Hate Networking? Stop Doing It Wrong

How many times have you found yourself in the back room of a swanky uptown restaurant, readjusting your Sharpied-on name tag sticker and furtively glancing around the room looking for someone--anyone--who looks even vaguely familiar?

Maybe you pull out your pocket comfort device and start scrolling the time away; Maybe you slip out early with an exhale of relief. Even if you consider yourself an extravert who can deliver a killer elevator pitch, networking events can feel like they're eroding the last brittle piece of your soul.

When I first struck out on my own, I knew I needed to expand my circle, and fast. Beyond that, I needed to do so in a different state: I'm from Arizona. And in 2009--if you wanted to be in tech--you wanted to be in California.

There are few things more daunting than walking into a strange room, in a strange state and speed dating your way to a healthy LinkedIn profile. The fact is, no one can succeed at business alone.

Who you know in this world is even more important than the ideas you have, and building your network of peers, media outlets and potential partners is vital. Still, the act of 'networking' turns so many people off -- here's what got me through it.

Have a plan

Start valuing the quality of your connections and focus on making introductions that matter. Make a list of people who would have value to you, but more importantly, that you can also add value to, and plan your attendance where they will be. Advice I read is to "get out there and shake as many hands as possible," which to me is as pointless as sending out as many cold emails as possible.

There has to be an element of trust in the room already or else these cold handshakes will just be limp attempts to force a relationship. I chose to start going to software user groups as I could help them for free, in a controlled setting and ultimately they made up the audience I was trying to sell into. After the first event I attended I walked away with three customers and a critical partner.

Birds of a Feather

But alright, I'll acquiesce that you sometimes have to put yourself in the uncomfortable position of rubbing elbows where you simply don't know the attendee list.
The key is to make absolutely sure you're attending the right event. Would you potentially make more valuable connections at a large gala where you're wined and dined, or at a small roundtable with five leaders in the same position as you? No matter your seniority or status, your goals when networking should be focused on mentoring and learning. Do not focus on selling!

Create Backchannels

Larger circles always start with a few key connections. Therefore, create relationships based on going the extra mile for those key gatekeepers you meet. Make it your goal to make these connections feel that they are the most important person in the world.

We send physical gifts to connections we want to foster as a way of breaking through. After you have forged the relationship you can leverage that to navigate into other circles. That's why I hate blanket networking events and try not to send my employees to them. If I can turn to one of these relationships and get an introduction made via LinkedIn, that's critical. Nothing is more powerful than a referral because it breaks the trust barrier.

Cheat

Get the attendee list. Even if this is just the list of companies who will be in attendance, use it to lay the groundwork for a successful event. You'd be surprised at how many times reaching out directly to the event leader will yield this info. Just make sure to do it verbally - I marvel at the usage of email in these personal exchanges - pick up the phone and call someone.

If you can't negotiate it from the host, start calling attendees you know to see if they have insight. Ultimately, you're trying to get information you can use to introduce yourself prior in a digital format. When I meet someone for the first time and they don't respond with that familiar exclamation, "Hey! Yeah, we just connected on LinkedIn," then I haven't done my job right.

Go Higher

For C-suiters, treat networking groups like a working social hour. Curate your own small group of five or so executives to meet regularly to sit down with the stated goal of helping each other work through problems. Even if you don't all come from the same industry, you'll see how universal business problems can be.

Time is sensitive, but having a trusted growth advisory board or leadership council that can empathize with similar experiences (and stick to a regular schedule) can do wonders for your organization.

Test the Waters

Despite your best efforts to network the right way and call on friends and acquaintances to make introductions, your employer might burden you with mandatory group attendance. Make the most of it.

Even if it means trying out ten groups or events, keep going until you discover which is the right one for you. If you're not sure where to start, ask your boss what exactly they hope you get out of the experience and what they expect you to bring back, and marry that with your own ideas about what you need for personal growth.

Networking is a necessary evil in today's climate, and a bit of an enigma for many young entrepreneurs and seasoned CEOs who haven't been in practice in a while. Before you curse your next networking event, take a deep breath, stick to your goals and remember, it's all about who you know.

Image Credit: Getty Images
Source: http://www.inc.com

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

How to Build Great Relationships With Mentors and Advisors

 

Great businesses are built with a lot of effort and a handful of key decisions. Effective relationships with mentors, advisors, and directors are based upon four main areas of concern and agreement between the parties; the Relationship, Value, Time Horizon, and Compensation.

The Mentor

Relationship: A mentor is an informal relationship. Mentors are committed and generous with advice, experience, or introductions, but don't guarantee any specific amounts of time, regularly scheduled meetings or deliverables.

Warning: Mentors don't purposefully use their relationship as bait to hook you into a paid engagement for consulting services. This doesn't prevent transactional relationships or business partnerships evolving from the initial mentor/mentee dynamic, but the intention of the initial relationship is not transactional or with an alternative agenda.

Value: To the entrepreneur a wide variety of mentors is smart, because it will expose you to several (sometimes conflicting) opinions (i.e. mentor whiplash). This deepens your experience in critical thinking and decision making, and builds confidence as you learn to trust your gut and live with the outcomes.

The Value of being a mentor is to truly give back to your fellow entrepreneurs in a spirit of generosity, being a model of resilience they can latch onto when times are tough and they feel alone.

Time Horizon: Completely organic and unpredictable. Some mentor/mentee relationships begin and end over a 20 minute session and others form into meaningful professional and personal peer-to-peer relationships over years.

Board Advisor

Relationship: More Formal/but not legally authorized to bind the corporation. As early stage companies grow out of idea stage into a viable offering, they will typically begin to formalize several items including their entity formation, capital access strategy, issue founders stock, and set up the initial bylaws to prepare for full scale operations.

It is at this point that certain domain experts become valuable and needed to advance towards an established early milestone. At this stage formalizing outside Directors on the company's board is typically pre-mature for one or both parties.

This is where the advisory role is a key asset to attract and formalize with regards to what type of help, access, time commitment, and introductions are requested, and what type of compensation is sensible.

For a fair and quick template I suggest something like the F.A.S.T. agreement as a great starting point template for companies and potential advisors. This will save time, align expectations, and avoid confusion.

Value: The value of the Board Advisor can be tremendous as you move your business to a more formal and operational entity. It can round out holes in the founding team from both experience and technical expertise as well as help 'recruit' key resources and potential capital providers to conversations around your opportunity.

Keep your legal governance minimal until the time comes for establishing board governance, term sheet valuation and shareholder value metrics, and management oversight procedures.

Time Horizon: This commitment is formalized yet flexible and less time consuming than a Board of Directors role. It can be fluid in its duration and exist in parallel to the Board of Directors as a stair step to a board-run company.

Compensation: Commonly given in the form of equity slivers that vest over time for specific deliverables.

Board Director

Relationship: A formal officer of the corporation with binding and fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders of the company with the ability to hire/fire the CEO of the company and approve or deny major capital raises, acquisitions, and key hires.

Value: As your company moves into commercialization the value of a Board of Directors formalizes many of the necessary management processes by which you will build enterprise value and measure governance and performance for the investors. It also serves as an important way to speed up key account activity or capital raising efforts as you select Board members who have credible relationships they are willing to share.

Time Horizon: Outside Directors in private companies are typically not needed in the early stage but will begin to show up as institutional or sophisticated capital providers invest into the enterprise and wish to assign a representative who aligns with their interests.

Compensation: This position is always compensated. Depending on the stage of the business, compensation can come in several forms that typically combine equity with vesting schedules and cash or reimbursements.

For a great summary from my friend Brad Feld (so that I am not reinventing a wheel that rolls nicely) read his blog post on Board compensation.

In Summary

Hopefully these distinctions will allow for better clarity between those helping and those needing help, so that frustration and or disappointment can be mitigated more frequently on the road to growth.

Image Credit: Getty Images
Source: http://www.inc.com

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

Why Do You Need SEO for Growing Your Business?

SEO is all over the place today – whether you’re writing an article to go to Ezine, an “about us” page to go on to someone’s website or even posts on your own blog, everyone wants to make sure they’ve incorporated SEO. Before we talk about the grave importance that SEO has when it comes to online content, let me give you a brief description about SEO.

The world has become quite a globalized one. Businesses don’t compete with others within national boundaries anymore. The doors to international business have been thrown wide open in most countries and business carry out their operations all over the world. But just because a business based in San Francisco is allowed to conduct business in New Zealand doesn’t mean that it physically sets up an office at the other end of the world. This is where the internet comes in.
 

Why do businesses need websites?

The internet has become a virtual marketplace – a market where businesses from all over the world communicate with other businesses from all over the world. Like all businesses need physical marketing to let people know about them, they need virtual marketing to let the world know that they exist too. How else can they gain customers if the world doesn’t know that they exist, that they have any services or products to offer and that they’re good at their job? In the virtual marketplace, a company or business’ identity is established by its online face or its website.

Now add to this the fact that every business has competitors, and with globalization, these competitors have only increased in number. So like any two good salesmen of two companies would do, the websites of these companies need to outshine each other. Outshining each other doesn’t mean that one needs to use flashier colors and larger fonts. It means that they need to show up higher on the list of results that a search engine brings up.

The search for a service

As a customer looking for a service, say a portable air conditioner service, you are probably going to go to Google or Yahoo or Bing and type in the words ‘portable air conditioner’ in the search box. What comes up then is a list of firms and individuals who can offer you the service you want. Have you wondered why someone comes up on the third position in a search result and why someone else on the seventh?

That, is the result of SEO. SEO or Search Engine Optimization has everything to do with ensuring that your website or blog or any online content for that matter comes up higher on the result list of a search engine. A popular method has always been to use keywords, words that people are likely to type into the search box when looking for a particular service, while composing the content for your web page. So if you’re selling baby nappies, your website will have a lot of usage of the word ‘baby’ and ‘nappy’. How will that be of any use, you ask?

How search engines work and why SEO is in such demand?

Google’s search engine is not a dormant one, neither is Yahoo or Bing. Their crawlers are busy scoping out all the websites available online at regular intervals and making a database; and when someone types in a bunch of keywords, they dive into that database and pull out websites that mention those very keywords. The more the keywords, the higher the page will show.

The basic need for SEO is due to the human habit of not really pressing on the button that says ‘next’ at the end of the page of search results. The first ten entries or at the very maximum, the entries on the first two pages of search engine results are the ones that get looked at – so you need to make sure to be on that first page.

For that, you need to make sure that your website is search engine optimized. It’s a rough world out there. If you’re not among the top few, you’re likely to go unnoticed; and the craving for attention has made SEO the new motto for success.

Planning Your SEO Strategy

So, what exactly are the so called strategies to master online marketing? Viral marketing direct marketing, social media, blogs and marketing techniques like Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and YouTube videos are the most basic means to marketing online. The site should have powerful and unique content and filled with the necessary requirements. Search engines analyze the text and compare with other related sites.

The supreme role of keywords couldn’t be stressed more. It ensures that your site gets listed high in the search engines. It could mean the life or death of a site or its competitors’ sites! PPC is the pay per click campaign and all that needs be done is to pay the search engines based on the number of clicks to your site. Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter are the three largest PPC providers.

It’s not over until it’s over! Once out on the virtual world, it’s a race to prove who the best is. In spite of a good marketing strategy, it can still spell trouble if a few things aren’t taken care of.

Nobody has the time to read boring stuff. Either get them hooked or lose them all. Make the site worth a visit. 

Everybody loves gifts. Why not give perks to those who visit the site either by free gifts or free information related to object? That should hold people’s enthusiasm. 

Hire someone to do your dirty work. Not being good at making the site content-rich or creating a landing page that people wants to keep returning to is A-okay, as long as a little bit is invested to get that done. 

Creativity is the rule. Have something new and refreshing to dish out tothe visitors.
The trends are changing by the minute. If there’s no foresight, it’s better to pack up before even beginning. 

Turning a blind eye towards the competition can be suicide. Be a peeping Tom. Doesn’t hurt to know what the others are doing. 

This is no time for ego. If in doubt, or in trouble, talk to experienced people. They would have a thing or two to say. If they don’t, no loss. 

The primary difficulty with online marketing is its lack of human interaction which sets it at a disadvantage. The entire online marketing strategy has to be implemented to counter this, to reach out to all the people out there.

Online marketing earns a quick buck and with a little perseverance can turn out to be a treasure chest. Job seekers and those looking for a career change find the area exciting and the work-at-home possibility even more so. It is the ideal platform for those disenchanted with the usual course of events to keep their brains engaged. Online marketing could be the closest thing to an ideal job- earning heaps without even breaking a sweat.

Source: http://tweakyourbiz.com
Image credit: Grippster.com


ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

3 Reasons Customers Aren't Opening Your Marketing Emails

I've been writing about email marketing frequently lately because email marketing is the last form of outbound marketing that still generates sales leads.

An email marketing campaign is useless, of course, if nobody opens your email. Thus it's important to know the five elements that determine if a marketing email is opened:

1)  When it's sent. Emails sent during heavy working hours are less likely to be opened than those send off-hours.

2)  Who's it from. Emails from strangers are less likely to be opened than those from colleagues.
The SUBJECT line. Emails with long, confusing SUBJECT lines are less likely to be opened than those with short, relevant ones

3) The SUBJECT line. Emails with long, confusing SUBJECT lines are less likely to be opened than those with short, relevant ones.

4)  The salutation. Emails that being with formalities ("Dear Mr. Jones") are less likely to be opened than those that begin informally ("Jane,").

5)  The teaser. Emails where the first 10 to 20 words are meaningless are less likely to be opened those that begin meaningfully.

Those five elements are important because they're what appears in the INBOX in most email programs. The example below are screen-captured from Outlook, but the same problems were obvious when they appeared on my iPhone.

1. Meaningless warnings.

In this example, the sender has wasted valuable "real-estate" on the INBOX display by displaying a message that's only meaningful after I've opened the email.

What's worse, the message implies that if I do open the email, I'll have trouble viewing it, which is not the best idea to plant in my mind when I'm considering whether to do so.

I'm pretty sure that this "If you're having trouble viewing" message is the default for one of the popular email marketing software vendors, proving that they are clueless.

I might also note that while the SUBJECT line is intended to be intriguing, it comes off rather hostile. The entire effect screams "Delete this and save yourself grief!"

 2. Repeating the subject line.

In this example, the SUBJECT line is strong and compelling. Who wouldn't want to know how to create sales champions?

However, the example wastes the INBOX "real estate" by simply repeating the SUBJECT line. I already know that part. Do I really need to see it again.

In addition, the "Hello" is unnecessary and the "This is just a quick reminder about" message is uninspired and clipped off.

Yes, I might open this based upon the strong SUBJECT line (and the fact that I know the sender), but overall, the teaser is just being wasted.

3. Obviously fakery.

This one is truly lame. Notice the space between the "Hi" and the comma? That was where the email program was supposed to plug my first name.

Apparently the list this marketer is using didn't have my first name in a break-out-able field, so they just went forward without it.

That gaffe is immediately followed by a fake (and therefore insulting) statement of concern about my health and similarly fake enthusiasm about... whatever.

Combine all that an opaque and self-interest SUBJECT line and you've got an email marketing campaign that gives new meaning to the word "meh."

Image Credit: Getty Images
Source: http://www.inc.com

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

The 5 Least Important Skills for Networking Success

Recently, I wrote about better ways to network, based on a survey I conducted of almost 3,400 people around the world. In the survey, I asked participants what they thought the top characteristics of a great networker were. However, knowing what not to do can sometimes be as important as knowing what to do in developing a skill. In this article, I will walk you through the five least important skills needed to be a great networker, according to the respondents of this survey.

Over the last 30 years, I’ve found that most people assume that being an extrovert is an advantage in networking. But let’s take a good look at the bottom five characteristics. Four out of the five least important skills to be a great networker had something to do with being outspoken or bold -- characteristics more aligned with an extrovert than an introvert.


Fearless.

Based on the survey, the fifth least important skill for networking was being fearless. Extroverts tend to be more fearless and confident, but when it came to identifying the skills of a great networker, this was not very important to an overwhelming majority of people.

Asking for the sale.


The fourth least important skill was asking for the sale. Extroverts almost always ask for the sale quicker than an introvert does. Yet, this is a skill that most people think is not very important in order to be a great networker.

Assertive.

The third least important skill was being a self-promoter. This particular result seems completely counter-intuitive at first. How can self-promotion not be an important skill for great networkers? Well, the answer to that is easy. In order for networking to be effective, it has to be about the relationship, not the transaction. Many, many people get this one wrong. I think it is the single biggest reason why some people hate networking. They go to a networking event and have one person after another try to sell to them. Very few introverts can be called self-promoters, so this is one more example where being an introvert may not hurt your chances to network well.

Directness.

The second least important skill was directness. This is an interesting one because being direct in your business dealings is often considered to be an attribute. However, when it comes to networking, it seems to be viewed more as pushy, which is clearly not a strength in building relationships. Again, extroverts are more inclined to come across as direct than introverts are.

Social media savvy.

The least important characteristic of a great networker, based on this survey, was in many ways very surprising. It was an attribute that could easily apply to both introverts and extroverts. It was being social media savvy. I included this in the survey because I have found that many people think that networking online is pretty much all they need to do to network effectively. I believe that online networking has great value, but it does not replace face-to-face networking. However, even I was surprised that it ranked dead last by 3,400 business people all around the world.

After viewing this data, I thought surely, millennials would rank this characteristic much higher. So, I compared the survey responses of people under 30 to this result. I discovered that there was in fact, a difference. The under 30 crowd ranked this characteristic second to last! Seriously, second to the last. Even millennials understand that social media skills are not an indicator of great networking ability.

So, if you want to be a great networker, understand the essentials of better networking as well as these much lesser important skills. The combination of knowing what to do, and what not to do, will help you to network like a pro.

Source: htt://www.entrepreneur.com
Image Credit: Shuttershock

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

6 Things You Must Do Before Your Next Networking Event

Selena Soo is a publicity and business strategist who helps experts, authors and coaches, build their brand and increase their influence. The founder of Impacting Millions was on a recent episode of Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income Podcast, where she shared her top tips for networking with influencers, but these tips merely scratched the surface of her deep knowledge of networking, relationship building and publicity.

Below are some of her top tips for preparing for a networking event in order to maximize the number and quality of connections you make.

1. Write Down Your Goals For The Event

Before you head out to a meet-up or happy hour, get clear on your objectives so you can optimize your actions both before you go and once you're there. "Take time to think through why you're attending, who you want to meet, and what you'd like to achieve," Soo says.

Write down what you're hoping to accomplish, and the types of people you're hoping to connect with. If there's an attendee list, you can note specific individuals you want to meet, but even without a list, you can create "types" of people you want to connect with; potential clients, local media, fellow podcasters, etc. Consider exploring why those goals are important to you to make sure your objectives are clear. Without clear goals, you won't be able to measure if you've been successful.

2. Research The People You Want To Meet

If you're able to find the names of speakers and fellow attendees that you'd be interested in meeting, you need to do some homework so you have a basis for those introductory conversations. Arming yourself with information maximizes the chance that those conversations will be productive and memorable.

"Google them. Look up their LinkedIn page. See if they have a personal or business website. Look at their Facebook page or profile to learn about what's important to them or what they're working on," Soo suggests. "Knowing even just a few tidbits about their lives and business will help you spark a connection right away."

3. Reach Out In Advance

"No need to wait for the event to start connecting," Soo says. If you've researched the folks you're most interested in meeting, you can send them a personal email to let them know that you'll be there as well, and you're interested in connecting.

If you aren't able to track down specific contact information (or even if you are!) consider posting to your social accounts using the event hashtag that you'll be attending the event and you're interested in meeting like-minded folks. If the event is a large conference with an app or a designated Facebook Group or other community, consider posting an introduction there as well, to maximize your visibility with fellow attendees.

4. Plan Your Outfit

Yep. You read that right. "Consider planning your outfit at least a day or two before the event so you can put your best foot forward," Soo says. "You want your appearance to send the right message about your business."

Choose something clean, professional, wrinkle-free and appropriate for the event theme and location. If your event requires travel, be sure to check the weather so you're properly dressed for conditions, and consider a removable outer layer, since many event spaces will crank up the air conditioning to compensate for having so many people packed into a small space.

"In today's social media-driven age, there's a good chance you'll get tagged in someone's photo or video," Soo notes, "So you want to look your best."

5. Create A Contact Information Strategy

"One problem that often arises from meeting new people is that their contact info ends up all over the place," Soo says. "You get a business card from one person, a scribbled name and number on a napkin from another, and you write someone else's info on a random page in your event binder."

If the information you collect is disorganized or inconsistent, it's unlikely you'll be able to do meaningful follow-up, so spend some time figuring out how you'll collect and keep track of contact information.

Soo suggested designating a pocket or envelope as the sole place you'll put business cards so they're all in one place, and using a single notebook or sheet of paper to collect any other contact information not on a business card.

6. Be Prepared To Talk About Your Work

"Because people will likely ask about what you do, it's helpful to have in mind three interesting or compelling talking points about your business," Soo says. "These should relate to your ideal client in some way and show them how you help people."

When compiling these talking points, focus on those things that make you and your work most unique and keep it concise. The goal is to be interesting and memorable, but not to give a monolog.

"You don't only want to talk about yourself," Soo advises. "You can use these as jumping off points for back-and-forth conversations. This means asking them questions about what they do, and what brought them to the event."

Image Credit: Getty images
Source: http://www.inc.com

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

3 Common Email Marketing Mistakes

About half of all email marketing campaigns suffer from these easily avoidable errors.

I've been writing about email marketing frequently lately because email marketing is the last form of outbound marketing that still generates sales leads.

An email marketing campaign is useless, of course, if nobody opens your email. Thus it's important to know the five elements that determine if a marketing email is opened:

    1.    When it's sent. Emails sent during heavy working hours are less likely to be opened than those send off-hours.

    2.    Who's it from. Emails from strangers are less likely to be opened than those from colleagues.

    3.    The SUBJECT line. Emails with long, confusing SUBJECT lines are less likely to be opened than those with short, relevant ones.

    4.    The salutation. Emails that being with formalities ("Dear Mr. Jones") are less likely to be opened than those that begin informally ("Jane,").

    5.    The teaser. Emails where the first 10 to 20 words are meaningless are less likely to be opened those that begin meaningfully.

Those five elements are important because they're what appears in the INBOX in most email programs. The example below are screen-captured from Outlook, but the same problems were obvious when they appeared on my iPhone.

1. Meaningless warnings.

 In this example, the sender has wasted valuable "real-estate" on the INBOX display by displaying a message that's only meaningful after I've opened the email.

What's worse, the message implies that if I do open the email, I'll have trouble viewing it, which is not the best idea to plant in my mind when I'm considering whether to do so.

I'm pretty sure that this "If you're having trouble viewing" message is the default for one of the popular email marketing software vendors, proving that they are clueless.

I might also note that while the SUBJECT line is intended to be intriguing, it comes off rather hostile. The entire effect screams "Delete this and save yourself grief!"

2. Repeating the subject line.

In this example, the SUBJECT line is strong and compelling. Who wouldn't want to know how to create sales champions?

However, the example wastes the INBOX "real estate" by simply repeating the SUBJECT line. I already know that part. Do I really need to see it again.

In addition, the "Hello" is unnecessary and the "This is just a quick reminder about" message is uninspired and clipped off.

Yes, I might open this based upon the strong SUBJECT line (and the fact that I know the sender), but overall, the teaser is just being wasted.

3. Obviously fakery.

This one is truly lame. Notice the space between the "Hi" and the comma? That was where the email program was supposed to plug my first name.

Apparently the list this marketer is using didn't have my first name in a break-out-able field, so they just went forward without it.

That gaffe is immediately followed by a fake (and therefore insulting) statement of concern about my health and similarly fake enthusiasm about... whatever.

Combine all that an opaque and self-interest SUBJECT line and you've got an email marketing campaign that gives new meaning to the word "meh."

Source: http://www.inc.com
Image Credit: Getty Images



ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

5 Ways Building Relationships With Influencers Can Benefit Your SEO Campaign

By now, the phrase “influencer marketing” is pretty familiar to most marketers. The basic concept is easy to grasp—you’ll be using the existing popularity and authority of social “influencers” to build a reputation and visibility for your own brand.

But influencer marketing isn’t a “hack” or a get-rich-quick scheme; like any other marketing strategy, it demands a nuanced approach to be successful, and is packed with far more variables than it appears to have on the surface.

As an SEO (search engine optimization) professional, I gravitate toward using influencer marketing as a tool to improve the effectiveness of my SEO campaigns. Recognizing that many search optimizers—especially new ones—may fail to see the potential here, and even more marketers misunderstand the true potential of influencer marketing, below I’ve listed five ways that building relationships with influencers can actually boost your SEO campaign.

1. Inbound links.

Inbound links are necessary for any kind of SEO campaign. Links are what pass “authority” from one site to another, essentially making them points of validation that convince search engines your site is authoritative and trustworthy enough to earn higher rankings. It’s becoming more and more difficult to get inbound links, but one way to get them is to build a relationship with a known influencer; they’ll often link to your site if you give them good reason to. For example, if you have a relationship with an influencer and let them know about some recent original research you recently published, that influencer might comment on it and link to your research, which, presumably, is hosted on your website. You’ll gain a boost in authority from the link, but just as importantly, the presence of that link will result in click-through traffic from other readers as well as increase its visibility so that other authors can reference it (with a link) it in their work as well.

2. Content visibility.

Depending on the nature of your relationship, you can also leverage your influencer’s audience to expand the visibility of your best content. Social influencers typically have tens of thousands to millions of followers, so getting an influencer to share one of your best pieces of content could instantly multiply its visibility. More readers alone won’t necessarily boost your rankings, but it’s a nice gateway to future points of value. For example, if your content circulates with an audience 10 times larger than what you could muster on your own, you’ll likely earn 10 times as many links overall—and that’s not even mentioning the reputation benefits your brand will earn.

3. Audience building.

Networking with influencers is also a fast way to grow your social media audience (as well as recurring traffic to your site). Social media runs on a “tree falling in the forest” system; no matter how good your content is, people will only follow you and continue reading your material if they know it exists in the first place. Getting an influencer to share that material could introduce a new audience to you. Again, this alone won’t increase your search rankings, but over time, a larger audience means each of your published pieces will have instantaneously better value when you syndicate them.

4. Collaborative content.

Don’t discount the potential for working together with influencers on mutual content projects, either. This probably won’t be an option to you in the early stages of your influencer relationships, but once you have an ongoing, mutually beneficial setup, this may become a natural element of your partnership. Working together, you might pool your resources to create and distribute an industry report, or you could conduct an interview series or create a podcast in which you exchange thoughts and opinions on a popular topic. Either way, you’ll both get the benefit of borrowing from each other’s authority, you’ll earn more visibility than you would alone, and you’ll both earn a host of new links pointing to your respective domains. This is a long-term partnership, so the payoffs have no upper limit here.

5. Publishing opportunities.

Even though you’ll likely earn some links naturally with your content and influencer marketing campaigns, the best way to build links consistently over the long term is through highly valuable content on external, authoritative publisher sites. The problem is, these publisher sites have extremely high standards for content, and are selective about who they let write. Networking with influencers can, over time, open up doors that would otherwise be closed to you. For example, one of your influencers might be close with the editor for a national publisher, and could get you an introductory opportunity to make a guest post. Sometimes, a foot in the door is all it takes to start building a bigger online footprint.

Finding the Right Influencer

Much of your success in influencer marketing will be finding the right influencer and starting your relationship on the right foot. The best influencers are ones who are active constantly, with big followings, and an interest in engaging with others.

When you reach out, make sure you remain conscious of the fact that they’re busy people with their own goals and priorities—make an offer before making a request. Then, prioritize achieving the goals I listed above, always making the relationship mutually beneficial, and doing what you can to preserve your dynamic.




Source: https://www.forbes.com
Image Credit: pexels.com




ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

4 Tools You Need to Create an Email and Social Media Marketing Calendar

It’s a common problem with email marketing and social media marketing: You know you need to send regular emails and post to your business’ social networks, but it’s hard to make time for it and you’re always struggling with what to say to your customers.

Before you know it, you haven’t sent an email since before the holiday rush, your last Facebook post was a month ago, and your customers think you’ve abandoned them.

Don’t lose hope! You can make marketing a regular part of your business day with these four tools that will keep you on track and help you come up with topics to talk about.

1. Email marketing plan template and calendar

Having an email marketing plan in place will help you align your marketing efforts. And it’s easier than you think.

In just 15 minutes, you can use our email marketing plan template to outline the dates and events that are important for your business throughout the year.

Then, use our 2017 Email Marketing Calendar to plan the dates that you’ll send emails during the rest of the year.

2. Facebook Reminders

Facebook is rolling out a new Reminders feature that alerts Page admins to post before major holidays and at specific days and times that they select.

If you’re not sure what the best time and day are to reach your audience, use Facebook Insights to determine when your fans are most active and engaging with your page, and what content they’re interested in.

This data will help you come up with a regular posting schedule that you can set in the Facebook Reminders calendar.

3. Twitter Events

If you’re looking for ideas for what to share on Twitter, check out the Events feature in Twitter’s Analytics platform.

Start by going to analytics.twitter.com, click on the Brand Hub tab, and then click Events. The Events feature allows you to browse by looking at an overview of upcoming events with information on how many tweets have been shared, and which countries are tweeting the most about them.

Take a deeper dive by clicking into the categories here: Events, Sports, Movies, and Recurring trends.


You’ll find a list of popular events, with information like category, location, date, or audience size. Click into the event name for more details.

For example, the Valentine’s Day event details share statistics on how many tweets were shared for the holiday in 2016, demographic information, and a list of top tweets and live tweets.


Check out events to see if your business has a connection and join the conversation on Twitter. If you’re part of a larger conversation, your tweets have the chance to be seen and shared by more people.

4. Monthly infographics

If there are gaps in your marketing plan, keep an eye out on our blog for our monthly marketing and holiday planning infographic.


Every month, we share a list of important holidays, themes, content ideas, and marketing statistics. Here’s an example from February:

The right tools make your marketing easier

With just a little planning and the help of these free tools, you can make the time for marketing and get back to business.


And once you get your plan in place for the year, you can reuse it the next year and add new promotions to the list.

Source: https://blogs.constantcontact.com



ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

Five of the Best Email Marketing Platforms You'll Find in 2017

Many brands prioritize email marketing as a major part of their marketing efforts. It's no wonder, as the Direct Marketing Association has found that the tactic delivers a 4300 percent return on investment. That certainly indicates that email marketing is an appropriate place to spend budget.

However, like all things, email marketing is changing. Simply blasting out an impersonal message to thousands of contacts with little or no context is no longer going to cut it the way it might have in the early 2000s. If you aren't personalizing your email campaigns, they're very likely going to fall flat, and you're going to miss all those potential sales that would be attainable if only you invested in the right tools.

If you aren't investing in an email marketing platform, you're going to have an incredibly difficult time offering the level of personalization that's required to really make the most of your campaigns. Not sure how to choose the right one? Here are five of the top picks for 2017:

MailChimp

Possibly the most popular option is MailChimp, almost definitely because they offer a free plan for small businesses, and integrate with a multitude of third-party providers. While it lacks some of the most robust features of some of the following platforms, it's very well suited to the needs of smaller teams, startups, and solo workers. This is a no-fuss option, and the paid option is very reasonable at $10/month.

Some drawbacks are that the free plan does not include auto-responses, and setting up a paid plan is not an instant process. You'll also need to reload your browser whenever you want to see an updated report, which may not matter unless you're eagerly waiting for results from your latest campaign.

VerticalResponse

If you want an easy-to-use solution that offers a little bit of everything, has a generous free option and live support, VerticalResponse is a good option. You get access to many features through their free plan -- including 4,000 emails per month - and can upgrade as your lists grows or you want more advanced capabilities.

Features you'll find most useful are Autoresponders and Advanced Reporting. VerticalResponse's Autoresponder feature automatically resends an email to customers who didn't open it the first time - which is said to improve open rates on average by 30 percent. Advanced Reporting tools like heat maps, geographic location and device indicators provide insights about your subscribers, letting you know how your emails are read, so you can improve on future campaigns. The drawback is that you'll need to bump up to a paid plan to access these features.

SendGrid

If you're an e-commerce merchant, SendGrid may be the perfect platform for you - they have their roots in transactional email delivery services, though over time they've transitioned to offer a full complement of email marketing tools.

This platform is ideal for the organization that has an engineer on staff that can make use of their robust and powerful API, though much of its usability is out of reach for organizations that do not have a tech lead available for this type of work. This tech-heavy solution also eliminates the headache of maintaining an SMTP email server.

Constant Contact

If you're looking for a smooth user experience geared towards first-time users, Constant Contact may be a good fit for you. It comes preloaded with built-in templates for email blasts, and easily imports contacts from major email providers like Gmail and Outlook. The platform also creates signup forms and integrates easily with Google Analytics. A mobile app is available for on-the-go work.

The editor is very easy to use, which makes it easy to start sending out customized campaigns within a day or two of loading the software. You can try out Constant Contact with their free 60-day trial. It runs about $15/month. One drawback according to some users is that at times it tends to be prone to glitches and delayed loading of the dashboard. It's also important to note that the default storage is limited to five files.

Emma

While I like this platform for its clever name, which is a combination of "email" and "marketing," I also like how great it is at its standout feature - auto-responses and customizations. If you're a seasoned pro at email marketing and are looking for a fully tricked-out platform, Emma may be your best bet.

If you aren't a seasoned pro, you probably will pass this platform over, however, as they require a minimum of 2,500 contacts to start. It's also the priciest of the bunch at $49 a month for the Pro Plan. If you're going to use all its extra features, the fee is well worth it in my opinion.



Source: http://www.inc.com
Image Credit: Getty Images


ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

Is Your Professional Mask Limiting The Quality Of Your Relationships?

I’ll never forget my first business card.

I’d just started my first "real" job out of college and was asked to complete a purchase order for business cards and the company database. Despite the fact that no-one ever called me Margaret, I listed it as my first name. I somehow thought that Margaret sounded more…  important… more professional… more Thatcher-like.

It took about two weeks before I was correcting every person I encountered. “Oh no, just call me Margie,” I’d insist, “Margaret is my real name, but it’s not really ‘me."

I laugh now of course. But that was me at 22 - eager to impress and yet to realize that the people who impress most are those who try least.

It’s a lesson I’ve had to learn various times since. That it’s not only "OK" to be myself, but that I’m actually sabotaging my own success when I try to be anyone else.

Of course we’ve all seen the slogans.

“Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.”

Yet why is it that so many of us struggle to simply be ourselves; to lower our masks - to prove, protect and impress – and to own our, complete with all that we are and all we’re not?

At the very heart of it lies fear; fear of not being "enough" as we are and finding ourselves left out of the pack. A relic of our cave dwelling days when being shunned from the tribe was a death sentence, we all carry around with us a deep fear of being unwanted, unvalued, unimportant, or unloved. It all goes back to our cave-dwelling days.

It is because our desire to belong, to be liked, to be admired and to avoid losing face is hardwired into our psychological DNA. It's why expressing ourselves authentically and becoming all of who we truly are – complete with our fears, failings and foibles - is the work of a lifetime.

Of course I’d be lying if I told you I never gave a care about what people thought of me. I do. In fact, I have a long way to go to be free of the urge to compulsively check how many people have liked my posts on Facebook or retweeted my tweets. (And I'm very grateful you're reading this now!) However I’ve also learnt from wrestling with fear countless times (I’m getting better at winning!) that simply acknowledging our hesitance to let down our guard and reveal ourselves is, in itself, a brave step toward emancipation.

We all yearn for connection. Yet the irony is that we forge the strongest bonds when we let go trying to impress those we seek to connect with.  It's the times we have the courage to confide our disappointments, hurts, heartaches and miss-steps (alas, we all make them) that we open the door to deepening trust and cementing bonds. We may only want to share our happy snaps on Facebook and those bits of our lives that make us look good and like we've got it all together. Yet in our increasingly shallow sound-byte world,  we connect far more deeply through our vulnerabilities than though our victories.

In a world that pressures for conformity, finding the courage to be fully ourselves – owning every aspect of our past, personality and imperfections - is one of the most difficult, frightening and liberating things we can ever do.  Fear of losing our ‘public identity’ can imprison us. Yet our willingness step away from who we think we are supposed to be and to lay our pride and vulnerability on the line for the sake more important things is essential to our success in leadership and life. I'm not talking about wearing your insecurities on your sleeve or bearing your soul to the world. I'm just talking about not letting your fear of losing face sit at the drivers seat of your life. Too often it does.

So let  me ask you a question:

If you decided to let go the need to prove your worth or protect your image, how would it liberate you to make a change or take a chance toward what you want most for yourself - in your relationships, career, leadership, and life?  

John F. Kennedy once said, “Conformity is that jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”  This isn’t about being a non-conformist for the sake of it or to prove what a wild renegade you are! That is no more brave than obedient compliance.  It’s about owning the difference your difference makes rather than spending your life trying to morph yourself into whatever flavor of "same" and "special" you think will gain the most glory, build the biggest brand or minimize the chance of criticism. After all, when all you do is try to conform, all you offer is conformity, depriving the world of the full quota of potential, passion, personality and perspective that you have to bring.

After winning the Grammy ‘trifecta’ in 2015 (with best new song, record and artist) Sam Smith confided, “It was only when I started to be myself that the music started to flow and people started to listen.”  It’s no small irony that Smith’s fear of not being liked was his biggest roadblock to becoming the star he is today.

The same is true for each of us.

Sure, we’re not all destined for music stardom, but each of us has something unique and magnificent to do in our one-and-only precious life and we can never do it while fear pilots our decisions, driving us to comply to the image of the person we think we are should to be.  Sure, your personal brand is important, but if it’s incongruent with the one-of-a-kind person that you are, it’s likely you’ll never become all you have it within you to be. I mean, how can you blaze your own brightest path if you’re not bringing your bravest self along for the ride?

Yes, it takes a brave person to risk disapproval, step away from the pack, to embrace your imperfection and to own your individuality. Ah yes, that would take someone with a very big heart. But let’s be clear: it takes no bigger heart than the one that beats inside you.

The truth is that in selfie-obsessed culture that celebrates superficiality, people are hungry for those who refuse to surrender to conformity and political correctness. Whatever you think of President Trump, his ascension to the White House shows just how hungry millions of American voters were for someone who didn't vanilla down what he thought so as not to cause offence.   Accordingly,  it is those who have the courage to embrace their difference, to speak their truth and show up fully who make the biggest impact on those around them and grow their influence as leaders.  They may not always have the following of the Kardashians or gain the power of Trump, but they have the respect of those who matter.

So how you put all of this in to practice? Daily. Hourly. One small brave decision at a time: to lower your mask, embrace your difference and, quite simply, to be yourself.

As you bring more of yourself to your work and those you encounter along the way, you’ll deepen the relationships you care about most and build news ones that open doors of opportunity that would have remained closed otherwise.  Most important of all, you’ll embolden others to do the same - lower the walls they’ve built to protect and the masks they’ve worn to impress, and to bring more of themselves to how to work, live, love and lead.

Of all the wisdom ever written on the importance of being oneself, I think the best comes from the Cat in the Hat, courtesy of the beloved Dr Seuss.

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”




Source: https://www.forbes.com
Image Credit: Shutterstock



ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

How to Write a Persuasive Marketing Email

When you send a marketing email, it’s a bit different from a regular email.

You’re not just sharing information, you’re trying to drive engagement that supports your business in some way.

You’re trying to drive action without being too pushy and turning your subscribers off.

What’s the secret to writing a successful marketing email?

The best email marketing campaigns have a clear focus, authentic tone, and information that’s helpful to the reader.

Use these tips to write marketing emails that drive business:

• Infuse the personality of your business.

Imagine you’re having a face-to-face conversation with a customer. What would that experience be like? Your reader should feel like you’re speaking directly to them as well. Extend the great experience you regularly provide to create an engaging content strategy.

• Make sure the subject line is true to the content of your email.

There are many tips about how to write good email subject lines. The most important tip? Be clear about what the reader should expect when they open the email.

• Take advantage of the preheader text to entice the reader to open your email.

The preheader text is like a second subject line. It gives you an additional chance to entice the reader to open your email. Use this to your advantage, especially when it comes to increasing your mobile open rates.

• Keep content clear and concise.

Picture, Paragraph, Call to Action. The best emails have a clear focus and are designed to encourage a single action from the reader. Clear, concise content also makes it easier to read your emails.

• Only include information that helps the reader take the action you want them to take.

Remove anything that veers from the action you want the reader to take. Doing so helps you get to the best length for your email newsletter. If it’s not helping your reader take the desired action, it’s a distraction. Remove it.

• Plan on sending more than one email.

It would be great if all you needed was one email to do the job. The truth is people are busy and your business isn’t their top priority. It’s not that people don’t want to take action, it’s just that they get distracted. Plan your email marketing calendar to include a short series of three emails around a particular promotion: an announcement, a reminder, and a last chance.

Ready to write your marketing email?

Put these tips to use and start seeing more meaningful results from your email marketing today.

Source: https://blogs.constantcontact.com



ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

The Secret to Organic Networking

Networking to expand your network doesn’t work. I’ve tried it. I’ve exchanged thousands of business cards and connected with hundreds more over LinkedIn. But nothing happened…not until I adopted an organic networking approach.

Organic Networking

Connection isn’t arbitrary. In business, in romance, in friendship, people connect over value; that’s how networks start. And they grow in relation to the value shared.


Let’s say you pan for gold and catch a couple flecks. You might connect with a local jeweler or a hobo on the street, but that’s about it. When you dig deep and come up with a thousand bars, however, you’ll have people come out of the woodwork to share your value and to make it grow.

That’s the idea behind organic networking.

Though we don’t have hoards of gold to start our networks, we all have something even more valuable: information that makes life better for others. (Unlike gold, information is inexhaustible.) We all have advice and experience that can help someone excel in their relationships, careers, hobbies or passions.

It might not be much value at first. But if you direct all of your energy into growing that value instead of looking for quick networking breaks, you’ll have an unlimited supply of value with enough time and persistence. With all that personal investment, you’ll be crazy about sharing your value. That’s when your network starts to explode.

My organic networking breakthrough

I started my writing career because I wanted to help people avoid the heartbreak I had experienced. I didn’t know much more than what I had done, and that it had caused me pain. But even that little bit was valuable enough to build a small audience. I got published.

Then I dug deeper into relationships. I wanted to share more value and to make a bigger difference to my audience, and by breaking down my experiences I discovered that I sucked because I didn’t know myself. So I started meditating and journaling and reflecting on anything that could grow my self-knowledge.


I wrote about my insights and transformation every day, and I got better at writing. I got better at storytelling. I got better at giving people value that could enhance their lives.

Then I started getting connections.

Recently, one of my entrepreneurial idols reached out and wanted to hop on the phone. Gerald saw my website and had some points to share on where I could be more effective. I was honored by the call. I listened, thanked him, and was just saying good bye…But he stopped me.

My idol asked me for advice on relationships.

This guy charges thousands and thousands of dollars for consulting and mentoring. But here we were on the phone, talking like we’d known each other forever, joking around and enjoying each other’s company. Our connection was sincere because we both had value that we’d worked hard to share.

Gerald had gotten enough value from my relationship articles on a site called MindBodyGreen that he wanted to talk to me in person. Had it been someone who didn’t have value to share, I would have charged him like I do my coaching clients. But this guy is known for value, so it was my pleasure to share advice with him.
Through our mutual exchange of value, Gerald and I got something even more valuable than any piece of information: we established a genuine connection. The more value we share, the more that connection will grow. I’d take half a Gerald over 10,000 LinkedIn connections.

How you can grow your network organically

Don’t worry about networking until you have insane value that you’re crazy about sharing. Instead, focus your energy on refining your craft, or your service, or your goods. Put that value out for the world to see; get on publications that cater to the audience you want. Then keep at it.


As your value grows you’ll get published on bigger sites, which will get you more exposure, and more opportunities to connect with other people who are sharing value.

Don’t know what your value is?

1. Think about your biggest problem. For me, that was relying on my parents as an adult.

2. Work so hard at solving that problem that you become an expert. I studied writing and personal development until I had what I needed to make money and live on my own. Once you’ve become an expert,

3. Devote your life to mastery. Then you can help thousands of others achieve the same and better results. After I became independent, it felt so good that I wanted to help millions of millennials do the same. So I studied writing with greater diligence. I studied entrepreneurship. I studied the millionaires who were making a difference on a mass scale.

When I dug deep enough for a ton of value, I built a site to bring it to the world.

Within two weeks of launching millennialsuccess.io, I landed the one connection I had sought for two years. I asked the guy for mentorship before, sent him emails, pitched him. Nothing. When I let go and just focused on my value, he came to me and I didn’t have to do a thing. Organic networking in action.

The alternative is to approach people from a point of neediness. You say, “Hey, I’d like to connect.” But really, you just want them to advance your career. Nobody wants that kind of connection. Nobody has time for it, and it’ll make you look like an amateur.

Your time is better spent refining the quality of your product or service.

So dig deep. Go all in on that one passion that you want to make a difference through. Become an expert. Be consistent. Then shoot for mastery. Once you’ve made that thing valuable enough, people will come to you.



Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com
Image Credit: Shutterstock


ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!