Category Archives: Social Media

Email and Facebook Marketing presented by Constant Contact

By Chemeketa SBDC

The Power of Email Marketing
Email is a powerful marketing tool for the business owner; a tool that, when used in the right way, will dramatically increase business growth and success. Combine your email marketing with social media and you’ve got a killer combination! Whether you’re more experienced with email and social media marketing, or just getting started, this is the seminar for you. And hey… it’s FREE!

1. Learn how to build relationships that are the key to the success of your business with easy, inexpensive, and highly effective email marketing (using an email service).

2. Explore the basics of what email marketing is, why it works so well, and how it easily integrates with social networking sites.

3. Learn how to master email marketing communications. We’ll take a comprehensive look at best practices and winning strategies for keeping existing subscribers engaged, and developing new relationships along the way:

- Reach more people with your message
- Create email campaigns that get results
- Get your emails opened and read
- Write compelling subject lines and copy
- See examples of successful email campaigns

Dana will walk through the first few steps of creating your first email campaign & will ntroduce the Constant Contact Online Learning Center & Social Quickstarter.

Supercharging Your Facebook Marketing with Social Campaigns
If you’re like most businesses, you already see the value in connecting with your current and potential customers via social media. But the challenge is figuring out what you actually need to do with social media in order to drive real results for your business or organization.

This seminar is the “what, why, and how” of social campaigns: how to drive repeat business and amplify word of mouth by engaging your happy customers, stay top of mind to make it easy for them to share your message, and measure results. It’s divided into three core sections:

1. Plan: driving repeat business and amplifying word of mouth with a great offer!

2. Publish: sharing your message easily, to stay top-of-mind with others (engage!)

3. Promote: growing your business and measuring results

Dana will share examples of how others are using Constant Contact’s Social Campaigns to engage their current customers, gain new customers and grow their business.

Who should attend? These sessions are suitable for both the email and social media marketing beginner and for those who’ve had more experience – great hints and tips to apply to your small business marketing strategy!

Time: 10:30 am – 1 pm
Instructor: Dana Pethia, Regional Director, Constant Contact in the Pacific Northwest
Location: Chemeketa Center for Business & Industry, 626 High Street NE, Downtown Salem
Cost: FREE. Registration is required. A light lunch will be provided for those who pre-register. Seating is limited so REGISTER TODAY!

Registration and Information: 503.399.5088

Posted in Best Practices, Marketing Ideas, Online Marketing, Social Media, Success Stories | Comments Off

Three Social Media Don’t Do’s

By Chemeketa SBDC

As a business owner it’s tempting to think that social media will solve all your marketing problems. It’s free, right? And reaches a vast audience, right? Well, maybe. There are better and worse ways to use social media. Here are a few common errors to avoid.

• Blatant self-promotion. Who appreciates a self-involved bore? No one and especially not customers. Think about social media as a conversation that is only partially about you, and mostly about the folks you’re talking with. Like any good conversation, it’s a free flow of ideas where no one person dominates the action.

This means that it’s important for people to leave comments, “like” what you put out, and generally interact with you. Get back to them with comments and posts that show you’re paying attention to what they say. Encourage participation that focuses on them and not you.

• The hard sell. This is just as unappealing on social media as it is in person. No one wants to hear the “buy me!” message being trumpeted at high volume. Social media is about building relationships, not using people to get to their wallets.

Experts say that 10 percent or less of your content should be a marketing pitch. This is one out of ten messages (or less). That means the other nine messages should be about providing information, answering questions, affirming what others say, and serving as a trusted resource. Social media shouldn’t be your entire marketing focus anyway, and that means that you can ask for a sale in other channels.

• Believing that just because it doesn’t cost you anything means it’s free. Wrong! There’s a big cost to your time (and your staff’s time) in keeping up with the social media channels you’ve chosen. To do this well you need to be paying attention several times a day. Think about the number of hours you can devote to this and assign a cost. Consider how social
media marketing fits into your workday and the workloads of you and your staff.
If you’re doing this, what else are you not doing, and what’s the opportunity
cost to that?

In order to do this well you should choose only one or two social media avenues and focus your energies there, and not scatter-shot by trying to be everywhere. Better to do a couple of things well than many things poorly.

Marcia Bagnall is Director of the Chemeketa Small Business Development Center and instructor of Small Business Management Program. The Small-Business Adviser column is produced by the center. Questions can be submitted to SBDC@chemeketa.edu. Visit
the SBDC at 626 High Street NE. in downtown Salem or call (503) 399-5088.

Posted in Best Practices, Small Biz Management, Social Media | Comments Off