Internet Marketing, Football, Sylvester Stallone, Ball Droppings and Insanity

Posted by Salem Global on Jan 5, 2010

Last week after writing about football and poker and what they had to do with Internet marketing and well, life itself, I received more feedback (positive feedback) than any of my posts over the past year. Well Happy 2010 everyone and thanks for the communication. After all, after writing, blogging and vlogging for the past 13 years, I deserve SOME form of acknowledgment that people are reading what I write. And it’s not all gushy mushy feel good stuff either. Its hard core marketing lessons that I have learned since I started up this company in 1997. Heck. I was blogging when people didn’t even know what blogging meant. My company pre-dates Facebook (so what) and Google! (Really?!?) Yup. And I have the domain name to prove it: Check out the waybackmachine for SalemGlobal.com – pretty cool huh?!

As I was saying, last week’s post got more feedback not because of my Internet marketing guru-ness, but because I finally gave the people what they wanted… Football! (Yes my friends. Football was more captivating than poker. Sad for me – but true)

And that leads me to write about getting back to basics. Think Rocky. (Gonna Fly Now – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8ABifVq0pA – Eye of the Tiger – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4kLlL6c2Pk) Think about how here was this street kid fighter from Philadelphia who was a nobody but he worked his butt off in the gym, ran up the steps to the liberty bell, lifted up his hands in victory and beat up Apollo Creed. But that’s not the real story. For those of you who don’t know this, I am proud to share with you the REAL Rocky story. The story of a writer, director and actor named Sylvester Stallone who walked into Hollywood, got pushed around and beaten up, but kept coming back for more. You see, Stallone WROTE the actual story and told Hollywood that he wanted to act and direct in it. They said they liked the screenplay but that they would get someone “famous” to play the part. Oh, and there would need to be some editing. Stallone said no way and walked out. They then walked back and said, “ok, here have some more money,” but he still said no. And he kept on saying no until he got his price and name in the credits. Well, as you know, Stallone went on to be one of the biggest action actors in Hollywood in his time. Imagine if he didn’t hold his ground and sold his book screenplay for a measly few thousand dollars. Where would he be today? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075148/trivia

So who saw the ball drop in Times Square Thursday night? Who watched it on TV? I didn’t. I actually don’t own a television. But I do have a computer with Internet access. And guess what? Some creative geniuses started to broadcast the Times Square NYC ball dropping a number of years ago and now they get MILLIONS of viewers to watch. But wait – there’s more. Some dude I met at a comedy club (Comix NYC) actually was one of the hosts interviewing people in Times Square. Harrison Greenbaum went from emceeing an open mic night to being broadcast into millions of home computers all over the world by being creative. True he wasn’t on TV. He isn’t in LA where thousands of comedians and actors are waiting tables until their lucky break comes. He got his face on the Internet and now he is on his way to stardom. Good going Harrison.

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Well, that is why a lot of organizations went out of business over the past 2 years. Sure, you can blame everything on the economy, on Madoff, on the president, on your personal troubles, whatever. That is what truly sets the winners apart from the losers. Simply put, losers give up. Winners adapt. Winners stay at it. Winners stay in the game and modify their strategy. And that is what you need to do in today’s cut-throat, dog-eat-dog world of business. It’s a war out there and many companies are dying. Business is slow. No one is buying. Everyone is cutting back.

Well guess what? That only means that truly the strong will survive. The endurance runners. The Shackeltons. The Rockys and the Harrisons.

So this year, as your competition prepares for another bad year of business, you need to get creative. You need to think about what you have been doing over and over again and what isn’t working and stop your insane behavior. You need to change it up. Yes its cliché but you still need to think out of the box. But this comes with a warning label. Don’t throw away what you have already done. Use it to your advantage and beat out your competition.

As an example, I know the value of a good domain name when I see one. Over the past year I have picked up some excellent domain names that have been around for years that were let go by businesses that didn’t see the value of a good DOTcom and let it go for peanuts. I can buy a domain name for $30 and turn it into $300, $3,000 and eventually (hopefully) $30,000. With each passing year, the value of a domain name goes up. Not just in price, but also in search engine value. That’s why perhaps I am somewhat of a packrat.

In addition to buying up domain names in the graveyard (you can get good rates on domain names at 1and1), SalemGlobal will be resurrecting 2 particular projects and starting up 2 new ventures in 2010.

First, we will be re-launching our MarketingDirectories.com directory and lead generation project.
Second, we will be re-launching our NYC Internet marketing seminars at TheSeminarSeries.com
Third, we will be opening up our offices to one to one private instruction for companies that can’t afford to hire a website marketing firm but can afford to train someone on staff to do some of the things that we do. Why not learn from the experts at a fraction of the price?

And finally, for now, I am proud to announce a new concept in business networking: Poker Networking. That’s right boys and girls. I am finally marrying 2 things I enjoy very much. Business networking and poker. Details available at www.PokerNetworking.us. Basically, we are starting up an exclusive group that wants to tell everyone who they are, what they do and get leads and referrals, but are tired of the mixers and minglers and breakfasts and lunches. Hey – we have all been networking and running around in the same circles for YEARS. Let’s have a little fun now shall we?

So this week’s message is simple yet you are still going to have to exercise that left-side of your brain. Get out of the box. Be creative. Don’t throw away the marketing you have done to date. Work with it. Review it. Modify it. Apply it and beat out your competition. After all, people and companies are ALWAYS going to need your businesses services. And if you are one small step ahead of your competition, you will win the race.

Want to know more about Internet marketing, football, poker, Rocky, domain names or private website marketing instruction? Give me a call at 212-993-5828, send me an email at raphis@salemglobal.com or check out www.SalemGlobal.com. Next week we get back to the 21 basics of Internet marketing; Evaluating your website for improvement. Oh. And Ice Skating, Freakonomics, Team America, Zack and Miri.

Happy 1st Quarter 2010 Everyone!
Raphi Salem

It’s 2010. Wake Up and Smell The Internet: 21 Things You Should Be Doing Online

Posted by Salem Global on Dec 15, 2009

Well, if you check our blog and past history of email tips on website marketing, search engine optimization, you should know that there are 21 things that we here at SalemGlobal recommend to our readers and do for our clients, day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year. But before I remind you in this week’s tip what they are, I first wanted to remind you that as a capitalist, business owner and website publisher, that marketing your website, (SEO/ search engine optimization, search engine marketing and whatever term or “keyword” or keyword phrase you come up with) actually means nothing compared to the bottom line. That is, YOUR bottom line. That is, your revenue and your profit.

The reason why you are in business or work is for one reason and one reason only. You want to make money. Even the not-for-profits that we work with want to make money. They want to make it in donations so they can help more people. Doctors want more patients because patients pay them (or insurance companies do, and/or Obama’s Democratic Party healthcare reform bill will), lawyers want more clients, retailers want to sell more product and professionals want to sell more of their services. Regardless, even though SalemGlobal.com is #1 in Google for website marketing around the country and internet marketing in NY, it doesn’t mean a thing. That is, until the phone rings. And even then we (and you) need to get a meeting, make a proposal, present the proposal, get approval, get a signature and finally, get a check. And then you have to keep servicing your clients, with a smile, and keep on invoicing them.

So remember, we are indeed on the eve of 2010. We are 10 years into the new millennium. The Internet is here to stay. If you don’t have an online strategy, whether it is to have a brochure website telling people you exist, or you go all out with a social media strategy and ecommerce play, your competition does or is working on it. And that means that you are going out of business and maybe even retiring. But the good news is that there is still hope. You can change things around. You can get a website for a measly $50 a year. Or you can spend thousands. Is it true that in order to make money, you need to spend money? I don’t think so. But I do think that in order to make money you need to be smart. And by being smart, you need to start using technology to your advantage. So as you read through my not-so-secret list of 21 things your company, office, practice or firm should be doing online, think about your bottom line. Think not only how to market yourself, but also once you do get that customer in your door or on the phone, how are you going to sell them? You don’t need a flashy million dollar website, but you do need a website. You don’t need to spend a thousand dollars a month on maintaining your website if it doesn’t pay off for you ten times that amount. But if you did invest in technology, I guarantee you will be on the right track.

One of my favorite stories from 2009 is the guy who came into my office and was boasting how he spent close to $300,000.00 on his website. It was absolutely brilliant. He paid geniuses from MIT to build it for him and he came to me looking for ideas on how to market it. I gave him the following 21 ideas. I told him my price. He told me he needs to go back to his investors with my price and he will have to get back to me. Well – maybe he will call in 2010. But I can tell him and tell you that if I was an investor and someone brought me a business plan that called for $300k in development and $0 in marketing, I would laugh. I don’t care what business you are in. If you have no marketing strategy, you don’t have a business.

Ok – a few more stories… This year was also the year I met a guy who was going to pay me $1000 a month to market his product that had the potential of making $60,000 a month. Ladies and gentlemen, I now present you with the 60% Return on Investment. Second lesson. Even Bernie Madoff didn’t make 60%. Greed will bring you down. Maybe you won’t go to jail, but be a little more realistic.

And then there was the high-end designer handbag lady. It is amazing to me how you can sell a $500 handbag in New York, London, Paris and Minuch (everybody’s talking about, Pop Musik http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFwy17_M-Ak) and not have the budget to market it online?

Last one. Years ago I met a great entrepreneur who thought he was going to hire us and sell thousands of his products online without an offline strategy to support the online strategy. This was a hard lesson but I learned that a $12 product with a $1.00 profit margin was a pretty bad product. But let’s say we were able to promote it online. Promotion does not happen over night. It happens over time. You need to build up your brand and build up your presence. (And read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point.)

As I discussed last week, you need a long term AND a short term strategy. You need an online AND an offline strategy. Of course there are exceptions to every rule but the bottom line is that you have to be smart and be dedicated. There are no shortcuts to online fame and wealth. This is a long distance race. If you want to know more, If you want to know more, please give us a call at 212-993-5828, send me an email at raphis@salemglobal.com or visit www.SalemGlobal.com. In the meantime, here is my holiday gift to you:

21 Things You Should Be Doing Online:

1) Evaluate present website for compatibility with SEO strategies.
2) Research your industry and relevant keywords.
3) Purchase relevant domain names, for housing blogs and marketing websites.
4) Build marketing websites that are optimized for lead generation, areas of your industry and business.
5) Implement appropriate metadata – pagetitles, keywords, metanames, descriptions and search engine friendly URLs.
6) Rewrite and prioritize content and text on site according to research.
7) Submit site to search engines – Google, Yahoo, and the lesser used engines.
8 ) Submit listings to local directories – Google, Yahoo, Yelp, Merchant Circle etc.
9) Increase User Registration and Lead Generation – implement and promote a user registration form.
10) Build and maintain business blogs.
11) Social Media/Networks – Identify existing online communities, and build new ones.
12) Online video production – distribute your video across shared online video sites.
13) Develop new content – increase number of pages to claim being an authority.
14) Develop newsletter (We are a Constant Contact Business Partner).
15) Build and upload sitemap.
16) Write and promote online press releases for your organization (Interactive PR).
17) Write and promote articles – submission to 700+ online magazines for your organization.
18) Manage Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising (Google / Yahoo).
19) Link building – build inbound links from external websites (including industry sites, Directories, and SalemGlobal network sites).
20) Manage affiliate programs (for ecommerce companies).
21) Monitoring and Reporting – Evaluate efforts and results (e.g. Google Analytics and additional 3rd-party tools).

Getting ready for the 2010 New Year: Planting the Seeds for Your Long Term Online Marketing Strategy

Posted by Salem Global on Dec 8, 2009

Before anything, if you are looking for an excellent charity to support during this season of giving, please consider http://www.EvasVillage.org. They do amazing anti-poverty work with the homeless.

Now on to the Tip of the Week…

This week I am incredibly proud of myself. I actually used the Amazon.com gift certificate that my colleague gave to me for finding him a sub-letter for his office last year (through networking of course!). As I was writing last week about Black Friday and Cyber Monday and gifts for my kids for the holidays, I was all ready to break out my credit card to pay for the “good deals” I found online. But then I realized in the back of my mind that I had this gift certificate just sitting there in cyberspace. So instead of going to BlackFriday.com or CyberMonday.com, I went to Amazon.com and shopped there.

So let’s review exactly how and where I spent my money.

First I thought about the season and gift giving.
Second I thought about the gifts I wanted to get.
Third I thought about the currency resource I was going to use.
On a related note, I was not concerned with the locale of where I was going to purchase from, though I was interested and motivated by some free shipping offers.
Last I was motivated by price.

As you can see, I am a real live online shopper. Tis the season for me to be spending and all of the above factors influenced me to make my purchases. And you know what? None of those factors included SEO or search engine optimization.

Online and in the real world, you need to think about your INTEGRATED marketing strategy. “Integrated” means pulling together all of your resources to try and get to the customer and then trying to sell to the customer. In my example, it did not matter whether the companies I purchased from were at the top of Google. It mattered that a) there was a gift card, b) that the merchants were associated with amazon.com and c) they had the best price.

For 2010 I want you all to think out of the box of SEO. My company is involved with website and Internet marketing. We don’t just do one thing, we do it all. (And by all, I mean literally 21 things. Huh? You didn’t know about the 21 things you should consider when thinking about an online strategy? We should talk But where we REALLY differ from our competition is in our strategy. We think in the box, out of the box and then pull it all together. We have over 12 years of experience with online marketing. Before that we were involved in TV and traditional media and advertising. Some things have changed but the basics are still here. We survived the first online crash of 2001 and have survived through the past two year recession. In the year 2010 we will double in size, revenue and profit. If you would like to know more about what we do, how we do it and what we can do for you, give us a call or send us an email. Next week we will tell you what the 21 website marketing things are. Happy Holidays Everyone!

Best (and Worst) Christmas Decoration

Posted by Salem Global on Dec 8, 2009

As seen somewhere in America…

After 2 days the person had to take it down because it was causing traffic and people were running up to the house to help

Short Term Website Marketing Strategies Continued… Thanks! – Thank your customers and clients with coupons, incentives and contests.

Posted by Salem Global on Nov 23, 2009

Over the past few weeks we have been talking about short term website marketing strategies using PPC or pay per click. But if you don’t want to give your money to Google, Yahoo or Microsoft, why not try a contest? It’s holiday season. 4th Quarter. The time of year that people don’t mind spending money like they do all year long. Ok lets face it… no one reeaaally likes to part with their hard-earned money, but during this time of the year, “giving” is in the air. After all, ’tis the season… Oh and by the way – its THANKSGIVING! So you SHOULD be giving “thanks.” But HOW you do it is another story…

As you can see from this newsletter, SalemGlobal is “thanking” our newsletter readers with the opportunity to win $100 in the form of a gift certificate or equivalent. Now I have to be honest with you. We are pretty good at what we do. We have thousands of people that read our newsletter. Thousands of people visit our website each month… after all, we are at the top of Google for keyword “website marketing.” We promote ourselves and our clients over Facebook, Linkedin and YouTube. And to top it all off, we have our own networking organization that you can sign up for at www.BreakfastNetworking.com. So every week I am really already reaching thousands and thousands of people.

So why incent to get even MORE traffic? The answer is simple. Just because we have thousands of fans, readers and visitors, it does not mean that we can’t use MORE business. The goal of every business should be to try to improve upon what they have going on already. If you have thousands, you need to go after TENS of thousands. 10s… MILLIONS! (Think Mike Myers in Austin Powers) So contests get people who are on the fence to act. Your call-to-action should never be for people to just read your newsletter – it should be to get them to call you to hire you.

Contests are fun, exciting, exhilarating and motivating. And you don’t have to give away $100, you could give away a Wii. An iPod. A Flip. A Starbucks giftcard, Barnes and Noble. Amazon.com. You get the picture… Post this on your newsletter, your blog, your website, your Facebook profile and linked in status, and maybe even in a press release. You will be happy you did

PPC Strategies for the Holidays: How to Write Your Ads, How to Budget and How to Use PPC in Local Listing

Posted by Salem Global on Nov 17, 2009

So now you are finally ready to take the plunge and give Google some of your money. Why? Well, you’ve heard all about this Google thing and were never quite sure what it meant to your business or practice. Then someone mentioned Google and you became curious. Then you talked with some friends and finally someone brought you here. Well congratulations but don’t get toooo excited. There are a few rules of advertising you must understand before you put up a budget and expect the phone to ring.

First – Do not expect your phone to ring off the hook. It still takes time for people to recognize you, trust you, and then have your ad show up at the right place at the right time. Mind you, Google, PPC (pay per click) and online advertising is the most targeted advertising you can participate in so you are in good shape.

Second – Put your phone number in your ad. So many people create ads that are really creative… and don’t say a thing or have any call to action. True, some people believe the call to action IS the ad but even before that people are thinking about you. And if you are lucky, or smart, they will call you from your ad and won’t waste your $10 to click on you.

Third – Use good marketing language in addition to telling people what they want to know. Use your keywords, your location, tell people how smart you are, you have great prices and that you are reliable. Depending on your industry you need to be able to compete. See what the competition is saying. Can you beat them? Match them?

Fourth – Make sure you activate your Google local business center and link this and your location to your ad. You will receive an extra line of exposure with your address showing that you truly are a local merchant.

Fifth – Make sure click through visitors go to a landing page relevant to what they clicked on and make sure there is a call to action on that page. Do not always direct to the home page.

Sixth – Connect your ad with a URL that reinforces what keyword people are searching for. Four Star Cleaning owns http://www.OfficeCleaningNY.com and http://www.CleaningServiceNY.com. So when people look for their keywords in NY they are perceived as smart and visionary to own the domain name + keywords.

Seventh – Test, test, test. Did I mention to test? No one, not even Google can tell you how much to budget for your ad. They can give you a mathematical, scientific and algorithmic number to plug in but as a human behavior expert, I will tell you that that all doesn’t matter. Google will take your money regardless. So what you need to do is start out with $100 per day and bid your CPC (cost per click) at $10 and see where that takes you. Basically, my rule is that if Google is eating up your whole budget and you haven’t received any phone calls or contact request forms you need to see what would happen if you increased the CPC to $15 and also decreased to $5.00. And then you have to account for the time of day, week, month and year as well as your industry to really determine what the best budget is for you. Don’t give up but also budget for this. Make sure you go into this knowing that click fraud exists and you will spend before you make. And of course if you are getting phone calls and closing deals don’t stop there. Keep going and be consistent.

Examples of the perfect ads: (IMHO )
* Office Cleaning NYC
* Low Rates, Free Est. 212-741-9400
* Environment Friendly Insured Bonded
* www.OfficeCleaningNY.com

LASIK Midtown NYC
* 212-764-2020, Ilan Cohen, MD.
* Free Consultation, 0% Financing
* www.WorldClassLasik.com

If you would like more information about PPC or any other aspect of website marketing, please give us a call at 212-993-5828, send me an email at raphis@salemglobal.com or visit www.SalemGlobal.com. Next week we will talk about Social Media, how it has really taken off and what you can do about it to get some business from it.

How to Script Your Online Video

Posted by Salem Global on Nov 3, 2009

Last week we spoke about the importance of using online video to promote your business. “But Raphi,” you say. “YOU are a natural. How can I become an Internet celebrity? I am too shy.”

Ok. Ok. I hear you. True, I am not shy. True I have a high self-esteem. True, I own a flip cam. But also true is that I know my business cold and inside-out. I can talk website marketing and strategy with the best of them. So I believe I am a true expert and authority in my field. In conclusion, I have the confidence to not only say what I know, but also to present myself.

YOU TOO should be an expert in your field. I don’t care whether you are a doctor or lawyer or business owner. If you AREN’T an expert in your field, no one is going to hire you anyway. So there is no assumption in our working together. Now that we have established that you are a knowledgeable and expert competent professional in your field, all we need is a script.

Ready? Ok. Here we go…

Introduction
Bio
Staff
Office
History of Industry/Field
Our services (how many services do you perform? We have 20 in the field of website marketing. But each service has many different components. So just as an example, today we are talking about online video. Scripting an online video is different from talking about online video. So now I have 2 blog posts within 1 category. Of course there are going to be MANY different examples of services and sub-services. Each one of those components gets a video.)
Tips for… Keeping a clean office…. Staying compliant with the IRS…. Keeping your teeth and gums healthy…

The above is a great strategy for you and your business. There are 52 weeks in a year. After the 52 videos and blog posts you should repeat what you did last year.

Next week we will revisit PPC (pay-per-click) for your business. The holidays are coming. That means you need to act now. Not only for the long term. But right now. If you want to know more about website marketing, video or anything related to making money on the web, give us a call at 212-993-5828, email at raphis@salemglobal.com or check out www.SalemGlobal.com. You’ll be glad you did…

How to use YouTube and Online Video for your Business

Posted by Salem Global on Nov 2, 2009

I frequently tell people that I have over 200 videos on YouTube. But I am not telling the truth… I actually have MANY MORE than 200 videos but even more on other online video sharing and distribution websites. Perhaps you have heard of Google and Yahoo? Did you know that they have their own video sites as well? And then there are the lesser known video sites like FUNNYorDIE.com, a website supported by Will Ferrell and Judd Apatow (FunnyorDie). But for you and your business, you will want to check out Tubemogul.com. From here you can upload 1 video to several dozen video sharing websites. That means that with 1 video you are able to reach the people who aren’t hanging out on YouTube all day. And that means that your video aka your “business commercial may be seen by not just millions, but BILLIONS! But wait – there’s more. If you act now, we will also tell you about the fact that each of these video sharing sites also come with tags and links that are extremely valuable to your online presence.

If you have been paying attention for the last 2 years of my blog posts and newsletters, the most relevant results at the top of the search engines for your keywords will be the most popular and authoritative sites. To be the most popular, you need to have INbound links to your website. Videos are another way to get those links.

And if you act now and call me, I will even throw in a full year subscription to my newest video here: Salem Global Internet Marketing Videos

In all seriousness, in addition to the links, you never know WHO is going to be watching your video. And don’t make it all Steven Spielberg and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on your video shoot. Get a flip cam like we do and use a Mac or Windows, and Adobe or Pinnacle software to edit your video. Have your kids do it. An intern. Create a library of videos. Become not only the wordsmith authority on the internet for your industry, become the video authority as well. Tell people who you are, what you do and what procedures you perform. What services your company has. What products you sell.

If you want to know more about me, my company, and my videos, check out our YouTube channel: Youtube. And if you want know more about internet marketing, call me 212-993-5828, email me raphis@salemglobal.com or visit my website at www.SalemGlobal.com. Next week we will get more into videos, what you should say, how you should act and some directors and producers tips.

Linked In linking and Social Media Strategies

Posted by Salem Global on Oct 20, 2009

If you have been paying attention to online marketing over the past few years, you will no doubt be familiar with social networking and social media. Then someone came out with the term “social media optimization” and everyone jumped on the bandwagon. When people think of social media, they think of MySpace which was the father of social media and facebook which used to be the runner up and now has become the leader. MySpace was a great place to build your own page and bands and artists from all over the world promoted it. But then facebook came out and you needed a .edu email address to join. When facebook opened up their platform to the rest of the world, it become THE place to post pictures and videos of our kids, our friends, the band we were seeing, the game we were attending (through facebook mobile and iPhones and the like) and people flocked to it.

But then everyone in the industry was trying to figure out how to monetize these highly trafficked sites. Yes, advertising models provided some clues but the business people of the world wanted more.

LinkedIn was in sleeper mode for all of these years. Business networking sites had come and gone and were still trying to figure it all out. But when facebook exploded, LinkedIn took the hint and added social media to their platform. Now LinkedIn has become my number one online space to promote my business events, services and clients. Linkedin allows you to join 50 groups of which you should be joining the max. If you want to pay for LinkedIn you can join even more. These groups are all business related. People have started separating their fun social life on facebook with their serious I need to make money and network business side. Personally I categorize my 50 groups into social/hobby groups, political groups, business and industry groups and local groups. This way, while playing on the same field as my competitors in my industry, I am also on the fields of my past college peers and my local peers.

So make sure you join your local groups in Miami, Chicago and New York, your industry groups and your hobby groups and start promoting today. You will only be allowed to join a few a day and then you need to be approved but I assure you, the effort you put into it will be well worth it. So far I have met hundreds of people online and have started doing business with a good percentage. I guarantee you results or no money back

If you want to know more about LinkedIn or social media optimization, give me a call at (212) 993-5828  or send me an email raphis@salemglobal.com or visit our website www.salemglobal.com. Next week I will talk about online video and how to use Youtube for your business.

Email Marketing and Newsletters

Posted by Salem Global on Oct 13, 2009

As we began last week, the holidays are coming and you need to be right up front and center with your potential clients and customers. (And for you, non-profits, your donors and supporters.) But we often focus so much on new business that we sometimes forget about “old” business. We sometimes forget that the “new” clients that we brought in last year and the “old” customers that purchased from us last year are still here this year. They really didn’t go anywhere. They are in the trenches as much as we are. The economy is hitting them just as hard as it is hitting us. It’s a challenge to keep in touch with each and every one of your customers and clients but you do what you have to do. It is MUCH easier to hold on to an existing client or sell to someone that knows you already than to try to get new customers and clients.

Since the commercialization of the Internet (and before), email has been referred to as the “killer app.” A killer app is defined as the “end-all-be-all” of all computer applications. The reason for this is that email is very personal and private and always in your face. Even before blackberries and iPhones directly sent email to cellphones, email was always going to get to you whether you checked at work or at home. Even through the spammy years, people still checked their email, they just upgraded their filtering and anti-virus software.

And that is why you finally need to stop talking about how you have collected all of those wonderful emails from every one of your customers since 1985 and start doing something with it.

But be forewarned, email can be tricky. First of all, never send out a mass email from your personal address. If someone regards you as a spammer, that can get your domain name email blacklisted. That means that your emails go into your contacts spam filter because they think you are spamming them or they think you are trying to sell them Viagra or the Shamwow. We recommend using a 3rd party service (we are Constant Contact resellers so here is a link from our affiliate program. They don’t pay us until we make a sale so buy it and support this newsletter All kidding aside, there are plenty of 3rd party email software applications. Check them out and decide for yourself. We use Constant Contact because it’s easy to use, they have good templates, the price is right and their support is great.)

Now that you have the email addresses and the software, its time to start writing. Don’t think of it as “difficult.” If you can write an email to a colleague, you can write a newsletter. You are already an expert in your field. You know everything there is to know about running your own business, the products you sell and the services you provide. Now it is time to let people know about it.

Some people think that they can’t write a newsletter or send an email blast once a week but they can. Here is my secret… Start with every month. Break down your company and products into 12. That gives you 1 newsletter a month. When you realize how easy it is, expand that to twice a month. Then 3 times and finally 4. Write about your business. Send coupons. Tell your customers about a lovely interaction with a customer you had this week. “Call it Wilmas Wonder of the Week.” Ok. Maybe not. I call mine the SalemGlobal Website Marketing Tip of the Week. Catchy… Huh! But seriously folks. The whole idea is to let your customers know that you are alive and well. You might not have time to call up the 600 people in your database every week and 99% of them might delete your email. But how do you know the 1 – 10% that do open it won’t be so happy and they tell their friends and so on and so on and so on. Now you have tripled your customer base and it was all with 1 simple email communication. Not only that, your old customers bought from you and now you have 300 more orders than last year since you gave your current customers a simple way to tell their friends about you.

Need more ideas about email or marketing to your database and customers? Call me at 212-993-5828. Write me. Email me at raphis@salemgloabl.com. (I just got a new computer after my old one died, it works great!) Or vist our site, www.SalemGlobal.com.  Next week I will write about some success we have been having with linkedin, a social networking website.