All Aboard the Email Train

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Recently I have been inundated with emails. They are from retailers that I have made purchases from in the past and present; sites that I signed up to and sites that I have no recollection of ever giving my email address to, but that are reputable. It is absolutely driving me crazy and feels a bit desperate. I am an avid online shopper. I feel I find the best deals for home and business on the web, but if I get one more “we noticed you looked at product X, can we interest you in this too,” email; I am going to scream. As a business owner, I understand the logic behind these types of transactional emails and as a marketer, I understand why so many brands are turning to email for their marketing purposes. I suppose this will be the marketing trend for 2014.

Social media marketing has gone from being “free,” to market and engage your customer to more of a “pay to play” environment. Granted, it was never entirely free to begin with if you factor in the cost of the time, effort and thought that goes into a successful campaign. Outside of that, the cost was free to minimal. Now these social networks are looking for ways to effectively monetize the audience and in a sense, power that they own. You want to put yourself in front of a large or targeted audience on social media networks? You now have to pay to do so. Facebook in particular has admitted that it’s algorithm works against you, but if you pay to promote, you can be in front of millions. Wink, wink.

For the past few months, marketers have been experimenting with some of the smaller and lesser known social media networks in an effort to migrate away from Facebook. It makes business sense from a budget perspective to not pay for something that was once free before, if you can get the same results elsewhere for free.

Social media networks have to look out for themselves and their shareholders (if they have them). At the end of the day, although we may enjoy using them and sharing on them, they are a business and they have to eat to make money. They are going to make changes that will benefit them and possibly not you and we have no control over that. Because of this, brands are looking to real estate, data and leverage that they do have control over. Websites and…ah, email lists… It’s very smart thinking. Brands that may have slacked off on email marketing before, are now dusting off and reviving those lists and their emails are filling my inbox.

This migration towards capitalizing on real estate that you own for marketing efforts, probably means that we will start seeing articles and posts about social media marketing being dead. We will see. I wrote a post a few months ago about whether email marketing was dead and then Facebook changed its algorithm (again), so it may die, but it also may be resurrected again. I do predict that if you aren’t already seeing an increase in marketing emails flooding your inbox, you will soon. It’s the next new trend. 🙂

Taking a Leap and Shouting it from the Mountaintops

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Deciding to go into business for yourself is taking a leap, a risky leap.  It could be a leap into a deep pit of pooh, or a leap on to a floating cloud.  Unfortunately, you will not know where your leap will land until you take that leap.  Taking a leap in life is scary, but the act of taking the leap is freeing.  Fear was faced and a fear was conquered because you took the leap.  Whether the leap ends badly or not, the act of taking the leap was a win.  Now you know.  Knowing what could be instead of wondering what could be, helps you move forward in life.  Wondering holds you back.

Every time I take a leap, I feel free, euphoric and a bit scared.  Each time, I ask myself, “why didn’t I do this before?”  Then, I want to shout it to the mountaintops because I want everyone around me to feel free and euphoric.  Anyone that I talk to that hints at having a dream, receives an earful of encouragement.  I notice this to be true with most entrepreneurs or anyone that has taken a bold leap in their life.  I cannot say that I know an entrepreneur that does not have a leap of faith story attached to their business’ beginning.

Outside of business, you hear story’s of triumph when someone decides to take a leap and take control of their health, weight, mental health and personal relationship woes.  They shout their triumphs from the mountaintops and we applaud, praise and admire them.  My point?  Take a leap.  Everyone has something that they have always dreamed of doing or trying.  Take that leap and join those that have leapt, on the mountaintop.

I’m Not Generic, Are You?

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I am an individual and I’m sure you are too.

I appreciate when a company takes the time to get to know their customer base and caters, constructs and advertises in a way that resonates.  I don’t like when a company takes generic demographic markers, clicks a few generic and broad checkboxes in a social media ad campaign and considers that a customized strategy.

I appreciate businesses that use autoresponders that are customized just enough to sound like the voice of the brand, while imparting the intended message.  I don’t like when businesses use the generic template response that came with the autoresponder they are using.  I’m all for productivity and efficiency, but at least make me feel like you care a little bit.

I appreciate when social media content managers change a message posted on several networks (even by only a few words), to reflect the standards or audience of that network.  I don’t like seeing @ mentions and RT (retweets) on Facebook business pages or Instagram specific hashtags like #igdaily on Twitter posts.  I must admit that I have let a few slip through the cracks on my own feeds.

I think it adds a little something extra when I see a brand making an effort to craft the content and messaging in their marketing efforts.  At the end of the day, we/they are all selling something.  It may be a product, a service or ourselves.  It takes a lot of work to create marketing messages, content, etc that is not generic and made for a broad audience.  I understand and appreciate the efforts of those that do, it also makes me more likely to buy. 🙂

Mind Your Own Business: Unsolicited Advice

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This post is a vent.  Well, sort of because I am actually in a good mood, but I wanted to write about something that grinds my gears – unsolicited advice.  Before I was an entrepreneur full-time, I hated when people would give me unsolicited advice about my life.  I especially hated receiving it from people that did not know me very well, or at all.  I bit my tongue a lot, because after politely listening, I always wanted to ask; what qualifications they had that warranted me actually listening and implementing this advice.  As a business owner, I have encountered even more unsolicited advice…and I usually have that same question floating in my head.

My answer to that question is a snap judgment of “nothing.”  They are in no way qualified to give me the advice they are giving.  This is a snap judgment based only on the information about themselves that they have presented to me.  I find that in most cases, unsolicited advice comes from people that do not seem to have a firm grasp of the advice they are giving.  For example, a non-business owner giving advice on how to run a small business when they’ve never done so, or theirs failed miserably.  A non-marketing person giving advice on how I should be marketing.  A non-creative telling me what services I really should be offering.  The biggest gripe for me is that a) I didn’t ask, I was just having a friendly conversation; and b) you don’t know me, my business, my objectives and goals well enough to make an accurate assessment of what I should do.

That really grinds my gears!  I guess because for what I do, I have to gather information about the project before I can do the work; I feel the same should apply to advice that is doled out, but only if asked.  Even when someone is venting to me, I try very hard not to give my opinion and advice unsolicited.  Sometimes someone just wants to vent.  If they ask, then I tell.  If someone contacts me and wants to pick my brain, I tell, but I let them know that it is based off of my own experiences and may not be applicable to them.

I wish more people would try to do the same.  If you like to give people advice without them asking, please stop.  If you hate receiving unsolicited advice, tell me about it in the comments below.  Let’s chat…I am soliciting your comments. 🙂

Keeping Burn Out at Bay

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Whether you are an entrepreneur or working within the traditional job market, burn out is a dangerous state to slide into.  I had a friend recently ask me what do I do when I feel myself approaching that edge, the cusp of feeling burned out.  I had a laundry list of things that I told him, and I thought I would share several:

Take a Break

Usually, when I’m starting to feel too tightly wound and on edge, it’s because I am insanely busy.  I feel that I cannot take a break because I have too much that needs to be done, but I know I need it.  The only way to force myself to take a break, is to schedule it. It may be a 1 hour break or 1 day, but I have to pencil it in.  When I put it on my calendar, I magically find a way to work around it because I treat it like any other appointment.  If I need a day or two, I schedule it at the end and/or beginning of a week so that it becomes a 3-4 day weekend.

Laugh

Laughter is great medicine and good for the soul.  As silly as it may sound, I will randomly start laughing.  At first it’s a bit forced, but after a while it becomes real as I realize how silly I must look. I even get a kick out of thinking how I would look and what the reaction would be if I did the same thing at a former job, or at a restaurant, or the grocery store…you get the picture.  If I cannot succeed at making myself laugh, I head over to good ‘ole YouTube and watch a video from one of my channel subscriptions. There are a ton of comedic channels and I’m subscribed to a few for this purpose.

Dance Like No One is Watching

I love music and I love to dance. I’m not a very good singer and I’m a terrible dancer (but I have rhythm).  I listen to music while I work, and sometimes I get up out of my seat and dance like crazy. The dance usually migrates throughout the house and occasionally I pick up a set of dumb bells for an exercise boost. The only person watching, is not actually a person, but my dog.  I think he enjoys these sporadic moments although I am sure he is convinced that I am nuts.  After all, on any given work day I am laughing like a crazy person by myself and and dancing aerobics-style all around the house.  I would think I was nuts too.

Exercise

I took up running a few years ago and while I am not the fastest or best runner; I find it a great way to take a break and clear my mind.  I run outdoors (which my chiropractor hates), because the treadmill bores me.  I like to see scenery passing by plus, I am not quite coordinated enough to stay square on the treadmill.  Running also does not take a lot of time from my workday.  I have distances mapped from my front door and back. I run, come back, check my email and then hop in the shower.  Sometimes the shower is delayed if there is something pressing I need to attend to.  Now that it has gotten a bit too cold for me to run, I have been doing some weight training with some dancing mixed in between sets at home.

There are a few more things that I told him, but these four are the main ones in my arsenal. What should be in my arsenal is to slow down in general, but I’m too much of a busy body and I have too many goals, ideas and plans to execute to do that!  What are some of the ways you stave off burn out?