FOUR WAYS YOU CAN USE EVERYDAY EMAIL TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS

We can all agree that email is the most prolific business tool of our time.  Here are a few good reasons why you should consider everyday email to be a marketing channel:

85% of all business correspondence occurs via email. Let’s expand on this….

• In an average company 13200 emails are sent per person per year. This is time spent communicating with clients, prospects, consumers, suppliers, etc.
• 500 hours per year are spent by staff sending and receiving email. This is time spent communicating not marketing.
• In addition the open rate on everyday email is 99% – the highest of all marketing channels.  This is because people place higher priority on direct email communications, ensuring superior deliverability of your marketing message.

Transform your everyday email into a marketing tool by branding every mail that you and the staff in your company send out.

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Blog Post Content by: Cantaloupe Digital

Email branding refers to banners specifically designed to be used at the top of all your emails. It also applies to your email signature and any banners in the footer area of your email.

This article shows four ways you can use email branding as a marketing tool in your business. You are able to insert banners and email signatures into your emails by using your email programme’s built-in stationery or signature functionality. See our related blog post – Practical guidelines for email signatures.
It also introduces how a brand management system offers extra features and benefits over inserting the branding manually ultimately giving you the edge.

 1. EMAIL BRANDING AS A TRAFFIC DRIVER

Aside from the obvious choice of linking the banner to your homepage, it can also link to specific product or service landing pages on your website drawing attention, creating awareness, and driving traffic by click-throughs.

2. EMAIL BRANDING TO BOOST SALES

Email banners can be part of your new product or service launch. Display special offers that link through to landing pages.

3. EMAIL BRANDING TO SOURCE NEW TALENT

Link to your careers page on your website, more specifically you can link to job categories. Announce that you will advertise jobs on your social pages and that people should follow you to see as soon as a new job becomes available.

4. EMAIL BRANDING HELPS EXPAND YOUR SOCIAL NETWORKS

Put links to your social pages in your email branding. Explain why people should follow you on these social platforms.

These are four ideas for branding your email that you can do manually if you have a few design and html skills.  There are many more ideas such as creating a banner that links to surveys such as a Customer Satisfaction Index; product research polls and so on.

To really give you the edge though here are few reasons to use an email branding tool:

• Setting stationery and signatures up manually is ok if you have a small number of staff but as you grow it is better to control your branding and signature details from a branding tool.  This will make it easier to launch new campaigns as the banners and signatures can be changed from a central place instead of manually at each user’s computer.
• Receive click notifications each time someone clicks on a banner.
• Benefit from one of the major benefits of digital marketing – the ability to measure all your activities.  With a branding system you will get reports which give feedback and enable more intelligent decision making around future marketing campaigns.

Blog Post Content by: Cantaloupe Digitall

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Freedom Manifesto - It is time to take up the battle!

The Freedom Manifesto

You started your business for the freedom to do what you want when you want. The freedom to live anywhere, indulge your passions and wear flip-flops to work if you feel like it—all the while making as much money as you deserve without artificial pay grades holding you back. 

The problem is, somehow, running your company is starting to feel gruelling. Your vacations are sparse and too short because customers expect you to be there. Dealing with employee hassles and busywork sucks up most of your day. You feel guilty for not being at work and even guiltier for being at work when you should be home. The fun is gone. It now feels like work…Read More

It’s time to get your life back.

Remember my purpose with this series is to provide you with strategies, techniques, warnings and advice on how to turn your company into a more valuable asset, one you could sell – when you’re ready. The following parts are designed to help you increase your companies Value!

• Part 1: Picking your Number
• Part 2: Creating a business that runs while you sleep
• Part 3: Getting your people to care as much as you do

Sell when you are ready

Remember the aim here is to create a business that gives you the freedom to sell when you are ready. Part 1–3 focused on building the value and making your business more “sellable”. Parts 4-6 will ensure that you get the best price. download here

 Part 4: Creating a bidding war

 Part 5: Negotiating a price

 Part 6: Avoiding deal killer mistakes

Conclusion

It is time to take up the battle.

“Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” - Winston Churchill

Now that you have the basics covered the next step would be to either update or create your 2015 plan aimed at improving your business value by more than 70%. I have combined Parts 1-6 to help you review and build your plan that you can download here

To assist you in doing so I have summarised the 8 factors that form the foundation for building a more valuable business that includes a link to our scalability survey that performs a free analysis and valuation of your business. Read my blog post named;

Want to Improve your Business Value in 2015? Start Now!

Join the fight for freedom. Keep in touch and let me know how you’re doing!

Freedom Manifesto - Part 3: Getting your people to care as much as you do

The Freedom Manifesto

You started your business for the freedom to do what you want when you want. The freedom to live anywhere, indulge your passions and wear flip-flops to work if you feel like it—all the while making as much money as you deserve without artificial pay grades holding you back. 

The problem is, somehow, running your company is starting to feel gruelling. Your vacations are sparse and too short because customers expect you to be there. Dealing with employee hassles and busywork sucks up most of your day. You feel guilty for not being at work and even guiltier for being at work when you should be home. The fun is gone. It now feels like work…Read More

It’s time to get your life back.

Remember my purpose with this series is to provide you with strategies, techniques, warnings and advice on how to turn your company into a more valuable asset, one you could sell – when you’re ready. The following parts are designed to help you increase your companies Value!

 Part 1; picking your Number

In the absence of an objective measurement for “remarkable” or “independence,” your number can act as a goal to let you know when you've crossed whatever finish line you’re striving for.

Look at your number and ask yourself a series of questions:

• Where do you stand right now? Is my business more valuable than it was last quarter? Last year?
• What do you have to do in the next 90 days to make your business more valuable? This question will help you prioritize important but not necessarily urgent initiatives (thank you, Stephen Covey).

It all starts with a number…Read More

Part 2; Creating a business that runs while you sleep

Stop selling your product; start selling your company. Productize your business. Be predictable but not boring!
Productize your business

Whether selling something tangible or just selling time, most small businesses are service companies at their core. To make your service business sellable, you need to “productize” your business

Be predictable but not boring

There are five ways to make sure your company doesn't become boring on the journey to becoming valuable…Read More

Part 3; Getting your people to care as much as you do

Bulletproof your culture

Is your company’s culture at the core of what makes your business valuable? There are three steps for creating a durable company culture… Read More

Then, don't forget to reserve your FREE seat for The Freedom Seminar on the 13th January '15, an interactive, sleeves-rolled-up session, dedicated to getting your life back and gaining the freedom you deserve as a business owner.

Freedom Seminar

Source: John Warrillow the creator of The Value Builder System™. He is also the author of The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry and Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You. Full bio

Freedom Manifesto - Part 2: Creating a business than runs while you sleep

It’s time to get your life back.

Remember my purpose with this series is to provide you with strategies, techniques, warnings and advice on how to turn your company into a more valuable asset, one you could sell – when you’re ready. As discussed in The Freedom Manifesto and then the subsequent objective for Part 1; Picking your Number

So let’s just quickly recap and ensure we all took the same message from part 1: Picking your number.

In part 1 you wrote down your number. Your number is the price you would accept if someone walked into your company tomorrow wanting to buy it. Most of us start businesses because we want to achieve something remarkable or out of a deeply rooted need for independence.

In the absence of an objective measurement for “remarkable” or “independence,” your number can act as a goal to let you know when you've crossed whatever finish line you’re striving for.

Look at your number and ask yourself a series of questions:

1.       Where do you stand right now? Is my business more valuable than it was last quarter? Last year?

2.       What do you have to do in the next 90 days to make your business more valuable? This question will help you prioritize important but not necessarily urgent initiatives (thank you, Stephen Covey).

It all starts with a number. Have you written yours down yet? Great, now let’s get to part 2!

Part 2: Creating a business than runs while you sleep!

Stop selling your product; start selling your company. Productize your business. Be predictable but not boring!

…He then explained that entrepreneurs add the most value when they design and start their business; the return on their time invested starts to go down rapidly as the business gets going. The entrepreneurs who earn the best return on their investment of money, time and energy are the ones who Read more

Don't forget to reserve your FREE seat for The Freedom Seminar on the 13th January '15, an interactive, sleeves-rolled-up session, dedicated to getting your life back and gaining the freedom you deserve as a business owner.

Freedom Seminar Information 

Source: John Warrillow is the founder of The Sellability Score, a cloud-based assessment tool business owners use to assess the "sellability" of their company.

Freedom Manifesto

The fun is gone. It now feels like work.

You started your business for the freedom to do what you want when you want. The freedom to live anywhere, indulge your passions and wear flip-flops to work if you feel like it—all the while making as much money as you deserve without artificial pay grades holding you back. 

The problem is, somehow, running your company is starting to feel gruelling. Your vacations are sparse and too short because customers expect you to be there. Dealing with employee hassles and busywork sucks up most of your day. You feel guilty for not being at work and even guiltier for being at work when you should be home. The fun is gone. It now feels like work.

It’s time to get your life back.

My purpose here is to provide you with strategies, techniques, warnings and advice on how to turn your company into a more valuable asset, one you could sell – when you’re ready.

If you build it right, you can run your company knowing you’re sitting on a valuable asset, cherry-pick the projects you get involved in, take great vacations and, when the time comes, sell it for a premium.

Over the next two weeks I will share valuable information you can use to make your business more valuable and gain more freedom in the process.

Over the next 7 mails, I’m going to show you a step-by-step process for turning your business into a sellable company and ultimately, if ready, how to sell it for more. These insights are based on hundreds of interviews with business owners that increased their nosiness value.

What you won’t get

I won’t spend a lot of time talking about how to start a business. There are plenty of good resources already out there for newbies and wannabes. I assume you have a business, customers, receivables, rent and all the other unglamorous stuff that goes along with having created a real business. If you’d like to turn your existing business into a valuable company, you’re in the right spot.

So, are you ready to build a more valuable business? 

Below is the link to the first part:

Part 1: Pick a Number

Don't forget to reserve your FREE seat for The Freedom Seminar on the 13th January '15, an interactive, sleeves-rolled-up session, dedicated to getting your life back and gaining the freedom you deserve as a business owner.

Freedom Seminar Information 

Source: John Warrillow is the founder of The Sellability Score, a cloud-based assessment tool business owners use to assess the "sellability" of their company.

3 Ways to Make Your Company less risky

Company building is inherently risky business. Here's how to improve your odds of success.

Based on a recent article by the Author of Built to sell and the creator of The Sellability Score the following three areas represent the largest risk factors that could destabilize your business based on your strategy

“These three constituencies make up the legs of the dependency stool. If you're overly reliant on any one leg, your business wobbles easily and the value of your company goes down.” John Warrillow

Here's an overview of how to improve the value of your business using The Switzerland Structure:

Employee Dependence

Close your eyes and imagine you're sitting at your desk when you hear a knock at the door. It's an employee who is tendering their resignation. Before you open your eyes, consider which of your employees would you least like to be standing in your doorway. This is the person who your business has become too dependent upon.

To increase the value of your company, start weaning your business off its reliance on this person by cross training other staff on parts of their job and documenting their unique approach to doing their work.

Customer Dependence

To increase the value of your company, ensure no one customer amounts to more than 15 percent of your overall revenue. If you find yourself overly reliant on one buyer, you have two choices:

1) Dramatically increase your revenue while keeping your business from this customer constant, or

2) Stop cross selling so much. Most of us cross sell to our best customers so much that we end up selling too many products and services to a handful of friendly customers. This feels good but can detract from the value of your company because you end up selling things you have no business providing and becoming overly dependent on a handful of loyal customers.

Supplier Dependence

Often overlooked, supplier dependence can be just as scary to a potential investor as customer dependence. If you have one company that supplies most of what you sell, you're vulnerable if there's a change in your supplier's business. Imagine for a second your main supplier decides to start selling directly to your customers or closes up shop entirely.

“Like a good baseball manager who always has a reliever ready to pitch, cultivate a bench of one or two alternate suppliers and give them a piece of your business, even if it means giving away a point or two on price. The supplier diversification will serve you well when it is time to sell your business.” John Warrillow

By targeting a strategy at lowering the risk in each area you will not only substantially de-risk your business but also significantly increase its value. Take the free Sellability Score today and see how wobbly your business is.

Want to Improve your Business Value in 2015? Start Now!

Most company owners probably don’t want to sell their business right now – but they want to know they could. That’s the theory behind The Sellability Score, an online tool developed by author and serial entrepreneur John Warrillow. 

The Sellability Score – created based on market research with business owners and mergers & acquisitions professionals – is a free, 30-question self-assessment that helps business owners determine how saleable their company actually is. 

“You know you’re building an asset that has value and could fund your retirement, let you travel, or whatever you’re passionate about.”says Warrillow

So what makes for a business that other companies would want to acquire? Here a sneak preview of four top criteria.

1. Management Team. “Any buyer will say, ‘What happens after you leave?’” says Warrillow. You want to answer that question definitively by having a strong second-in-command who knows the business and is committed to carrying on over the long term.
2. The Switzerland Factor. Much as Switzerland has thrived by being studiously neutral, Warrillow suggests your business should do the same. Specifically, “you have to be neutral toward any one supplier, customer or employee – that is, you can’t be overly dependent on them.” You want to demonstrate that you’ve hedged your bets with a diversified client base and “no one employee has the secret sauce.”
3. The Five Times Factor. Your business looks a lot more attractive if you’re able to scale it – specifically, says Warrillow, “Can your business scale five-fold without adding five times the costs?” A hotel running at only 20% occupancy is the perfect example of an underutilized asset that has room to grow; software companies also typically scale easily without adding lots of employees. But even in industries that usually don’t scale well – like law firms – there is room for innovation with new offerings like Legal Zoom, an online service that helps people create their own legal documents.
4. Revenue Stream. In your personal life, you don’t want to live paycheck-to-paycheck – and to create a saleable business, you don’t want to live project-to-project, unable to predict future cash flow. Instead, your goal is to create a steady and consistent revenue stream with a subscription or membership model. That’s common for fitness centers or magazines, but even unlikely suspects can make it work (Warrillow cites a Canadian snowboard instructor who got tired of giving individual lessons and now has a thriving business selling subscriptions to his YouTube channel with exclusive snowboarding videos).

Let’s say your Sellability Score is top-notch and you’re ready to move – what next? Warrillow advises most business owners to work with an advisor or broker to help sell their company, because “their job is to create competitive tension, get multiple bidders, and run the process for you.”

Want to learn more? Business Doctors offers workshops and more information on his website.