It’s amazing how many companies there are providing marketing advice to SMBs - like us for instance. Many of them publish free articles and post newsletters that can be of incredible value, or sometimes a huge waste of time. I know because I read them all trying to find great material for my readers.

This one’s very useful. It’s all about improving the response rates from your email campaigns. Let’s face it, just sending out emails to your customers, clients, prospects and anyone whose address you have, doesn’t always provide the greatest return. The main problem is the sheer volume of email we receive. Apparently “Recent statistics show that over 50% of the tens of billions of e-mails sent daily are spam”. It’s no wonder our messages are not received.

So what can you do to improve your email marketing?

Well, for a start, read the article on BusinessKnowHow.com. It lists 8 top tips for you to think about (see below) and you can read the article by clicking on this link - http://www.businessknowhow.com/internet/email-response.htm.

1. Get permission
2. Focus on your Subject Line
3. Front-load your message
4. Pay attention to the spam triggers
5. Tighten up the body of your message
6. What’s on the screen?
7. Select appropriate font colours
8. List Maintenance - Keep your lists up-to-date

For me, you should also consider that:

- keeping it simple will create a bigger impact - too many “special offers” or options will reduce your conversion rates.
- providing two versions, plain text and html, will hit a wider audience.
- making sure any links to your website are correct will reduce instant deletions.

And finally. ADD VALUE! If you provide something of use in your emails, people are much more likely to read what you’ve got to say. They will also be more receptive to your promotional material.

Good luck!

With the start of the new year and after a god festive break, many of you will be back to work with a case of the January blues. After all, following a couple of weeks of eating, drinking and partying, how could sitting in the office possibly compare?

So what can you do to help ease you and your team back into a productive frame of mind? Remember your people are a key element of your marketing mix, regardless of whether you’re a goods or a services business.

Here are 7 ideas that shouldn’t cost you a fortune.

1. Re-organise the office. A change is as good as a rest as they say, and your staff may find a new lease of life from a refreshed view, a new desk, or a different working space. Of course, this will only have a short term effect but it will help in those first few weeks back.

2. Plants. Get some new plants into your work space to help “improve the atmosphere, reduce stress, and sharpen concentration” Nick Eason, CNN. Read Nick’s article at http://www.plantsatwork.org/pdf/CNNReprint.pdf or visit http://www.plantlady.com for more info about plants at work.

3. Arrange a new year kick-off party. Get your team together to reinforce the company goals for the next year, set priorities, develop camaraderie and more importantly to have a couple of beers. This shouldn’t be hugely expensive though, after all it’s likely you have just paid for a Christmas party!

4. Introduce some staff rewards. Why not start an employee of the month award, a little hackneyed but people will see the funny side of it and you’ll be surprised how much people actually like to be recognised like this. If you allow your team to vote for the employee of the month, it adds the extra dimension of being congratulated by your colleagues and not just the boss! Maybe the winner could borrow the pool car over the weekend as well?

5. Massage your employees. Not personally, but arrange for a professional to come to your office for a day of massage therapy. What better way to look after your staff in their time of need. Benefits might include reduced stress levels, renewed energy and motivation, and decreased absenteeism. Check out http://www.stressangels.co.uk/corporate/ for more ideas.

6. Introduce music to the office. OK, so not everyone will have the same taste in music, but if you can agree some common ground rules, for example no thrash metal or Radio 1, then you might find introducing music will improve the working environment. Research has even found some types of music increase productivity - read this article for more info: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1365/is_5_30/ai_57943400

7. Last but not least, give everyone an extra half day off. Assuming you aren’t snowed under with work, why not give everyone a surprise half day off. Today, Monday, next Thursday, whenever really, just call it a day after lunch so you can all head off into the sales before all of the bargains are totally snapped up. This one won’t be practical for everyone though unfortunately.

Of course, there are plenty of other ideas you could try and I’m very keen to hear of any experiences you have.

Andrew