Analytics Help You Understand Your Effectiveness and Reach

It is reported that nearly 20% of email marketers do not know how well their email marketing campaigns are working simply because they do not track them. The importance of reviewing and analyzing the metrics of your email or e-newsletter campaigns is a major component of knowing whether or not what you are doing is effective or is providing you with any return on your investment.

Here are the major components of the metrics of any email marketing campaign.

Delivery Rate: The delivery rate is simply the total number of email that were actually delivered to the intended inbox. Delivery rate percentages are determined by taking the total number of emails that bounced (undeliverable) by the number of emails sent. Spam filters and other issues can cause an email to be bounced. You can reduce the chances of having your email bounce by asking the recipients to white-list your email.

Open rate: This is the number or percentage of total delivered emails that were actually opened by the recipients. There is some debate about how accurate this number is and whether it is reliable. However, it is still an important number to be aware especially as you send out multiple emails and if you are seeing any drastic change in your open rates over time. Industry research estimates the average open rate is 30%. If your rate is lower than this, you may want to research and evaluate how effective your emails are to the target audience.

Click-Through Rate: This tracks the number of times a link in your email was clicked-through by the recipients. JupiterResearch estimates that the average unique click-throughs is about 12 percent. The key here is to keep your content relevant, simple, direct and targeted.

Unsubscribe Rate: This is the number people who choose to unsubscribe to your email or e-newsletter from a specific message. The rate is determined by dividing the total number of unsubscribes by the total number of delivered emails. The number of unsubscribes are often an overall indicator of email list health or freshness. If you are using a list of emails collected greater than six months, then you may experience a high unsubscribe rate as the list is no longer considered fresh. If the list is fresh or the email subscribers are all recent or having been receiving email from you for a period time and you experience a high unsubscribe rate, then you will want to review the relevancy of your content to your audience.

Reviewing and understanding these numbers from any email campaign are an integral part of determining the effectiveness of your campaign as well as understanding the return on your overall investment in using email as a marketing or outreach tool.

I use iContact as my email campaign tool which provides me with all of these data and more to help me effectively track my email campaigns as well as the email campaigns of my clients. If you would like some help with determining the effectiveness of your email campaign, do not hesitate to contact me for a free consultation.

Image by Esparta via Flickr

Marketing yourself and your business has undergone a complete face lift with the explosion of social networking and Web 2.0. For anyone who is looking to establish an online presence, promote themselves or their business online or sell a product or service, then using the social networks and other Web 2.0 application is quickly become an absolute.

A post over on Hiring the Internet about the theory of social media marketing talks about how social media is evolving as a marketing tool but is also a tool that many businesses will fail at using correctly. Statistics from several recent reports show that 60% of Americans are using social media to interact with companies and businesses online and that nearly two-thirds of businesses are establishing their presence on social networks.

Social media marketing is a new kind of beast that many do not yet understand how to harness it’s power. Most people are tired and distrustful of the old world marketing tactics. Using social networking for your business is a relational type of marketing where you can gain consumers by gaining their trust and providing them with a sense of knowing who you are or what type of company you are rather than just by your service or product.

Setting up social network profiles, updating and maintaining them is a time consuming process. It not only takes knowledge of the many different types of sites that are available but you must also know how to use them (correctly) which also requires that you understand what benefits you will achieve from using a particular site or network. Expertise and knowledge at using social media sites for marketing takes A LOT of time. But the payoff can be well worth the effort.

An internet marketing virtual assistant can be a huge help in this area. Internet Marketing Assistants have specific expertise and training in using all the most popular and relevant social media and networking sites for business. Many also use these for promoting their own business as well. Here is a short list of what an internet marketing virtual assistant can help you with:

• Set up and maintain social networking profiles such as Facebook, MySpace, Stumbleupon, LinkedIn
• Assist with building Twitter profile, locate people to follow and follow back
• Track blogs to relevant your business
• Post videos and track view statistics
• Track and report on your web analytics
• Conduct Search Engine keyword research
• Submit your website or blog to directories
• Article and press release submission
• Track your Google Alerts
• Format and publish blog posts, approve comments and assist with blog maintenance

And that’s just the short list. If you think you might like to talk further about how an internet marketing virtual assistant can help you get it all done without going crazy, shoot us an email or contact us for a free consultation. We love doing this stuff.

Image by against the tide via Flickr

It’s a concept that’s been around since the beginning of time. Using the web to create your tribe with a purpose and a goal is much easier now with Web 2.0. Networks like Twitter and Facebook are prime examples of how this is taking place. It’s just a matter of identifying who the leader is or becoming the leader yourself. Twitter is based on who’s following who, but in reality, there are leaders embedded into that whole premise. Inevitably and not surprisingly, there are those within each industry who simply must be followed if you want to know the very latest of what they are saying and doing.

Which will you be– are you a leader or a follower? How will you build your tribe to get your message out and your goals accomplished?

Fall also means that the playtime and vacations of summer are officially over and it’s time to get down to business again. Much like spring cleaning rituals, Fall becomes a time when we start looking at buckling down for the long, cold, rainy season to get some real work done. I’m feeling it and I think my clients are feeling it. I’m thankfully staying quite busy with work and projects as I watch the season change before my eyes out the window in front of my desk.

What does Fall mean to you? What new goals have you set for yourself and your business as the season begins to change? If you find yourself needing some additional assistance to get more done, consider outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant. Yep, that’d be me. This wouldn’t officially be my business blog if I didn’t include the shameless plug every once and while, now would it?

Watching him bring this rock to life made me think about the awesome power of the imagination. We all have it, but sometimes I think we sort of loose the ability to use it to it’s full capacity. Using your imagination to imagine greatness and success in your own life can be a powerful (and inexpensive) tool that we should all be taking advantage of everyday.

For those of us who are small business owners or solo entrepreneurs, we are where we are because we imagined it could happen and it did. We imagined that we could be successful and we are or we have been or we will be.

So now I ask you this…what else are you imagining to move your business and yourself forward? As you continue to imagine and think about where you would like to see yourself in a years time, does that include figuring out a way to gain more time or to start delegate tasks? Do you imagine that you will have achieved greater strides in your own business success?

Bring your own “rock” to life and imagine all the possibilities for what you can achieve. Tell me what you are imagining about right now…if you can imagine it, it can happen.

There are probably only a few things in life that one enjoys more than getting something for nothing. In the spirit of Karmic-Pay-It-Forward, I’d like to share with you all a few of my favorites. As a self-professed techno/gadget/online application geek, I thrive on finding useful stuff that just might make my life just a little simpler, swifter and playful. And maybe you do too.

1. Primo PDF
This free download will allow you convert any printable document to a PDF. Once installed, when you want to convert a document to a PDF file, you simply choose Print and in the Printer Name drop down box, you scroll down and select Primo PDF. Another window will open and ask you to name the file as well as choose whether you want it optimized for viewing on screen, printing, ebook or prepress.
http://www.primopdf.com/

2. Snipping Tool, ScreenHunter
The Snipping Tool is a cool little feature that comes with Windows Vista. If you click on your Start button and type in “Snipping Tool” in the search window, then program comes up in your Start Menu. This little tool will let you basically take a screen shot or a shot of a piece of your screen and save it as a picture or let you send it via email to someone. It doesn’t have a bunch of bells and whistles but can come in pretty handy if you want take a quick picture of something on your screen.

ScreenHunter is a free download which will also allow you to do screenshots and can be found here: http://www.wisdom-soft.com/sh/sh_free.htm

3. Any Video Converter
This is great little download that will help you to convert video to pretty much any format you might want or need. You can convert video to a format that is easy to upload to YouTube or other video sites. It will also let you convert video to formats for use on iPod and Sony PSP. The limitation is that the video cannot be more than
three minutes long. If you want longer than that, you’ll have to get the paid version. They have also just released a version for Mac.
http://tinyurl.com/32rgad

4. Oovoo
Do you Ooovoo? Oovoo is a freaking cool way to video chat with anyone anywhere. It will allow for video conferencing of up to six people at a time. It can support high resolution video (with the right bandwidth and equipment.) If you want to relive the moments over and over, you can record the video call. The software also supports
recording and sending video messages to anyone, including those that do not have the Oovoo software. You can also video chat via your web browser with others who are not using Ooovo. They allow you to download and use their SUPER version for free for 30 days after that you can still use their standard version for free. (There is also currently a beta version for Mac users)
Go to Oovoo here.

5. Jott
Ok, Jott is the must have tool for person who thinks up the next greatest thing only to find that they lack pen and paper. You simply call Jott and tell it whom you want to email or text and then leave a message. Jott will convert your message into text and send it on. You can use this to contact others or to just send a message to yourself for later. The message will be converted to email, text and a copy of the original audio message will be attached. You can also use Jott to post to Twitter, your blog and to your Google calender. There is a free basic ad-supported plan and two paid plans which come with several other handy features including syncing it with an iPhone, Blackberry or Outlook.
Start Jott-ing here!

6. PassPack
Anything we sign up for on the internet these days requires a password and they all want one that’s different or longer or more complex than the one before. Go to PassPack and sign up for a free account and you can begin to reign in the password chaos. It has tons of security and since it’s online, it can be accessed from anywhere. You also have the option of downloading an application to allow you to use it offline as well. Another nice feature is the password generator which will generate a new super secure password for any of your accounts.
http://www.passpack.com/info/home/

7. Echo Sign
Echo Sign rocks. It will help you get a signature on a contract or other document in a matter of minutes and remain paperless all at the same time. You upload your document into your account and type in the email address of where it’s going. You will then have the option of asking for a written signature or an electronic signature. If you opt for an e-signature, then the other person will be prompted to type in their name and initials and an e-signature with date and time will be added to the document. If you want a written signature, the receiver will be prompted to print the document, sign it, and then fax it to Echo Sign. For both options, the “signed” documents are converted to PDF files and sent to both you and your client. You are allowed up to 5 free signed documents per month.
http://www.echosign.com

8. Xobni
Xobni (Inbox spelled backwards) is a free plug-in available for Outlook which has some cool features that might be especially helpful to those who pretty much live and die by their Outlook.

This plug-in, which has the blessing of Microsoft, will do a variety of different things. Some of these feature are quite similar to how to Gmail works such as making several emails into a conversation and an email search feature where the email or person you are looking for appears as you type. It will also extract the phone number from a signature and puts it in the Xobni sidebar for quick access. If you have Skype installed on your computer it automatically puts the number in as a button that you can push to call that contact.

Another rather cool feature helps you auto generate an email with times you are available to schedule a meeting or something. It will scan your calendar and automatically place the available dates and times in an email for you.
http://www.xobni.com/

So there you have it. Perhaps you’ve now found yourself in a free resource nirvana state of being. But hopefully, you’ve found at least one resources here that will be useful. Feel free to let me know which ones you liked best or better yet post one of your own!

On the morning of the first day, when the moment came for me to leave him, I could see little tears start to well up in his eyes. It seemed no matter how excited he was to venture off in Kindergarten, he was still a little nervous and scared at something so big and so new. He was fine after some reassurance and once the classroom activities actually started, he was the first to join in.

All in all, he dove right in and he was excited to go back the next day. Eager once more to begin learning and making new friends. Still a little nervous, but not quite so much as the first day.

The whole experience has made me think about how young children have such a unique capability to have such wonder and excitement about the world around them and about new experiences. Somewhere in the process of growing up, we seem to lose this carefree ability and start becoming more reserved in our excitement and are not so eager to jump out and try new things. Sure, young children can get nervous and scared, but yet it seems the desire to try something new wins out over that fear.

As a business owner or solo entrepreneur perhaps you find that you’d like to try something new and innovative that might just be the thing that helps propel you forward into the next phase of success. But fear and the unknown hold you back. I think sometimes this is the case with people who consider or want to further explore hiring a Virtual Assistant. All in all, it sounds like a great idea and wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the extra help? But, how does it work? How much does it cost? Can I afford it? And that small voice in your head that says, “If I want it done right, I’m the only one who can do it.”

What if you could get satisfactory answers to those questions, and what if you could move beyond your fear and nervousness to find a highly skilled and qualified assistant who will be a partner in the success and growth of your business? Just as my son jumped in feet first into Kindergarten and towards the first step in his life long education process, you can set fear aside and make the decision to move your business forward. Give up some of the control, learn to delegate and you might just find that hiring a Virtual Assistant is all worth it in the long run.

What’s holding you back?

A Virtual Assistant is a skilled administrative professional and entrepreneur who provides off-site administrative assistance and specialized business services from their home office. Because Virtual Assistants are contracted services providers then there are no extra employee related expenses, no benefits to pay for, and no overhead cost such as those associated with having an in-house employee.

It is estimated that small business owners spend as much as 40-60% of their time on administrative tasks. Working with a Virtual Assistant is one way that small business owners can minimize the costs of their administrative overhead while not sacrificing service or compromising their business. A Virtual Assistant can keep your business running efficiently and effectively while creating more time for you to focus your core business tasks and income generating activities.

Continuing to market and advertise your business during a recession will be the key to staying connected with your customer base. Business analysts often recommend that companies not reduce their marketing or advertising activities during an economic downturn. However, you may want need to consider lower cost alternatives for your marketing and this is where a Virtual Assistant can help you. Many Virtual Assistants have knowledge and expertise to help the small business owner or solo entrepreneur with marketing activities, especially with online marketing ideas such as setting up and maintaining a blog. A blog is an inexpensive way to provide fresh, new content about your business online. Further, a blog linked with your website can help to improve your visibility with the search engines.

Social networking and Web 2.0 has quickly become one of best ways to get known and stay known online. Virtual Assistants are familiar with most of the social and business networking sites because many of them utilize these sites for their own business needs. Since Virtual Assistants can work with clients from anywhere in the world, the establishment and maintenance of their online persona is vital to the success of their business. This makes them the perfect resource for you to use to set up and maintain your online social and business network profile and persona.

Staying connected with your current and existing customers is also important. Your current customers are already familiar with your business, services, or products so showing them the added value that you bring will help you maintain that customer base. A Virtual Assistant can help you to send out personalized cards or make phone calls on your behalf to let customers know that you appreciate their business. Setting up, revitalizing or maintaining a newsletter is a low-cost way to continue marketing and keep in touch with your customers. Typically, Virtual Assistants have the training and experience to do this either in a hard copy format or for distribution via email.

Economic analysts suggest that one of the best ways to ride out a recession is to remain flexible. Small business owners can stay flexible by thinking outside of the traditional way of doing business and embracing the technology available that makes outsourcing their administrative tasks to a Virtual Assistant a cost-effective and time efficient option.