Category: Marketing Automation

October 9, 2014

ONTRApalooza 2014 Rundown

Again I am so happy to be able to attend this amazing conference in beautiful Santa Barbara. So in case you could not make it here is a quick rundown of my experience of this great event.

Ontraport New Features

Let’s get down to the good stuff right away. We had to wait till Friday morning but I am giving it to you first. Just to be clear all of these new features should be available now in Ontraport 3.0 except the Custom Objects.

New Payment API
- Stripe and Worldpay Integrations
- Coupon Codes for Groups and Personal Coupons.
New Landing Pages
- Impact your SEO
- New Smart Forms Built In
- Useful templates with items such as event count downs built in
New Email Creator
- Now you can do more than just text editing.
New Ontraport Mobile App!
- Send Emails (from library), assign contacts to sequences, add/remove tags, add new contacts, and call and text individual contacts straight from your phone.
Custom Objects! (coming soon)
- This new tool will let you create custom datasets and link them together to manage and automate sophisticated business processes.
  - Think bid Proposals, support tickets, calendar appointments, and surveys for a special group within your contacts. (yeah now your getting excited)

Speakers

Now that we got the new features out of the way I will tell you about some of the speakers.

Julia Allison
Journalist, Public Speaker

Julia had some great advice but some of the take ways I took from her speech was to seduce the Press. You want to give the press/writer a good story with intrigue. Give them some dirt and show them something unique about you. Being Authentic is also important. Think interesting, but also out of the ordinary with a story of true heroism. She also suggested becoming friends with working reporters who write the way you would like to be portrayed. This helps you get your stories published and it also will keep you in a good light.

Julia’s other big tip which she mentioned several times is do NOT WRITE A PRESS RELEASE! She says they are trash and get thrown away create a Press Kit instead. Learn more about Julia here.

Jack Canfield
Best-selling author, self-esteem expert

Take advice from the creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul! When I first realized Jacks speech would be 2 hours I was not sure if I could sit through it. Boy did he prove me wrong. My main take-a-way form Jack’s speech was E+R=O.

Event + Response = Outcome

You want to make yourself and your business better. Look at your Outcome. To get the Outcome you are looking for change your response. Sounds simple, but I think we can all take a look at our businesses and our personal lives and implement this simple rule to better ourselves.

Shelby Larson
SEO and Marketing

Shelby was great giving us real life examples. She made it easy to understand how we all need to move toward Intent Content Marketing to see real results from our online content. The idea is to publish content that speaks to the intent of the searcher not primarily the key words. Search engines are evolving and so is the way we use them. So driving your content for the intent of the searcher is the new way to gain great results in Google. Shelby also talked about moving your visitors on your website from one page to the next in a low tech tactic to keep users on your site longer. Lowering your bounce rate and raising website clicks. This shows Google your content is up to par with what its searchers are looking for. To learn more about Shelby and her pet dragons click here.

Michelle Villalobos
Group facilitator, Consultant

Michelle’s main focus for this speech was on branding yourself for success. You want to be the Christian Louboutin of your industry. You want people to just see the red bottoms and know who you are. Type in red sole shoes into Google and Christian Louboutin are the only ones to pop up. You want to be the trainer of the stars, the dog whisper, or the super nanny. We all know instantly what these people do and what their Niche is. Create that for yourself with the 5×10 glossy pictures and a trait that helps you stand out from the rest. Learn more about Michelle and what she is all about by clicking here.

A Big Thank You

I also want to thank Gene Hammett who is the only person I met this weekend to call me after talking to me this weekend! :O He gave an amazing speech on how pod casting can change your business. Learn more about Gene and how he can help you with your business now here. I also want to give a big shout out to Landon Ray. Your speech this year was amazing and you definitely set the bar high for the other speakers. Finally thank you to all of the Ontraport Staff without you guys working so hard we could not grow our businesses and change the world.

June 3, 2014

The Great Email Signature Debate

Adding your signature to an email is a great way to help establish branding. The problem however is that a lot of people out there take it too far. They want to make themselves seem accessible, so much so that that they become too accessible.

We here at AIMS value our quality of life, and often times that means disconnecting for a bit, be it a few hours or even, heaven forbid, an entire weekend (holidays included). But if you are listing every possible way to contact you on your email signature then you just might run the risk of losing that little bit of personal freedom you do have.

Not only that, but it can really come off a little bit desperate. It’s like you’re back in middle school PE lined up waiting to be picked for a kickball team and you’re that kid bouncing around in the front row begging to be chosen.

So how do you balance accessibility without seeming overly eager in your email signature? Here are a few tips.

What to Include:

As a general rule, your email signature should never be longer than the email itself. So keep it short.

Your name
Your business name and position within the company
The best way to contact you (work phone, email)

You may also include a SMALL logo and your business address if it something you are comfortable sharing (i.e. work from home).

DON’T do this:

Include personal handles for social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, etc.), your business social media handles are okay if kept small
Personal phone number – Unless you like having your clients waking you up at 4 a.m. (Don’t have a business phone number, get one for free from Google.)
Quotes, inspiring or otherwise – Remember, keep it concise
Make your entire signature an image – Yes, it will look exactly how you would like it too, but if it won’t load on certain browsers or devices it is useless

Photo – © Ronald Hudson – Fotolia.com

April 7, 2014

Are These Emails Automated or Real?

Marketing automation tools are awesome. If you use them right, they can really help you connect with your clients on another level. The problem is that not everyone out there is using their tools the way they was meant to be used. Some people are still slapping the old “Dear Valued Customer” on their emails or inserting sales pitches directly into the subject line. From our experience, nothing turns a potential client off more than in your face marketing and generic content.

Today we want to talk to you about making your emails more personable, and thus more likely to be read.

Merge Fields

First of all, let’s all get on the same page and start using merge fields. Many of the marketing automation software out there even makes this easy for you – If you are an Ontraport/Agency Revolution user for example, all you have to do after logging into your DIO and opening up a new email is to scroll on down to the “Mail Merge” section where you can pick out which contact information you would like to use to address your clients. ALWAYS personalize your emails.

Write Original Content

This should be a given, but jeez, have you seen some of the form emails that go around out there? You start in reading the first sentence and have already clicked “delete” before you even get half way through. And if you do that, then you can bet your customers do to.

So when you start working on your next date sequence or step sequence, try to work in some fresh content. Instead of “Dear Sir, It has come to our attention that you are underinsured for your auto insurance…” try something more along the lines of “Dear [First Name], We’ve just finished reviewing your [Type of Insurance] insurance policy for the year and thought we’d let you know…”

The key here is that it doesn’t have to be so formal and stuffy, it can be personable and even friendly. Instead of a computer telling someone something, your emails should sound like a human being actually wrote them. That means you can use a conversational tone.

Try using emails you have sent in the past or even have a professional writer help you create your automated email responses. I find some of the best emails are easy to read and tend to be short and to the point.

Watch Your Subject Lines

We’ve already alluded to it, but don’t put your sales pitch directly into your subject line. Just don’t.

Speaking of Sequences…

Speaking of date and step sequences, let’s just take a moment to remember that no one likes hearing their phone ding at 3 o’clock in the morning. When you are sending out an automated email be sure that your are sending it out during working hours. We all know you’re not really thinking about my auto insurance in the middle of the night.