3 Free Tools you should master as a Business Owner

If you’re new to Marketing, or a professional marketer, you can always appreciate tools that make your life easier.  Especially if they are FREE.

Here are 3 tools that we recommend to all our clients who are looking to put in the elbow grease to get their content up to snuff.

Pixlr: Pixlr Editor is a robust browser photo editor.

Pixlr is a cloud-based set of image tools and utilities, including a number of photo editors, a screen grabber browser extension, and a photo sharing service. The suite was intended for non-professionals, however the apps range from simple to advanced photo editing. It can be used on PCs, and on smartphones or tablets using a mobile app. Time put Pixlr on its list of the top 50 websites of 2013.

Hemingway: Hemingway App makes your writing bold and clear.

Hemingway highlights long, complex sentences and common errors; if you see a yellow highlight, shorten the sentence or split it. If you see a red highlight, your sentence is so dense and complicated that your readers will get lost trying to follow its meandering, splitting logic — try editing this sentence to remove the red.

Adverbs are helpfully shown in blue. Get rid of them and pick verbs with force instead.

You can utilize a shorter word in place of a purple one. Mouse over it for hints.

Phrases in green have been marked to show passive voice.

Mailchimp: Send 12,000 emails to 2,000 subscribers for free.

Design experience not required!

Pick a pre-designed template or use the email designer to create beautiful newsletters. MailChimp’s responsive email templates make your newsletters look great on mobile devices, too.  Build your list with Facebook and WordPress.  MailChimp’s integrations also allow you to embed signup forms and collect subscribers on platforms you already use.

Looking for more tips? Maybe some help? Like our Facebook page today! www.facebook.com/socialjmarketing

5 tips for successful Email Marketing

According to most Marketing Professionals, email marketing is still topping the list of most effective ways to market your products or services.  We at Social J Marketing tend to agree.

Here are 5 tips to get you started with a successful email campaign. 

1.) Grow Your Email List Organically
DO NOT buy email lists.  Though it may seem like a viable option, this strategy often hurts your overall efforts.  Do not be just another SPAM email.  Provided email to those who are actually interested in your products and services.  Many email marketing management systems provide you with easy options to have people signup for your lists easily. 

2.) Utilize Drip Email Campaigns
Drip marketing is popularly applied as a sales tool, particularly in long sales-cycles (large ticket items or enterprise-level sales).Whereas persistent follow-up can become a deterrent to closing the sale, Drip Marketing methods offer the ability to remain top-of-mind, and even prompt action, without jeopardizing the relationship.

3.) Send Educational Content
Think about this truth: Our customers don’t care about our products or services; they care about themselves. If we buy into this, then we must also accept that the majority of the information we produce for marketing purposes cannot be about ourselves. Our content must be based on fulfilling our customers’ needs and interests, so that they come to build a trusted and emotional connection with our brands.

4.) Have Mobile-Friendly Emails
Each time you send an email, you should be aware that a huge portion of your subscribers are going to open your message on their phones or tablets — not on their desktop computers or laptops.
It seems that every other week a new study cites an overwhelming number of people who read emails on their mobile devices — 51 percent according to Litmus, 66 percent according to Movable Ink.
The numbers vary, but the savvy content marketer knows that overlooking mobile-friendly emails is a big mistake.
Your job is to not only get your emails opened and read, but also to make your customers’ experiences just as strong as if the messages were opened on laptops or desktops.

5.) Test Your Emails
What’s the last major thing you tested in your email marketing program? Small tests, like subject line or sender personalization are quick and easy, something most great email marketing software can do out of the box.

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