Writing a cold email that gets response

23 January, 2015/1 Comment/in B2B, B2C, Copywriting, Marketing /by Rebecca Caroe

It’s difficult – I know what I want from you when I send a cold email, but it is very hard to get you to respond.

Here’s a great tip – don’t ask for what you want.

Yes, seriously, don’t. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but trust me, I’m going to show you an insider’s trick.

So what do I ask for in a cold email?

Start with offering something for the recipient.

Take a read of this example from Chris Hines.

Cold Email text example

Do you see how Chris leaves you in no doubt about what he wants (it’s in the P.S.) but because he starts by offering me something I would value, when I get to reading the last lines my frame of mind is set to take up his offer.

The Principle of Reciprocity is a fundamental human value found in most societies, Chris uses this because he offers me a service (introducing me to his contacts) first knowing that when I get to reading the PS I will interpret it as a reciprocal requirement to complement his offer of service.

Cleverly written.

Now, can you use this in your business?

Buy a Workshop on how to use email for your business marketing.

Marketing ideas for an artist

21 January, 2015/0 Comments/in B2C, Case Studies, Marketing ideas /by Rebecca Caroe

I’m a digital abstract New Zealand artist. I do paintings in digital form then get them printed onto canvas. I’m trying to look for an Art Manager or Art Agent to help me to promote and sell my art. Do you know of anyone that will be able to help me grow my business?

Message in a bottle it wished me well and has an email address (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thanks for getting in touch. You work in a specialist area and so I’ve consulting my contacts in the art world and have these recommendations

list yourself on The Big Idea website – put up your portfolio, price your works and link back to your website to tell people how to buy your work. http://www.thebigidea.co.nz/
if you want representation, you have to go and meet people and show them your work. There’s no substitute for face to face personal contact.
first work out where you’d like to sell – which places / websites / galleries would suit your work or represent similar art styles? Make a list of them. Phone them up or email and arrange to visit with your portfolio and start a conversation with the owners. Follow up, send them regular updates about your work
have a newsletter or blog where you can publish your latest works and email these out to your mailing list. If you don’t have one yet, start to collect the email addresses of everyone you meet who could either buy your work or may know someone who could buy it. Send them messages regularly.

Good luck and I hope you succeed.

The blue icons opposite are part of our 8-Step New Business Development Methodology.

Click each icon to find more blog articles on the topic – educate yourself in modern marketing

CCH iFirm Web Manager | Advanced User Tips

20 January, 2015/0 Comments/in Marketing /by Creative Agency Secrets Team

Throughout our marketing activities with a number of accounting firms, we’ve become quite proficient in using the CCH iFirm Web Manager. So we’ve bundled all our best Advanced User Tips into one easy eBook.

If you are not confident using HTML (hyper text mark-up language) – the programming language behind most websites – then don’t worry. This book helps you to set up the website using clear screen shot photographs and step by step instructions which you can follow without knowing any HTML code.

Read this book if your website doesn’t look the way you want it or if it does not function the way you need. Chances are there’s a method we have discovered that will help you round your impasse. And if there isn’t you can always get in touch with us to ask if we’ve discovered something new since we published this book in December 2014.

Inside:

Setting up & using RSS feeds.
Google Web Master Tools.
Formatting your content.
Creating a Site Map so Google indexes your Blog and Website.
Embedding YouTube videos into your pages & posts.

Need accountancy marketing help?

Creative Agency Secrets are experts in accountancy firm marketing. We can tutor you and teach you what to do if you want to do the marketing yourself. Or we can do the firm’s marketing for you.

Learn more and join our free Accountants Marketing Newsletter

How to market handcrafts from Myanmar

9 January, 2015/0 Comments/in B2B, Case Studies, Marketing ideas /by Rebecca Caroe

A new startup business in Myanmar (Burma) contacted us asking

Myanmar Handicrafts

How to promote small business for women who live in villages doing sewing

They sell to both tourists and local Burmese customers.

Marketing to the sales channel

The main challenge here for the women is that they are a disparate group and so clubbing together to make a single selling organisation who can take on the marketing and promotion to a range of distribution channels (web and retail shops mainly) is probably the best use of their time.

I did a search result for the words “Myanmar Handicrafts” and it’s clear there are plenty of existing online shops selling in this category as well as Facebook pages – which is good for international sales in the English language.

Steps to introduce their work to the channel

Get samples of their sewing work. Take photographs of each lady who made the product.
Contact each of these websites and send them two photos of the women and their sewing. Ask if they would like to sell your products in their shop.
After 1 week if they do not reply by email, telephone them.
If you can, ask to visit each shop owner with a bigger selection of sewing for them to look at and then face to face discuss if they will buy from you.

The basic method is to bring awareness of your product set to people who already have an audience of customers – this B2B route to market is faster than trying to build up your own audience of prospects.

Key issues will be

Quality control
Having sufficient stock to deliver in volume
Getting good payment terms
Scaling for growth – Kiva.org may be a good way to raise money

But by getting face to face with retailers I think this group of village women will stand a good chance of finding outlets for their work.

Downstream it may be worthwhile finding charities like Oxfam, Unicef and Save the Children to see if they’ll buy product for their online and catalogue business.

Email marketing subject line recommendations

8 January, 2015/0 Comments/in B2B, B2C, Case Studies, Direct Marketing, Email /by Rebecca Caroe

This week has been spent writing direct response emails for client campaigns.

And so it was delightful to receive one which has a really awesome subject line. You may want to emulate it.

Direct mail subject line text

What a timely question! This week I am doing the business planning for Creative Agency secrets during 2015. And so yes, the beginnings of my 2015 lead generation is now in place.

But it may not be for you!

Here are three more subject lines I’ve used this week

Subject: Ride the escalator to business success; don’t climb the stairs
Subject: You can run your business the way you always have….
Subject: Closing the loop

The last one is particularly effective for getting decisions from prospects and pushing them into buying.

Ask me about it….

Do you need help writing direct response emails?

Download our e-book on Writing direct response emails. It covers a range of scenarios from cold emails to driving sales and includes samples which you can use and adapt.

The blue icons opposite are part of our 8-Step New Business Development Methodology.

Click each icon to find more blog articles on the topic – educate yourself in modern marketing

Below you’ll find the full text of Mark’s email and the event he and David Baker are promoting.

Startup marketing for a juice bar

5 January, 2015/0 Comments/in B2C, Case Studies, Local Marketing /by Rebecca Caroe

Any start up info for a new business opening – a juice bar in a tourist area in Tenerife.

First suggestions:

Strong branding and excellent signage around your shop.
Have an A-frame board outside on the pavement. And try to change what you write on it daily. If you can be witty, all the better as people will photograph it and share online. ideas here
Create a website with a blog. Each day photograph your A-frame board and add that to the blog, set up automatic sharing to Facebook, Instagram and any other social media you want to use. Include the same hashtags #tenerife #juicebar #NameOfYourBar and if relevant the suburb / street / area. Other ideas for blog posts are recipes, seasonal special offer deals, quiz questions (what’s in a pina colada, how much ice should go in a smoothie) etc
Offer a discount to anyone who likes you on Facebook when you launch…. get them to show you their smartphone page like before they pay. This will get you a crowd to kick off as fans.
Do joint promotions with other complimentary local businesses – they send you their customers and you reciprocate. Which days of the week are quiet? Or which times of the day? Do a guy 2 get one free offer before 11 am or on Mondays.

All the things I’ve suggested fit into Step 4 Profile Raising of our New Business Development Methodology. Read other blog posts in that category for more ideas.

Autoresponders Email Marketing – A Good Example

12 December, 2014/0 Comments/in Email, Marketing /by Creative Agency Secrets Team

We recently visited GetSpokal.Com and were pleasantly surprised when we received 3 spaced apart automated emails after signing up to their newsletter.

This is a brilliant example to show you Autoresponder Email Marketing done right.

Not to mention their service description landing page is magnificent. Here are the autoresponders we received…

Autoresponder Email 1: intro and thank you

Hi Rebecca,

I was just browsing the web and came across Creative Agency Secrets’ site. I’m a bit of a marketing nerd, so love to look and compare the strategies of different inbound marketing agencies – I actually think it’s fun! What you and your team are doing with Creative Agency Secrets looks really interesting.

I wanted to reach out to you today, because my company, www.getspokal.com helps agencies like yours manage their inbound marketing strategies quickly and more efficiently.

It’s kind of like HubSpot but at a much more affordable price point, and integrates seamlessly with WordPress.

First off, I’d like to invite you and your team to a free 14 day trial of Spokal to get a feel for how it works and how it can help your inbound marketing strategies.

If you like Spokal, and want to start using it for your clients, we also have an agency program where you can earn a 30% commission on all client accounts you manage. So not only does your work with clients become easier, it becomes more profitable too.

To set up a trial account and get familiar with our platform, just head over to www.getspokal.com/free-trial. If you like what you see, I’ll personally help you get set up on agency program so you can start using Spokal with your clients.

If you have any questions at all about our platform or agency program, just reply back to this email and I’ll be in touch as soon as possible.

Thanks,
————–
Chris Mack
Co-Founder & CEO
Spokal
1 888 470 5990

Autoresponer Email 2: service description and offerings

Hi Rebecca,

I just wanted to follow up with you to see if you received my previous email. I think Spokal would make a great fit for your agency, both for your internal use and for your clients.

I’d love to invite you to a free trial of Spokal at www.getspokal.com/free-trial and if you like what you see, we can get you set up on an agency plan where you earn 30% back for all of your clients who you manage while using Spokal.

Just reply back here if you have any questions.

Thanks,
————–
Chris Mack
Co-Founder & CEO
Spokal
1 888 470 5990

Autorseponder Email 3: reminder and farewell

Hi Rebecca,

I just wanted to send one last email to make sure my emails weren’t missing your inbox.

Your agency looks like a great fit for what Spokal offers – a full-fledged marketing automation solution for WordPress.

Would you like to give Spokal a spin for a free 14 day trial? If so, just head over to www.getspokal.com/free-trial and sign up for our free trial. I’m sure you’ll like what you see, and if you want to get your clients set up on Spokal, you can earn 30% back in commission as an agency. Just like that, your client work becomes more efficient and more profitable.

Just hit reply if you have any questions and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thanks,
————–
Chris Mack
Co-Founder & CEO
Spokal
1 888 470 5990

Teach yourself how to use Autoresponders.

They can be an effective weapon in your marketing arsenal

Buy a training programme!

Includes E-book, Workshop video and Workshop powerpoint slides.

This season’s teen Xmas gift?

2 December, 2014/0 Comments/in B2C /by Rebecca Caroe

What is it about the ‘stocking filler’ category that brings out the zany product ideas? I know we’re all fed up with cartoons about dead cats, Princess Diana photos and printed diaries or calendars.

So how about pictures on your teeth?

Introducing mBraceables

Clip on images that go on your front four teeth over the dental brace mount.

There are 8 mBraceable designs which you can clip on and off. Made from food-safe plastic and classed as ‘jewellery’ these could be your best fun on Christmas Day.

Imagine what Prince Harry would have looked like with some cute pictures on his teeth?

Prince Harry with braces – mBraceables

[Disclosure: mBraceables are a client of Creative Agency Secrets]

Trying Out Twitter’s Promoted Tweets

26 November, 2014/0 Comments/in Marketing, Social Media /by Creative Agency Secrets Team

We had a go at using Twitter’s “Promoted Tweets” service to advertise our upcoming marketing event on Facebook Ads Vs. Google Adwords, and found some pretty interesting results.

How It Works

Promoted Tweets on Twitter appear at the top of timelines for users matching a profile description you define…

What We Did

With a $50 budget set, we drafted up a single Promoted Tweet with a link going straight to our event registration page. The Tweet read:

Then we targeted the campaign to 4 specific locations within New Zealand and Australia along with setting particular marketing and business interests. You can also add ‘sample twitter accounts’ which the campaign models targeting from (pretty neat!).

How It Went

First, the campaign statistics:

$48 spent.
10k impressions made.
84 interactions reported (82 clicks on the ad, 1 reply to the ad, 1 follow from the ad).
13 clicks recorded on the goo.gl link used.

So how did we feel about it? Overall, it wasn’t a wildly successful campaign, but then again neither was our budget. We got 13 clicks recorded on the link we used and since we launched the campaign we gained an additional 10 attendees (granted this was during our mailing campaign as well). It appears that the campaign made a ripple of interaction and engagement but in the end you may want a bigger budget to really hit your mark.

If indeed we did get 10 attendees from this campaign, and we then get a single client out of this free event, we will have made our money back and then some.

The blue icon opposite are part of our 8-Step New Business Development Methodology.

Click each icon to find more blog articles on the topic – educate yourself in modern marketing.