Easy way to FAIL!

I opened my email the other day to find a message from BranchOut, asking me to "Like" its page and I'd immediately be entered for a chance to win a new iPad. Good enough, I thought—it's an easy click on the button, I already enjoy the service, and who wouldn’t want a new iPad. So...

"Click"

Immediately, a new window appears stating "503 Error—Request could not be completed."

Hmmm….okay, let’s try that again. "Click."

Same message: "503 Error—Request could not be completed."

At this point, I'm done. Out of here. If you can't do a simple thing like process the link from your OWN email, then I don't have time to wait, and won't remember to come back at a later date. It's not THAT important.

That's the message here. When you engage the customer—whether through email, social media, print advertising or face-to-face, make sure you can complete your offer and satisfy the customer’s need or want AT THAT MOMENT. If you take the mindset that they will return later, or there's another chance tomorrow, or you will "get around to it," you've shown the customer that he or she is less important in this exchange than whatever you are doing. Your customer has a variety of things to do during their day—things that are important to them—and if they've taken part of their valuable time to interact with you, they want to know that you're giving them you undivided attention.

Because if you don’t, there’s certainly no shortage of others who will.

Avoid These 6 Common Email Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make

If email seems a little old school to you, you’re right. Email turns 40 this year, and it’s being outpaced by texting, instant messaging and Facebook messaging. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pointed out last year, email is too much of a “cognitive load” for younger people.

Yet you probably haven’t given up your Gmail account yet, have you? That’s because, despite the stigma of being a middle-aged technology, email is still useful and universally accepted. In fact, those who make a living from email marketing say there’s never been a better time to do what they do.

“Email marketing is getting more exciting because of some of the things you’re able to do with it,” says Chip House, vice president of relationship marketing at ExactTarget, “because of the ability to bake in social sharing. You can follow me on Facebook or tweet about this.”

For small businesses, email still represents a cheap, effective way to establish or maintain a relationship with clients. But there’s the rub. While the medium is fairly neutral-to-positive, the content has the power to either attract or repel. So before you hit “send” on your next batch email newsletters, take heed of these six common email marketing mistakes.

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