Marketing isn’t just about advertising -  how you communicate can dictate your credibility and sellability.

Today’s Marketing RX is to read these Email Etiquette Tips for a healthy marketing reminder to present yourself in a way that is on-brand and on-purpose.

Thanks Paul for the great tips!  Here are my favorites:

-Create a concise and to the point subject line
-Do not over-use the ‘mark as important’ function
-To reply all, or not to reply all – be aware that ‘replying to all’ involves all the recipients in the entire email string.
-Say thank you, again – if someone completes a task, responds quickly, or simply ‘does their job’, a nice friendly thank-you email can go a long way for employee happy-tude.

Read the full Email Etiquette Reminders article!

The 12 chapter course featured exclusively on lynda.com outlines the fundamentals of online marketing in easy to understand and informational video tutorials. Lorrie rocks the tutorial socks off of me in this super smart and fun course. And just a little FYI: Lorrie was a whopping 8 months pregnant during the filming!

Online Marketing Fundamentals introduces web marketers, web designers, business owners and executives to the world of online marketing, and reviews how the different aspects of a business’ web site can support its marketing goals. Course highlights include information on:

• Social Media Marketing
• Search Engine Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Online Public relations
• Business Branding
• Marketing with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter
• Email Marketing
• Social Shopping Marketing with Yelp, Groupon, and Living Social
• User Experience Optimization
• Paid Search/Paid Advertising
• Online Advertising
• Blogging
• Web Marketing Strategy and more!

For those of you who do not know yet, lynda.com is a subscription based, online, video tutorial website chock full of amazing education. The lynda.com service is an exceptional value of only $25 a month and features a plethora of fun, easy to learn, video tutorials to help you in many aspects of your techy life!

If you aren’t a lynda.com  member yet you can still get a sneak peak of Lorrie’s course introduction and some other snippets from Online Marketing Fundamentals.

The Wild Web Women love lynda.com: Mary Sandor, Lorrie Thomas, Jennie Jacobs, Darla Bea Smith

As a designer,  I love all of the great InDesign and Illustrator tutorials on lynda.com for helping me to quickly learn an underutilized tool or tip in the programs. Another great feature: the Creative Inspirations documentaries on the site. The entertaining series allows you to get insight into the worlds of your favorite artists, photographers and more.

Basically, Web Marketing Therapy loves lynda.com and we think you will too! Check out the course today and let us know what you think about it below in our comments section!

Break Into the World of Newsletters this Holiday Season

If you’re looking to add something to your small business marketing strategy, use the holidays to your advantage. While the holidays are a great time to promote a sale and use those catchy holiday phrases, they are also a great time to set into motion a newsletter. The great thing about starting a newsletter during the holidays is the idea that these efforts will carry on into the New Year. While sales only last a short while and the Christmas catchphrases get old after a few weeks, newsletters are always in season.

For those who are unfamiliar, a newsletter works similarly to email marketing; however instead of receiving a coupon or special offer those who receive your newsletter will receive articles written on your site. People sign up for the newsletter if they are interested, and then that company has a quick (and scheduled) way to keep their customers in the loop.

Why your Company Needs a Newsletter

Most companies send out a newsletter on a regular basis. Whether it be weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, the important thing to remember is to stay consistent. If you can pull this off, the benefits are great. Consider a few of the reasons many companies utilize newsletters:

• Easy –Many businesses send out content already published on the website, so there is no need to write extra articles just for the newsletter.
• Reader Quality – People actually have to sign up for a newsletter, which means they are obviously interested in what you have to say. This will help you identify who is serious about your business.
• Link Opportunities – Creating a newsletter allows a company to link within that newsletter. This will bring people back to the website and away from their inboxes; thus hopefully helping sales and traffic.
• Content Exposure – If you have great content, it can’t hurt to put out a newsletter. You want people to see the kind of expert advice you have to offer.

As stated above, most companies prefer to send a newsletter full of already published content. Many businesses take their blog and simply create a newsletter out of those articles. Think of a newsletter as a way to make your blog extremely accessible. It will come right to a customer’s inbox. Advertise it as such!

Some companies, however, have found that creating an original newsletter is best. This depends entirely upon the customer base of the company. Most companies begin by using “old” content and then slowly the newsletter evolves into original content. If your newsletter creates original content, subscribers will be getting something special. This ads an incentive for those considering the newsletter.

Why the Holidays will Work in Your Favor

Around the holidays many people are scrambling to think of something to buy for family and friends.  If your company sells products that would work well for gifts, you are certainly going to be advertising. You will also likely promote some sort of sale; thus bringing more traffic to your website. Use this increased traffic and increased interest as an opportunity to advertise your newsletter. If your newsletter is full of ideas for holiday gifts, people will be more apt to sign up.

Photo Credit:  buildandbalance.com

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to starting a small business. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including marketing best practices to small businesses and entrepreneurs for the leading business directory, Business.com.

Email vanity is OK! See www.myesig.com to facelift your email signature!

http://www.myesig.com/ is a service that starts at $9/month.  You can customize your email signature with your contact, photos, social media links:

-Facebook
-LinkedIn
-Twitter
-YouTube
-Blog
-Various pages of your website

The message on the right rotates so you can have multiple photos and marketing messaging at the end of your messages.

Marketing magic!

Thank you Annette at CastCoverz.com (the most fun and functional cast covers, cast accessories and broken bones “heal better, feel better” products and community on the planet) for allowing me to share her Wild Web Woman web wisdom with us.

Taking pride in your web marketing appearance is healthy – it is not egotistical.  Get your marketing healthy so you can get wealthy and beautify your email signature!

(well, what are you waiting for???  …comeon, get to it!!)

If you missed one or all of the webinars – never fear!  You can still watch the recorded webinars, download the presentations AND view the bonus Q&A!  Simply click on the following links to view each webinar!

1. Email Marketing Best Practices – Top email tips to get people to open and read your email marketing and increase your audience!
2. Limited Resources Web Marketing – Ways to do more with less-stretch your marketing dollars!
3. Easy Website Optimization Tips – Tips to get your site noticed!
4. Sophisticated Social Media Marketing – Move beyond the basics to take full advantage of the power of  social media!

A huge thank you goes out to the attendees and their GREAT questions as well as Zoomerang for hosting Lorrie for this wonderful series!