The Nexus CoNEXUSion

Marketing by email is tough. You want people to open your email and read the fantastic, life-changing offer that you have for them. A snazzy subject line should do the trick, right?

Going through my email inbox the other day, some subject lines did catch my attention for various reasons. The reasons were not good ones.

Some of the subject lines had an icon that I could not decipher on my laptop computer. Later, when I checked my email on my cell phone, I could clearly make out the icon.

A couple of the subject lines had the letters “us” at the end. It was in a different font, and it didn’t make sense with the rest of the subject line. Again, this was on my laptop. On my phone, the “us” was replaced with the United States flag.

Some subject lines had specific words in a different font. Not just boldface or italicized — the word was in an entirely different font. I love playing with fonts for headlines on webpages. I am not a fan of multiple fonts when I am reading a page of text like when I am checking my email. And some of the different fonts made the subject line hard to read.

Now, this is from a person reading the subject lines with the naked eye (ok, through prescription eyeglasses). What if I was using a screenreader? If my brain had trouble getting through the subject line, how is a screenreader going to interpret it? Just food for thought about accessibility.

You want your subject line noticed for the right reasons.

Today, my email inbox was ready to burst.

I started with deleting emails that I send to myself through my accounts at my membership sites. Email deliverability is important, so I check that I receive the emails sent to my members. It was really easy to pick out the member emails because I use templates for my most frequently sent messages. Write the email once, and just reuse it and hit send every week. Automation makes my life so much easier.

Finding and deleting my membership site emails was ridiculously easy, though. I used the same subject lines over and over, so within a few minutes, I readily check marked a year’s worth of emails (yes, I am that lazy about cleaning my inbox). Then I hit a spot where the email subject lines changed. I got to the time point before I started using templates. I stopped in awe. Varied subject lines stood out from the long line of emails in the inbox.

Why am I telling you this?

Using email templates saves me time. I run so many weekly and monthly promotions that writing templates makes sense. After looking at my inbox, I see how that gets old really fast for email recipients. Seeing how easy it was for me to delete those specific emails makes me wonder how many other people are deleting those same emails from their inbox. That can’t be good for business.

There are a lot of tools for automating tasks. They save time. They increase productivity. But do they get a response? Do they convert? Or do they just create white noise that is easily ignored?

My suggestion? Use the automation tools available. But use them wisely. For me? I am going to at least change up the subject lines. It would take me a few seconds, and probably reduce the white noise factor.

Not sure how to write a great post on Facebook? Practice with your personal posts.

Simply posting on Facebook is not enough. You want interaction with that post, likes and comments, to make that post more likely to pop up on your friends’ newsfeeds.

After I make a post on my personal Facebook page, I have this habit of checking throughout the day on how many likes and comments it gets. It’s like an addiction. If the post doesn’t get any reaction, I am very sad. But as the number of likes and comments go up, I get more and more ecstatic.

I am such a “like” junkie, that I experiment with how to make my posts more, uh, likable.

My most recent post was about my day job as a care provider. I included an adorable picture of a sleeping 2-year old, and a story about an un-adorable thing that he did while he was awake.

In 24 hours, it received 3 comments, 11 Likes, 2 Loves, and 1 Haha.

I have noticed several things that effect the number of likes and comments.

The post should be something that most, if not everybody, will relate to. Two-year olds are notorious for being cute and mischievous.

Including a picture is helpful. It catches the eye, and often it will give you an emotional hook.

Now with that said, my personal pet peeve on Facebook is that picture about a sale for expensive brand-name sunglasses. You know the one. It usually tags a bunch of people as well. Tagging well known people in your niche will enable that post to show on the newsfeed of the friends of those tagged. It also screams “SPAM” when people tagged have nothing to do with the post.

So, include a picture, make the post relatable, and tag relevant people. I do that with my personal posts, and still some of them get no response. Why?

When you post is important, too.

I once posted with a picture and tagged the relevant people, and got no response. Why? The people I tagged were at a family reunion. Everybody who would be interested in that post was partying, not Facebooking.

There is no magic time to post when everybody you need to reach is online. So monitor your posts, and repost when needed. Not exactly the same post, but the same subject, different slant. Find a different picture to use. Hit a different emotion in the post. Keep trying different things until you find what works best for you.

To recap:

Make your post relatable to as many people as possible. It should hit on an emotion as well. I usually try to make my stuff funny.

Include a relevant picture (cute is optional, but often helpful).

Tag any relevant people, if any. You might consider making the post “public” so anyone can view it.

Track your response. And adjust as necessary.

Now, get on your Facebook account, and take notes on the posts you have made that got the most interaction.

Have fun.

If you’re an introvert, there’s no need to shy away from social media.  Don’t be thrown by the word “social”.  Facebook and Twitter are really great platforms for introverts to be social on their own terms.  You get to interact…  but on your own terms.  Many introverts can show their extrovert side online.

Don’t be a hermit

If you’re using social media for marketing, you must be consistent.  For true introverts, it’s hard to remember that there’s a whole world of people out there.  All marketers will need to schedule their time for social media, and especially introverts.  Check in at least twice a day, and interact with your friends and followers.

Personal or Professional?

While it’s a good idea for all marketers to keep their personal and professional life separate while online.  Only let your followers know what’s relevant to your marketing – like why you’re an expert in your niche.  It will help to show a little bit of your personal side, so you can connect with your followers, but you can keep it to a minimum.  How personal you get will really depend on the nature of your market and niche.

One step at a time

If all this sounds scary – ease into it.  Like all uncomfortable tasks, it takes practice to get good at it.  Start commenting, asking questions, engage in conversation.  Set a goal to do so many comments or questions per day.  The more you do it, the easier it will get!

You need to know which posts, and what time of day works best for you and your business.  Tracking and analytics are musts for your marketing.  Some social networks have tracking built in, but for others, you’ll need to use other tracking services.

Online Social Media Tracking

If you’re already signed up to services that automate your social media, you might already have analytics.  Buffer and HootSuite are two that give you daily reports.

The Reports will help you to:

• See what time of day works best for your posts
• See what niches people are interested in
• See the types of posts that get the best response – like questions, p olls, images.
• See who’s sharing, retweeting, and actually going to your website.

How can  you tell which of your posts are successful?

There are many services that track for you – one is a URL shortening service calle Bitly – https://bitly.com

When you share a link – use the Bitly service to shorten it, then use the Bitly link in your post.  This will give you a report showing how many people clicked on that link.  Use different links for different places that you post – so you can see which network is bringing you the best results.

Facebook has stats built in that will help you know what posts are being seen, and how many people are engaging with those posts.

You can also keep a spreadsheet – noting number of comments, shares and likes for each type of post – it could be time consuming – but tracking now will save you tons of money in the long run!

Facebook can become your best marketing platform, if done correctly.  However, your competition is also on Facebook, but they may not know the best practices of marketing with Facebook.  Hopefully this article will show you how to do it better than they do!

Set up Contests on your Facebook page.  Then make it very obvious.  Put it in its own tab – very close to the left.  Change your cover photo to include something about the contest.

Use lots of pictures.  They can be of your product, or inspirational or funny pictures.  (yes yes, more CATS)  Your customers will share these photos with their Facebook friends, and that will further your reach, leading more people to you.

Put fun in your business!  That’s what Facebook is all about – having fun.  You need to incorporate fun into your posts, tactics and stragegies.  The more fun you have with your customers, the more loyal they’ll becomes.

Your followers might check Facebook while they’re working, but they’ll be more apt to interact when they’re at home.  Post during non-work hours to get more people involved.

Post positive messages and memorable things on your news feed.  It might be the thing that brightens someone’s day!  Then you’ll really have a loyal follower!

What other strategies and tactics can you come up with?