Does your marketing strategy consist of a little newspaper advertising here, some direct mail there and maybe email marketing from time to time? If so, it’s pretty similar to that of many other small businesses. That’s not a good thing because it’s inconsistent and your marketing channels are not working together.

Marketing is a collective activity in that when multiple channels are used together, the results are almost always far greater than the sum of the channels. Direct mail, radio and television can support internet marketing to bring you results that you could never achieve with the same budget used in any one of those mediums. This is because after the creative aspect of any marketing campaign, the effectiveness is due largely to repetition and consistency. When your prospect is on their way to work and they hear your ad, they may be only slightly convinced that your product or service is right for them. When they arrive at work they’ll probably do a little more research online, and if they come across your marketing message again, they will likely become a little more convinced. Later that night when they’re watching an episode of The Big Idea on their local cable channel and they see your television ad, chances are high that they’ll be very convinced that your product or service is the right choice for their needs. Now this doesn’t mean that the will buy from you just yet, but you will be standing on significantly higher ground than your competitors at this point.

To develop a marketing campaign where all of the channels work together you’ll need to determine what your desired outcome is to be. If you’re trying to educate your prospects about a complex product or service, all of your marketing channels should be used either to drive them to your web site where they can access the applicable information or to encourage them to schedule a meeting with one of your representatives. If your goal is to push sales in a particular retail location, all of your marketing channels should be focused on driving them directly to that location. In a nutshell, choose one goal and utilize all of the marketing channels available to you to foster achieving that goal.

A large portion of our communications are conducted via email these days, however, most of us are not making it as effective as it can be. You might be surprised how many people include weak subject lines, or don’t even include a subject line at all. You may save a little time by using a generic subject line or even omitting your subject line completely, but think about this ? other people are just as busy as you, so if your subject line isn’t compelling, they will likely glaze over your email and focus their energies on the ones that they can tell are important. On the other hand, avoid using the feature in Outlook that lets you tag your emails as important. Most people don’t pay much attention to that, and it only works with Outlook anyway.

Email marketing is a tool that can, and really should be utilized by businesses of all sizes, regardless of the industry. For new or small businesses with little resources, email marketing is a powerful way to consistently reach your prospects in an inexpensive manner. For established businesses and businesses with larger marketing budgets, email marketing is a great way to provide more traction to your other marketing channels. If you are already developing content on a regular basis for your print newsletters or blog, then much of the work for your email campaign is already done.

The first step in launching an email marketing campaign is to determine if you’ll handle it in-house our outsource it. If you’ll be handling it in-house, you’ll need to choose your platform for delivery. If you’re not the technical type, then you may want to look at one of the web based services such as Constant Contact or Bronto. Aside from being relatively simple to use, these types of services also offer varying levels of statistics analysis to help you fine tune your campaigns for a higher ROI. If you know your way around a server and are comfortable installing software on a web server then you may want to consider running your own email marketing software such as phplist. This is more complex to set up but gives you complete control over all aspects of it’s operation.

The next step is to build your mailing list. You’ll want to add a link on your web site enabling visitors to join, and then contact your current customers/clients and ask them if you can add them. In moving forward, be sure to ask all of your prospects if you can add them to your mailing list. It will take some time to build a large list but the focus should be quality over quantity.

Now you’ll need to create your first email newsletter. HTML newsletters produce far better results than text newsletters but you’ll need to carefully test yours to ensure that it displays properly. Roughly 75% of business users use Outlook, so start there, but you will also need to ensure that your newsletter displays properly in web based email including free accounts like Hotmail or Yahoo. Be sure to check that all links in your newsletter work properly and that all images load properly.

When it comes to sending your newsletter, keep in mind that Wednesday, Thursday and Friday generally generate higher open rates but email sent on the weekends generally generates higher click-through rates.

In response to client requests, we have implemented an email newsletter that will offer marketing tips as well as showcase some the recent work we’ve done for our clients. Whether you have a small home business, a large company or something in between, you’ll get the resources you need to stand out from your competitors and increase your sales and profits!

You can subscribe to our newsletter via the following link:

Marketing Tips Newsletter

TRUSTe today announced the first independent certification program that reassures consumers that they won’t be subjected to spam when they submit their email address online. The program allows certified e-mail senders to display a verifiable seal confirming that their e-mail practices conform to strict privacy and fair practices. Spam, commonly acknowledged as consumers’ top online privacy-related concern, adversely affects companies by limiting the effectiveness of legitimate, requested e-mail communication and inhibiting consumers’ willingness to participate in e-commerce.

Through this program, TRUSTe affirms, with a seal stating ?We Don’t Spam,? that the e-mail reputation and practices of the company have been thoroughly reviewed and have met strict standards that eliminate the threat of unwanted email from the seal holder. The seal is to be placed on the website where the seal holder collects e-mail addresses and related personal information. TRUSTe monitors sealholder email performance with a proprietary list seeding system and a consumer complaint mechanism to flag investigation. This program, by raising consumer trust in data collection practices, will help companies increase online customer registration rates. In a pre-release trial, one company found a seven-percent increase in registrations when using the seal.

?A survey last month found that two-thirds of Internet shoppers decided not to register with a website because the privacy policy was too complicated or unclear. This marks a difficult and worsening situation for businesses that rely on trusted digital communication,? said Fran Maier, executive director and president, TRUSTe. ?Companies need a way to declare simply, clearly and believably ?we don’t spam.’ Our seal lets them say that with confidence and consumers now can trust they won’t be receiving unwanted email from these companies.?

The seal program was created with technical and financial support from DoubleClick and Return Path. TRUSTe provides certification, monitoring and oversight for Return Path’s Bonded Sender Program.

?Solid permission-based policies and practices are critical to both email deliverability and email acquisition improvements,? said Matt Blumberg, president and CEO of Return Path. ?To combat spam, companies need to differentiate themselves by having a stellar email reputation. With TRUSTe?s position as the leading consumer privacy advocate, this ?no spam’ accreditation program will help companies boost email acquisition rates by proving they are one of the good guys in email.?

“The TRUSTe Email Privacy Seal plainly demonstrates the integrity of our email policies. We increased registrations by more than 7% with the seal, and helped boost our overall email campaign metrics,” said Ian Harrison, vice president of business development, AskMen.com. ?The Email Privacy Seal helps consumers make a comfortable and informed choice to hear from us on an ongoing basis.?

?While we have always said that the spam problem could only be solved by a combination of legislation, industry self-regulation, technology and consumer education, until now consumer education has not been a focal point in the industry,? said Ken Takahashi, vice president of strategic partnerships for DoubleClick. ?This seal brings consumer education front and center by bringing clarity and trust to the critical opt-in process.?

Participants in this seal program must meet the following requirements:

1. Prior consent standard for commercial email
2. At a minimum, pre-selected option for house files
3. Opt-in for 3rd party mailings
4. No 3rd party sharing without explicit permission
5. Clear and conspicuous notice describing use
6. Easy to use, responsive, persistent unsubscribe
7. Privacy statement fully disclosing email practices
8. Willingness to participate in dispute resolution and ongoing monitoring

TRUSTe, the online privacy leader, is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to enabling individuals and organizations to establish trusting relationships based on respect for personal identity and information in the evolving networked world.

Founded in 1997, TRUSTe runs an award-winning global privacy certification and seal program. Its seal programs are considered Safe Harbors for the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the EU Safe Harbor Framework. Today, TRUSTe maintains the largest privacy seal program with more than 1,400 Web sites certified throughout the world including AOL, Microsoft, IBM, Nationwide and The New York Times. TRUSTe’s mission extends standards, certification and oversight into email with Bonded Sender. For more information on TRUSTe please visit www.truste.org .