Author Archives: Laurel Lindsay

About Laurel Lindsay

Laurel Stark née Lindsay has helped thousands of businesses get better results from their online marketing since she began her career as a web marketer in 2003. As a speaker, author and CEO of The New Media Group, she’s been featured on CNN, Entrepreneur.com, CTV and ShawTV.

3 Tips for managing your email storage quota

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If you’re hosting your website with us, you get 25 email boxes, free with your web hosting.

However, these email boxes provide a limit of 1 Gig of space stored on the server. This includes all emails and attachments in all folders.

Once you hit your space limit, emails sent to you will bounce back to the sender. 

If you’ve received a notification from the administrator like the following message, there are 3 options for reducing your email size to below 1 Gig.

“Currently, incoming messages are still being delivered.
In order to continue receiving email, you will need to work with your email
administrator to make room for new messages. Beginning soon if your mailbox is over capacity, messages sent to you will be returned to the sender.”

1. Delete Trash Items:

You’d be surprised how much space items you’ve deleted take up. Permanently deleting items in your trash folder can in many cases free up the space you’ll need.

2. Delete Spam Items:

This folder may be automatically set up to store Spam emails redirected from your inbox.

By deleting your spam mail, you’ll free up extra space.

3. Delete Sent Items

By deleting your sent emails, you’ll certainly free up a lot of space. In many cases your sent folder may be as big as, or bigger than your inbox itself.

For some industries, such as those sending and receiving engineering or architectural drawings, a 1 Gig email box may be difficult to manage.

Still need more space? Upgrade your email hosting to  25 G per mailbox- for only $5 per mailbox, per month!

 

The 5 New Rules For Conducting Email Marketing in Canada

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Are you marketing to your Canadian customers and prospects via email ?

Did you know your business may be at risk of losing over 80% of your subscribers- or worse- get fined millions of dollars?

Since the AntiSpam Legislation in Canada was changed at the beginning of July, many business owners have found themselves unsure of how to protect their businesses from heavy fines, while ensuring their marketing efforts aren’t being crippled by the new law.

The 5 New Rules For Conducting Email Marketing in Canada:

The first thing to do is brush up on the changes:

1. Learn about what CASL or the new Canada Anti-Spam act allows and disallows.

The biggest takeaway from the legislation change is that any member of your email marketing list needs to give you explicit, rather than implicit consent to market to them.

This means each member of your list must take an action to give you permission to market to them. These actions could include replying to an email with the word yes, or clicking an “I consent” button.

You have 3 years to obtain explicit consent before you risk being fined.

2. Split your lists

Create a new list for “Antispam consent”- here’s where you want to add subscribers who have officially consented to be marketed to.

The goal is to convert as many people from your existing list, to your new Antispam list as possible.

3. Commit to your list

You have 3 years to gain the explicit consent needed to ensure your compliance with the Antispam act.

So, make use of the entirety of this this time!

Don’t lose the subscribers you’ve worked so hard to gain.

Keep asking your subscribers to confirm their consent.

4. Create multiple strategies to ask for consent.

In cases where we’re managing the email marketing for our clients, we’ve found asking subscribers to hit reply has a biggest success rate than asking people to click a button and confirm their consent .

Secondly, experiment with email subject headings to see which ones perform the best; get the best open rate and click through rate. Then, use this data to make improvements to your next campaign.

5.  Put your money where your mouth is

Email marketing is one of the most effective types of marketing because it builds solid relationships with new and existing customers; keeping you top of mind and positioned as an expert.

Your list possesses incredible value and potential for sales revenue- a value high enough to warrant dishing out some incentive to maintain your list of qualified prospects.

Incentivize email consent with a contest, giveaway or other gift.

Great Idea: Think of a simple contest- giveaway a coffee card and profile the winner in your next email newsletter.

Was this post helpful? Please share your email marketing questions, concerns and comments below!

 

Anti Spam Legislation Canada and what it REALLY means for your business.

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You may have heard about Canada’s new anti spam law, coming into effect this July 2014.

If you’re in business, you may be wondering what does this mean for my business? 

Many business owners communicate with their customers, prospects and peers via email newsletters.

Here’s what you need to know to ensure compliance.

  • The legislation comes into effect July 1 2013
  • It states that you will need to obtain explicit consent within 3 years of the law going into effect.
  • Explicit consent means the recipient needs to take some action to confirm they want to continue to get your emails.
  • Explicit consent is the opposite of implicit consent which is inferred or assumed by your business relationship.
  • An example of explicit consent would be asking the recipient to click to confirm they still want to get your emails.
  • You need an opt out button
  • You need your physical mailing address

 

After a 3 year roll out period, you could be fined for emailing those who have not given you express explicit consent.

Read more details on Canada’s Anti Spam Legislation here. 

Learn more about email marketing

Check out our email marketing services

Subscribe to my You Tube Channel

 

 

What to do when you can’t remove bad reviews online

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A bad review can have a devastating impact on your business reputation.

So, how can you protect yourself and your business from bad reviews?

What if you can’t remove bad reviews?

First of all, take heart.

Bad reviews happen to everyone and every business no matter how hard you try to please everyone.

In many cases, you know exactly who the customer is, and the situation they’re dealing with.

Sometimes this customer may be unreasonable, highly emotional, unaccountable for their part in the situation- or worse- all three.

Here are 7 ways to deal with a bad review. 

  1. DO NOT ignore the review. You must take proactive steps to address the bad review.
  2. Avoid the temptation to argue or blame your customer.
  3. In the same forum for review- publicly acknowledge how they’re feeling and that they’re obviously upset.
  4. Invite them to contact you directly so you can make it right.
  5. Reiterate online exactly what you did or are willing to do to make it right.
  6. Contact them directly and ask them to remove the bad review.
  7. Solicit positive reviews until you have more good than bad.

By addressing the review that just wont go away you’re being accountable, transparent and honest. All traits that anyone reading reviews of your business will appreciate.

 

 

 

Everything You Need to Know About Marketing Yourself on Social Media

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In this live on Google Hangout’s interview we cover what every business owner needs to know about social media.

The interview is a follow up to Laurel’s book- Social on 17 – How to successfully market yourself on social media in only 17 minutes a day.

In this 49 minute interview, we cover; Social Media Do’s and Don’ts, How often to Post, Using Automated Tools, The HIT List, How to Blog for your Business.Screen Shot 2014-06-03 at 3.11.00 PM

BONUS: How to ask for the sale and How to Differentiate yourself from the competition.

Hit play and go on with your workday, and in less than an hour you will have learned everything you need to know about marketing yourself on social media!

If you like this post, please share!

 

5 Amazingly Simple Blog Post Ideas Every Overworked Business Owner Needs to Know

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Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

And when it comes to digital marketing, working smarter means taking full advantage of what’s already working.

Whether you’re just starting to write blog posts, or you’ve been doing it for awhile you may need some help to come up with topics for your blog posts. 

This post will show to come up with an unlimited supply of blog post ideas based on the premise that you’re going to imitate that which is already working.

5 steps to writing blog posts in your sleep:

  1. Find out what blog posts are already going viral
  2. Improve upon the existing blog post
  3. Be inspired by powerful headlines that are already working
  4. Adapt the headline to fit your blog post
  5. Publish & spend the rest of the day in the hammock, lavishing in the attention from your adoring fans. 

Sure, that sounds easy- but where to start?

First, the research portion. Finding out what posts are trending is easy, if you have this Top 5 Trending list:

Step One:

Find out what to blog about.

  1. Check out alltop.com for posts that are trending
  2. Search Google Keyword + Best + Top 50 + Best 2014 for great blog post ideas.
  3. Go to the Reddit home page 
  4. Go to BuzzFeed.com
  5. Check out medium.com

Step two:

5 Stupidly Easy Ways to Improve Upon Successful Content

Once you’ve found an article that would provide value for your audience to you, spend a few minutes and think on how you can improve it. 

We’re not suggesting you copy the post. Simply use it as a basis from which to start. Then, ask yourself these 5 questions:

  1. If it’s a top 10 list, can you make it into a top 15 list?
  2. Inversely, if it’s a top 10 list, can you make it a top 5 list?
  3. Can you improve upon the image used?
  4. Was there any information missed or outdated?
  5. Can you make it easier or more fun to read?

Step Three:

Creating the best headline for your blog post

Again, we’re going to be inspired by the masters. Check out the headlines on websites like these and make note of one or two exceptionally powerful ones

  1. Mashable.com
  2. Buzzfeed.com
  3. Techcrunch.com
  4. FastCompany.com
  5. The Onion

Step four

Create the best headline you’ve ever not written

Take the most compelling headline you’ve found and modify it to fit your subject matter.

Step five

Publish & revel in your glory.

BONUS Advanced Blogging Manœuvres:

  1. Instal Feedly.com and begin compiling a Google Reader Style aggregate of other industry specific sites that may have great content
  2. Instal the Scrape Extension & Use the “Scrape Similar” feature to get even more hot articles and topics
  3. Opensiteexplorer.com will tell you the most popular pages on any given site– ie- your competitors!

How to write blog posts

This article would not have been possible without the amazing presentation by James WD Anderson at Social Media Camp 2014.

Thank you James!

Did you like this post?

 

 

Please share it ! Or, if you have a minute and are procrastinating right now, leave me a comment below.

Here’s What You Missed at Social Media Camp

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Social Media Camp is an annual 3 day event that takes place in Victoria, BC each spring.

3 main salons and multiple additional spaces at the Victoria Conference Centre bring together presenters and delegates alike to network and share information on the latest & greatest in Social Media today.

At any given time, there are 3 speakers presenting simultaneously, making it Canada’s largest social media conference 5 years running.

Here are my key takeaways from the event.

StoryTelling In Social Media:

In contrast to last year’s emphasis on tactical and practical implementation techniques, this year was very much about the stories we tell on social media.

3 of the presentations I caught were focused on this theme.

How to incorporate stories into your brand and culture, the stories you tell to go viral and the parables used to close the deal were all brought up.

Stories can help alleviate the paradox of disconnect so many people experience in their connections on social media.

photo (8)

Presenters such as Tod Maffin explained how to build a killer viral marketing campaign.

Steve Dotto explained how to grow your YouTube channel exponentially through the use of visual storytelling.

April Dunford discussed how to incorporate stories into your sales pitch.

Facebook Makes Marketing Challenging:

Facebook’s new algorithm change has dramatically decreased visibility of Facebook pages.

This move makes it clear that marketers and businesses are now expected to pay in order to reach their audience.

The topic of how to maneuver in the new Facebook landscape was another underlying theme.

James WD. Anderson highlighted the strategic imperative of sending Facebook fans to your website or other web property to help convert.

Matt Astifan’s entire talk was based on how to manage Facebook Advertising effectively and Amber Osborne & Sean Smith discussed whether 100 customers or 100,000 likes is better for business.

Content, Content, Content:

As expected, most speakers and attendees stayed obsessed with content.

Attendees took photos of themselves with hashtag signs, and many speakers discussed how to create & curate content that converts.

If you missed Social Media Camp, and would like to learn more about attending next year, click here to visit their website. 

To get more information on this past event, search #smcamp on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook & Google +

 

 

 

Winner of the Social In 17 ; Vancouver Business Network Event Announced

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An enthusiastic crowd of business owners gathered at the Vancouver School of Music, April 22 to attend my 60 minute presentation of Social In 17- Successfully Market Yourself on Social Media in Just 17 Mins a day

The presentation is on the subject of my new book, and is intended to give business owners the exact practical and tactical tools they need to successfully market themselves on social media.

Hosted by the Vancouver Business Network, the seminar was a great success.

Networking followed my presentation, and I got to interact with almost all the attendees!

Door Prize Winner Announced! Congrats Mila Herenda!

Mila Herenda- winner of the doorprize!

Mila Herenda- winner of the doorprize!who won a “Get Your Toes Wet” Internet Marketing Assessment Valued at $1997:

“Get a complete assessment of your online performance, complete with competitor analysis.
 
Learn where you stand in the online marketplace; what your organization is doing well and 
 what it needs to change. Get an understanding of the opportunities for growth and under 
 serviced niche markets.
 
Assessment includes:
 
● Website 22 Point Checklist- how well is your 24/7 sales tool performing?
 
● Search Analysis- can you be found where your customers are searching for you?
 
● Social Media- complete network assessment- where are you online and is it working? 
 
● One Hour- One on One consultation and Question and Answer period with Laurel
 
Congrats Mila!
For more info:
What people say about the Social in 17 Presentation
Learn more about Social in 17 the Book

 

 

Why Your Company Needs an Optimized Social Media Presence

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new-media-group-optimized-social-mediaGone are the days of needing the newspaper or the radio to tell the world about your ideas. You no longer need press releases or the wire to break exciting news to your customers, and you no longer need a TV to publicize videos and online commercials. The only thing you need is a social media strategy.

Plain and simple, your business needs to be online; if you’re not sharing, tweeting or posting, you’re falling behind. Social media has taken the world of information by storm – we’re able to watch events unfold in real time, and see the opinions of people from all over the world with just a couple of clicks. Your business is able to take advantage of these tools in order to gain more followers, develop your reputation, improve your SEO, and gain direct access into the thoughts and values of your customers.

Here are four reasons why your business needs an optimized social media strategy:

1.    Extend Your Reach

Social media is arguably the largest method of communication – it gives you access to hundreds of millions of people! Whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+, you have the chance to connect with people of all ages, from all around the world. Some great ways to do this are to start following or “liking” different companies that are in the same industry, or even pick a few that are just for interest! The social media world is a give-and-take process; the more you share and follow the more you’ll get in return.

2.    Direct Access

Customer feedback is the most valuable insight for a business. You get to learn what your customers are looking for and how you can improve for next time! With social media you’re able to make that feedback turn into a conversation, and show that individual as well as many other potential customers, how dedicated you are to working with them to meet their needs.

3.    Thought Leadership

Having a business blog or generating an opportunity to be a guest writer on someone else’s blog is a great way to improve your business’ reputation. People know that real people run businesses, and they want to know the thoughts and values of those top executives. Writing out your ideas can turn your status towards thought leadership, and you’ll start being the source that people go to for details about your industry. Whether you’re in finance, construction, jewellery making – you name it! Show the world your expertise over your social media channels.

4.    SEO

Lastly, from a technical standpoint, social media is a quick way to improve how you rank in search engines listings. It grants you more links and pages, and the more your content gets shared the more opportunities you will have to show up through searches. There are also a number of very insightful programs that are able to run analytics on your accounts to see how your influence is growing, and where you’re seeing the most success.

With the number of individuals using social media to pick where they shop, eat, buy, visit, etc., you will be left in the dust without an online presence. Take the time to build out a strategy that will show the world your thoughts, and then build a system so that you can show customers your commitment to them through responses. Social media is invaluable, and could be just the step that your company was looking for to take it to the next level.