​Email marketing campaigns are a great way to drive traffic, increase revenue, and market to your customers in a way that has a high conversion rate.  With such a long and drawn out process, however, discouragement along the way or less than stellar results can derail a campaign before it achieves its full potential.  Here are some ways to follow through with the email marketing campaign you began.
 
Don't quit if the first email results are bad
 
You put days and weeks of time and effort into building an elaborate email marketing campaign, and when the first email launches it is exciting. Then, you check the statistics and it hits you—it was a flop.  Your projections are in jeopardy, the doubts start creeping in, but don't quit!
 
Often the first email or marketing piece of a campaign is not the most effective.  Very few boxers are knocked out on the first punch.  A well organized and thought out campaign will be successful over time if it is allowed to finish, so do not hit the eject button at the first sign of trouble. 
 
The email could have been launched at a bad time or buried in your customers’ inboxes with a host of other ones.  Maybe the customers don't have familiarity with your brand yet and the campaign will help build that.  The easiest way to follow through with a struggling campaign is to finish it.  It is better to evaluate the entire thing than stop halfway and wonder if it was the right choice.
 
Focus on the original goal
 
During an email marketing campaign, it can get discouraging to look at your results, or thrilling if you are landing a bunch of customers or clicks.  These emotions are dangerous because they can lead you away from your original goal. 
 
Hopefully your campaign had an initial goal that you set and this goal should be compared and monitored throughout the campaign at the end.  If the goal was to build your brand but instead you got a lot of affiliate revenue from customer's clicking links on your site or email, did that help you towards your goal?
 
One can never truly know how a campaign will go until it launches, regardless of how well you plan or research.  Sometimes you can be surprised by how well it goes.  Maybe your campaign was designed to get referral email addresses from friends of those on your list but it turns out those customers also made a ton of purchases as well.  This information, despite not being your desired outcome, can help you tremendously in future campaigns and marketing efforts outside of the email medium. 
 
Cold feet
 
If you have planned a campaign but are afraid or scared to launch it, remember that it likely does not cost you much monetarily and the upside potential is tremendous.  A well run and targeted campaign can make you money, increase your brand awareness, turn potential customers into lifelong return ones, and so much more. 
 
The input costs were likely time, effort, planning, and a little bit of money.  But compared to traditional marketing methods like advertising or direct mail, email marketing is relatively affordable.  This is one of the reasons it is so popular in addition to its ability to get your message closer to the customer than virtually anything else.  People treasure their email—so make sure your brand, your product, your baby, is in there!

​Workplace etiquette is the foundation of a comfortable and efficient workplace but is rarely ever spelled out other than in boring and dull employee handbooks.  Much of the true etiquette and office expectations can only be learned on the job--by observing, interacting, and adapting to the company's culture and your fellow employees' temperaments. 
 
Keep Shared Spaces Clean
 
Break and lunch rooms are often the most commonly used space between all employees, and are used as a place to relax and eat as well as socialize in a company approved way.  It is essential to a good atmosphere that these spaces are clean and organized. 
 
Nothing can upset a fellow employee more than getting their food stolen from the common fridge, a dirty microwave with splashed food all over, or stinky leftovers.  Treat the common areas as you would your own home and you should have no trouble. 
 
Company phones are NOT for personal calls
 
Personal calls or communication should be conducted on a personal cell phone or other device, preferably in the hallway or outside of the workspace.  This simple gesture maintains clear boundaries between work and play and can benefit both employee and employer. 
 
This separation shows the employer that you respect their time and equipment and they can return the favor by allowing the employee to disconnect from work when they clock out and avoid the constant checking of email and other distractions.
 
Don't push the dress code limits
 
Dress codes aren't meant to suppress your individuality or creativity, rather, they are essential to maintaining a culture and atmosphere that is professional.  A professional workplace is one where the focus is on business and the respective job components of that business rather than gossip, self-image, confidence, or other emotions that are not conducive to smooth business operations. 
 
Never be late
 
It goes without saying that you should never be late to work, meetings, events, or anything else work related.  What is harder to see, however, is the effect your late arrival can have on others.  It can delay the current meeting, which affects future meetings and schedules, and can reflect poorly on your direct manager as if his employees are not in line, and encourage other employees to neglect their duties and professionalism, which can hurt the business.
 
Your job is likely important to you for more than just money.  A job is also a source of social engagement, purpose, friendship, and other non-monetary advantages.  Treat it well, even if it is not your desired job or the last one you will ever have; the connections and respect you gain can help you throughout the rest of your career.
 
Use speakerphone judiciously
 
Nothing can annoy fellow co-workers more than putting a client, vendor, or other customer on speakerphone when they are working near you.  This distraction can prevent them from hearing their call and hurt their overall productivity. 
 
You may think it is fine because everyone is wearing headphones and listening to music like you do, but remember the workplace contains a broad cross section of different people and not everyone is the same as you.    

More and more businesses are beginning to enter the age of digital marketing for their Business-to-Business efforts.  And it is long overdue.  Soon, even every old school law firm in the country will have a website collecting customers instead of relying solely on referrals.  Here are some digital marketing rules you should know to keep your business ahead of the pack and land more customers for yourself.
 
Your website is your most powerful salesperson
 
Gone are the days of the top salesperson, the storefront with great foot traffic, or the award winning TV advertisement jingle that kids sing the world over.  Enter your website.  Your website is now your most powerful asset and your best salesperson. 
 
Spend the time, money, and care to make sure it is mobile friendly, has clear call to actions, and is generally top of the line.  A great website can take much of the marketing effort out of human hands, attracting customers through search engines, facilitating their acquisition, and closing the sale with little effort at all. 
 
All you have to do is turn around and deliver what the website is promising and your business will flourish. 
 
Focus on analytics that matter, not all of them
 
The amount of analytics, statistics, and data that can be gathered and poured over is enormous.  Unless you have an entire fleet of people assigned to the task, just compiling and understanding this data can take all of your time. 
 
Instead, a better approach is to identify a few key pieces that you want to focus on before you start collecting data.  The rest can be there if you need it, but these few key pieces allow you to easily and quickly understand how you are doing, what to improve or not, and if your strategy is working.  The specific adjustments can take their genesis from the other data, if it fits, but try to avoid drowning yourself in data at first. 
 
Businesses are on social media
 
As social media sites become more saturated and their users more sophisticated, a key component to any businesses' social media strategy is to blend genuine interaction and outreach with marketing themselves, and their product and services. 
 
So why not provide them an easy way to perform this genuine interaction?  Reach out to businesses in your industry or closely related to it.  It doesn't matter whether they are customers, potential customers, suppliers, or competitors, any interaction and social media presence that is not your own personal marketing can help establish trust on that particular platform. 
 
These efforts also can gather new business customers or at least build your brand so that when the business customer arrives at the beginning of your sales funnel they are slightly more familiar with your brand and the path to closing the sale is smooth.
 
Establish trust and rapport with content marketing
 
Case studies and other content marketing can not only help your SEO presence and get more customers to your site but can also help you build trust with potential business customers before you ever interact. 
 
A case study about how you helped another business, the results and impact it had, and how you communicated and worked on a personal level with that business to understand their goals can have a positive influence on your corporate image and reputation. 
 
A potential business or business owner can read that study and place himself or herself and their business in the shoes of the business featured in the case study.  This instant connection can be utilized by the rest of your sales funnel by starting the process you described in the case study. 
 
The customer will be more comfortable and let you take them along for the ride since they now know what to expect thanks to the case study.  They now have a bit of trust and knowledge that their B2B experience with your organization will have positive results for all involved. 

Generating PR as a small business or new entrepreneur can be tough.  Your budget is tight and nobody has heard of you yet, so here are some ways to get the buzz going without bankrupting your business.


Leverage Your Website
For the small business or entrepreneur starting out without a lot of capital, generating positive PR can be a challenge.  One of the easiest ways to get PR is to leverage an asset that you no doubt have, or should have, your website.  Depending on your product or business, your website might be a few pages or hundreds of pages with forums and content of all types. 


Simply getting more traffic to your website can generate a ton of PR.  If an influential person sees your site, or someone who loves what you doing tells a media organization, the PR train can leave the station before you know it.  Make sure your content or blog is updated regularly, optimized for SEO so that it can be found via search, and well designed. 


A simple website update or redesign, even if it is not much different can also be an event worth celebrating or boasting about to your network and social contacts to try to generate PR.


Go Directly to the Public
Instead of sitting back passively and running a targeted ad campaign or sending blocks of emails to random people, leverage the customers you have to generate your PR. 


There are varieties of ways you can do this. You can have your customers be involved in a new contest or venture you are running, simply asking your existing customer base to tell a friend, organizing a referral program or coupon that can save them money if they bring in new customers, or donating to a local charity or event in your community. 


This low level, grass roots type of marketing can generate positive, local, targeted PR for your business that will drive new customers and build trust for your brand. 


Do Something That No One Else Is
Generating PR on a budget in a large industry can be tough.  Instead of spending a large chunk of your precious capital to hire a firm, think outside the box and utilize your sweat equity and creativity to do something that nobody else is. 


Whether it’s putting a video on YouTube, running a crazy contest, giving every other sale to a charity, or something else equally outrageous, uniqueness can sell and get your product or business noticed in the crowded marketplace.  Good PR can't occur unless the public knows you exist and knows what your brand is, so do anything you can to get it out there and get your brand name on the public's lips. 

Marketing automation software has come a long way in recent years.  It is more than just email senders and list management, there are now a host of tools that can handle everything from 20+ social media feeds across different sites, payment portals, centralized multisite management, and everything else in between.  Here are a few of our favorite tools for automating your marketing life.


MailChimp
MailChimp is the leading email marketing and auto responding service.  The service is free for all to use when your list is relatively small, and once it grows there are a variety of affordable monthly payment options.  MailChimp allows you to use A/B testing to split your list, email new subscribers a set series of emails automatically and interfaces with a host of different plugins, systems, and content managements systems such as Wordpress.  One of the cheapest, easiest to use, and most popular email services, MailChimp is a strong choice to take your email marketing to the next level.


Hootsuite
Social media marketing can be tricky because of the fast-paced nature and changing preferences of users.  A year of building your presence on one website can go to waste when a cool new site comes out of nowhere capturing more of your target demographic.  Automation in the social media space is important so that individuals and companies can manage their social media presence across a host of different sites with different posting requirements and audiences.  Hootsuite is one of many tools that allow just that type of management all from a central hub. 


With Hootsuite you can schedule future social media posts, respond quickly to comments from many networks, and get an overall sense of how your brand is doing and what people are saying about it.  Browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox are also available. These extensions allow you to post to your sites without even opening the Hootsuite program. 


Infusionsoft
Infusionsoft is one of many all in one automated marketing tools.  The power and range of options of the tool is amazing.  From lead management, to helping close sales, to auto responding in multiple ways for individuals, to organizing all your content and social media in one central place.  This program also helps with the actual processing of the sale.  A fully functional e-commerce storefront and payment-processing network is part of the package.  This payment system can link with popular players like Paypal and Amazon payments.  While on the higher end of the price spectrum, Infusionsoft is recommend by thousands of users and could be the right fit for your business.


Pardot
Busy marketers that have multiple campaigns across a suite of website also desire a place where they can see how they all these are doing in one central place.  Pardot is a software tool that gives you exactly that.  Pardot allows the user to track their conversions, spending, lead generation, and engagement across all their marketing campaigns whether they are advertising, email, social, or otherwise.  This software is specifically for business-to-business relationship management, however, rather than business to customer.  If you have a large, complicated marketing plan or multiple sites that you manage, consider Pardot to organize your marketing life all in one place.