I had some fun and generated some results this morning from an email blast I sent out and thought I’d share it here.

Getting right to the point, I wrote an email to clarify a rate increase for an email marketing system 30+ clients are using. I then used that clarification email as a marketing piece to get other potential clients interested in using the system by sending the email to everyone on this particular email list.

The call to action was this:

If you’ve read this email from start to finish and are not yet using the system*, call me right now because you’re missing out and obviously interested!!!

*”the system” referred to the email system I was promoting.

The email was about 400-500 words long, used bullets and numbered lists to break up the text and had bolded headings. It was also one in a series of emails, part of a larger campaign.

The results, from a very small list of just over a hundred people, was 2 leads, one hot, one warm within 5 minutes of sending it and I’m confident I’ll have more inquiries in my inbox come Monday morning.

What I learned:

• It’s ok to add personality into your emails
• It can work to use a bit of humor in your calls to action
• Getting into a more aggressive mindset when writing can help stimulate some great ideas that will generate results and resonate with your readers. Don’t opt for corporate speak- use real language that people will respond to and ASK THEM TO RESPOND!

Do you have some results to share?

Post them to the comments section below!

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What’s your pick?

Also: if you need a laugh, check out Arnold carrying the Olympic torch today in Stanley Park.

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Follow this link for the real story of Arnold carrying the torch.

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For those of you who want to get your feet wet with PPC, specifically Google Adwords, then check out these new, free courses from Google:

Understanding Quality Score on February 17th at 11am PST

Quality Score affects the position of your ad and your cost-per-click (CPC). We explain some of the factors that are used to calculate your Quality Score, debunk common Quality Score misconceptions, and show you how to improve your Quality Score through optimization. Sign up!

Is your baby ugly? Live landing page advice on March 9th at 11am PST

You have 2-3 seconds to create the right first impression with your website. What decides whether a user stays or not? Recognized author and landing page optimization expert Tim Ash will conduct mini-critiques of participants’ landing pages. For a chance to have your website evaluated during the presentation, submit it when you sign-up! Sign up!

Focus on Results: Basics of Tracking Your AdWords Return on Investment on March 24th at 11am PST

Are your clicks turning into customers? Learn how AdWords Conversion Tracking and Google Analytics can help you increase your online profits by tracking and understanding your results. We will show you how to get started, make informed bid decisions, learn where visitors to your website come from and identify areas for improvement. Sign up!

If on the other hand you want an outside specialist to do the heavy lifting for you, get in touch!

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F5 is a conference that is focused on teaching businesses about the latest web based marketing techniques, tactics and best practices that they need to adopt in order to remain relevant, competitive and profitable in an increasingly online world.

F5 is being run by Lindsay Smith (@techlinz) of Massive Technology Show fame and is backed by a board of well known Vancouver technology entrepreneurs. The event will likely be one of the hottest marketing conferences to hit the city in 2010.

If you haven’t done so already, head over to the F5 site now and pick up your pass while supplies last!

I almost forgot! I’ll be speaking throughout the day on the topics of Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click marketing and Local Marketing. If you’re interested in receiving and introduction to these marketing tactics, grab a pass and then shoot me an email or Tweet and I’ll make sure you know when and where I’ll be speaking.

See you there!

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Google alone was making an average of 1.5 changes per day to how its index ranks web pages and we saw social media burst onto the main stream scene with celebrities, businesses and people of all sorts clamor for a spot on facebook, Twitter and other networks. And that was just the obvious stuff, at least for an Internet marketer

I could go on an on about what took place in 2009 and my predictions for 2010 but what I want to speak with you about right now is how I dropped the ball in 2009 in a big way.

Surprised?

Don’t be. We learn and grow by making mistakes so take a page from my play book this year and don’t make this mistake as your business grows in 2010.

What I did WRONG in 2009:

Hands down the biggest mistake I made in 2009 was not communicating enough with my customers.

With all of the communications methods available to me: cell phones, SMS, email, Twitter, Facebook, etc etc I really dropped the ball on this one.

In retrospect I focused too much on the day-to-day work in front of me and learning new technologies (and some old ones like copywriting) rather than investing quality time getting to know my customers better, managing their expectations and adding value to their lives.

My business grew in 2009 which was a good thing. However, the trick is to grow and be able to take even better care of the people who you are in business to serve in the first place.

Critical lesson: sometimes you can get results for people but by not clearly communicating the results (AKA the value you are creating for them) and insuring they know what you’ve done, you can still loose an account, a customer, and a relationship.

Your current customers are worth far more than any future prospects you might encounter. More than that, if you offer the level of service that I do, one to one in most cases, you’ve got a personal relationship on the line.

The REMEDY

• Communicate early, communicate often
• Stay in touch via whatever means your customers find acceptable. This includes email, SMS, by phone, by video, by snail mail, social media and any other ways you can think of
• On an ongoing basis, find or create relevant ideas, news, and other information to send to your customers but only if it’s something you truly think will add value to their lives
• Continue to get to know your customers by reading their emails, listening to their questions and learning about their businesses, their customers and their industries. Find out what’s important to them and then find a way to help them achieve more, be more, have more and do more of whatever that is.

Tools

• 1 to one email systems like Gmail
• 1 to many email marketing systems (that also have social media integrations) like Vertical Response, Mail Chimp or ExactTarget
• Social Media Tools like Twitter, Facebook, linkedin and Yelp
• Tip: use Ping.fm to update all of you social networks at once
• Video (People can subscribe to your Youtube channel for example)
• Snail Mail (Yep, I just said that)
• Phone
• Cell Phones (SMS, mobile websites, mobile advertising etc)

If you are providing outstanding value, and are sending information that will truly help them succeed, then you’ll be heard, you’ll build the relationship, and you’ll continue to build your business.

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I just registered for The Crossfit Games Qualifier in Squamish!

So what’s Crossfit?

And what are the Crossfit Games?

The CrossFit Games are the ultimate test of fitness. It’s a grueling two-day competition in which the world’s fittest athletes compete in a variety of workouts. What are the workouts? Each year they change, and the details of them are not announced until a couple days before the event. This means that all year long, the athletes are training for a competition whose format is almost completely a mystery.

Want more?

Checkout the Crossfit Games Home page.

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You’re already running a Google Adwords campaign to target terms and phrases related to iPod Speakers and you want to gain more natural (aka organic) search traffic for your products.

You type iPod Speakers into Google, and low and behold you see a list of iPod speakers complete with images, descriptions and pricing. What have you stumbled across?

In the search results the title of this little area is “Shopping Results for iPod Speakers” but in fact, the way to get listed here is by taking advantage of the Google Merchant Center (Formally known as Google Products, Formally known as Google Base, Formally known as Froogle…)

Like any Google service, it helps and can save you a few steps if you already have a Google Account as you can simply login to Gmail or the Google service of your choice, open a new tab in your browser and head over to the Merchant Center to login and get started.

Assuming you already have a Google Account, here’s what you need to do to get your products listed:

1. Open up Google Merchant Center and create an account.
2. Edit your initial account settings (be sure to setup a new data feed.)
3. Create a data feed file using Excel or Google Docs (Find supported file formats here / Find a list of attributes to include in your data feed here.
4. Next you need to submit your feed.

You have several options for submitting your data feed to the Google Merchant Center:

• Direct upload through the Google Merchant Center Data feeds page (Files under 20 MB in size)
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) (Files larger than 20 MB must upload using FTP)
• Automatic upload via scheduling (Files under 15 MB in size)

Note: If you’re submitting a compressed file, your file must be under 500 MB. If your file is larger than what our restrictions allow, please split your file into multiple, smaller files before uploading.

Want to learn more?

• For a handy step by step tutorial on the entire process, visit the Google Merchant Center help topics here.
• Or check out this Webmaster World Forum dedicated to the Google Merchant Center
• Actually interested in iPod Speakers and not Google Merchant? Check out Kanto Speakers (disclaimer: they’re a client).

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The conference is being organized and lead by well known conversion rate optimization authority, Tim Ash of Sitetuners.com and includes a lengthy list of speakers,  many of which are well known in web marketing and conversion circles.

The fact that conversion rate optimization can now support a full blown conference says something about the momentum its building as a legitimate tool in the Internet Marketers tool box.

Much like search engine optimization, conversion rate optimization is now a discipline unto itself with many people choosing to solely focus on helping companies increase the number of  leads and sales they generate with their existing website traffic. In the past the focus of the large majority of web marketing consultants had been on just getting traffic to a site in the first place. Now, it’s about doing more with less – or more with what you already have. It’s an interesting trend and one that is here to stay.

• Follow Tim Ash on Twitter
• Follow Site Tuners
• Follow Conversion Conference West

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The book’s already has positive reviews from the likes of Seth Godin, Mark Cuban and Tony Hsieh.

If it’s anything like 37 signals‘ last book, Getting Real (which you can read for free online) it’s going to be a must read for entrepreneurs in 2010.

Related reco’s:

• What Would Google Do?
• Crushit!
• Trust Agents (on my “to-read” list as well)

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