Palo Alto Software is proud to welcome Erin Jacobs of VerticalResponse as a contributing author. As Director of Marketing at VerticalResponse since 2007, Erin is responsible for evangelizing the benefits of email marketing to emerging companies. With over 14 years experience managing global marketing campaigns for technology companies large and small, Erin now shares her Lead Generation and Email Marketing insights with the small business community, helping them increase sales and promote their business online as cost-effectively as possible.

The challenging economy has encouraged many small businesses to test out email marketing in 2009. It’s simple, affordable and trackable after all. Maybe you started out with a “thank you for your business” message or you enticed customers with offers for repeat business and referrals. But the idea of creating a consistent e-newsletter to issue on a monthly basis seems daunting.

Well fear not, you can put a surprisingly compelling newsletter together with a small amount of information. In a recent Extreme Email Makeover session that VerticalResponse hosted, we found that many customers are putting too many offers together in a single email and calling them newsletters. The result, nothing stands out, it isn’t clear to the customer what action they should take, and over time recipients stop opening the emails. A great e-newsletter can be created with very basic information that is readily available. The key is a balance of information and offers (remember the “what’s in it for me” factor). Start by testing a newsletter format with 3 content sections and then increase to 5 over a series of a few months. Let your audience decide the right about of content with open and click through rates.

Easy E-newsletter Content Topics:
1) A Message from the Expert- A short paragraph from you to your audience or an introduction that drives recipients to your blog for a feature length article. Consider offering 5 Ways to Improve X in 2009. Include the first 2 lines of copy in your newsletter as a teaser and link to the full story on your blog for the full list

2) Customer Testimonial- A simple quote from a happy customer about how your product or service helped them or fixed a problem, a measurable result achieved, or link to a video testimonial that you host on YouTube.

3) An Offer- Do you have a white paper, discount, or promotion currently running to announce?

4) Event Schedule- Link to the event page on your website or directly to an industry event you plan to attend.

5) Quick Fact- What’s the post popular selling product last month? What do your customers view as the greatest challenge for them next year? Gather important insights and facts with a simple online survey tool and share results in each issue.

The final challenge is committing to frequency so that your audience will come to expect your newsletters. Write your first 3 issues at the same time. Line up 3 customer quotes, 3 notable events worth covering, and 3 facts to share from a single survey. Remember, this month’s event can become next month’s main article. That’s a formula for successful newsletters in 2009.

Back to the Fundamentals

Want to learn more tips from the experts at VerticalResponse? Attend the webinar! March 11th at 10 a.m. Pacific Time

Time and again we’ve read a plan where someone thinks they have a unique service or product and proclaims they have no competition. Wrong. So very wrong. Everyone has competition. It’s a fundamental.

This week our Back to the Fundamentals article points out that Competitors are a fundamental reality of doing business.

Today’s guest author is Curt Clinkinbeard, the Director of Training at the FAMEE Foundation. Curt is a former director at the Kansas University Small Business Development Center, an author, consultant, speaker and enthusiast for entrepreneurship. 

Curt was the former VP of Sales and Marketing for a rapidly growing medical firm. During his 13 year tenure, the business went from $500K in annual revenues to over $5 million per year. That’s consistently growing at about 20% per year over an extended period.

We are pleased and very thankful for Curt’s participation today in wrapping up our Global Entrepreneurship Week on getting Back to the Fundamentals.

If you like to read about entrepreneurship, you’ve noticed that every other article these days is written about “how to deal with a rotten economy.” OK, so some of the tips out there are great strategies that help ntrepreneurs take a different approach when times get tough.

But here is an additional / alternate way to look at it….

1. Get back to the basics. A tough economy magnifies the importance of doing the BASICS really well. When dollars are tight, competition increases. When competition increases, the small differences between companies and their marketing strategies become more noticeable. My best advice is to do the things we know we must always do, but simply do them better. In my opinion, going back to basics, but executing at a higher level, is a huge way to help keep focused on improvement.

By the way, a significant benefit to this is if you use a down economy to sharpen your overall approach to marketing during the doldrums, you will deploy a proven approach, which will serve you well when times get better and the economy booms.

2. Take some advice from Alcoholics Anonymous. Focus on the things you can control, and to some extent, tune out the things you can’t control. I find that when business owners get too wrapped up about “the big picture,” they lose focus on what they can control: their approach to running their company. Sometimes rolling up your sleeves, turning off the media’s drama (they make more money when there are sensational things to talk about), and focusing on their own little business, is the best medicine.

3. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid. Recessions are times when our pessimistic sides start to win. But our best entrepreneurs are optimists. No, that doesn’t mean they are Pollyannas or have their heads buried in the sand. But it does mean that when the vast percentage of the populace is panicking, the cool-headed entrepreneur recognizes that economies go up and economies go down – and has faith that the economy will get better.

The more they remain upbeat, the more they counteract all of the negativism. There have always been good times and bad times. And every time it goes bad, there are those who join the panic train, and those who emerge from the challenges better off than they were going into them. The entrepreneur’s attitude is key. Not only on a micro level, but on a macro one as well!

4. Learn about marketing. And what would an email from me be without a shameless plug?!!!? If times are tight and companies are scrimping back on their expenses, doesn’t it make sense to access a full marketing development training / consulting program? Not only does it talk about how to sharpen up the business so it can grow, but it is offered in a membership that does not have a direct cost. If you have not done so, visit our website at www.famee.org  to learn more.

Curt Clinkinbeard
Director of Training, The FAMEE Foundation Author, /CUSTOMER PILLARS/
Former SBDC center director

As an extension of my earlier blog on fuel efficiency comparisons, I continued my research and put together a fuel efficiency article that I’ve posted on our business-planning resource site,  Bplans.com. This article, Dealing with rising gas costs, includes tips on gas mileage, alternative fuels, how to be more fuel efficient when traveling on business, and how to choose a more fuel-efficient vehicle.

For example, did you know that “…each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.24 per gallon for gas,” or that the time of day you travel can affect your fuel efficiency?

If your business is looking for fuel-saving tips, check this article out.

Take a look at all our Global Entrepreneurship Week Bplans Back to the Fundamentals contributions.