internet to find an insurance agent they can trust.

And email does exactly that – establishes trust between you and your customers. It also offers the opportunity to educate your customers and “softly” sell to them. Here are some ways to use email to market insurance services.

Send a Weekly Tips Newsletter
Readers won’t stay on your email list very long if you focus exclusively on selling. Instead, send a weekly email newsletter that offers useful tips they can use in their daily lives. Choose topics related to the types of insurance products you sell. If you sell health insurance, focus on health, fitness and nutrition tips. Tips on how to lose weight are always a hit. To sell more car insurance, send tips on how to be a safer driver or an article about the top ten cars that are most commonly stolen.

Keep your tips short and to the point without trying to sell. People enjoy learning new things that will make their life better. Providing readers with information establishes you as an expert and builds rapport. This comes in handy when you’re trying to sell someone insurance.

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This post is part of a series of guest posts authored by popular bloggers and internet business consultants. Today's guest post is written by Matt Powers, an Internet Marketer at Blue Soda Promo.

Guest Post: The 15-Word Outline

Published on March 12, 2012 in Best Practices, General and Guest Post. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Long before content became king I learned from some editing royalty what made a great story. To my chagrin my editing mentors never mentioned a chick a mystical creature known as a muse. Instead, they talked of boring attributes such as practice, researching and outlining. Outline…in an instant copywriting world does anyone really write an outline?

By the looks of most of the blogs out there I would say only a few. Outlining isn’t just for fourth graders suffering grammatical torture from English teachers slighted by years of student abuse. It can turn a 140 character Tweet or a 1,000-word blog post into more effective communication. But who has time for the meticulous series of Roman numerals high schoolers are forced to produce? No one, but you can still whip out a fast outline that fits with this fast-pace digital world. In as little as 15 words you can have a blueprint for the simplest or most complicated content you want to produce.

Anatomy of an Outline
An outline is simply a summary of content in list form. Though Stephen King called outlines “the last resource of bad fiction writers who wish to god they were writing masters’ thesis,” I suspect he’s talking about the alphanumeric outline. This outline format uses the hierarchical structure and Roman numerals listing that most writers dread. But an outline in itself can be as short or as long as you want it. It’s simply meant to solidify your main points before you start writing. Each time I compose prose I write an outline, but most of the time the outline is written in my head.

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