Jolyn Armstrong | Grapevine Virtual

3 Tips To Get More of Your Emails Opened

August 9, 2018 By Jolyn Armstrong Leave a Comment

We now know that in spite of some marketing ‘experts’ declaring the death of email marketing, it is actually thriving and healthy. Email marketing is one of the best fits for how consumers want to be marketed to in 2018 because it isn’t as invasive as commercials on TV, YouTube or gaming that interrupt and annoy the consumer while they’re interested in doing something else. Emails quietly sit in a consumer’s inbox waiting for the consumer to take action by opening them.

It is true, however, that many marketing emails get deleted without ever being opened. So today we are going to focus on 3 power tips for getting more of your emails opened. This is an important topic, so let’s dive right into it.

Subject lines that get attention

Subject lines are, arguably, the most important part of an email.

Your subject line has to combat the lethargy that often accompanies checking an email inbox without going overboard and coming off as cheesy. It should quickly let the reader know what you have to offer in a way that captures their interest.

‘Sales’ or ‘Appointment Opening’ subject lines are a given. If you’re a stylist and have an unexpected opening in your schedule tomorrow, sending out a quick email with this subject line: “Appointment available TOMORROW! Grab it before it’s gone!” will likely result in clients scrambling for their turn in your chair. As long as less than 20% of your emails have subject lines including sales or appointment availabilities, your list will LOVE the occasional offer coming their way.

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use a misleading or ‘click-bait’ headline. This is literally lying to the group of people you’re asking to give you money for your services. Why would you ever want to jeopardize their trust in you just to get an email opened? Have fun with your subject lines, but never mislead.

If you’re finding yourself stuck, or want to make sure the subject lines you’re using are as effective as possible, here are some free resources for you:

SubjectLine – They’re super easy to use, and provide clear, concise feedback about your subject line
Headline Analyzer by CoSchedule – will give your subject line a score based on a wide range of analytics.
If you use MailChimp, they have their own subject line researcher within their platform that has proved to be very helpful – and with their free account, you have nothing to lose trying this one out.

Relevant, interesting content

This is my next important tip because the truth is, if you don’t have something great to say, you may as well not bother saying it. Every single email should achieve one or more of the following:

Entertain – Because using entertainment to keep attention on you is a great strategy,
Inform – Email is a great way to give updates about a product or service you offer, or other helpful information your readers would be interested in.
Encourage the reader to do something – like visiting your website or storefront, scheduling an appointment with you, or making a purchase.

Use the 80/20 rule. This means every email should have 80% fun, entertaining content and only about 20% business or industry related content. The exception to this is those quick, informative emails you send about an opening in your schedule or something you have on sale – but you should send them less than 20% of the time. 😉 As they get to know you, your readers will see an email from you in their inbox and know they’re not about to be endlessly pitched to and will be more likely to read your message. Also, any time you can use a story to get your message across you’re going to be more successful.

Use emotional triggers & CTAs

Mentioning a client publicly either by name, or even better, in an image, produces a strong emotional response for them and creates increased connection. Before/after images of a hair style, manicure, landscaping or painting project are some examples. You can add a post script to every email you send with something like this. Testimonials or reviews are another powerful emotional trigger, especially if the testimonial is written by a person the reader knows.

Encourage engagement in your emails by asking a question, or even hosting a trivia contest in your regular eNewsletters or eZines. You can use a link to leave a Facebook comment with their response to encourage interaction on an additional platform.

Another postscript in every email could include a link to your calendar for appointment scheduling.

BONUS TIP: Give them what they want!

One email I open every sing time I get it contains sets of free images that I can use however I want. I love that company! Because they use other engagement opportunities in those emails, I’ve purchased items from them as well…
You can provide things like:

Downloadable tips – color pallets etc
Downloadable landscaping plans

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Is Email Marketing Dead in 2018?

July 16, 2018 By Jolyn Armstrong Leave a Comment

We’ve all heard it – email marketing is dead in 2018. In fact, if you do a google search for a phrase like “email marketing is dead” you’re going to see nearly 100K results saying just that!

The truth is, many marketers are preaching that email marketing is dead in large part based on the feedback from consumers saying they “don’t want to be marketed to”.

I hate to say it, but to stop email marketing because of that feedback is a bit misguided. If you should never email your prospects again because they don’t want to be marketed to, why should you continue to make commercials? Or billboards? Or social media ads? We keep marketing because the real truth is that people don’t want to be marketed to – when they don’t want to be marketed to. This doesn’t mean we should never market to consumers (via email or any other platform) again, it simply means we should market better, and in ways that don’t intrude on consumers but rather, offer an opportunity for them to see what you have to offer.

In fact, according to research, 80% of marketers see email marketing as the greatest driver of customer retention (I’ll add ‘when done correctly’ – more about that later). Research is also showing that both ROI and open rates (especially on mobile) are steadily increasing. Adobe did a study that showed that 50% of consumers actually prefer to be marketed to via email. Think about it. Sending your message via email allows consumers to choose when to view your marketing message – they can decide to access your latest sale announcement when they’re already thinking about purchasing. You’re not shoving a message down their throats during a commercial break when they’d rather be watching their favorite episode of Survivor. Ultimately what this means is that email marketing is far less intrusive than other forms of marketing. Checking email isn’t reactive, it’s proactive.

So we see that email marketing actually overcomes that huge hurtle of intrusiveness and allows consumers to choose when to view your message. Having said that, we do know that there are still a lot of emails that get deleted without ever being opened. Now we need to look at what kinds of messages achieve the best results and get opened most often. Tune in to my next post to see 3 ways to get more of your emails opened.

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How to handle negative online reviews

June 18, 2018 By Jolyn Armstrong Leave a Comment

If you’ve ever gotten a negative review – and especially if you weren’t sure how to handle it – this video is for you. We discuss how to handle legitimate negative reviews AND FAKE negative reviews!

Don’t let negative reviews hurt your business. Turn them into positive selling points with the strategies I share here.

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5 Reputation Management Best Practices

June 18, 2018 By Jolyn Armstrong Leave a Comment

In my last post, What is Reputation Management and Why it’s Important, we talked about why it’s important to pay attention to your online reputation. Here are a few of the highlights in case you’ve forgotten.

In this post, we’re talking about a few Reputation Management best practices. This isn’t a comprehensive list or a full Reputation Management plan, but these 5 tips will help you make a big improvement in your online reputation over time.

Set your self up for success online

Just having a review showing up on a review site doesn’t mean you have a verified or accurate account with that review site. Most review sites allow anyone to create a profile for your business if it doesn’t already exist – meaning that person, whoever they are, gets to enter your contact information, business name, everything. Sometimes they’re accurate, but many times they aren’t (how motivated is an unhappy customer, or even worse, one of your competitors, to enter correct information for you?). If your information isn’t accurate, you stand the chance of your stellar reputation being attributed to a different business entirely if their information is at all similar to yours.

BOTTOM LINE: Set up accounts with all major and local review sites and make sure your contact information EXACTLY matches that of your Google My Business account, website and social media info.

Be Referrable

You’re probably doing this naturally already, but I would be neglegent not to mention this most important part of maintaining a stellar online reputation. People aren’t going to go out of their way to say nice things about you unless you give them a real reason to. Many service-based businesses have some real serious competition, so providing great service, and making your clients feel really special is important and necessary just to stay in business. But in order to to encourage your clients to share their experience with you, you’ve got to take it up even a notch more.

ASK!

Statistics show that 90% of typical US consumers read reviews, but only 6% write them (Local Viewpoints). Happy customers who intend on leaving a review still won’t if they forget, it’s too hard or if they’re too busy so it’s important to ask strategically, and in multiple ways, so you catch each individual during the time and in the way thats most effective for them. Here are some ways we’ve found to be the most effective, especially when used in concert throughout the customer experience.

Mention reviews early, and often. Let your customers know you love getting reviews.
Make the process easy! Offer multiple ways for customers to get to your review sites.
Print reminders: QR codes printed on business cards, receipts, and other printed materials (flyers etc) make visiting review sites easy, even after your customers leave.
Ditigal reminders: Text and email campaigns to customers as soon as your service or sale is complete.

Respond

Showing every prospective customer that you appreciate, and respond to the reviews people leave for you is a huge check in the positive column – especially if the review you’re responding to is less than stellar! Showing that you’re willing to work with those who didn’t have a perfect experience with you is HUGE. Don’t try to respond to every review, that can begin to look disingenuous, but be sure to respond to negative reviews, and those positive reviews that really stand out, or that highlight things like attention to detail or a specific service or offering you provide.

Shout it from the Rooftops

Online reviews are already available in many google searches, and whenever someone visits an individual review site, but to get the most bang for your buck, make sure that no matter where a review is submitted, it gets displayed in as many places as possible. There are various WordPress plugins that will allow this for some of the major review sites. You can also manually screen shot reviews to create social media posts. Even better, a good marketing service will provide you with the ability to stream reviews live on your website, and push reviews to your social media streams automatically – like we do ;).

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What is Reputation Management and Why it’s Important

June 4, 2018 By Jolyn Armstrong Leave a Comment

Thanks to technology, if you’re a service-based business owner, chances are you have a reputation online, whether you know it or not – and whether you WANT it or not. The question is, how much control do you want to have over your online reputation? If you choose to ignore your reputation online, you’re leaving your business to the mercy of your most unhappy customers, are you willing to do that?

Unhappy customers are 5 times more likely to leave a negative review, than happy customers are to leave a positive review. What this means is if you choose to do nothing to manage your reputation online, you’re 5 times more likely to have negative reviews online than anything else, including no reviews at all.

Here’s another thing to consider – what others say about you is 100 times more effective than what you say about yourself, even if you’re 100 times more eloquent. It makes no sense to dump your hard-earned money into marketing for your business that is in ‘your voice’, but ignore the absolute best marketing your money can buy: 4 & 5 star online reviews – written in your ideal customer’s voices.

If you’ve owned a service-based business for any amount of time at all, you’ll relate to this. When a new customer walks in your door who was referred by another happy client – you’re almost guaranteed to have a better experience with that referral than with a cold prospect (someone who finds you on their own, or responds to an ad). Referrals come to you pre-sold on your service and abilities, “If they’re good enough for aunt Tina, you know they’re good…”. They’re less likely to complain about your prices and they’re more likey to refer you to someone else they know. The benefits of referrals are clear, and you get referrals because a happy customer talked about you.

With that in mind, think about this for a moment. Research shows that 93% of consumers now read online reviews¹, and 94% of consumers would use a business with a four-star rating².

Similar studies found that 72% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations⁴ and 73% of consumers think that reviews older than 3 months are no longer relevant³.

One more huge piece of research – 4 out of 5 consumers reverse their purchase decision based on negative online reviews.⁵

This means 2 things: 1. Online reviews are now as effective as a personal recommendation (!!) and 2. If you don’t have a steady stream of 4 and 5 star reviews online, your online reputation is in trouble.

Bottom line: Reputation Management is one of the most important things in your business! The question is – how to make sure you’re tapping into the gold mine of new clients that an effectively managed online reputation can bring you. In my next post, 5 Reputation Management Best Practices, we discuss the five actions you can take right now to make sure your online reputation is the best it can be!

Stay tuned

References

1. “Poll: 93% of Respondents Check Reviews Before Dining or Shopping.” Street Fight, 2012
2. Business 2 Community
3. BrightLocal
4. Anderson, M. “Local Consumer Review Survey.” 2012; Available from: http://searchengineland.com/study-72-of-consumers-trust-online-reviews-as-much-as-personal-recommendations-114152.
5. “Online Influence Trend Tracker.” Cone Communications, 2011

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4 Relationship Marketing Ingredients

January 20, 2017 By Jolyn Armstrong Leave a Comment

My last post, Inspired marketing for the new year, was all about the importance of developing a relationship with your clients and giving them reason to come back to you – with their friends in tow. Now I’d like to give you a few of our proven ingredients to achieve truly inspired relationship marketing.

Multi-media attention

Make sure that you aren’t just emailing your clients once in a while, or just sending out Facebook posts when you need to fill appointment slots. If all you’re doing is marking in one area of attention, you’re losing everybody who doesn’t turn to that source first. Make sure that everywhere your clients and their friends turn, you’re there for them. Grapevine Virtual uses all resources available to create fun, unconventional marketing in multiple medias. You may find text message marketing to be an absolute game changer! Have you ever tried marketing with selfies? It’s more fun than you might think!

Be consistent

Develop a schedule for your marketing, then make sure you stick to it! Let your clients know that you’ll be there for them on a consistent basis. If you’re disappearing all the time, your clients will too. We’ve got systems in place that don’t take a ton of your time, so they’re easy to manage, and we’ll help keep you on track, too!

Don’t be boring

I once had a dentist who sent me a nicely put-together flyer every single month. It went straight from my mail box to the trash can because frankly, the less I hear about root canals the better! Had he sent me something fun to look at and read, I definitely would have paid more attention. Take a look at your marketing, would YOU want to read it? #NoSnoozeLetters! Imagine having a team behind you to take care of the copywriting and design of all your relationship marketing!

Don’t be a pest

Too much of a good thing is – well – too much! We’ve tested the waters and won’t steer you wrong! No daily super-long emails here! 😉

With the right ingredients, your marketing will begin to develop the kind of relationships with your clients that ensures they keep coming back for more! Schedule your Tasting Room Session today!

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Inspired marketing for the new year

January 6, 2017 By Jolyn Armstrong Leave a Comment

2017 is the year of inclusiveness, connection and community. If your business provides a service to your clients this is your time to capitalize on the care and attention you provide them.

People want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. “It’s not personal, it’s business” doesn’t exist in the small, service-based business world. It’s ALWAYS personal!

Relationship Marketing is:

Creating strong – even emotional – connections with your clients which creates an ongoing business relationship, and word-of-mouth promotions and referrals. It also helps obtain information from clients that can generate new leads.

Relationship Marketing allows you to tap into the most lucrative resource you have, your current and past clients! This is a group of people who have already showed you that they want to do business with you, you would be crazy not to capitalize on that!

How many people do business with you only one time, then never return – even if they seemed happy with your work? If it’s more than a small percentage, YOU may be to blame. If you haven’t developed a relationship with that person, what reason have you given them to come back? Great service is no longer enough.

If you’re already getting a lot of repeat and referral business without putting in effort, imagine what your business could look like if you actually TRIED to get your past clients to come back, and bring their friends with them! Create an environment that they can’t imagine not returning to, and then warmly invite them to come see you again… This is the future of marketing!

Stay tuned for the Grapevine Virtual proven Relationship Marketing Recipe

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Reputation Management

December 11, 2016 By Jolyn Armstrong

Thanks to technology, your reputation will become not only visible, but very easily accessible all over the world – whether you like it or not.

By owning a service-based business, you open yourself up to all kinds of opinions about you – voiced loudly and publicly. You can either control your reputation, or let it control you.

So far you’ve done your part. You take great care of your clients, and they love you for it. What you may not have done yet is capitalize on the praise-singers and minimize (and deal with) those who are less than thrilled.

Our Reputation Management System does just that. Those glowing reviews are broadcast all over the internet for you – we make sure they’re very easily seen. We also corral those that are less than stellar and make sure you’re notified right away so you can respond to them.

Best part – we do it all for you! We’ll follow up with all of your clients and request that they leave a review right away while their experience is fresh in their minds. We’ll let you know your ‘reputation score’ and notify you right away of any trouble looming out there on the web.

We’ll work with your webmaster to stream all your best reviews right on your website, and make sure to post them to your social media platforms as well!

Schedule your ‘Tasting Room’ session with Grapevine Virtual to find out if we’re right for you! If we’re a good fit, you’ll leave with a customized Recipe For Virtual Success that fits your market and your budget.

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Referral Connections

October 1, 2016 By Jolyn Armstrong

Referrals are the lifeblood of successful service-based businesses.

Referrals are pre-sold on your services, you get the ‘halo’ effect – if you’re good enough for my best friend, you’re good enough for me. They rarely question your prices and their skepticism is very low. Bottom line is – you want as many referrals as you can possibly get!

BUT – You may feel funny asking for them, even if their client is thrilled with your service! If that’s the case, you’re not alone. Many service-based professionals don’t want to ‘nag’ their clients for referrals.

Our Referral Connections system makes getting referrals a completely natural process that your clients are going to LOVE to participate in! This system is unique, classy, and won’t break the bank. Your clients will LOVE YOU for it! A small investment in a Referral System more than pays for itself as the referrals start rolling in.

Best part – we do it all for you! Your Referral System only requires a small contribution from you to show fantastic results. You just sit back and watch as your clients rave about your services to their friends and family.

We work with each of our service-based businesses to customize our recognition system – virtually guaranteeing to knock your client’s socks off!

Schedule your ‘Tasting Room’ session with Grapevine Virtual to see if we’re right for you. If we’re a good fit, you’ll leave with a customized Recipe For Virtual Success that fits your market and your budget.

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Weekly Ezine

October 1, 2016 By Jolyn Armstrong

Nobody likes to get bombarded with pushy, salesy, junk email all the time.

And if you’re running a classy business, you definitely don’t want to be that guy that emails way. too. much. Email communication with your clients only works when done properly so you want an expert team behind you!

Our Weekly eZine is a short, stylish, classy way to stay in front of our clients without being a pest. The short, fun, entertaining topics will be a sure hit! This is one way to stay front-of-mind with your clients so when they need your services again, they know exactly how to get in touch with you. And when a friend mentions needing the service you provide, you’re the first to get referred!

Best part – we do it all for you! Your eZine is written, designed, and your email marketing account is completely managed by your personal Concierge! You just sit back and watch as you become a celebrity in your area.

Your clients will LOVE YOU for sending your eZine and when they need services again, they’ll be sure to come back to you instead of going to your competitor.

Schedule your ‘Tasting Room’ session with Grapevine Virtual to find out if we’re right for you! If we’re a good fit, you’ll leave with a Recipe for Virtual Success that fits your market and your budget.

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