Book Giveaway: Branding for Bloggers

My second book, Branding for Bloggers: Tips to Grow Your Online Audience and Maximize Your Income, is out! You can find it on Amazon now.

Today, I want to offer one lucky reader a signed copy.

How to enter:

1. Share this post on Twitter or Facebook
2. Comment saying you’ve done so
3. Do both those things by midnight on May 28th

On the 29th I will pick a winner, get in touch, sign a copy and send it out. It’s that simple!

The 5 C’s of Calls to Action

A good deal of time has been devoted to calls to action on this blog recently. We’ve talked about using calls to action in all forms of marketing in order to capitalize on the messaging that you’re putting out there. Tell people what to do next, or you risk losing them.

Here are my 5 Cs of Calls to Action to keep in mind as you prepare your next marketing piece:

1. Clear – It should be obvious what you want me to do next. Tell it to me straight, e.g. “Call 1-800-555-5555”.
   
   
   
2. Concise – Keep it short and sweet. It doesn’t need to take a long time to spell out how to follow up. One, simple action is all you should offer.
   
   
   
3. Cheap – Where possible, keep the commitment level low and you’ll get more people taking action. And I’m not just talking about money here, but time and privacy as well.
   
   
   
4. Captivating – This is the “why” of the call to action. It’s made up of the rest of the message. What am I going to get when I call, or email, or visit, or purchase. The “why” is what gets me to take action when you tell me to.
   
   
   
5. Central – Don’t hide the call to action amongst a thousand other messages. It should be obvious, it should stand out. Everything else should lead toward the call to action. So start with the call to action, and complete the rest of the piece with that in mind.

5 Reasons Email Isn’t Going Anywhere

Welcome to another edition of the “5 Reasons” blog series. This will be a weekly blog series, with a fresh post every Monday. Last week’s topic was “Five Reasons Your Email Isn’t Generating Clicks”.

This Week’s Topic = Five Reasons Email Isn’t Going Anywhere

Despite what some unrealistic marketers will tell you, email is not going away any time soon. The other day I was giving a talk on email marketing and someone raised their hand and said, “Is it even worth getting started (with email) at this point? Isn’t it a dying medium?” No!

Here are the five reasons that email is here to stay:

1. It’s not social. That’s the single biggest argument that you will hear. Social is replacing email. It’s simply not true. I don’t know how else to say it. But ask yourself, do you use both social and email? If you said yes you are like most people.
   
   
   
2. People still use it. Email usage has not gone down in recent years. In fact, the number of emails sent last year was the highest of any year on record. That’s not the sign of a dying medium.
   
   
   
3. Response rates are still high. Marketers are finding success with email because it’s a preferred channel for consumers. Many people subscribe to emails from companies they’re interested in, actively seeking deals and offers catered to them.
   
   
   
4. It’s a relatively cheap form of marketing. Return on investment in this area is high, and very easily measurable in most cases. You can test your way into email quickly, and on a low budget. Even companies with large email lists spend a relatively small amount of their marketing budget in the channel.
   
   
   
5. Nothing else replaces it. Besides social, there is no other channel that is replacing email. SMS, online chats, and other messaging systems have only added to the options that are out there. But none has pushed email to the sidelines.

As always, if you have your own tips, please include them in the comments below.

“I” of the Consumer Week in Review

Yesterday was Armed Forces Day. I’m reminded of the many people that I’ve known that have served. I’m reminded of how much we rely on their service to continue to enjoy the daily freedoms we enjoy. And I’m thankful that there are people far braver than I, people that risk their lives each and every day to ensure that I can live the life that I live. Thank you!

If you are recovering from a busy week, you may have missed the following posts:

1. 5 Reasons Your Email Isn’t Generating Any Clicks
2. What’s Below the Fold
3. The Power of a Phone Number in Advertising
4. Sign My Personal Finance Education Petition on Change.org

Happy Sunday!

Bonus - 3 Ways to Boost Your Marketing Knowledge:

1. Subscribe to my monthly newsletter to get answers to all your marketing questions
2. Ask a marketing question that I will answer in my monthly email newsletter
3. Subscribe to the blog via RSS and never miss another post

Sign My Personal Finance Education Petition on Change.org

Every day we hear about the “gap”. We hear about the education gap, the wealth gap, the technology gap. Some people are at a disadvantage, some people are reaping all the rewards.

But I’ve grown concerned about another gap, one that does not get nearly the attention it deserves. It’s the gap between what we’re expected to know financially, and what we’re taught.

The amount of personal finance education in this country, and the attention that it gets, is disgusting. In my opinion, if introduced correctly, financial education in our schools could have the single largest impact on the success of future generations (and the country as a whole).

And that’s why I’ve decided to act. I just created a petition on Change.org to ask our federal government to push the need for financial education throughout the country.

Please take a moment (it takes less than 60 seconds in total) to sign on.

And thank you in advance for your help!

Sign here - http://www.change.org/petitions/us-department-of-education-push-states-to-set-up-a-personal-finance-curriculum