Classy Marketing

10 Ways to (Not) Suck at Email Marketing

  |   Business Tips, Classy Marketing, Email Marketing   |   26 Comments

how_to_suck_at_email_marketing

A guest post by Kirsten Thompson, blogger & e-newsletter extraordinaire

Hey fellow creatives! I'm honored to be here with you today, and so grateful to Erika for allowing me to share my love of all things "newsletter" with you!

First, let's be honest with one another.

If you're like a lot of bloggers and online business people, you fall into one of these two categories regarding newsletters:

1. You know you need a newsletter, you just don't know where to start.

2. You have a newsletter, but you know you need to kick it up a notch.

Today, I want to share with you 10 ways to absolutely suck at email marketing, and how to make sure you don't.
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10 Introvert-Friendly Offline Marketing Ideas For Your Blog + Business

  |   Business Tips, Classy Marketing   |   57 Comments

10 Offline Marketing Ideas for Introvert Bloggers + Business Owners

You may or may not be surprised to know this, but it's true: I'm an introvert.

Promoting my business just does not come easy to me.

(Sisters, if I could run Olyvia while living in a comfortable hobbit hole and sharing it with absolutely nobody, I would.)

In the event you share my shy tendencies (or, you know, just like easy marketing tactics), today I thought it would be useful + a shamelessly amount of simple to share some introvert-friendly ways to get your name out into your local community -- without using online methods.

Because although I am a passionate proponent of using digital marketing, I'm also a believer in finding tiny little areas to dominate that others are not.

Do you know what that area is for blogs + online-only businesses right now? Good ole' fashioned, internet-free "guerilla marketing."

So here are 10 easy offline marketing ideas that will help you promote your blog or brand. (But won't result in sweaty hands + stomach knots.)

Try one and see how it goes!
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7 Pithy Quotes From The Middle Ages That Will Help You Run A Soaring Business Today

  |   Business Tips, Classy Marketing, Customer Service, Reputation   |   11 Comments

These 7 quotes out of the Middle Ages will boost your business savvy, woo your customers, + make you a happier business owner.

You're probably wondering how I came up with such a loopy topic.

Middle Ages? Business quotes? Wha?

All I can say is that I have a slight obsession with both subjects and decided the only fitting thing to do was to mash the two together and see what kind of mess I could create.

Forgive me.
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A Guide To Getting Noticed On Pinterest With the Smart Feed + Promoted Pins

  |   Business Tips, Classy Marketing, Olyvia TV, Social Media Marketing   |   43 Comments

How to get noticed on Pinterest: the 411 on the smart feed + promoted pins, and what to put in place to help your blog + business.

We've always considered Pinterest a pretty reliable social network as far as what it takes to get our Pins seen, right?

If you have a good image, write a description with a few keywords + sprinkle of enthusiasm, and post it within a few hours of the mad after-dinner onslaught of your followers coming online while their hubbies turn on EveryNight Football, you're set.

Well, most of the time anyhow!

So, I suspect this is why the recent change in Pinterest's home feed is unsettling to a lot of people.

Oh don't think I haven't heard you grumbling on Twitter. :)

What happened is that -- in a nutshell -- Pinterest decided, "Hey, we think that when people spend time looking at their feed, they want to see the best Pins + the Pins that are most interesting to them! Not just the 62 Pins of beanie hats and miniature porcelain dogs one of their followers put up last night."

You have to admit. They had a point.

And that's why they switched up a whole bunch of things and called it something new: The Smart Feed.

Pinterest's announcement of it was, shall we say, a bit cerebral. (Still love you, Pinterest!) So in today's video I'll lay out the details for you in simple terms. Plus I'm going to show you exactly how you'll need to Pin going forward.

You'll also learn about Promoted Pins and how they can be an added boost to your blog -- and even build your email list! -- all for literally just a few cents.

(Hint: if most of your traffic comes from Pinterest, I think you're really going to lovvvve this part.)

The "official" Table of Contents:

#1 - The new Pinterest Smart Feed and how it affects who sees your pins

#2 - How you should start writing your Pinterest descriptions

#3 - What you need to stop doing with hashtags!

#4 - A full insider’s walkthrough on how to set up a Promoted Pin

WATCH NOW:


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How Do I Get Noticed On Twitter?

  |   Branding, Business Tips, Classy Marketing, Olyvia TV, Social Media Marketing   |   18 Comments

How to set up Twitter to get your blog + business noticed and get followers.

Here we are again, friends. It's video numero two in our sleaze-free series helping you get your business -- or blog -- noticed online!

This week I have a brief training for you on growing your following and engagement on Twitter.

Now, before I show it to you, I have an admission to make.

I used to get really stressed out about Twitter when I first made a personal account.

I had NO idea what I was doing, and to be honest it felt downright creepy to be posting things when I had, like, 4 followers.

Looking back, though, I realize I made wayyy too much fuss over it. I was Googling "top secret" strategies that could help me stand out when the reality was that all I had to do was use Twitter in the way it was intended:

To talk to people + share some new thoughts/content.

It doesn't have to be any harder than that, and that's the truth.

But, like with all social media sites, within that framework there are some guidelines. And there are definitely better ways to present yourself on Twitter than others. ;)

The video today should help you with the most essential FYIs.

In it I talk about:

#1 - The importance of a balanced, compelling profile description

#2 - Why your tweets need to have variety

#3 - What mistakes many people are making with hashtags

BONUS: I also may or may not gush over Russell Crowe and confess my affection for Leonardo DiCaprio. (Just sayin'.)

Now that you're sure to watch (hahaha), go ahead:
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How Do I Get Noticed On Facebook?

  |   Branding, Business Tips, Classy Marketing, Olyvia TV, Social Media Marketing   |   38 Comments

How to get noticed on Facebook: how to set up it up (the right way) and take your Page from amateur to pro.

You want your business to stand out and get noticed on Facebook.

You're wondering what it takes to get more followers, more likes, and more comments -- without feeling or looking like a sleazeball.

Any of that sound familiar? Yep, same here.

I've launched and managed quite a few Facebook Pages over the years and let me tell you: it was A LOT easier to get attention back then.

You really didn't have to do anything special because there was a lot less competition. And you didn't have to fight Facebook's algorithms to show up in your fans' newsfeeds!

But now? It's different. There are like a 1,252,173,450 Pages (or something like that) vying for people's "likes."

; You're lucky if you can get even 10% of your followers see your posts.

(I wish that was a joke.)

To grab people's interest so that they'll follow you -- not to mention think you're cool enough to give you likes and the highly coveted comment -- takes a killer combo of smarts + beauty + charm.

But it's not impossible. There are a lot of Pages both big and small that are getting it right, and you can, too.

Last week I gave you a "meaty" blog post (thanks, Kirsten!) all about how to begin getting people to perk up and take notice of you online.

I want you to start there, and then watch today's video that covers four more solid strategies to take your Facebook Page from "ho hum" to "whoa, she's got it together!"

In it I talk about:

#1 - The importance of images and consistent visual branding

#2 - Why completing your About description is key

#3 - What sort of content you should be sharing to stand out from the crowd of businesses all wanting to make a buck

#4 - How to use Facebook Insights to increase your visibility and engagement

Watch it now:
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