fbpx
How To Get The Best Email Open Rates

How To Get The Best Email Open Rates

It’s all in the list! But how do you grow your business through email marketing?

Understanding how to get good open rates for your emails is a good place to start.

What made you open the last newsletter that was sitting in your inbox?

Coming up with new ideas for your marketing on a regular basis can be tiresome and frustrating – we know and we’ve all been there!

 

Small business marketing

As a small business owner, and especially if you’re the only one doing everything, you can get either fed up or even annoyed at good results not happening when you feel like you’ve put in so much effort into your marketing and social media. Let’s face it, you’ve got so much to focus on as a business owner, not everything gets 100% of your time. Add in the need to write emails, and good ones at that, email marketing can be something that gets pushed aside.

Let me tell you, you’re not alone.

… Even when you feel like you are.

So, let’s twist this thought on its head and think –

“Why did you open that email?”

a) Because the subject line sounded enticing or interesting?
b) Because you trust the person sending it?
c) Because you were just going through all your emails and opening everything?
Usually it’s either a or b.
Your inbox is a sacred place, and to have an email opened needs to be earned. That’s how I look at it anyway!
I only open emails from either people I already know I can learn from and who I trust, or emails that look like I can gain some value and hopefully put that into practice. Your time is valuable – you don’t have time to look at every email that comes through (especially when you’re good at subscribing to lots of lists)
top tips in getting better email open rates | KJP Creative

Email respect :: Relationship building

You see, the more relationship you build with your audience, the more they get to know you. From here you can build rapport and trust. This is important – and we’re always taught to ‘build your email list‘!For me, it’s not about selling and promoting a service every week, it’s about giving value to the readers and knowing that if we can help just one person get further in their online marketing, then we’ve done a good job. If we help more, even better!

 

Email etiquette :: Communication

Communication is key in marketing. Understanding, knowledge, relationship, nurture, value… the list is endless, but all relates back to communication. How you communicate and what you communicate really matters.
It’s common courtesy to respect the person you’re emailing and to think of them when you email. Keep providing uninteresting content, sell consistently, go on about you, you, you – or are not relevant to the reason why they signed up to your newsletter in the first place – you’ve lost their trust.

Focus on what you’re good at

So, when you’re struggling to know what to do next with your marketing, what post to create for social media, or what to write on your blog, I urge you to reach out to the people you already know are doing what you want to achieve. Open the emails which look like you can learn something. Reply to the emails where you’re invited to and get to know them. Comment on social media content and start conversations. DM prospective mentors or collaborators.Always think further than the now

 

Coming up with new ideas for marketing can be challenging – so, seek advise, get ideas and speak to others in your industry who could help. Even consider outsourcing your marketing for a little while to give yourself a break and a breather – you might come back with new inspiration and fresh perspective.
Tip: taking just a 3 month break from your social media channels can be good for you!

 

Just because someone is doing these tasks for you, doesn’t mean that you have failed. It means that you can focus on other important tasks – and ones that you enjoy the most. You can then bring in a little extra money, so that you can afford to pay someone else to take the things that are not your strong points. This is a win-win situation!

Focus on what’s right for your skillset – and the rest will fall into place.

 

personal social media coaching for business growth | Karen Petrauskas

 

We invite you to reply to this post, let us know what you struggle with in your marketing – or what you enjoy the most! Let’s have a conversation and get to know each other 🙂 Either comment below, or send us an email – we’d love to chat.

~ Karen, owner of KJP Creative

 

In the meantime, why not download our free social media awareness days calendar, to give you ideas on what to talk about with your audience!

free Awareness Days Calendar / KJP Creative
How To Overcome Social Media Overwhelm

How To Overcome Social Media Overwhelm

How do you grow a small business strategically through social media, whilst dealing with overwhelm and perhaps even a little imposter syndrome?

Do you find yourself overwhelmed by all the social media channels; knowing which ones to use, which trends to jump on, what strategies to follow, who to watch, how much content to put out, etc. etc.? So much avenues, so many questions, your mind feels like it’s going to explode?

There is A LOT going on in the world when it comes to social media and the simple fact is, as a small business owner, you cannot do it all, on your own at least.

So how do you know where to start or what path to follow?

 

Marketing strategy basics | start at the very beginning - KJP Creative

 

Strategy and communication.

Start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start!

Understand what it is that you want to achieve and have goals in mind that you want to meet.

From these goals you are able to establish some ground rules and a steer your marketing in a way that will help you achieve them.

Creating a strategy holds everything in place for you to build from. This is the foundation of what you are going to achieve. It can be easy to sway or to get distraction on social media, what should take 10 minutes can easily become an hour if you’re not careful, so knowing what you’re going to do and when will help deter this from happening.

And don’t be afraid to refer back to your strategy, once it’s created, it can be adapted and grown, just as your business experiences growth – your strategy will grow with it.

 

Marketing Knowledge

The most important step comes in the research, and for starters, research on your ideal customer, your audience and anyone who might be remotely interested in your product or service. You may need multiple streams for your marketing to flow in order to capture each of these – speaking to all of them at once might mean that your content is not relevant or catchy enough… break it all down.

Where does your ideal customer like to hang out online? This will be where you need to focus your efforts. There’s no point spending all your time on TikTok, if your audiences lives and breathes Facebook – get the drift?

Research.

And what type of content do they respond to best? Are they engaging with funny videos, do they prefer knowledge based images or carousels?

Research.

There’s no harm in asking a few questions too while you’re getting to know them. Communication is a good tool to nurture – and this is two way – interact and engage as much as possible to understand them as best you can.

 

Overwhelmed by social media?

Overwhelm is common on social media, some people deep-dive in, hit every channel at a fast pace but sink very quickly or burn out after time. It’s not always sustainable to be BIG all the time. Some people take their time, test the waters, discover their path and grow slowly but steadily.

Each and every business is different and there is no ‘one size fits all’ in this – however doing the ground work well will pay off.

 

personal social media coaching for business growth | Karen Petrauskas

 

If you’re struggling to get ahead on social media, find it too intense or can’t keep up, take a step back and start from the beginning. Create a strategy that works for your business. And don’t be afraid to reach out and speak to those around you who are already successful and achieving.

We’d love to help you strategise and put a plan of action together in order to smash your goals this year, helping you to realise your full potential. Hit the contact button and let’s talk 🙂

 

In the meantime, why not download our FREE Awareness Days calendar to get your audience talking!

 

free Awareness Days Calendar / KJP Creative

 

Word of Mouth Marketing – The Best Form of Advertising!

Word of Mouth Marketing – The Best Form of Advertising!

When you’re creating your marketing strategy, especially as we come into a new year… a customer journey is SO important. The way a consumer is looked after and treated throughout their experience with your brand is absolute key. If they love you, they’ll want to talk about you and recommend you to others. And that is the result we are looking for. Have you heard of word of mouth marketing?

As a business owner, you can spend so much [wasted] time creating content after content, scheduling up your social media channels, creating free content or giveaways, and everything else in between – but if it is not noticed, this is wasted time and resource.

A strategy holds the key to creating content and an audience that will love your brand.

Lots of small business owners, start-ups and anyone who doesn’t necessarily understand marketing thoroughly can struggle because they lack direction, knowledge and wisdom. But with a little steering and guidance this can change dramatically and amazing outcomes can be born.

Money can be poured into advertising campaigns, staff, experts and more – but for someone starting out, a good business plan is to utilise the most cost-effective strategy there is… word of mouth marketing.

 

What is word of mouth marketing?

WOMM is not a new thing, in fact it is the most original and basic strategy we have, and also the most effective, but not many focus their efforts on it.

Word of mouth marketing relies on customers sharing their experiences and recommendations with their networks, friends and family. They are bringing their own feelings and thoughts to the table and giving people an opportunity to trust their views. An extremely powerful process – and one that when done correctly, can impact massively.

And the facts speak for themselves; according to Nielson, 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising. WOW!

 

How can we utilise word of mouth marketing?

We can stop thinking about our needs and what we need to achieve and start to connect with people on their level.

Engage: Drawing people into conversations, understanding their pain points and creating relationships and rapport that can be nurtured and developed.

Solutions: Providing the solutions to what people are looking for and understanding what would work for them. Empower them with the answers that makes sense.

Emotion: Everything has an emotional value. If you can trigger an emotion in a consumer, you can start to relate and bring them on a journey.

 

Influential marketing

WOMM has influence and can trigger the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ of anyone’s decision making process. Its powerful effectiveness is often not known to outsiders, however, when you can take hold of this, and incorporate it into your business and marketing plans, you’ll see big results.

How can you influence the people you want to work with, or the types of people you want to love your brand?

 

Customer experience

Success with word of mouth marketing starts right at the beginning of a customer’s journey. Before they even know you exist.

You want to get to know your ideal customer [persona], understand what they are looking for, how they engage, who they talk to, where they hang out, what their pain point is, what would be the ideal solution, their budgets, their lifestyle, their demographics… research.

You also want to know what attracts, what looks good, what sounds good, styles, colours, feelings, what brands do they already engage with – this all play a part in the process.

When you have all the information you need, you can formulate a plan of action incorporating all these aspects, making sure you tick every box. When your ideal customer comes along, they will be attracted to your message and want to find out more. Their journey has begun…

 

Take your business to the next level with online marketing and social media coaching | Karen Petrauskas

 

Bring them through a process. Not many people will buy on the first message. They need to know, like and trust you. They will want to see proof that you are legit and when they get to a point where they trust you, they’ll start engaging with the things you say.

The more you can nurture and build a relationship, the better your chances of winning that customer.

That customer will then be happy to share their experience with others. When family members ask, when a friend is looking, a recommendation can be a powerful action.

If you’ve fallen down within the process, that review may be tainted, so it is essential that everything part of their journey is 100% good.

 


 

Have you experienced word of mouth marketing in your business and has it helped push your brand forward?

If you’re looking for exceptional results in your business marketing and would like to make the most of WOMM, we’d love to chat with you and get you started. Get in touch today, and let’s talk.

 

social media checklist free download

How To Create An Awesome Content Marketing Plan

How To Create An Awesome Content Marketing Plan

  • Struggling to keep up with your social media marketing?
  • Not sure what to post on your social media channels?
  • Losing productivity by spending too much time on social media?

How do you manage your social media effectively and efficiently?

A (well thought-out, strategically planned, eye-catching) social media content plan is your answer. In short, an awesome content plan.

Having a social media presence is a necessity in today’s digital world, even if you are just on one platform. Managing it well and learning to work with tools that can make you both productive and efficient in your business can make a whole world of difference to the outcome, not to mention your mental health!

Many small business owners don’t realise or understand the need to create a content plan, it’s often done on a day-to-day basis and is based on whatever the person is feeling that day. There’s no strategy or thought behind it, just what comes to mind when they remember they have to post. This can create chaos on your social channels, with no real meaning behind any of it.

We understand that everyone is busy, marketing is not always at the forefront of your mind, but when you get distracted or side-tracked into doing other things within your business, your social media marketing is often the task that gets pushed aside and often forgotten, creating an inconsistent pattern. Not only does this provide inconsistency for your audience but it doesn’t give you direction or help with long-term targeting or strategies for marketing, and in turn, sales.

The most basic tool for your social media planning, is getting to grips with a content plan.

A content plan will be your best friend for life!

Here at KJP Creative, we use a pen and paper for this at the beginning stage, and write everything down so we can see everything clearly and laid out in front of us – usually working to a month’s plan. Here’s our top 5 tips for creating an awesome content marketing plan:

#1 – Map out

Create a blank view of your calendar for the month ahead, and start to fill in the gaps… Tip: use a different colour for each type of content so you can see at a glance. The more you start to fill in, you’ll see gaps of where you need content, or where you’re putting too much of the same thing together etc. Learn to spread things out, or manage a campaign at a glance.

#2 – Get thinking & start writing

Write in certain things that you know you want to share that month, these could be things that tie in with overall goals, things that work towards wider targets. Next comes some of your own content, blog posts, or articles that you’ve written. Then think about telling people about what you do, detailing different aspects of your business.

Utilise evergreen content from your website for your social media content plan

#3 – Use curated content

You can then start to drop in articles that you’ve enjoyed reading, or content that would be beneficial to your readers – it doesn’t have to be all your own content, it’s good to get an all-round view on topics. There might also be people or accounts who you can reshare content from, make notes of dates that this might be applicable.

#4 – Utilise awareness days

How about some awareness days to get your audience talking? We wouldn’t advise jumping on every awareness day that happens, but choose ones that are relevant to your readers and get them thinking and talking about real issues they face and ones they can resonate with. These are great to keep up with trends, things that happening around you, world events etc.

Awareness days for social media can help build relationships, and give people something in common to talk about.

#5 – Tap into emotions

The key to your content plan is to create content that is going to be engaging for your readers, and is going to tap into an emotion. Emotions are so important, and there are so many out there to trigger, but hitting a nerve can be the difference between someone stopping to take notice of you, to scrolling right past and not. Find the balance, find what works well with your audience. Do they enjoy a joke, or would they prefer a motivational post?

What’s next with the content plan?

Once you’ve got your content plan together, it’s about writing the content to go with the plan, creating the images/ graphics, and scheduling. Everyone works differently, so find a pattern that works for you. And find a scheduling tool that you can get on with. Some are easier than others, some have analytics, some integrate with other platforms, some are easy for a mobile device… the choice is really down to personal preference – the key is to actually find time to doing it!

Don’t have the time? Block out sections in your diary for each part of the plan:

  • Content planning
  • Research
  • Writing
  • Graphics
  • Scheduling

If you’ve only got an hour one day and half hour the next, block these times out and stick to them. Make this a regular part of your to-do list. Once you get into the habit, it’ll become easier and quicker – promise!

However, if you’re still reading and wonder how you’d ever get time to create a proper strategic content plan, or it’s simply not your forte, or what you want to be focussed on right now, we can help! That’s what we love to do, and it’s our speciality. Just contact us, and we’ll be in touch to talk further.

But for those who are ready to see your social media take off to new heights – we challenge you to take content planning seriously and give it a go. And we’d love to hear back from you once you have!

In the meantime, why not checkout our FREE Awareness Days calendar to get you started…

free Awareness Days Calendar / KJP Creative

 

 

 

How To Optimise Social Media For Maximum Results

How To Optimise Social Media For Maximum Results

So, you’re a business owner looking to make an impact on social media, but just can’t seem to generate the results you imagined. Sound familiar?

That’s ok, you are not alone in this and there are many small business owners who simply can’t get past that first hurdle. Let’s face it, the bigger the impact on social media, the more traffic driven to your website, the better chance of seeing an increase of sales and business expansion. We all want it, but it seems so out of reach for many, especially when you’re just starting out.

With this in mind, we’ve put together 3 top tips to optimise your social media channels to get results.

Optimise your social profiles

The first thing to make your brand stand out online is to optimise your social media profiles. It’s easy enough to get started and set up a social channel, but to have real impact and to reach the audience you’re looking to attract, your profile has to be unique – and click-worthy.

Consider the basics and what would attract you to a certain brand profile:

  • It is branded? Brand colours, logos, theme?
  • Does it have relevant information in the bio / about sections?
  • Is there a working link to direct people to your website?
  • Are you utilising keywords or hashtags for search purposes?

 

Have a content plan of action

The second thing to consider is the actual content that you’re posting.
Are you posting for a reason, is there meaning behind what you’re saying and are you actually speaking to an audience?
Or, are you just posting for the sake of it, writing about what you want to say rather than what your audience wants to hear?

  • Are you following a content plan?
  • Do you have a thought process behind the flow of content and does it flow together between the various posts and channels?
  • Is the content engaging, interactive, give call to actions?
  • Are you telling people what you want them to do once they’ve read your content?

 

Integrate Paid Ads

And lastly, consider using paid ads as part of your marketing strategy. Once you’ve built up a good base of content, once you’ve established some good foundations, now could be a good time to test out paid advertising. They can be highly effective in reaching a much wider and targeted audience, giving you the right following for your brand.

Paid ads harmonise with your organic content and former a bigger aspect of your marketing strategy. Wider reach, more impressions, bigger chance to be seen, more targeted efforts.

 

Note: Paid ads do not have to be expensive. You work with the budget you have. Work out how much you can afford to put aside each month, not money that you hope to not have to use and could do with getting back, get away from that mindset and think about a set amount of money that you can do without. It could be £100 per month, it could be £1000 per month depending on your business. Create a budget and stick to it.

By working on these top 3 tips, you can set your brand apart from the many who simply do not put the effort into the detail. Your brand is your identity and you want that first impression to be the best it possibly can. The better the optimisation, the better the impression, the better the outcome.

All these points together will help maximise your social media presence and give you a better chance to increase leads, become visible and to grow your brand.

If you’ve any tips to add to the list, feel free to let us know in the comments!

And if you’re ready to take your brand to the next level, KJP Creative can give you the boost you need to see visible growth in 2022. Don’t sit on the fence, take the steps necessary to succeed. Get in touch today, and let’s get the conversation started 🙂

 

 

Pin It on Pinterest