WiRE Blogs

By Nicole Anderson Mort – Sage Business Development Director

It’s easy to think you can do it all yourself when you’re running a business. But outsourcing can help grow your business, not to mention save time and money. Find out if it’s time to outsource.

1. Your business is growing
If you’re thinking of expanding into new business areas, or just getting bigger and better, there are bound to be new tasks that you and your staff haven’t tackled before – such as filing company accounts and tax returns if you become incorporated. Outsourcing can help you plug these gaps.

2. You need to keep overheads low
Instead of increasing your overheads by hiring new employees, and spending time training them, you could outsource to trained, talented freelancers on a much more flexible basis – freeing up your capital to invest in other areas.

3. You have a cyclical business
There’s no point outlaying valuable resources during your ‘down’ time of year or month. Outsourcing allows you to scale operations up or down accordingly.

4. You’re wasting time on routine tasks
Jobs like packing goods for delivery, chasing invoices or even answering the phones can all be taken care of externally, freeing up valuable time for you to concentrate on sales and growth.

5. You want to expand into new markets
Outsourcing can be a fast, cost-effective and reliable way to reach new audiences, from hiring a freelance designer to come up with a new product to outsourcing your manufacturing overseas.

6. You dread doing a particular role
It might be crunching the numbers, updating the website or dealing with HR. Either way, if you really dislike doing something, chances are you’re not going to do it well, so investigate how you could assign the task elsewhere.

7. You only need short-term help
Outsourcing gives you access to qualified people without the cost of hiring them full-time. Or perhaps you only carry out certain activities sporadically, such as an annual marketing campaign. In these scenarios, hiring a freelancer or specialist agency could be the ideal solution.

8. You don’t have the skills
Business owners often struggle to come to terms with the fact they can’t be in control all the time, but there are bound to be tasks which could be done better or quicker by someone else. If you struggle with IT, for example, it’s better to pay somebody to upload new software rather than waste three days trying to do it yourself. Virtually anything can be outsourced. Businesses typically outsourcepayroll, accounting, IT, customer service, training, manufacturing and delivery.

9. You’re losing your focus
Although you might not have the skills to do every job, there will be some tasks only you can do and decisions only you can make. Letting someone else lend a hand can free up your time to concentrate on these.

10. You’re restructuring or downsizing
In difficult economic times, many businesses change their way they’re structured to make things more efficient. Many choose to cut staff numbers or not replace employees who leave as a short term measure. But remaining staff may not have the time or training to tackle certain tasks. If you don’t have the skills in-house, outsourcing could help you while you get things in order.

http://www.sage.co.uk/

With thanks to WiRE Member Anna Goodwin

I recently attended the WIRE National Conference at Harper Adams University, Newport, Shropshire. I had a stand during the day and met up with lots of existing business women or ones just starting out in business.

I am happy to say that I spoke in the session where the WIRE network leaders share the secrets of how and why they built a successful business. My session was on “How I get to work with people who are as enthusiastic as me” I mentioned that I found the book “Positive Personality Profiles” by Robert A Rohm very interesting and informative. I also emphasized the importance of meeting people while networking and following up. We need to build our own community of suppliers, associates and staff so we have a good strong team.

Alison Howell of Foot trails (www.foottrails.co.uk) who provide award winning walking holidays gave us the following tips:

* Follow your dreams
* Start with the end in mind
* Remind yourself of your dreams and reward yourself

Rachael Taplin of Blueboo ( www.blueboo.co.uk) – PR Expert gave tips on how to become a media expert and get publicity for next to nothing.

During lunch we had plenty of time to mingle while enjoying a lovely buffet lunch. It’s always great to network in relaxing surroundings. Also we were lucky to have the team from Midlands Today who interviewed Fiona Davies of WIRE, Carole Renshaw of Sincere Moments and Amanda Danells-Smith. Well done Ladies for your moment of fame. I was filmed by my stand so I was a star very briefly too!

In the afternoon Anna Farmery of The Engaging Brand (www.theengagingbrand.com) gave us many branding tips and questions, including:

* What’s heroic about your business?
* Is the thread of your brand going all the way through your business?
* Replace any buts with and

The final speaker was Rosemary Jameson of www.rosiemakesjam.com who shared the highs and lows of her business journey.

All in all it was a great day. Keep your eyes peeled for next year’s conference and you too can come away buzzing with enthusiasm. It’s open to men as well as Ralph Savage of DRS Business Solutions Limited found:

“I’m really glad I came. The speakers were excellent – Rosie’s experience was fascinating. I was also impressed by the atmosphere – these were real business people at the sharp end who could empathise with each other’s experiences. I don’t think you would get that in a male dominated environment.

Anna is an experienced accountant offering an efficient and taylor made service, specialising in samll businesses and start-ups. You can find out more about Anna at her website.

With Thanks to WiRE Member Soo Smart.

More and more web design companies are being set up in the present climate, creating a larger and larger pool of design styles and technical knowlege for clients to choose from. Coupled with that is a wealth of web tools that can be used by either designer or client – but which should you go for?

So how do you find a great web designer?
How do you know if the company you are looking at is any good?
How do you tell garbage from gold?
And how can you tell if jam is mixed up with marmite?

The following list is intended to educate customers with some key points to think about when looking for a web designer.

1. Technology and Art
Web design is a meeting of technology with beautiful graphic design, these skills are not learned over-night, check out how long the company has been in business. Check out what sites they have done for others, only one or two? We¹ve all had to start somewhere, but make sure you are confident with their abilities. Look for design flair coupled with technical skills.

2. Responsive Web Design
Looking at someone who has been around for a long time and done plenty of sites? But are they moving with the times? You should expect to have a site created for use on desktop, mobile and tablet, this is called Responsive web design. Make sure the designer you are interested in is still enthusiastic about their subject and are always learning new techniques.

3. WordPress and CMS
You have probably heard of WordPress by now, you may think that this is Œthe way¹ that websites are made – in reality WordPress is just one of many web building tools and can lead an unsuspecting client to think that it is as quick and easy as those 1and1 adverts.
WordPress is a web building package that has its pros and cons, anyone can download a free theme, fill in the blanks and say they have designed a website. How you can tell the men/women from the boys/girls is whether your designer can change a theme, move elements around and create new graphics that fit with the theme, or are made for you, fit your brand and work together as a complete entity. I often see beautiful WordPress themes ruined by poorly produced additional graphics, which takes me to my next point.

4. Mixing Jam and Marmite
Sounds horrible doesn’t it?! For the uninitiated, using graphics created by others and adding more images and graphics from all kinds of different sources can end up as a mish-mash of styles. Colours should be kept consistent, sizes of graphics balanced and refined, images treated in the same way, social signals added to the site. A good designer will keep animations to a minimum and create graphics and styles which are consistent.
You may be looking at a site that looks good at first glance, now look again… are the fonts kept consistent, colours minimal, images not distorted? Does the background compliment the site? Or is there a small photograph struggling to fill the space, and tiled horizontally and vertically to dazzling degree?
Example: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/worst-websites-of-the-year.html

5. Your site, your brand, your personality
Take pride in your brand, those graphics that the designer is putting on your site – what meaning do they have? For instance, if you sell curtains and fabrics, then graphics created for the site should reflect fabric textures and patterns, maybe curtain making accessories. So putting glossy nail varnish themes on the site would have no meaning at all; and vice versa. The design should fit your brand and a good designer will ask you questions about your business, how you feel about it and how you want your business¹s to grow. A good designer will also advise you of what will work and what will not, and will explore a range of design solutions to meet your brief as closely as possible – this will all take time – you can¹t rush good design.

6. Managing the updates
These days people want to be able to update websites themselves. You, the customer may not want to do this of course and your designer can continue to update your site for you. But if you want to update your own site, then WordPress has a this facility built in. You will need to be careful with what you do, so as not to undo the hard work that you and the designer have put into the site¹s creation, unfortunately WordPress can take large images that it shrinks to fit given areas, however by doing this your site will get slower and slower to load – so resizing images is highly important. There are other Content Managment Systems for updating websites, so if you already have had a site for a few years and now need to do your own updates, this facility can be added retrospectively very easily, a good web designer will be able to do this. If they only know one way of working, then think again.

7. Don’t Make Me Think
Usability is key, the sites a web designer has already done should be easy to navigate. The layout should be clear and follow a grid, columns lined up to give the site a structured, well planned look. Is the site jumbled? Look again – look for vertical columns and horizontal cleanliness. Beware of putting too much Œup the top¹ of the homepage, on the other hand, try to avoid gaping holes too, a good web designer should be able to balance the site¹s information and attract the user to click and engage.

8. SEO
The site should be optimised for Search Engines, this needs to be revisited every few months to keep the site up to date with current search trends. Let your designer know about the technical terms used in your field of business so that the site can climb the rankings. Listen to the designer’s advice when writing copy – a good designer will be able to advise you on keywords and how they work and where to use them. Domain names help with SEO too, a good company name that describes your business clearly will act as a search term, for instance Bill Smith has a tyre reclaim business in the east of England so: eastanglian-tyres.co.uk will fare better than bills-business.co.uk, simples!

9. Hosting and Domains
An experienced designer will have either their own server, or have cultivated a relationship with a hosting company in the UK where they own designated hosting packages for clients. A web person who uses online web building packages (such as those as advertised by 1and1 on TV), sells you a service that you could do yourself is not a designer, steer well clear. Web designers will suggest domain names to you and investigate their availability – domains which are already taken, even if just .net or .com should be avoided, if you purchase the .co.uk version you need to be aware that your company could get confused with others.

Soo Smart is a committed, accomplished designer with 13 years experience in web design and 25 years in branding and print design.

For more information visit http://doublesdesign.com, http://fusion-ipswich.co.uk or http://doublesdesign.com/wordpress/

With thanks to WiRE member Alison Bradford.

Do you sometimes find yourself getting a little, err, ‘distracted’ by what your competitors are doing?

Do they all seem to be doing so much better than you? More exciting products? More customers? Making more money? Living a better life?

What are you doing wrong and what are they doing right?

“Don’t compare your behind the scenes with someone else’s highlight reel”

Of course it’s important to understand your competitors – who they are, what they’re selling, who their target customers are, what their price points are etc.

BUT, don’t get sucked in to thinking that they are having a great old time and that your business looks pants in comparison.

What you are seeing is not necessarily the whole picture and you certainly don’t know about their journey to get where they are.

Rather than draining your energy with these negative thoughts, at times like these remember these 4 key points:

1. Bring your focus back to what is within your control

You have no control over what your competitors are doing, you can only control what you are doing. Therefore, bring your focus back to your own goals and what you can do right now to move nearer towards them.

Think of one small action you can do right now and go and do it. Taking positive action will make you feel so much better!

2. Be yourself

As Oscar Wilde said, “be yourself, everyone else is taken”.

I bet that ‘you’ are a big part of your business and part of what makes your business unique.

Focus on your strengths and working to these, being the best ‘you’ you can be.

I know you may be tempted to ‘copy’ bits of what your competitors are doing but please don’t. It will compromise you and your customers will recognise that it’s not really ‘you’.

Stay focused on what you are great at and what is important to you. Don’t get side-tracked!

3. There is enough for everyone

Just because one of your competitors is doing well doesn’t mean bad news for you. In fact, you could say quite the opposite. It shows that there is a demand for whatever you are selling.

Keep a view of abundance in mind and remember that there is enough business for everybody.

If you believe in scarcity then this is what you will find. If you believe in abundance then this is what you will find.

Make sense?

4. Reach out

How often do you connect with your competitors?

Remember what I said earlier about not knowing their journey? Well maybe it’s time to reach out and ask them.

Email them to let them  know you like what they’re doing and ask if they have any advice they could share with you in 1 sentence. (Make it easier for them to respond by limiting it to 1 sentence, otherwise they may have lots to share and not enough time to do it)

Ask them if they’d like to meet for a quick coffee (on you) and a chat.

Just keep in mind that they will probably be short on time too so make it easy for them to connect with you without taking up lots of their time.

Over to you now. Do you have any other tips to share or action you are going to take? Leave a comment to let me know.

Alison Bradford regularly blogs about business matters offering many ideas and business solutions; www.alisonbradford.com

With thanks to WiRE Member Sarah Whitelock of Green Apple Communications.

Whatever you do to earn a living there is never enough time to get through the ‘to do’ list so why add a task that takes time, has an element of risk and may not bring any returns? That was what we thought when we set up Green Apple Communications but we were persuaded otherwise and committed to writing a blog at least once a week. A few months later the phone rang and a potential client invited us to tender for a piece of work. When I asked how she had come across us she explained that she had put some very specific search terms into google which led her to …. our blog.

Yes it takes time, yes it has to be carefully written, yes it can be difficult to think of topics when you have other things to do but every page added to a blog acts like an extra page on your website. That makes your site more attractive to google and offers a platform for the search terms potential clients are looking for. It also acts as a showcase for your own skills and gives you an opportunity to tell the world about the clients you have been working with. Having a regular blog offers topics to tweet about and write about on Facebook and Linked In. That will encourage potential clients to click through to your site and bookmark it for future use.

Green Apple communications are a Marketing and PR company based in Suffolk with both local and national clients. For more information, visit: www.greenapplecommunications.co.uk

With thanks to WiRE member Pavlenka Small.

Starting up your own business is an exciting prospect but it can also be a daunting one and many people never fulfill a deep-rooted desire to become their own boss for fear of failure and often spend many years in a job or career they find totally unfulfiling, remaining employed because it is seen a ‘safer’ option.

It is not enough to simply have a good idea and hope to make a living out of it. There are approximately 4 million businesses operating in the UK but sadly 83% of all new start up businesses fail within the first year and 80% of all new start-ups fail within the first 3-5 years. (Ref: Small Business Association).

However, do not be disheartened as it’s not all doom and gloom for the world of small business owners. Just as success in business doesn’t happen by chance and you will need to be prepared to work hard and expect some unforseen knocks along the way, the rewards of being a self-employed business owner CAN undoubtedly be very rewarding, both personally and financially.

Consider for a moment anything you have had to work hard for in the past: maybe a qualification you gained at college, university or work. It may have been tough going at times but remember how you felt when you achieved  your goals.

Setting up a business is no different and, as with anything in life, a certain attitude and approach can go a very long way to achieving all you set out to achieve when running your own business.

Top entrepreneur of Dragon’s Den fame has some tips for making a business a success:

• Have vision-otherwise you won’t know where you are heading
• Market yourself-through business connections and networking events
• Confidence- believe in yourself and your idea
• Commitment-to a common goal
• Aim for results-planning is the key
• Take action-to get from where you are now to where you want to be
• Timing-anticipating the changing market is crucial
• Perserverance- successful entrepreneurs battle against the odds
• Be caring-relationships with others are important
• Intuition-use it to make the right decisions

Smallsteps coaching also suggests the following PRODUCE model as being essential components to consider when setting up a small business:-

Planning

Research

Organisation

Determination

U-(YOU are the key to success!)

C-hange

E-nthusiasm

The above blog is an extract from Pavlenka’s book:- ‘From Dream To Reality-7 steps to setting up a small business,’ available from  Amazon & www.smallstepscoaching.co.uk at £9.99.

With thanks to WiRE Member Joy Day

As our triumphant summer of sport slips away and other seasonal distractions take over, the sentiment of ‘inspiration’ and the drive to keep the legacy alive stays with us.

I’ve recently given a few talks about branding and the importance of understanding and nurturing a business’s brand. As I’ve reflected on the key elements that make a successful brand, I couldn’t ignore the power of the strapline, as highlighted in the London 2012 branding this summer.

Otherwise known as a slogan, motto or tag line, a strapline complements and builds on the meaning behind the brand’s name and logo, helping the consumer to instantly understand the business’s key messages in a succinct and memorable way.

Four years ago, Beijing had the motto One World, One Dream, while Athens in 2004 said Welcome Home. However it was the UK’s approach that for me has the most powerful and memorable message. London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games was based on the promise of a “spectacular and inspirational Games for the UK, and the world” – Lord Coe – and this was truly reflected in the strapline.

Inspire a generation quickly became an unforgettable message and conveyed the feeling that we had the potential for more than simply a summer of outstanding sport; a call to harness the infectious spirit and ensure that the legacy of determination, talent and success last well into the future.

So in a nutshell, the consistent use of a well constructed strapline is an excellent way of not only raising brand recognition but also enhancing the values of a business’s brand.

Joy runs ‘Creative Joy’, offering high impact and imaginitive design for print and web. Her blog can be found at

http://creativejoyblog.wordpress.com/

With thanks to WiRE Member Sarah Whitelock

It seems that every business magazine now carries an article on the merits of taking part in social media. While Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin are undoubtedly powerful networking and marketing tools it’s worth working with traditional media as well – particularly if your audience is local. If you own a farm shop and appear in the local paper you are very likely to see the footfall to the shop increase immediately after your story appears – people come out of curiosity and will return if they like what they see.

A local PR agency will do the work for you but it is perfectly possible to cut down on costs by writing your own press releases. However, you need to get it right – journalists are working to deadlines and if you don’t give them exactly what they want they will simply bin your offering and ignore any further approaches from you.

So, here are some simple points to help you put together a press release for your local media:

1. Identify who you plan to send your release to – make a list of the titles and contact details of your local press and take time to look through them so that you can see what sort of story they like to carry. You can then angle your content to suit them.
2. The words ‘Press Release’ need to go at the top but then you need to decide on your headline which should be short and to the point. ‘Manor Farm Offers Bed and Breakfast’ won’t make it but ‘Celebrity Chef cooks Breakfast at Manor Farm’ might.
3. The first paragraph should answer the key questions about the story – the who, what, where, when, why and how questions. The journalist will make a decision about carrying your story with this paragraph and will not read any further if it fails to capture his/her imagination.
4. Expand the story with a few more details in the second paragraph but remember – no waffle, no jargon and no long sentences. Keep everything to the point and relevant to your target audience.
5. From the second paragraph onwards include a quote from the person who will be the spokesperson for this piece of news. This is the person the journalist will expect to speak to if they follow up the story but the quote needs to work on its own as well. This gives you an opportunity to be a bit more personal.
6. Make sure your release is 1.5 or double line spaced and does not exceed two pages at most. It will also need your contact information at the end and an offer of photographs if you have them. Once the release is finished get someone else to read it in case you have missed something then put the date at the top before e mailing it to your list of journalists. With a fair wind you, and lots of potential customers, will open the paper in a few days and enjoy the story all about your business.

Good luck!

Sarah is based in the West Midalnds and is one half of Green Apple communications, offering advice on PR, Marketing, Crisis Management and Media Training.

http://www.greenapplecommunications.co.uk/

With thanks to WiRE Member Alison Bradford

Do you shy away from networking groups as you’re never quite sure what to say? Do you think everyone else there is more confident than you and knows what they’re doing? Are you scared that you may be exposed as a big fraud who hasn’t a clue about their business and can’t even stand up and tell people what they do in 60 seconds? Do you imagine yourself standing alone whilst everyone else is chatting away in their small huddles?

If you’ve nodded your head at any of these questions, then here are some tips to get you feeling more confident.

1. Arrive a few minutes early

This is a great tip if the thought of walking into a room full of people fills you with dread. Just get there early before everyone else and you can walk into an empty room!

This way, you can be there to greet people when they walk in and start a friendly conversation. You’ll be putting them at ease (they probably hate walking into a room full of people too) and yourself at ease too.
2. Find out what to expect beforehand

Contact the organiser before the event to get an overview of the structure of the meeting. Is there a time slot for everyone to talk about their business or is it more informal networking? Who else will be attending?

You can ask the organiser for a list of attendees before the meeting and check them out on Google / Linked In etc. and see if there any particular people you are keen to talk to, whether they may be possible mentors, future joint venture partners, your ideal clients or just someone you’re really interested to find out more about.

3. Hover by the coffee

If you find yourself standing alone and struggling to catch someone to chat to, then head over to the coffee. Most people will head here at some point and it’s a great way to start a conversation with someone.

You always say ‘Mmm, lovely coffee. Are you a coffee or a tea person?’ if you are really struggling to come up with something to say.

Which brings us to the next tip….

4. Have some questions ready

If you’re at all worried about what you are going to say then have a few questions ready to ask to let the other person do the talking and start up the conversation. Once it gets going you’ll soon be joining in and, hopefully, they’ll ask you some questions too. (If they don’t then they might be either a) only interested in themselves, or b) very nervous themselves. )

Examples of simple conversation starters are:

* Where have you travelled from today?
* Did you have a good journey?
* Do you go to any other networking events?

And of course, you can always fall back on the good old British tradition of talking about the weather if all else fails!

The idea is just to start a conversation to put you at ease and find out more about the other people.

5. “And what do you do?”

Be prepared for this question as you will be asked it. Practice your response beforehand. Keep it succinct and interesting with an invite for the listener to want to find out more if they want to.

(If you’re not comfortable with this then there are more tips in ’5 steps to getting more customers’ which is the bonus free report I give to everyone who subscribes to my ‘Rock Your Business Tips’. If you’ve not got a copy yet you can get yours here)

6. Keep your business cards accessible

There is nothing worse than offering to give a business card to somebody and then spending 10 minutes emptying the contents of your bag as you try and find the darned things. Especially when your hands are already full holding a coffee and a notepad. I speak from personal experience here!

I now make sure my business cards are on hand to easily be got at. I either use a side pocket in my handbag which is the perfect size or, if you have a name badge in a plastic holder, these can be just the right size to slide some business cards behind your name.

You will also recieve business cards from people you meet so consider how you want to store these so you’re not rummaging through your bag when you get home. (Again, personal experience here)

7. Don’t be dissapointed to not get any new business/customers

It’s unlikely for anyone to get this from networking at first as networking is all about building relationships, and this can take time.

If there are people you meet who you feel could be useful in some way to your business (mentor, customer, joint venture etc.) then ask them if they would like to meet for a coffee and find out more about them.

Getting a couple of coffee meetings arranged is a good outcome from networking. It is these that will help you the most.

8. Follow up on the spot

Don’t swap business cards and tell someone you’ll be in touch if you know you want to meet them to find out more. Arrange it there and then. Have your diary on hand and get a time booked in.

After all, you don’t want to lose your nerve and not make the call once you get home. Plus, it’s also a better use of time to do it there and then!

9. Remember – you are not alone!

(cue singing of Micheal Jackson song – ‘you are not alone, I am here with you…’)

And back to the networking.

Remember this important point – There will be lots of other people networking who are feeling nervous. Trust me.

Helping them to feel at ease can also help you to feel at ease, so keep an eye out for anyone who maybe nervous and be sure to share these tips, or least make a conversation with them and help them to feel included.

Alison offers many business solutions and regularly posts on her blog.

http://alisonbradford.com/blog/

With thanks to WiRE Member Juliet-Fay

Last week I was cooking, in a rush. A random beep started. I checked the fridge, usual suspect. No. By now I was getting rattled. The random nature of it was particularly annoying.

The culprit? The monitor from our weather station was low on batteries. Now the weather station is very useful but the intermittent beep? No thanks.

When you send emails that accidentally annoy your readers, it can thwart your efforts to win more sales and worse get your email labelled as junk.

If enough people label your email as junk or spam you could get black listed by email servers making it very difficult to communicate by email in the future.

Apply these 10 tips to help avoid annoying your subscribers and discouraging them from hitting the spam button.

1. Use a professional email marketing package like MailChimp. Many are free for small lists (up to 2000 subscribers for MailChimp) and they are set up to help you comply with the anti-spam regulations. They are also very powerful and enable you to be more targeted and effective with your emails. For instance you can segment your lists and track who opened your email and who clicked on any links.

2. Add an email sign up form to your website. This helps build your list and gives you a chance of capturing the data of all those visitors to your site. If they voluntarily subscribe, (rather than you adding their details after you met them at a networking event) there is much less chance of them hitting the spam button when your emails arrive.

3. Make sure everyone has opted in. It’s common sense (and the law) that you’d only want to send sales emails out to those who’ve opted to receive them (especially if you are mailing consumers rather than businesses). So don’t be tempted to cull email addresses from the internet, Chamber of Commerce lists or other sources where explicit permission has not been given.

4. Don’t end up a spammer through ignorance. Educate yourself on the UK law around email marketing.

5. Be specific about what your emails offer. When people sign up, spell out exactly what you’ll send out e.g. Offers, news, event information etc and how often. If you send out articles but also promote events, then say so.

6. Protect yourself Packages like MailChimp allow you to add text explaining why people are receiving your emails to remind them how they opted in. It goes on every email and is good practice in case you ever get accused of being a spammer.

7. Automatic unsubscribe. Ensure it’s easy for people to unsubscribe at any time (packages do this for you). Nothing irritates people more than trying and failing to stop businesses sending them unwanted emails. Have you ever tried to unsubscribe from Groupon, VistaPrint?

8. Steer clear of spammy formatting. Avoid use of bright red fonts and !!!!!! ******* in your emails. Spammers love these.

9. Use compelling, specific subject lines that tell the reader what value lies inside. If you have a special offer, say what it is, e.g. Buy 2 cake tins, get a 3rd free.

10. Keep your content relevant and always keep in mind ‘what’s in it for the reader?’ Always spell out the value for the reader. If it’s an offer, maybe it saves the consumer money, or gives them exclusive access to limited products, services or membership.

The whole point of email marketing is to deliver personal valuable content to your subscribers. Learn how to avoid accidentally annoying your readers and being like that random intermittent beep from electrical devices.

Juliet regularly posts about marketing and copywriting for rural businesses. She is now based in West Wales and has her own rural business, The Welsh Poultry Centre.

www.onlinesalesmessages.com