Welcome to the latest issue of Write for You News & Notes with some words of wisdom on writing, business, and life. If you'd like to share any books or favorite links with our readers (especially for the June "What's in Your Beach Bag" feature), send me an email. And remember -- on paper or on-line, when you need words that work for you, I can write for you! Nancy Passow
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| Please Read My E-mail |
How do you get people to read your e-mail? The best way is to have an interesting, compelling subject line. Give the recipient a reason to open the e-mail. The worst thing to do is to leave the subject line blank. My first thought when I see a blank subject line is that it's Spam. Unless I know the sender, I hit "delete". Next worst thing is to "over promise" in the subject line. Recently I received an e-mail from someone I know with the subject line: "An Important Message From xxx xxxx!" (name removed to protect the guilty). As I hadn't heard from this person in a while, I thought it might be some important news, so I immediately clicked on it. It was simply her latest blog. How annoying! My response to her was: "I opened your e-mail because I actually believed the subject line. Shame on you and shame on me for falling for it. Next time you say it's an important message, I'll delete it because I know it's a lie. Better to just tell me it's your latest e-mail message."
So keep the subject line short, interesting, and true.
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The 5 W's & an H of Social Media
| Social media is just another set of tools for marketing your business. There's a variety of tools you can use (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, website, e-mail marketing, Pinterest, etc., etc.), not all of which may be right for you and your business. We can use our old friends the 5W's and an H to check on what we're doing, why we're doing it, and how it's working.
Why are you using social media?
What types of social media are you using?
Who are you targeting with your social media?
Where is your social media appearing?
When do you use social media?
How is your social media doing?
Don't do things just for the sake of doing them -- set some goals for what you want to accomplish. Use your answers to these questions to help create the goals. And only do what makes sense for you and your business.
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E-mail Marketing is Easy!
|  Are you interested in trying e-mail marketing? I can help you--whether it's set-up, writing the content, or managing the entire process. I'll even remember to pay the monthly bill for you. I can set up your contact lists, help you choose a template (and customize it with your logo and website colors), and develop your e-mail schedule. To learn more about using Constant Contact, click here.
Why use Constant Contact? They take care of the details--managing your contact list, making sure you meet anti-spam regulations, tracking users--these are just a few of the reasons. Give me a call or send me an e-mail so we can talk about how e-mail marketing can help your business!
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phone: 201-541-9702 (o)
phone: 201-362-3404 (m)
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| Book of the Month . . Decisive | |
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Two of my favorite authors, brothers Chip and Dan Heath, recently published their third book, subtitled "How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work". (I reviewed their first book, Made to Stick, in the Feb./March 2008 newsletter and their second book, Switch, in the Sept. 2010 newsletter.) They argue that there are four villains of decision-making: narrow framing; confirmation bias; short-term emotion; and overconfidence. What the Heaths suggest is to follow a decision-making process which they describe with the acronym WRAP: Widen your options; Reality test your assumptions; Attain distance before deciding; and Prepare to be wrong. Using real world examples, results of studies, and their own common sense, Dan and Chip have put together a very readable and very useful book. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to hear Dan Heath speak in NYC. I really enjoyed meeting and hearing him ((plus I now have a personally autographed book!) Because I had pre-ordered the book, I received some extras including a special "Magic 8" ball, complete with phrases from the WRAP process (unlike the Magic 8 ball pictured on the cover of the book). Dan was kind enough to autograph it for me.
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| Quote of the Month | | |
"Angels come in many forms. If you are waiting for the white winged, fluffy, newly laundered ones, you might miss the kick-ass muddy angels who literally move things along in useful ways." -- Clarissa Pinkola Estes (in honor of my daughter Kate & the other Muddy Angels who rode in the EMS Memorial Bike Ride from Augusta to Philadelphia.)
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