How To Write A Good Email Subject Line: Practical Tips For Getting Your Customer’s Attention And Keeping Your Email Out Of The Spam Folder

write a good email subject line

Wouldn’t it be terrible if the only thing standing between you and your customer is a poor choice of a few words? Poor subject lines can be ignored, or worse, end up in spam folders where they may never be seen. What if I told you that one of the simplest “quick fixes” to keep your email from being either ignored or filtered is to change your subject line? Bet you’d want to know how to do it! Here are some practical tips for writing a good subject line that will improve your open rates and keep your email out of the spam folder.

If You Want Your Social Marketing To Be Successful, Stop Engaging Your Customers

bad date

I want to wipe the word “engage” right out of the dictionary. If this sounds suspiciously like the beginning of a rant… well, it is, but only in part. Mostly it’s an idea that I’d like to share with you because I want to help you make your social marketing work. As of right now I want you to stop engaging your customers. And I want you to start being interested instead. Take a lesson from high school dating and learn how to get attention by giving attention.

How Much Should A Website Cost?

writing a check

It’s a fair question; after all, you’ve got to make smart investments in your business and you can’t jump into a project blindly. But asking how much a website costs is a bit like calling your contractor and saying, “I want you to build me a house. How much will it cost?” To make matters worse, there can be a huge gap between the costs you get from different developers. How’s a person to make a smart decision? Here are some very real and relevant things that you should consider and a few things to know about how pricing works.

How To Stop Being Busy And Start Being Productive

overworked man

It hardly matters how long you’ve been in business, how many books you’ve read on productivity or what tools you use, we all occasionally suffer from busyness, without the intended and pleasant side effect of actually getting something done. When that happens it helps to pull out your bag of magic tricks and get back on track, because I hate to be the one to tell you this but being busy does not mean you are being productive. In fact, being busy is a whole lot more stressful and a whole lot less rewarding. Here are a few simple tricks you can use to jolt yourself out of busy and into “get that s#!t done, now!”

Mobile Matters: The Stunning Statistics That Should Convince You To Make Your Website Mobile Friendly (With Tips For How To Do It)

woman on mobile

Are you a mobile user? Do you own an iPhone, Android, iPad or some other mobile device? I want you to think honestly for a moment about how often you use your mobile device to access websites. I bet it’s more often than you think. We’re so used to our mobile devices that we forget we’re using them. All evidence points to the fact that mobile is simply a way of life for many of us and consciously or not, we are interacting with, judging and choosing websites and companies to do business with based, perhaps solely, on mobile experiences. Here are some statistics that will open your eyes plus a practical guide for making sure your website is mobile-friendly.

Stop Listening To Chris Brogan, Get Off Twitter, Play Dumb, And Other Smart Marketing Advice

smart marketing secrets

In the middle of writing a one-liner for a marketing campaign, I thought I’d hit on something hilarious and brilliant. But when I shared it with Ralph, he knocked the wind out of my sails by telling me that hilarious and clever though I might be, nobody else would think so. And he was right. I’d gotten stuck in a sort of marketing groupthink and lost perspective on the greater world. Besides going back to the drawing board on that campaign, I also started thinking about some of the other things I “know” and that you probably think you know, too. There are a few ways we can all get stuck in our own certainty and our own little worlds. Find out more, plus how you can get unstuck and shift your perspective so your business can continue to grow and succeed.

Spring Cleaning For Your Website: 10 Painless Ways To Freshen It Up And Put Some Shine Back Into Your Marketing

spring cleaning for your website

You do it for your house. You do it for your car. You do it for your financials. Who says you can’t do a little spring cleaning for your website? With so much going on in social media, video and content marketing, who has time for something as 2008 as a website? But if your website is just languishing out there, sort of sad and neglected, you could be losing potential customers or tarnishing your hard-earned professional image. I’m not talking about doing a major overhaul. I’m talking about a few low-stress, high-impact ways to spiff up your site, clean up your marketing and breathe life back into it. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Facebook Timeline For Business: How To Use It To Your Marketing Advantage

Facebook Timeline For Business: How To Use It To Your Marketing Advantage

As of March 30th, Facebook will be rolling out Timeline for Business pages. No choice, no kidding. If you don’t upgrade before then, you’re going to end up with a sad, cover-photo-less page. And even if you do upgrade you might not know what all the new rules are or quite what to do with them. Good news: I’m about to tell you, not only what the new rules are but how you can effectively work with them. And at the end I’ve got a little bonus for you: a free Photoshop template and instructional video that will help you create a killer cover.

Channeling Your Inner Two-Year-Old: Why “Why” Is The Most Important Question Smart Business People Can Ask

Confused orangutan

If you have a kid, know a kid or have ever been a kid (hard to remember sometimes, isn’t it?) then you know that those precious and terrible twos require the most effort from an adult brain. Two year olds never tire of asking, “Why?” and they do it with sincerity and enthusiasm. I often wonder when we stop asking why – or maybe the more pertinent question is why we stop asking why – and simply accept and move on. But if you question your marketing goals, motivations and assumptions, you might just find out that you could be saving a lot of time and money and uncovering ways to do things not only better, but smarter. Join me on a journey into the whys of marketing to see how your reasons hold up.

Pinterest: I Love You, I Hate You, But Should I Use You?

Pinterest board

It’s the new shiny thing. You can’t go two clicks across the internet without someone exclaiming in paroxysms of joy about how much “free traffic” they’re getting from Pinterest. If you’re anything like the rest of us, you’ve at least dabbled in this latest collage project. If you’re like some of us, you’ve got thousands of pins that in a non-digital world would get you classified as a “hoarder” and probably earn you your own cable TV show. So where does this leave the marketers? Pinterest can be a valuable tool or a nightmare depending on how you use it. Here are some thoughts on the issues surrounding the use of Pinterest and some ideas for using it to your business advantage.