Lets Play Business!!

Hello world, today I interviewed the “Fabric Lady” or Ms. Anne Seiwert. If you haven’t read my first blog then you probably don’t know what I’m talking about, but that’s okay. The short of it is the “Fabric Lady” is the first person to ever send me a newsletter. Ms. Anne Seiwert is a very nice lady that owns a charming fabric store in the Plaza called the Thread Bear. It’s a beautiful store and I recommend it to any one that needs fabric, knitting, quilting, or embroidery products. She also offers classes relating to her products. Automatically I loved her store. As soon as I walked in it felt warm and inviting and the beautiful patterns of fabric made me forget why I came to her store in the first place. After looking around for fifteen minutes and buying a bag full of fabrics, I finally asked her about internet marketing.

My purpose for coming to her store was to find out if small businesses that send out newsletters believe in what their doing. Do they believe that newsletters traffic customers into their store…?? I asked Ms. Siewert what internet marketing strategies does she use to promote her business and she told me that she sends out newsletters and e-mails to customers periodically if she knows they are interested in a certain subject. The second question I asked her was if she believed her newsletters and e-mails traffic customers to her store. Ms. Siewert told me that she definitely believes that newsletters and e-mails work.

I mentioned in my last blog that I am an example of Thread Bear’s newsletters working, but I am surprised that Thread Bear is the only small business that I’ve received newsletters or e-mails from since I came here. There are many small businesses in Las Vegas and I’ve frequented a few of them. Since writing about newsletters I’ve wondered, why haven’t any businesses sent out any newsletters or e-mails to promote their business and traffic customers to their establishment…? Hopefully, I’ll have an answer to that question in my next blog.

Although, I have read in the past and now write about marketing I’ve never really known the importance of advertising and promoting products until now. I’m always looking for ways to make money without getting a real “nine to five job”. I’m a full time mom, student, and athlete and it makes it almost impossible to find a job that will work with my schedule. My aunt gave me the opportunity to make money that would fit into my busy schedule. She sells jewelry at the flea market in Hawaii and she told me that she would send jewelry to me so I could sell stuff at the flea market here in Las Vegas. The catch is if the flea market isn’t open it’s really hard to make sales and this is when I learned the importance of marketing.

In Hawaii, the flea market (a.k.a. swap meet) is always open, but that’s because our weather stays relatively the same throughout the year. In New Mexico, bad weather means no flea market and nowhere for us to sell our goods. An important fact that me and my aunt didn’t think about until after she sent the jewelry. This made it hard to “push” our goods. As of now I am selling jewelry by word of mouth. I’ve made sales, but only because I’ve been hefting cases of rings, pendants, flowers, and earrings everywhere I went, just to get them noticed. I was pretty much a walking bill board.

A friend that read my blog had the idea that I should write a newsletter, like I talked about in my first blog, and send it out to promote my jewelry and gain more customers. I thought this was a great idea. Word of mouth and hefting loads of jewelry does make sales, but from what I’ve been reading and learning in my business classes is if a business wants to be successful they need to do whatever they can to promote their product. Everyone’s on the internet now, so it only made sense to try and reach customers or potential customers via e-mail. I am currently in the process of creating an e-mail list and making a newsletter. The e-mail list is a slow process because of the lack of exposure and the fact that I have no real location for customers to find me. I was afraid to ask at first, but now every time a person looks at or buys something from me I ask them for their e-mail address. Everyone I’ve asked was very open to the idea of me sending them a newsletter and a few girls even wrote down their cell numbers.

Since I’m trying to create an e-mail list for my jewelry, I would like to share what I’ve learned about the subject. The very first thing I read when I was researching, was that the quality of the people interested in a businesses product is more important then the number of people that is on an e-mail list. I think I have it stuck in my head that more is better, but again it’s not. It’s more important to have a “fresh” list with customers that are interested then ones who are not. Knowing that the customer’s attention isn’t being captured can help the business to know they need to try something else to recapture their customer’s attention.

Another important aspect to building a list is to never let an opportunity pass by. Whenever there is an interaction between customers or potential customers businesses should have sign-up forms ready at the checkout or event. If a business has an online website I read that they should have the “subscribe” or “sign-up” on every page of the website. I also think this is important because I know that Lina commented on the fact that she wanted to “unsubscribe” from GNC, but didn’t know where it was on the site. Having “subscribe” on every page enables customers to see where they can “subscribe”, but to also see where the can “unsubscribe” if they are no longer interested. These are just some of the things I’ve learned and I thought would be useful for anyone out there wanting to make an e-mail list.

I would like to conclude my second blog here, but if anyone has any tips for me on how to create an e-mail list or newsletter I would appreciate it. I’m very nervous about marketing online and I feel like I'm a little kid pretending to play business, but I think it would be a good way for me to apply the things I’ve learned in class to a real life experience.

Thank You World for reading my second blog. Peace and Love

Newsletters...Do they Work??

Hello world, my name is Amanda and I currently go to school and play soccer for New Mexico Highlands University. What I would like to accomplish with my first blog is introducing my blog topic, why I’m trying to get a business degree, and why I picked internet marketing for small businesses and how it ties in with my dreams of going into fashion. Then I would like to share what I’ve learned about e-mail marketing and newsletters and I will finish by telling readers why they should read my blog.

I am writing my blog on internet marketing for small businesses. I’ve been racking my brain for days now wondering why people would want to read my blog when I don’t know anything about anything, especially about internet marketing for small businesses. So why read my blog? Well, I’ll get to that later. I would first like to explain why I am in college getting a business degree. When I left high school five years ago I wanted to become a fashion designer and I still do, but it just so happened that during my senior year my dad went on a business trip and sat next to a girl that recently graduated from a fashion design school. Her advice to my dad was that if I wanted to go into fashion I needed a business degree first and he agreed. From there my plan was thrown out the window and a new course for success was set.

I picked internet marketing for small businesses because I would like to design clothing and jewelry and sell them in my own store someday. My hope for this blog is that by researching this subject I’ll be more prepared to run a successful business. The first topic I would like to write about concerning internet marketing is e-mail marketing. I don’t really know much about computers and how the internet works, so this idea came from my teacher’s lecture, but was followed up the next day by a lady that owned her own fabric store. I was standing outside of her store for five minutes arguing with my boyfriend on whether we should go in or not. Finally the lady came out and said we should come in and write down an e-mail address if we couldn’t stay and look around. She recently sent me an e-mail and I was like “wow” that’s an example of e-mail marketing.

To be more specific than e-mail marketing I would like to talk about newsletters and explain what newsletters are, how they keep customers coming back, how often to send them, and what to write in them. A newsletter is an effective way to communicate and keep in touch with customers that are interested in a business. Many times this is a marketing tool that is often overlooked, but can be very helpful in keeping customers updated on all the happenings going on in a business. They can include information anywhere from the newest products to company policies. The way that newsletters keep customers coming back is basically they will keep customers from for forgetting about a business and their products. Customers will come back to the same business simply because when a customer needs a product a business that does send out newsletters will be thought of before businesses that don’t send out newsletters. Products need to be really amazing in order to bring customers back without any marketing help.

The question that I was interested in was, how often should a business e-mail newsletters to their customers? When I saw this question, I was thinking, “ALL THE TIME!! MORE IS BETTER!! I WANT PEOPLE TO REMEMBER ME!!” Well, that’s what I thought, but as I started to read more I found that I was very wrong. Less is more in this case. If a business doesn’t want to be a nuisance to their customers a rule of thumb seems to be at least once a week. Depending on the products a business sells this rule of thumb might or might not apply. Businesses can run a trial and error test if they want to see how often to send out newsletters. For example, if a business sends a newsletter too often they will know because customers will unsubscribe and if they send a newsletter to a customer months after they visited a store then they might unsubscribe, as well. It’s all about finding what fits the businesses products and customers. Businesses need to make sure they are not abusing this marketing tool because customers that unsubscribe could be lost to the competition.

Which brings me to what to write in a newsletter…?? Another reason for customers unsubscribing to a newsletter is that what is in the newsletter doesn’t interest them. Newsletters don’t have to be long, they just have to relate to the products being sold. Some suggestions are news, personal stories, fun facts, articles, small quizzes, numerical lists, etc., but only if it relates to the product. Some tips for making a newsletter more appealing are using different formats, having a really good title and “catchy” article names, making sure to do the research, so what’s on the newsletter is credible, and keep the tone light and conversational. Newsletters should be professional, but not so much where they seem stuffy. Another good tip that will help customers differentiate between spam and legitimate newsletters is keeping the newsletters visibly familiar. Last but not least have an unsubscribe link. It will remind customers that they subscribed to the newsletter, allow customers to unsubscribe if they want, and will minimize the spam reports.

It was mentioned before that newsletters are overlooked, but they work. This is a good marketing tool for any type of business and even more so for businesses with small budgets. Plus, there are inexpensive companies that offer newsletter management packages that will accommodate any size business. These packages can help save a lot of time, therefore making it well worth the money.

As for me, I am sold. I believe in the worth of newsletters and how they can keep customers interested in a business. Newsletters might not be the businesses number one marketing tool, but why not use it anyways if it can help to make a business more successful. Plus, the newsletter the “Fabric Lady” has sent me has brought me back to her store numerous times, so I’m a example of newsletters working. The funny thing is that she could have let me pass by without writing down my e-mail and I would’ve continued to buy my fabric from Walmart and supporting the “MAN”, but because she stopped me I’ve decided to support her small business instead. And that’s a Cinderella Story, right there.

So, we’re back to why should you read my blog…You should read my blog because if you don’t know anything about internet marketing for small businesses and want to learn more, you can learn right along with me. Secondly, if you are knowledgeable about internet marketing, own your own small business, or knowledgeable about business in general you can help me by giving me advice and letting me know if the information I find and write about works, doesn’t work, is true, or just a bunch of nonsense I got off the internet. I will appreciate any advice or feedback.

Thank You World for reading my first blog. Peace and Love.