Tag: Actively Implementing Marketing Solutions

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

May 28, 2014

Get Noticed On LinkedIn

Job seekers and professional organizations alike are putting in more time on their LinkedIn profiles. In the professional market it may as well be the new Google. What is the first thing you do when you are thinking about partnering with another company or hiring someone? You look them up.

Now, Facebook stalking might give you a better idea about an individual’s personal life, but it won’t tell you much about the business side of things. The same can be said for a company’s business page. If you really want the nitty-gritty, you need to check out their LinkedIn profile.

Why LinkedIn Works

Don’t have a LinkedIn profile set up for your business? Better get on it. LinkedIn is one of the best ways to get your brand noticed. Like Facebook, Twitter and Google+, you create the exposure for yourself. The difference is that this is the page where you really get into the meat of what you do.

I mean really, how many people out there are actually reading your mission statement on Facebook – or even on your website? Chances are very few. But LinkedIn is where those same people go to get that sort of information. They want to know who you are, what you do and why.

How to Get Noticed on LinkedIn

So how do you go about getting noticed on LinkedIn? Here are a few tips:

Use an engaging photograph.

If you’re a company, use the logo that best reflects your character (we know some of you have multiple logos). As an individual, the photo should give some idea of who you are. Into climbing mountains? There is nothing wrong with a mountaineering pic. Wanting to look professional? Suit up in your headshot.

Write a better summary.

You summary is the first thing that pops up when someone opens your profile. Give them something they want to read. I can’t stress enough just how boring it is to read all about your experience, but nothing that clues me in on the culture of your company or you as an individual.

Reel them in with your first sentence. Instead of “I graduated with a degree in…”, talk about an experience that has shaped you or a person you admire that has made you into who you are today.

Follow others.

The more companies you follow and the more individuals you connect with the more likely you are to spread your content or message. This is after all the primary premise of social media: engage with one another.

Publish and/or share good content.

You don’t have to pump out new content everyday, but you do need to share periodically. It isn’t enough to just exist. You can provide updates on current events within you company or even just re-share that great article you read on the importance of influencing others…or whatever it is that interests you and is relevant to your business.

Photo – © thinglass – Fotolia.com

May 21, 2014

Add some Mystery to your Subject Line

You know how sometimes you get an email and all it says in the subject line is “Newsletter” or “Monthly Newsletter”? Yeah, it’s pretty boring. And if you’re looking for more clicks, it’s not one of your better attempts at doing so.

How then, do you write a better subject line?

Maybe it’s surprising, but I actually like to look for inspiration for this in the promotions tab of my Gmail account. After all, about 50 different companies are blasting me daily, so it doesn’t hurt to see how the big boys are doing it.

When I’m doing this evaluation I’m looking for one thing and one thing only: Did I click on it, or did it meet an imminent demise?

Scrolling through, I immediately notice a pattern – DISCOUNT! FREE! WIN A TRIP! But guess what? I didn’t click on any of those. In fact, they were trashed pretty darn quick. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t in the mood for them, maybe it’s because I know there are better things to be spending my money on or time doing right now. Either way, it does tend to go against the traditional marketing-grain that these were the emails I ignored.

Instead, I opened one from a tour agency with the subject line “Past, present and future – all at once.” And guess what it was? Their monthly newsletter. The word “newsletter” was nowhere to be found and here I opened it anyway.

Why did I open it? I’m not entirely sure to be honest, but I think that it has a little something to do with intrigue. In a world where quite literally EVERYONE is throwing a deal at you or touting the best this, that and the other thing, it was refreshing to actually have to guess what was on the other side of the subject line.

Am I advocating that you abandon tried and true marketing methods? No, but I do suggest mixing it up sometimes.

Photo – © Sergey Nivens – Fotolia.com

May 14, 2014

Conferences Spur Great Ideas

As an internet marketer, I spend a lot of time online. A LOT. Which means I tend to jump on any opportunity to disconnect. Conferences for one are a great way to step away from the computer and make a new kind of connection, the kind that seems to have been devalued in the tech age, human connection, or networking.

Sometimes I attend conferences special to those in the insurance industry; sometimes I go to a WordPress camp; other times I’ll hit up a Rotary conference. And you know what? I truly look forward to each of my visits with these wonderful organizations.

New people means new ideas, and to be quite on honest, in this industry, you’ll take any helpful advice you can get.

A new strategy for content marketing? Great, let me hear it.
Tips for getting OfficeAutoPilot to work better for me? Go on.
Tricks for updating my WordPress website? Tell. Me. Now.

What I’m getting at here is that conferences are more than just social hour; they are a hotbed of information. Often times, you’ll even meet the source of these new tips and tricks. And really, what could be better than learning from the best?

Some people shy away from conferences, but I think that they are essential to growing your business. For the insurers out there, Agency Revolution puts on a great conferences that brings together some of the best and the brightest in the insurance industry. I’ve been to the conference myself, and the exchange of ideas is phenomenal!

A few of my clients work in the fitness industry, and I can tell you that, as a group, they are some of the most open to exploring new ideas for training, or even drawing in more customers to their gyms. For them, attending conferences is a no brainer.

No matter what your market, odds are it is competitive, so why not cozy up to the competition and see how they do it? You just might learn something.

If you are going to Ontrapalooza this year I will see you there!

Photo – © Rawpixel – Fotolia.com

May 6, 2014

Insurance Blogging: Why Words Matter

Here at AIMS we like to keep up with the industry, so we read a lot of blogs. Some of our favorites are Search Engine Watch, Good Copy, Bad Copy, and more recently Boost Blog Traffic. We really do believe that there are a lot of good ideas out there in the blogosphere, and it is only wise to keep up.

Recently we came across a blog post from Boost Blog Traffic that listed 317 Power Words The Will Instantly Make You A Better Writer and it got us thinking: What are some of the best words to use when writing an insurance blog? And no, this isn’t about SEO, it is about engaging your readers. So let’s get this going and give you our list of the best insurance blogging words.

Get them EXCITED!

Here are 10 words to get your readers excited about something (a special offer maybe?):

Amazing
Astonishing
Astounding
Exciting
Hope
Magical
Opportunity
Stunning
Savvy
Wonderful

Scare them a little.

Need to induce a little fear? Try these words:

Crippling
Destroy
Devastating
Disaster
Dupe
Eradicate
Expel
Frightening
Horrific
Loss
Risk

Entice them.

Everyone likes a good deal, right? Especially after they’ve gotten a little scare put into them. Help your readers along and close the deal with these words:

Best
Discount
Extra
FREE (*That one really reels them in)
Inclusive
More
Prize
Profit
Save
Special

Remember, we write to evoke empathy. Connecting with your readers is important. With so many blogs out there, and so many different writers and styles, you need to really hit on your readers emotions – in other words, your blogs need to register. Power words are a great place to start!

So get out there and spice up your writing! And hey, check out the other great industry blogs out there for more ideas on improving your writing.

Photo – © Yury Zap – Fotolia.com

April 29, 2014

The New Facebook Business Manager Tool and How to use it

The next wave in Facebook marketing is here, and as a company that manages multiple accounts, we’re pretty darn excited about it. The new Facebook Manager Tool not only allows us to now manage pages, ad accounts and payment in one place, but it also allows the administrator to assign roles and monitor oversight.

How does it work?

To get started, just head on over to business.facebook.com and sign up.

As the page admin, you are in control of the account, which give you the power to not only modify or delete the account, but also to assign roles within the campaign.

The best part? You can now add business admins and employees to the account without being their friend on Facebook. This is important to a company like us here at AIMS because, as we stated above, we work with a lot of different companies, and that means we aren’t always connected directly to the employees. But now, so long as we have our contact person’s email address we can add them to the account, while also limiting their involvement to what we deem is necessary.

Another nice feature of the new Facebook Manager Tool is that we are now able to easily reassign roles and/or remove people from an account at any given time. So if you don’t like the way something is being done or your page is being managed, you can switch it up with little to no issue.

Everything in its place.

Even if you don’t use the new Facebook Business Manager Tool to manage multiple accounts, you’ll find it just as useful as we do. Instead of creating a brand new business page with multiple logins, you can now use your personal information to login and create an account. But don’t worry – none of your personal information will be available on the business page, it is solely used as a means of easing your access to all of your accounts.

Go explore!

We won’t pretend we know everything there is to know about the new Business Manger Tool – it just came out! But we hope this bit of information will help you get started. Check out the Introduction to Business Manager page from Facebook for more info.

Photo – © boygostockphoto – Fotolia.com

April 22, 2014

Is Your Content Worth Reading?

We believe in content marketing, in fact, we preach its importance. But just because you create it, doesn’t mean that it is worth reading. Content Marketing is dependent on creating a following. If you can’t get people to read your blog posts, you can’t convert them to hits on your website.

So how do you create content worth reading? Here are a few tips from the AIMS teams:

Don’t just regurgitate another author’s work – add your own spin.

Now, there is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from outside sources (so long as you cite it properly and/or contact the original author for their permission to use said materials). But if you fail to add your own spin, what is stopping the reader from skipping out on your article to read the original?

Write with purpose.

Know your angle; if you have an agenda, make it clear from the get go. Getting on the same page with your readers early will keep them engaged throughout.

Don’t get too wordy.

We know that you want to follow general SEO practices so that your article will get found in the first place, but remember, there is such a thing as too much content. Truth is, most people just scan blog posts, searching for the tastiest tid-bits. Make it too long and you are bound to scare them away. We recommend that you keep your blog posts in the 300-500 words range.

Write to be read.
If we’ve said it once, we’ll say it again – cut out the jargon. Too much industry speak is a turn off. You should be writing for the everyman. Most likely, you will are trying to attract potential clients; the type of people who aren’t necessarily up on your lingo. Too many technical terms can make your writing too formal, exclusive even. So avoid the pitfalls of jargon-speak.

April 16, 2014

Protect Your Passwords

Have you heard about Heartbleed yet? It’s an encryption flaw in the security framework of OpenSSL security software. More simply put, it’s a bad thing and a big deal. Some 500,000 websites are estimated to have been affect by the bug, which means your personal information, and your business’s information may have been compromised.

The Heartbleed bug allows hackers to access your usernames, passwords and even browser history 64 kilobytes at a time. For those of you in the know, that isn’t a whole lot of data, but if you repeat the process say a few, oh million times, it adds up.

If you are like us, then you have your information spread out in a lot of places. Do you run your own Facebook page? It’s time to change the password. How about Pinterest – or Tumblr and Flickr accounts? CNN Money has compiled a list of some of the big name companies who have already applied the patch to their network, making it safe to go ahead and change your passwords. You can find that list here.

Here at AIMS, we manage a lot of accounts, which means a whole lot of passwords to remember. We are fortunate in that we already use a password manager to keep track of them all. LastPass has been a great resource for us. While there are other password management systems out there, we haven’t found one we like more than last pass. Instead of trying to remember the literally hundreds of passwords under our charge, we just have to remember one master. And lucky for us, even though LastPass does utilize OpenSSL, it is only one of multiple layers of encryption, which helps to ensures that all our data is safe. If you also use LastPass run your security check the site will tell you which passwords need to be changed to protect your personal information from Heartbleed. We did update a few of our social passwords which gave us the chance to change from our favorite color to more complex password like ERi3w29C.

If you don’t already use a password manager like LastPass, then it is time to get started with one. Not only will it store all your passwords for you, it will also help you randomly generate news ones. Further, you can access LastPass from your mobile device or tablet, so it is with you wherever you go.

As a business owner, protecting your passwords starts with you. Don’t let your business get hacked.

Source – Heartbleed bug: What you need to know

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.

April 1, 2014

Showers of April Blog Ideas

April is here and that means we want to shower you with a month’s worth of ideas for your insurance blog!

Before we even start coming up with ideas for blogs each month, out first step is to open up a calendar with all the holidays listed on it. That way we can tailor our coverage to answer the questions your clients are most likely ask this month.

There are a lot of options for writing topics in April. You’ve got World Health Day, Tax Day, Easter, Passover, Earth Day and Arbor Day. But you don’t have to write something holiday related, you could also write about the changing of the seasons and how that affects your home prep this spring. You can write about driving on wet roads, or tips for riding your motorcycle on a windy day; you can even write about watching out for potholes!

The important thing here is to be creative. Look at each holiday or event as an opportunity to spread the word about staying safe or protecting yourself. Remember, your viewers have to come to your blog for handy information that might not otherwise have gotten. You don’t need to pump out tired marketing clichés or in your face sales tactics, you just need to put out a quality product that makes people stop and say, “Hey, they really know their stuff.”

So without further ado, here are a few April blog ideas from Actively Implementing Marketing Solutions:

April Insurance Blog Ideas

World Health Day Health Insurance Update Blog (The Obamacare deadline is here!)
Easter/Passover Social Host Liability Blog
Tax Day Reminder Blog/Insurance Write-Offs
Arbor Day Landscape Contractors Blog
Earth Day General Liability Blog for Homeowners Having Work Done on the House/Yard
Driving in Wet/Windy Weather
Riding a Motorcycle in the Wind/Rain
Dewinterizing a Home/Boat/Classic Car/RV
Spring Cleaning Tips/Tricks
Teen Driver Education
Blowing Out a Sprinkler System
Spring Kids Sports Safety

Happy writings!

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