RavenWolf Press

Easy Does It!

Written By: raven - May• 05•12

For small business owners the long list of unfinished tasks or future plans don’t leave your head at the end of the day or week. You might turn off your computer and the lights in your store or office at the end of the day but that pesky internal dialog never seems to leave your brain. Thoughts range from organizing the back room or how will you pay your bills at the end of the month to what will entice more people to learn about your business, and the amazing service you and your staff provide. And this just leads to more questions, like; What can you do to add more value to what you offer to your clients?.. and How can I afford another round of marketing?

Not so long ago your newest and best idea or marketing approach could be cost prohibitive and if it it didn’t work out as planned, it could make or break a month’s budget or worse. Anxiety, like this, once upon a time, may have driven antacid and liquor sales but did little for real peace of mind, nor did it solve the problems at hand.

However, there are solutions, and some of them can be solved in an economical way. First, a well crafted and easy to navigate web site, coupled with a plethora of digital marketing applications and social networking sites can eliminate some of the wringing of hands and trepidation.

There are still hurdles to online marketing because consumers can be fickle and anticipating  buying trends is not a science, not to mention how fast technology is changing, which influences how you need to communicate with your customers. Even your branding can become blasé and ineffective over time.

Lucky for all of us this also makes what we can do online and through the digital airwaves faster and easier too. Websites that allow for instant updates and changes, e-newsletters and even highly targeted print media can be created, distributed and tracked on various levels and used to perfect almost any marketing plan. Website traffic is easily analyzed with a variety of reliable tools. Search engine optimization powered by Google analytics and WordPress tracking provides us with data that shows where our web traffic is coming from, how long a user stays on our sites, and where we can improve both content and code. E-newsletters, from almost the moment the design is completed, content finalized, and sent, the numbers start accumulating. All this feedback tells us how many people visited, opened, clicked, forwarded and how many new subscribers were added to mailing lists. In a little more than a few days you can tell if you are getting the response your initial enthusiasm predicted or if you have more work to do.

What a wonderful time to own and run a business! We can work from home if the situation allows, which saves us time and money. Websites offer visitors a reliable way to comparison shop without leaving the comfort of their easy chairs. E-newsletters deliver savings and information to home desktops, laptops, cell phones, and now portable tablet computers. However we chose to take advantage of these communication tools, we can be confident that wherever the trends take us – we can keep up, stay relevant, and continue to contribute to a solid and reliable economy.

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Personable and Professional

Written By: wolf - Apr• 27•12

Small business owners, like you, know how valuable it is to create and maintain personal connections with your customers. These relationships help to build repeat business through trust and mutual respect. The key is to communicate with current and potential customers on a regular basis.

Don’t let them forget you are here…

“Out of sight, and out of mind” applies to small business, therefore, one way to keep your customers coming back time after time is to send regular e-newsletters or e-blasts to them. So now you are thinking to yourself “yeah, right, like I need to add one more task to my already overloaded schedule!”

Work with someone who knows how to get results…

Oooo a feather :-) Imagine that!

We know that creating engaging and relevant content on a regular schedule is time-consuming and for many of you this may be out of the question based on available resources. The solution to this problem can be to work with someone whose sole job (and passion) is to write, design and manage an e-newsletter for you.

Yes, and that is us! Our writers have diverse backgrounds in a variety of business and lifestyles. We pride ourselves in learning about your business and your customers in order to deliver engaging information, as well as, how to successfully present your latest sale or special offers and deliver them straight to their email in-boxes.

We use only the best web-based permission email marketing applications as part of an overall marketing plan for your business. Our writing team researches, writes, and formats articles into HTML templates, complete with company branding, that won’t end up in spam folders or sent straight to the trash. What could be easier? This turn-key solution to your communication needs provides relevant and informative articles to customers that are sent with sales, special offers, and can include video, audio, as well as customer satisfaction surveys.

Economical, track able, and environmentally friendly too!

Without question, e-newsletters are the most economical method to keep your business in the forefront of your customer’s minds. You can send coupon codes for subscriber-only special offers without asking your customers to waste paper or time. They simply write down the code or show it to you on their smartphone to get the discount. And yes, your e-newsletter is also formatted to read perfectly on small display screens too!

Print media is expensive, whether that be in magazines or newspapers and mailing costs are rising- but more importantly there is no way to track and modify the level of success of marketing campaigns. When a comprehensive free e-marketing campaign is launched, opens rates can be viewed and modifications to offers can be customized based on solid numbers.

Check out some of our examples by clicking “E-Newsletters” on our menu. These are real clients who know that a friendly reminder of their products and services build repeat and new business.

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Content Dilemma – What if there is no news?

Written By: admin - Mar• 15•12

It happens to every company newsletter editor at some point in their career- a month with little or no news to report to their fellow workers. It’s been a quiet month at headquarters, the field offices have nothing new to add but the standard birthdays and anniversaries. You’ve scoped out the company bulletin board, all old news and you’ve tried hanging out in the breakroom hoping to catch a good story, but nothing yet. Now what?

Here are a few ideas to spark your creative writing mojo:

Wellness Tips: Reminding employees about basic prevention in the cold and flu season – or the proper way to lift heavy objects can greatly reduce the number of sick days and stalled productivity. There are a number of reliable websites you can refer to like the Mayo Clinic or WebMD that offer timely articles and tips.

Tech Talk: Has your company or a department within the organization recently upgraded with new hardware or software? How will these improve efficiency? Will the new systems benefit customers or employees or both? Talk to the people in those departments to get their insight and tips.

Volunteer Kudos: Give employees who volunteer in the community a pat on the back. Let others know about the charity and the work your employees are donating. Offer some well-deserved praise and recognition for their generous contribution of time to local charities and thank them for representing your company in a positive light.

Employee Benefits: Has your company recently upgraded or changed insurance benefits or stock options? Most companies pretty regularly review and change the perks they offer. An article about a new plan and the difference between the old and new would be greatly appreciated. Don’t forget to add any filing or reporting deadlines that everyone needs to know about- especially if that deadline is within a week or two.

Company goals and periodic updates: Virtually every CEO charts out the goals for his or her company at least annually. At the beginning of the year, interview your CEO and list that person’s company goals for the year. Then as the year progresses, keep employees up to date on how well the company and its employees are achieving the goal.

Who’s doing what: If your company has locations throughout the state, the country or even the world, employees at one location probably know very little about what the employees at other locations do. Or even if employees work at the same location, people in customer service may have no idea what the people in “procurement” really do on a day-to-day basis. Highlight a different department, division or branch office in each issue of your employee newsletter.

And don’t forget a photo or two! Everyone enjoys seeing themselves and their co-workers on the job or hamming it up at a company picnic! But go easy on the images – too many may trigger email providers to tag your email newsletter as spam.

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The Art of Marketing

Written By: raven - Feb• 02•12

Marketing, is an art. From creative branding to the flow of ideas that are presented visually in order to create trust in a product or service. It’s communication – speaking to a wide range of people from all walks of life.

Direct contact through personal messages used to be delivered in the mailboxes of potential customers in cleverly designed flyers all glossy and colorful meant to entice even the most skeptical of consumers. Catalogs, sales flyers, and special offers stacked up on tables and filled niches on the desks of many a homemaker.

Today, these are now sent via email, carefully formatted complete with images, links to websites and online coupons. Video presentations disguised as news is also a staple among the most sophisticated of messages and are weaved into news clips on major media websites as well.

The marketing professional spends hours designing a campaign that includes elements to be presented in print and online so that there is instant awareness of what is being offered.

Colors, themes, and messages are coordinated, tested, released and tracked.

Consumer feedback is gathered through polls, surveys and customer satisfaction questions as a follow up after orders or support calls.

This data is then analyzed and modifications are made when missteps are recognized and the process is repeated…

Art and Marketing are forever partners – like the Raven and the Wolf!

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Why Small Business?

Written By: raven - Jan• 22•12

We may be Small but the contribution to our collective future is Huge!

Once in awhile, small business owners, the brave entrepreneurs who take their ideas and passion to the next level, are given credit for being the backbone of our economy. In my opinion, they don’t get enough credit for providing reliable and conscientious services or products that we need and use everyday.

The small business owner, in more cases than not, also support other small businesses. They carefully chose the best products for their store shelves or the things they use to sustain their service to the community. In many cases these products are locally sourced and more often than not come from renewable and sustainable raw materials as well.

Why Is This Important?

There has, and will most likely continue to be passionate debate over the reality of climate change and the fact that many of our natural resources are finite. Not all, but many, like oil, gas, and coal products are, for now, the major source of energy and raw materials but the extraction and processing is toxic to our environment and to human health. Many small business owners are answering the call from consumers by providing food and other goods from their friends and neighbors because it just makes sense to lower transportation costs and the use of fuel to get products from the source to the consumer. And consumers are realizing that shipping raw materials overseas, and then the finished products back to them, really doesn’t make much sense. Not to mention the loss of jobs right here in this country.

It doesn’t really matter who or what is to blame…

At RavenWolf Press we’re very sensitive to the impacts of the loss of manufacturing and related jobs. By some estimates there are still over 20 million people without a job or seriously underemployed. However, we do see positive changes as  a great many people begin to reinvent themselves, following their passion and vision as they open up their own businesses- providing a much needed economic boost to local communities.

Bottom line, no matter who is to blame for our economic woes, or if big business and government will deny climate change, it just makes sense for us all to transition from unsustainable and harmful consumer practices and to mindfully choosing products created with renewable resources that won’t harm our environment or threaten the health of earth’s inhabitants. We see daily that mega-corporations and government are only concerned with profits over people and will do whatever necessary to keep the status-quot.

Small business owners, for the most part, are fulfilling these goals- and it is our individual responsibility to support them by buying from them and working with them for the good of all. When we as business owners and consumers chose to spend our money with others of like mind, we can be fairly sure that our money stays in our communities- supporting more people, like ourselves.

 

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E-Newsletters for Authors and Publishers

Written By: raven - Dec• 12•11

I’m sure anyone reading this post has received requests in the form of e-newsletters from a variety of sources to include book promoters. These usually include at least one hard to resist incentive to buy by a certain date.  What you might not know is this method of marketing books has been used for years to help authors become some of Amazon’s bestselling authors who garner the accolades that go along with having their books land on the best seller lists.

Amazon has for the last few years worked very hard to become one of the best outlets for all online book sales. And with the thousands (maybe millions?) of books cataloged on their website it would seem that  a lot of effort has to be expended on a publishers or authors part to first get the attention and then the sales necessary to earn a best seller distinction.

But that isn’t necessarily so. What you need is to sell enough books in a certain period of time and that can be accomplished in just a few easy steps. Of course the first step is to publish the book, either in print (on-demand or on-the-shelf versions) and/or digital for download. Then comes the easy part of putting together an email newsletter that includes a short introduction, a couple of endorsements, an image of the book’s cover, links to the book on Amazon, along with a nice discount for buying by a certain date. You don’t necessarily have to have an already established subscriber email list either because the link to your email newsletter can be added to a Facebook page, a Twitter feed or any number of social networks. Of course you do want to build a healthy subscriber list and social networking is a way to get people to sign up as well.

You’ll also want to make sure that whatever email marketing newsletter service you use offers a secure double opt-in system, all the top social networking links for your readers to share and the all-important “send to a friend” option.

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