We often see this concept in play when it comes to non-profits and charities teaming up with for profit businesses. One variation of this is when a for profit businesses will market and sponsor events and campaigns of non profits or charities. Recently I played in a golf tournament organized to help fund our local Junior Achievement branch. Many local businesses sponsored the event to gain exposure for their business and show their support. I am sure you have also seen where donations are attached to products. For example for every shirt you buy from company x a percentage is given to charity x.

One of the best and most successful  joint ventures I have seen locally by two for profit companies is the Bi-Lo Grocery chain and the Spinx Gas Station chain. When you buy groceries at Bi-Lo you earn discounts on gas at Spinx based on how much you spend. So it compels many shoppers to buy groceries at Bi-Lo instead of other grocery stores in order to get a reduction on the cost of gas. And since Spinx is the partner in this deal they gain the consumers who not only will get their gas at Spinx but also purchase snacks and other items from the convenience store. Bi-Lo has been able to take this one step further by offering additional reduction in how much you pay for gas by buying particular items. My guess is that these items may have the highest profit margin. This is a Win-Win for both companies for sure. It may be that Bi-Lo has the larger advantage out of the two as they are not giving a discount and only an incentive  but it is a home run for Spinx as well.

No that I have shown you some ideas on how this can work . Let’s see how this may be able to work for your business. First it is best to research possible joint venture partners based on if you serve the same target market. This is easy for Bi-Lo and Spinx as they both deal in items that people need on a day to day basis so their target market includes the vast majority of people. However many small businesses have a much smaller demographic of people they serve. Lets use an example lets say you own a auto repair shop. Now lets list some possible joint venture partners and then we will discuss how you may be able to work together to increase each others business.

1.  Tire store – Possible Joint Venture: Buy a set of tires and receive a free or discounted oil change and/or tune up at your auto repair shop. You may be losing out on the parts and labor from the oil change but gaining a possible new customer every time someone buys a set of tires from your partner.
2. Body Shop – Possible Joint Venture:  Often times a car that goes into a body shop needs mechanical work and vice versa – you could set up a paid referral system that works both ways.
3. Auto Detail Shop – This also could work both ways as oil changes are probably the best thing to use as the relatively low cost of labor you could once again give away or discount an oil change in order to gain new customers from the auto detail shop. Or better yet a free inspection of the prospects car to see if any service is warranted. The detail shop could also possibly offer a free service when someone comes to your shop and gets a particular service. Promotion: Get your car running right and lookin great!
4. Used Car Dealer – Many used car dealers have their own in house mechanics but if you are lucky enough to find one that does not you can offer your services at a discount. Many used car dealers like to have the cars inspected and tuned up prior to featuring them on the lot. The discount can be qualified as well. Possibly something along these lines a 15% discount if your company services 5 of the car lots cars a month. This can carry over as well as the oil change freebie /discount can come into play. Every time they sell a car they can give the customer a coupon to your shop for a free oil change. So 3000 or 3 months down the road you have a chance for that customer to become your customer as well.
5. Car Stereo and Accessories Dealer – Many auto enthusiast love to add accessories to their automobiles. They also often not only like the car to look good but run well. In this scenario you can offer discounted tune ups/inspections or just pay a referral fee to the accessories dealer. You can also feature each others promotional material in your shops. A picture or poster of a suped up muscle car with both businesses logos on it comes to mind.
6. Car/Motorcycle Clubs – These groups spend a lot of money on their cars and bikes. So it is a great idea to get to know them. Passing on special discounts to members is a great idea. What you lose with the discount can be more than made up for with the frequency of service.
7. Auto Magazine/Website – Offer to write car care or other auto related articles in an auto magazine or website  in exchange for discounted advertising.

I was going to include auto parts stores in the list but that can get a little tricky as it may hurt their business if the favor one shop over another.

It should be noted that you need to calculate the average lifetime value of a customer and the average cost to acquire a new customer to determine how much of your products and or service you can discount and come out ahead. Figure that out first before you broker any deals with other businesses.

Just after posting this I found out via facebook my friend Haro Setian (@haroavo on twitter) of  The Haro Group – Real Estate Consultants – Greenville, SC  has put together a joint venture marketing effort with a Davis Contracting. Check out the flyer below that anyone who buys a home from Haro Group receives.  This is a win win for all parties. Davis contracting gets a new client every time Haro Group sells a home. The home owner gets a head start on any remodiling or additions they want to make on the house. Usually even if  it has almost everything your family wants there is usually always something you would like to add or change.  Haro Group gets an extra benefit to give to clients that sets them apart from their competition as well as a referral source in Davis Contracting.  Great Job! 

So I leave you with some homework. If you have not clearly determined your target market you need to do that first. Then determine the lifetime value of a customer and the average cost to acquire a new customer. You should then make a list of all the possible businesses you can cross market with. Don’t go crazy a list of  5 or less is a good start. If you are a small operation it will be hard to manage too many joint ventures at once.  Then next to each of those brainstorm some ideas that represent a win-win relationship. Then pick the best one out of those and approach that business. Your success rate will be higher of course if you have a pre existing relationship with the business owner. Once you got that one off and running work on the next one until you are at the maximum number of joint venture your business can handle at one time.

And as always if you need any assistance with your marketing or design needs give us a call at 843-606-0336. Hire A Hero!

If you have any examples of  any joint venture marketing you have done please post them in the comments. 

What goals does your company have in terms of Facebook?

Determining the outcomes you want from you Facebook  strategy is vital. It will help answer the question of why to use Facebook? Rather than just because every other business is on it. To help you get a better idea on how to go about setting your Facebook goals here are some examples:- Acme Toy Company wants to increase traffic to their website via Facebook by 10% by the January 30th 2013.

- Acme Florist wants to use Facebook to raise online orders by 15% by September 30th  2012 using  Facebook.

- Acme Business Consulting Service would like to increase top of funnel leads by 25% by November 15th 2012 using Facebook.

You will notice that all of the Goals listed above are measurable and time bound. Now that you have the goal or goals set you now have to go about the process of implementing a process using Facebook to help you achieve your goals. We will cover that a little later in this post. Let’s finish answering the other questions first.

How does it fit in your overall marketing plan?

I am sure you have seen a “like” or “fan” us on Facebook  on many companies offline and online campaigns outside of  Facebook. What marketing materials or media that you currently use can you also incorporate your Facebook strategy into? Do you send out direct mail? What about signage? Commercials? Online video? Magazine ads? To see how this works in relation to one of the goals mentioned previously look at the chart below.

Who in your company will be involved in content creation/distribution, customer engagement, campaign creation/management and any other facets related to your Facebook strategy?

It is important to make someone responsible for your social media activity. Not that this person does all the tasks but ultimately makes sure everything outlined in your plan is done.  This is something you can outsource to a consulting agency such as SuperHero Marketing and they can help create a plan and outline various tasks necessary to accomplish objectives. The agency can help you assign roles and responsibilities and provide follow up to make sure everything is on track. We do not recommend outsourcing all your social media tasks to the agency as they will never be able to communicate your message as well as someone within the company that is  involved in day to day activities. However they can implement and assist in executing various campaigns using social media. If you choose to keep everything in house you need to make sure to assign roles and responsibilities to your social media strategy. Consistency and accountability are essential to the overall success of your social media strategy.

What type of work related to your Facebook strategy can and should be outsourced?

As mentioned earlier we do not recommend that you outsource all of your social media tasks. After all social media is at it’s heart about more personal connections and engagement and the more detached your company gets from it’s social media presence  the less you will be able to properly evoke your business’s message and values. It is possible to create a “corporate” feel to your social media engagement by outsourcing everything and/or just pushing promotion after promotion. That however is the wrong way to go about social media.  Everyone has heard people do business with those they know, like, and trust. That sentiment should be kept top of mind when executing your social media strategy.

If you do outsource make sure that the company you outsource to takes some time in really getting to know your brand and company. Some of the companies that have been the most successful using social media have done so by actually engaging rather than by pushing products or service.  If you have someone on your staff that really “get’s it” when it comes to the essence of your company and is naturaly engaging and outgoing – That person is most likely the best choice to be your chief engagement officer. Essentially engagement should be handled in house as much as possible. It is a good idea to hire a consulting agency to get you off and running and then to help plan and assist in the execution of  campaigns. The agency can also be responsible for tracking progress in relation to company goals and adapting the strategy based on data feedback.

How often will measurements be evaluated and the strategy adapted based on those measurements?

How often you measure results should be based on the size and rate of growth of your audience. The more data there is to analyze the more frequently it should be done. Even with small audiences things such as reach, conversions, traffic, leads generated, should be checked at least on a monthly basis to make sure everything is progressing based on the companies goals.

Now that you we have laid a foundation – Let’s talk about how to properly execute a social media strategy.

One of the most common questions that comes up is – How often should I post? My answer is usually as much as possible – However that answer is not measurable. So how often you should post should be in direct relation to your goals. If your goal is to increase website traffic by 10% by January 30th 2013, then initially we do not know how often to post to reach that number until you have some initial data. So for the first month you should should set a consistent schedule such as posting 5 times a day with two of those posting having links to your website. Then examine the analytics at the end of the month and see where you are in relation to your goal. At that point you should have a good indication of whether the number of posts should increase or decrease.  Initially when growing your audience frequency may need to be a little higher as you have a smaller audience clicking through.

The next question most businesses have is what should I post?Below is a list of some ideas.

• Link to your companies blog – You should have a blog for your company. The benefits of having a blog that your company is committed to are numerous. One of the biggest benefits is providing fresh new original keyword rich content for search engines. I will post another post outlining all the benefits of a blog in another post – Just know that your company should definitely have one.
• Behind the scenes – What goes on behind the scenes at your company that your audience may find interesting?
• Highlight your favorite customers or vendors – Tell your customers how much you love them. If possible tag them in posts. There are many ways to do this including  picking a customer of the week/month. You can also showcase one of your vendors or business partners. They may just return the favor.
• Employee Spotlight – Got an employee that always goes above and beyond. Showcase them on Facebook (and link to their profile on the website). This lets your audience see the real people behind the company (Remember – Know, Like, and Trust).
• Video – Got a new product you want to show off? Or better yet how about a customer testimonial? Video is extremely engaging and the content possibilities are endless.
• Photos – Pictures of customers using your product or service, behind the scenes pictures, product pictures, you get the idea.
• Contests – Engage your audience with contests ( Link the post to details about the contest on your website or a Facebook app). A more immediate contest example would be – in the comments come up with a caption for this pic and receive _____.
• Link to interesting content related to your industry.
• Events – Is your business holding an event or participating in an charity event – Let your Facebook followers know.
• Promotions – Yes you can actually promote products and services on Facebook. The best way to do this is to not make promotions the majority of your content on yous Facebook page. They also should be tied to a landing page so that you can measure conversions.
• Education – Educate your audience about what your business does.

That should take away all the excuses of not knowing what to post.

Another common asked question is how do I get people to like the Facebook business page?  - When first getting started you should reach out to your  existing networks – Got an email list? Email your current customers and prospects. As mentioned before you should promote it thru your existing media -Website, Other social media channels, add it to directories if possible, signage, Direct mail, Coupons, Commercials, etc… We often recommend search ads when companies first launch a website. In this case it may also make sense to use Facebooks advertising to help build your initial audience. You should also make sure your page is publicly searchable.  Are you primarily a local business? Create a list of personal Facebook friends that are local to your area and invite them to like your page.  Do you have business associates, relatives or customers that love you? Ask them to help promote your page.  Like other business pages on Facebook especially those of vendors and businesses you have done joint ventures with in the past. They may end up liking you back and/or promoting your page.

What else is Facebook good for? You can also use it to promote your other marketing channels – You can use it to gain subscribers to your email lists and blog.  Ask your followers to subscribe to your Youtube Channel or follow you on Twitter. Sometimes all you gotta do is ask. You can also ask your followers to share your content – Example: Did you love this video? Share it with your friends. Yes I know the share button is there but a little extra nudging never hurts. Also remember to interact with Fcaebook as your business identity -Work out cross promotion opportunities with other businesses. Well that about as much as I can cover without this post becoming ridiculously long.  Thanks for reading – post any questions in the comments and I will be glad to answer.

Below are some things to remember when designing your banner.

1. It needs to be consistent with all of your other branding.
2. The dimensions for the cover are 851 px by 315px.
3. Unless you are a major national or international brand it needs to clearly state what you do.
4. Any text incorporated in the design needs to be legible. Carefully consider fonts and colors when designing the banner.
5. It should have a professional appearance.  It should not look like you just put a bunch of clip art together. It is  a good idea to have a professional designer create the banner for you if you are creatively challenged.
6. In the profile picture spot you can do something creative that goes with the cover or just place your logo. If you do something creative rather than placing the logo there you should place the logo somewhere in the cover photo. Just remember your business profile picture is what is seen in feeds so make sure if it’s not your logo that your audience will still know it’s your business.  the dimensions for the profile picture is 180px x 180px.
7. Here is what you cannot do with your cover photo per Facebook’s terms of service -

• Price or purchase information
• Contact information
• References to Facebook features or actions – No more like this page in the graphic.
• Calls-to-action

They really want to make it difficult for Small Businesses. Contact Info and calls to action would be really helpful in your marketing efforts. Facebook is really starting to cater more and more to the big guys who can afford to go the branding only route. Although Big Brands such as JCPenny and GM are both stopping various marketing  efforts on Facebook. JCPenny has shut down their Facebook store and GM has stopped spending on Facebook Ads. Neither one was seeing the results they expected. Facebook is still evolving and still working on figuring out how to mix social and business to the greatest benefit to both the business and Facebook user. But enough of my rant.

Now let’s get into the other elements of the Timeline. One of the biggest disappointments for me is the inability to have a custom landing page. With landing pages it was much easier to use Facebook to convert viewers into leads and customers.  The layout allows you to place apps under the cover banner.  Photos are automatically featured in the first spot, but  you can rearrange the other apps to your liking and can have a total of 12 apps. Only four will fit in the top row. Pick the four apps that have the most value for your business. For instance if your business does a lot of videos and events. Those apps should take precedent over other ones.  You can change some of the app’s thumbnail images to better match your brand. To edit any of the settings or move the apps click on the pencil icon in the top right corner of the app’s thumbnail. If you are just getting your page established it is a good idea to move the likes thumbnail onto the second hidden line.

As for the layout of your  posts. Your most recent post is always first. However, you  have the ability to feature a post by pinning it to the top. You should always do this with your best content. Did you have a blog post or video that received a ton of  comments or views – pin it to the top. Videos and images always get more interaction than text alone.  With that in mind when posting your blog posts or blog posts from others you should pick the best possible thumbnail image.  You can also make certain post more visible by making them wider. Facebook refers to these as milestones – you could use this to promote important events in your company.  You should take into account that with videos and images that you enlarge in this way that it is possible that they become pixelated (fuzzy for you non-techies) if they are enlarged past their original size.

Another new feature is the ability to enable messages for your business page. Think of it like allowing Facebook users to email your business within Facebook.  I love this feature.

So know you have the fundamentals of designing your Facebook Business Timeline. We will cover optimizing your posts and interactions in the next blog post. I will leave you with some links to some well put together Facebook Business Timelines. These may give you some ideas.

Skittles - http://www.facebook.com/skittles

SoLatina - http://www.facebook.com/SoLatinaGroup

Ford Mustang - http://www.facebook.com/fordmustang

Harley Davidson - https://www.facebook.com/harley-davidson

Marvel - https://www.facebook.com/Marvel

and of course – Check us out https://www.facebook.com/SuperHeroMarketing  and remember to like us while your there.

Table of contents for Web Videos for Small Business

1. Great Videos Ideas for Your Company Website
2. How To Shoot a SUPER Video For Your Website
3. Search Engine Optimizing Videos For Local Search
4. How to Set up an HD Video Studio for Less Than $400

So by giving you content ideas, how to shoot web videos, and how to search engine optimize and distribute your videos we have taken most of the roadblocks out of the way. The one thing we have not covered is the perceived high cost of shooting video. You may be surprised that video equipment has gotten much more affordable than it has been in the past.

Below is a list of everything you will need to shoot professional web videos complete with cost.

Camera

Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera $170

An excellent camera at a great price.

Highlights

• It shoots at both 1080 and 720 HD.
• External Microphone Input
• Expandable SD/SDHC card slot (up to 32 GB) – for up to 10 hours of footage.

Microphone

Audio-Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Omnidirectional Condenser Microphone - $25

Tripod

Deluxe 57″ Camera Tripod with Carrying Case For The Kodak Zi8 Video Camera - $15

Lighting Kit

Fancierstudio 2400 Watt Lighting Kit Video Lighting Kit – $160

Total Price: $370

Extras – not necessary but recommended

ePhoto 10×12 GREEN 10×12 Foot Chroma Key Green Screen - $39

Neewer 110CM 43″ 5-in-1 Collapsible Multi-Disc Light Reflector – $17

In all honestly the equipment listed above is not the best stuff on the market. It is however the best video equipment for the price.  This equipment will allow you to shoot HD video that will look great on the web. The camera even comes with software to basic editing of the videos. If you want to get into advanced editing you will need to pony up for professional software like Adobe After Effects and/or Premier and learn how to use it as it is meant for professionals.  If you are a Mac user IMovie can allow you to do some incredible stuff. You can always send your videos to the heroes and let us apply our magic to it with advanced effects and editing. We can also edit the sound in the video. Now that we have eliminated all the excuses – Go shoot some amazing web videos for your business!

Table of contents for Web Videos for Small Business

1. Great Videos Ideas for Your Company Website
2. How To Shoot a SUPER Video For Your Website
3. Search Engine Optimizing Videos For Local Search
4. How to Set up an HD Video Studio for Less Than $400

Showing up in Local Search Rankings is pivotal for small businesses. One way to improve your rankings is using video. Google likes to give different media options in search results when possible. You can find some content ideas for your videos here and a how to shoot video for the web tutorial here.

Now let’s  cover how to get those nicely shot videos ranked locally in Google.  To make it easier to follow I will once again us the wine store example from the earlier post.

First thing is to give your video a title that will carry some weight for local search. In the wine store example a great title would be – MT. Pleasant Wine Tasting with (Name Of Guest) or if they would like to rank for Charleston they could substitute Charleston in place of Mount Pleasant. If the guest is a local Chef or wine rep from a local distributor – putting the name of the wine distributor or restaurant where the Chef is from would be beneficial as well. When someone searches for the restaurant, chef, or wine distribution company it is highly likely that your video will appear in the search results.

So here is our final title – MT. Pleasant Wine Tasting with Chef  Langley of  The Green Vine.

You will then want to upload the video to YouTube and in the basic info area write the title, a good description with proper keywords and in the tags section put your keywords.

In this example the description for this video would be -

At Acme wine shop in MT. Pleasant, SC on Friday May 18th will be tasting Acme Pinot Noir, Acme Chardonnay, and Acme Zinfindal with Chef Langley from The Green Vine. Chef Langley will discuss food pairings and (insert wine store owner) will cover the winery and details about the wine.

In the tags section would be the following keywords. You should shoot for ten really good keywords.

Wine tasting Mt Pleasant, Acme Wine Store, Mt Pleasant,  Charleston, The Green Vine, Chef Langley, Chef Bill Langley, Charleston Wine Tasting, MT Pleasant Wine Store, Wine Tasting Video.

In the advanced section of YouTube you can put the location where the video was recorded. Make Sure you do this.

Now that your video is online – Let’s get it on other places. The next place your video should go is on your Google Places page followed by any high-ranking local directories that allow videos. That is a good start.

Next using a tool such as Oneload or Traffic Geyser – you can distribute your video to many video hosting destinations at once.

Now you are well on your way.

Below is How to Further Optimize Your Video Marketing Efforts.

Don’t stop – Continue making videos. They are often easier than writing blog posts once you get the hang of it. Try creating a series that you can do on a monthly or even weekly basis, maybe even daily. The more videos you do the more likely that they are to show up in search results and they will be seen on the video hosting sites and could build a following of potential customers.

Test and Research – Research your competition. If any are producing videos, what types of videos are they doing? What types seem to be successful based on where they show in search results and the number of views?  Test different content styles in your videos and see what gets the best result.

Keyword Research – Use tools like Wordtracker and Google AdWords Keyword tool to research keyword. In a short time you will be able to tag your videos with the best possible keywords.  Try to add longer keyword phrases with a moderate search volume. You will be able to rank for these terms easier than going after more general terms.

Calls to action – Include annotations and links in your videos to send people to your landing pages or where they can find more information. Also tell the viewer what they should do next in the video – such as someone in the video saying – “Don’t forget to like us on Facebook” as the Facebook page url appears. Even if not directly selling from your video you can build your audience in other places and put them in your marketing/sales funnel.

Share and encourage to share – Publish the video to your companies Facebook page and put a link in your twitter feed.  Do not put copy in the twitter or Facebook post that is comes off like spam or a pushy salesperson. In an annotation, text overlay, or using someones voice in the video encourage others to share the video if they liked it.

Point back to YouTube – In blog posts, newsletters , social media, your website, or wherever seems appropriate link to your video on YouTube. If you are producing multiple videos ( you should be ) ask people to subscribe.

Well that covers that.  We have one last thing to cover regarding videos – how to produce high quality videos on a tight budget. That we will cover in the next blog post.

Table of contents for Web Videos for Small Business

1. Great Videos Ideas for Your Company Website
2. How To Shoot a SUPER Video For Your Website
3. Search Engine Optimizing Videos For Local Search
4. How to Set up an HD Video Studio for Less Than $400

Table of contents for Web Videos for Small Business

1. Great Videos Ideas for Your Company Website
2. How To Shoot a SUPER Video For Your Website
3. Search Engine Optimizing Videos For Local Search
4. How to Set up an HD Video Studio for Less Than $400

Many business owners would love to add video to their website but are often unsure of what will work best for their business. Below are some ideas for video content that will help your website engage your audience and sell your product or service.

Storytelling – You can tell the story of your brand’s history or a customer experience.  This gets your audience more in touch with your brand. If the story is good your customers may share it with their friends. Below is an example of the story of how Coloft – a coworking space in Santa Monica California got started.

Testimonials – Video testimonials are 10x more powerful than text testimonials. Your prospect will have more trust in your product/service because they can actually see a real person singing your praises. Video can capture things such as tone and facial expressions which you just don’t get with text.  Below is a great example for AdvoCare products.

Product Demos – With a video you can go further in-depth about your product and/or demonstrate how it can help your customer. Check out the product demo below for the Marshmallow Shooter. Doesn’t it make you want to get one for your office? Wouldn’t you love to just do a sneaky Ninja style attack on a coworker? Hey – That could be a great Funny Stuff or Behind the Scenes video.

Calls To Action – Yes you can sell from your video. Some of the most succesful websites walk their prospects through the buying process. A video can be easily incorporated into your sales process. These type of videos work best on landing pages in which the prospect has come to specifically inquiring about a certain product or service. Below is a video for Dropbox which tells you why you should use Dropbox. On the DropBox home page underneath the video is the download Dropbox button.

Behind the Scenes – People love to feel like insiders especially with certain industries. People also do business with people/companies they know, like, and trust. A behind the scenes video can pull back the curtain on your operations. It will allow your prospect to see real people working hard to deliver your service/product. This will go a long way in helping your customers identify with and trust your company.

Behind the scenes at Ladybug Organic Coffee Company

Funny Stuff – Do you have a fun company? Show that side a little more with comical videos. A good example of this are the Zappos videos like the one below. Example Below.

There are many other things you can do with video such as tips and strategies related to your product/service or how your company is involved in the community or with a charity. The NBA does a great job with the NBA Cares campaign. In the comments below add a link to your company’s video or any video you think does a great job on using these ideas.

The first one I will cover is Aweber.

Aweber

Aweber is commonly used by internet marketers and has a great reputation in the industry. It is fairly simple to use. One of the best features of the platform is the scheduling of your  mailing campaigns.  Unlike other platforms which enforce a delay on your first autoresponder emails being sent – Aweber lets you send the email immediately.  For my issues with forcing a delay on the first autoresponder read my review of Mail Chimp below.  Overall I really like Aweber and have used it for years.

Ease of Use - A
Aweber is very easy to use. You can be up and running with a campaign in minutes.

Personalization of emails - B
Aweber allows you to implement many types of personalization. Most commonly used of those is the  ability to put the name field in the subject line or body of the email.  Email open rates increase when emails appear more personalized. An example of this would be  - Jeff did you hear about this? – as the subject line. Without adding the name your email open rate would be substantially less.

Tracking  - B
Aweber provides  a good assortment of tracking reports.

Templates - B
Overall I am not of fan of using templates for your email campaigns. They should either be cohesive with the rest of your marketing ( often hard to do with templates) or plain text which is more personal.  With that being said Aweber provides a good assortment of templates. The best of those would be the ones tailored to include coupons, pdf or audio downloads.

Web Forms - A+
Aweber probably has the easiest web forms to implement into a website. I do not recommend the templates they provide for there forms however. Use the blank form code and just add the fields you need. If you do want to have some style for your forms – Hire a Designer – preferably the one who created your website as they will do the best job at matching it to your website.

Email Campaign Setup and Scheduling - A
It is very  easy to set up a campaign in Aweber. The first email can also be sent immediately when someone signs up. That is important if you are offering something to them in exchange for their email address such as a coupon or free download etc.. You also have the ability to set the time and day of when your emails will be delivered. ( Super Tip: Sending on certain days and times will increase your open rate % – Will do a blog post in the near future with advanced email marketing tips).

Split Testing  - B
You can divide your list into percentages to test copy, subject lines, offers etc.. They also offer subscriber segmentation – see other features below.

Pricing  - B
You can test out Aweber for  a month for $1. The price then goes up to $19 an hour for 500 subscribers or less. As your list size increases so does the monthly fee. They do not charge for the # of emails sent. $19 is not a lot to pay and when your list grows so should your revenue so the increased fee should not be an issue.

Integration with other software - B
The Aweber API is integrated into many other platforms. There are plugins for WordPress and integration with other platforms like facebook and Unbounce.

Other Features - C
Aweber offers as an added feature subscriber segmentation.  It allows you to group your subscribers in order to deliver more targeted and relevant emails. We love this feature. The reason for the C is because it is the only notable extra feature they offer. They also offer facebook and twitter integration and the ability to broadcast your blog posts via email. Most of the email platforms do this so we give no extra brownie points for it.

Overall Grade: B
We use this platform and recommend it to many of our clients. It strongest points are ease of use and how easily it can be integrated into your websites.

Constant Contact

Ease of Use - A+
Constant Contact is possibly the most easy to use of all the email marketing platforms.

Personalization of emails - B
The Personalization of the email messages is extremely limited. They offer only  3 choices all related to the name field and can only be added to top of email and not throughout the body or in the subject line.

Tracking  - C
Nothing outstanding in this department only the essential data – opens, bounces, and clicks.

Templates - C
Once again – I am not a fan of templated emails unless it is your own custom template that is tailored to your brand. The “off the rack” templates for Constant Contact look really generic. If you use one you are actually in danger of your business looking less professional.

Web Forms - C
You can customize the forms with different fields.  The design choice customizations are next to non existent. What I really do not like is the default way it is set up is to have a link or “button” or your website that needs to be clicked and then taken to a form. This gives your website visitor one more step to take and effects the conversion %.

Email Campaign Setup and Scheduling – A
It is super easy to set up, schedule and manage campaigns in Constant Contact. Also there is not a delay in sending the first welcome message.

Split Testing - F
Constant Contact does not currently offer split testing. Major Fail!

Pricing - C
Free for a 60 day trial after that it is $15 a month for 500 subscribers or less. The price then goes up incrementally based on the number of subscribers. I  graded this lower based on the the low grades in other categories. Although it is inexpensive it lacks a lot of features of similarly priced platforms.

Integration with other software - A
Constant Contact is integrated with over 150 other apps and services. So they deserve an A in this department.

Other Features - B+
Constant Contact offers added services such as Event Marketing, Services, Local deals, Surveys, and Social Campaigns . These services really can help a business have more than one avenue of online marketing. Similar services can be found ala cart via other companies however it is nice to have them “all under one roof “.

Overall Grade : C
The best feature of Constant Contact is it’s overall ease of use. It is inadequate in too many other areas. Especially lacking split testing which is essential to maximizing your campaigns especially as your list sizes grow. So sign up for it if ease of use is your main concern. If you are serious about tracking and maximizing your email campaigns however this is not the platform you want.

Mail Chimp

Ease of Use - B
When you first log in to Mail Chimp’s dashboard it can seem overwhelming. Luckily, the chimp is there to hold your hand to get you started. In a short time navigating the dashboard becomes easy. They also offer training courses to walk you through everything.

Personalization of emails - B
You can add various merge tags for personalization throughout your  email messages in Mail Chimp including the ever so important subject line.

Tracking - B
In addition to the standard reports opens, bounces, and clicks. Mail Chimp also offers an industry average comparison and campaign reach which incorporates social media to determine potential reach.

Templates - A
I still hold to my stance on templates mentioned earlier however , Mail Chimp has the best “not so cheesy” selection of pre designed templates. They also offer basic templates with only the layout determined and not the graphics. The basic templates let you have a layout without sacrificing brand integrity.

Web Forms - B
The form designer seemed a little cumbersome to me when I tried to move fields around and to delete a field you have to actually type the word DELETE into a box.  The design interface outside of the fore mentioned complaints is easy to use and offers many color themes and it will import the colors from your website which is pretty cool. As a web designer I also find it easy to customize the design of the forms after getting the initial embed code.

Email Campaign Setup and Scheduling –  B -
Mail Chimp’s campaign setup and scheduling process is easy. The one knock (and it’s a big one) is the one day delay  on the first email that goes out when someone signs up to your list. Which really makes it hard to offer sign up incentives such as downloads or coupons.

Split Testing - B - 
Mail Chimp does a good job with split testing you can test subject lines, from names, and date & time of delivery.  I wish they would give you complete control and let you test the body of the email as well. That would enable you to test different offers and calls to action.

Pricing  - A
Mail Chimp is free for the first 2000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month. That is the best deal out of any of the email marketing platforms. It lets you basically start building your list for free. After 2000 subscribers the price goes up based on number of subscribers.

Integration with other software - A
Mail Chimp has a vast amount of integrations included  in those are most of the popular cms, ecommerce,  and crm platforms.

Other Features - A
Mail Chimp also offers many added features. One of my favorites is Social Pro. Social Pro which incorporates your mailing list with social data, so you can learn more about your subscribers. Find out who’s most connected, then send targeted campaigns to those subscribers with a single click. There is also Delivery Doctor, Geo-Location, and many others. Mail Chimp has the best “extra features” of any of the email marketing platforms.

Overall Grade :  B+
Mail Chimp gets a slight edge over Aweber due to the quality and amount of features, layout templates, and the unbeatable price. If it wasn’t for the limits on the split testing and one day hold on the first welcome message email I would have given them an A.

I give the edge to Mail Chimp when it comes to picking an email marketing platform. At SuperHero Marketing we use Aweber due to there not being a delay on the first email when someone signs up as we provide downloadable pdfs. We do not want our subscribers to have to wait to receive the information once they have subscribed. With that being said we also are using Mail Chimp to send our newsletter because we love all the features of Mail Chimp. If they would get rid of the delay on the initial email we would move everything to them. Aweber is an excellent platform and a great choice as an email marketing platform.  As for Constant Contact, we are not a fan despite the ease of use and  cool extra services they provide, they swing and miss on to many of the core features.

What business goals do I want my website to help me accomplish?

That is where the Heroes of SuperHero marketing come in.  We can help align your web strategy with your business goals. We want to get to know you and your business so that we can create a proper blueprint for launching , relaunching or redirecting your businesses web presence.  Let me take you through a scenario to better explain what we do.

Let’s say John owns a ACME plumbing company and is  looking to get a website. He thinks he needs one because most of his competitors have one and he  looks for businesses via Google. He assumes that if he gets a website than he  will be listed on Google and his business will increase. His plumbing company’s profits have declined over the last few years and he knows he needs to do something. John starts his search for a solution where else but online.

This is what he finds

• 1. Acme templates-  He can get a  template that can get “close” to his company’s branding. He can list his services, slap his logo and maybe a picture on it and be off and running. John thinks to himself  that this does not really seem like a solution.His concerns:

He takes pride in his business and brand and close enough has never been good enough in the past.

He does not want to appear as a business that would just “slap something up”. After all he has been in business for fifteen years with a great reputation and he does not just slap things up for his customers.

He wants a professional appearance that better represents his company.

• 2.  Acme web design- They have a lot of “pretty” websites on their portfolio page. They can build a “custom website” for his business but they mention nothing about actually helping him understand what the web site should do or what to do once the website is launched.His Concerns:

He wants more than a website. He wants a tool for his business not just a big AD thrown up online.

He wants to know how his website can help him grow his business.

This company seems to know a lot about design but little about marketing or helping his business succeed.

• 3.  SuperHero Marketing – Eureka! SuperHero Marketing’s  primary mission is helping his business succeed.

What he likes:

Superhero Marketing is concerned about my business objectives not just selling me a website.

Not one size fits all.

Provide more than just a website – they help devise a plan to make his business successful online.

They will explain and consult with him on a multitude of things such as video, social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, blogging, sales copy, etc..

They provide measurements so that he knows how well his online campaigns are doing.

John decides he needs more than a website he needs a team of  Heroes.

If you are interested in web solutions for your business give us a call at 843-606-0336.