I attended the Florida Yacht Brokers Association meeting in Ft. Lauderdale this month as a panelist. The topic was Issues Facing a Broker in 2011. I was on a panel with experts from the industry and I can assure you that I was the least experienced person on that panel (at least as far as selling boats goes). There were brokers, attorneys, insurance agents and state regulators on the panel who make a living brokering yachts and ships. Me? I run a company that makes marina management software and RV dealership software who has made every mistake possible in the area of e-Marketing, lead nurturing and social media.

That’s what I do. I tell people openly and honestly that we’ve made many mistakes, here’s what they are, try to avoid them. We’ve taken email lists from our personal Outlook databases and folded those names into e-marketing campaigns. We’ve stuffed blog posts with useless keywords and meaningless tags which have had a negative effect on search engine results.

In an effort to help people avoid making these mistakes, I try to bring information that I glean from various tech and web marketing blogs I subscribe to, condense the information down into useful data chucks and give it to the people straight.

Here are some of the questions I was asked at the conference:

Is email still a good form of marketing? If so, what methods should I use to create an email nurturing campaign?

Email is still the best direct marketing channel available. However one must remember that it takes time to build loyalty and trust when developing your subscribers. This is NOT an overnight process. There are two steps in developing a website that eventually adds dollars to the bottom line.

Step 1: Create a loyal audience.
Step 2: Sell them stuff.

The problem is that most online marketers try to jump to Step 2 first. You must build a loyal and thriving audience first. You do this by developing an easy to navigate, uncluttered website with quality content your audience is passionate about.

We constantly hear that “Content is King” on informational or blog-style websites. Is content the most important thing for grabbing new subscribers?

It is king from the standpoint of getting people to your site. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all about tactfully interlacing long tail keywords into your pages and posts. But when someone new comes to your site, I will argue that content is not the most important thing.  You have no more than a second or two to grab a new subscriber’s attention. To keep someone on your site, it is all about “design”. You must start with a solid framework first.

Search, Social Media and Email marketing are all inextricably linked together.  Google has admitted that their Search Engine Results are affected by Social Media engagement levels with your site.  They measure engagement with your site from Social Media sites like Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon in addition to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  If you are actively participating on these platforms and engaging other users with your delivered content, not only will your site have better exposure but search engine results will also reflect better.  On top of Social Media sites the major search engines (Google, Bing & Yahoo) are also measuring open and interaction rates with the emails you are sending to Yahoo, Windows Live and Gmail accounts.  If you are getting low engagement results from the emails communications, your Search Engine rankings are showing it.

How can I optimize the user experience on my website?

If you buy into the notion that design is more important than content to grab new subscribers (again – I am not talking about what it takes to keep loyal fans), here is a list of gotchas to look out for when designing your site. For more details on this check-out Derek Halpern’s blog: Social Triggers.

a. Cluttered – Busy layouts – they are distracting
b. Navigation Problems – People need to find the content they want
c. Boring web design – Is your site aesthetically pleasing
d. Pop-up ads – Stay away from them (Subscribe Now boxes are NOT ads)
e. Slow load times – People are impatient online
f. Small fonts – Size 14 is the new size 12, after all
g. Too much text – Think big blocks of text
h. Poor search functions – If people can’t find your content, your site failed

Are there any tricks or tips to getting more subscribers?

Add more places they can opt-in. For instance add an opt-in form at the end of each post. If someone reads one of your blog posts you can direct them to other posts, videos or more information, BUT why not ask for their email address right there? You’ve got them – they’ve read your stuff or watched your video and like it. Two other places are on your About Page and at the top of your site (e.g. Hello Bar)

Create a free webinar call to action (more details on this in the DIYTheme post)

How often should I send email updates to my list? How often should I post updates to Twitter or Facebook?

I don’t have a stock answer for this. It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. How often do your fans want to hear from you? Ask them…call them and meet them at trade shows and ask. I’d refrain from emailing them with the  question “how often should I email you”. You can get a sampling by picking up the phone and engaging in a handful of conversations. If you don’t have the phone contact of any of your fans, are they really fans? Do you see them at Meet-ups or trade shows?

Two products that have been great for me are HootSuite and CrowdBooster. HootSuite is the best Twitter (and Facebook) client on the market. It’s got a great iPad app and the ability to schedule posts is super. I strongly encourage people to schedule posts. CrowdBooster also allows you to schedule posts, but in addition it tracks when your followers are online and gives you recommended time slots as to when you should post. The product is in Beta, but I have three invites left if you want them. Email me at camsblog@exumatech.com.

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