The 5 New Rules For Conducting Email Marketing in Canada

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Laurel Lindsay

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!

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

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Laurel Lindsay

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:

Find out what blog posts are already going viral
Improve upon the existing blog post
Be inspired by powerful headlines that are already working
Adapt the headline to fit your blog post
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.

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

If it’s a top 10 list, can you make it into a top 15 list?
Inversely, if it’s a top 10 list, can you make it a top 5 list?
Can you improve upon the image used?
Was there any information missed or outdated?
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

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:

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

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

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Laurel Lindsay

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

: Tod Maffin

: Steve Dotto

: Gary Mason

: James WD Anderson

: Juhli Selby & Laurel Lindsay

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.

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 +

Social in 17 now available

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Laurel Lindsay

If you’re feeling confused and overwhelmed about how to use Social Media as a marketing tool, you are not alone.

This book cuts through confusing lingo and contradictory advice to bring you up to speed in under 10,000 words.

Complete with printable cheat sheets, this book will quickly position you to receive the increased exposure, credibility and leads that result from successful marketing on social media.

Buy the book on Smashwords
Buy the book on Amazon
Buy the book on ibooks

By focusing on practical and tactical information, you will learn:

The differences between Traditional and Digital Media
The Common Pitfalls of marketing using Social Media, and how to avoid them.
Straight Up Social Media Do’s and Don’ts
Growing your network exponentially and continually.
Converting Contacts To Customers
What to Post- Content Curation and Creation
Automation- Save time with today’s automation tools
Getting Set Up– Starting from Scratch or Renovating
Execution– Marketing Yourself in Only 17 Minutes a Day

If you want to:

● Learn to use Social Media to build your business- without spending long hours
● Learn the exact, hands on, proven tactics the experts use to deliver measurable returns
● To receive the step-by-step to-do’s that will help to translate these concepts into daily action

Then this ebook is for you.

Get it from Smashwords
Get it from Amazon
Get it from ibooks

What people say about Social in 17:

As a budding author trying to market my books online, Social in 17 has given me a perspective on how to manage my social media presents. I believed that social media was another direct sale tool. With this attitude I did not achieve good results and gave up. Laurel Anne Lindsay’s approach of cultivating a network with sales as a result that network makes more sense to me. Laurel gives an easy to follow plan on how to use social media and suggestions on what media to use. I know that with the tools from Social in 17 I won’t be a social media newb for long

Super job Laurel!
Great read – keeps me engaged throughout.
Good solid advice on social media.
Lays out easy to follow strategies to keep up to date and current on your social media accounts.

“Really! Social Media can be done in 17 minutes a day. Laurel gives you the structure, the tips, and the ideas. This book is quick and easy to read. She touches on all the major social media platforms but she isn’t short on details. I enjoyed Laurel’s clear and concise style. Well worth my time (and I teach courses on social media). “

This whirlwind tour of marketing in the social media age gets right to the point(s) with highly actionable, no-nonsense instructions on how to get the job done. While Ms Lindsay does set context with a solid nod to the What and Why, she deftly takes you to the How and When very efficiently so you’re able to put the learning into practice without delay. Social in 17 is an excellent resource for anyone looking to market their business on social media without having to spend extra consuming theories and hypotheses of arguable utility. Its basically a marketer’s Coles Notes for the modern internet!

Get it from Smashwords
Get it from Amazon
Get it from ibooks

5 ways to convert your website traffic into qualified leads

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Laurel Lindsay

Your website could be the hardest working salesperson on your team.

Are you using it to it’s best ability?

Here are 5 simple, yet effective changes you can make to your website design to increase the quality & quantity of the leads it generates.

1. Make sure each page has at least ONE call to action.

A call to action is quite simply the action you are requesting your visitor takes.

That request could be to call you, to sign up for the newsletter, to engage in live chat etc.

Typically you want to make the most important call to action the most prominent, and ideally, only have one per page.

You need to make it crystal clear what you want your visitor to do.

Clarity & focus can be generated by using bright colors, big font, eye catching graphics and even multimedia, like videos.

2. Show social proof, in spades.

Be sure to showcase case studies, testimonials or even just how many people are part of your mailing list.

This type of social proof acts as an unofficial endorsement of your abilities and trustworthiness.

Trust is hard to build online, so do your best to reassure your website visitors with reviews, formal or otherwise, from others.

3. Make it easy for people to contact you

Give your website visitors several ways to get in touch with you, so they can adopt the way they’re most comfortable with.

Offer live chat, texting, social media channels, a map to your location, hours of operation and any other information people would need in order to get in touch with you.

4. Update your site often.

Or at least, remove any outdated dates. Nothing destroys credibility faster than a website that appears to have been abandoned.

For best results, add a blog to your website and contribute to it at least monthly.

5. Clearly demonstrate the problem you solve

Make sure you are clearly communicating the benefits of what you offer, what makes you different than your competitors and what problem you solve.

If you communicate your benefits clearly, your target market will respond.

Are there any other elements you feel add to your website’s ability to sell for you?

Please share in the comments below!