Michael Wilding

Tag: internet marketing

Do you prune your bits?

To trim or not to trim, that is the question.

At least, that’s the question that us email marketers ask regularly.

I don’t know what you were thinking about ;0

If you have an email list, which you should if you’re a marketer, or in fact if you’re trying to promote literally anything (including yourself), then you’re going to need to prune it regularly.

And by this I mean you should be looking at removing inactive subscribers from your emails.

An inactive subscriber is somebody who hasn’t opened or clicked an email, or purchased anything in the last 30 days.

The timeframe is adjustable, and should be adjusted to suit your market.

If you work in something like internet marketing or biz opp, then you should stick to 30 days.

But for most markets it’s better to use 90 or 180 days.

Of course… you should also consider how many emails you send. If you send an email every day, then 30 days means someone hasn’t opened 30 emails.

If they haven’t opened or clicked a link in 30 emails, then to be honest, they’re probably not interested in what you’re saying.

However, if you only send an email once a week, then it will take you 180 days to have sent a similar amount of emails.

Whatever setting you use, you should be doing this because:

* It makes sure you’re list is responsive
* Helps with email deliverability
* Reduces cost because you’re sending to less people

Those three things are all the reasons you need to prune your email list regularly.

And I recommend that you do it at least once per week.

Michael

May 9, 2017
The efficiency of a headmistress
Sometimes you just have to admit that you’re not very good at things. It’s something that we all find hard to do, and it’s something I’ve just done.

I’m very good at organising my own time, but I’m not very good at…

Building business processes so the business runs efficiently

My business has grown organically, which has it’s benefits, but also has some big negatives.

One of the biggest negatives is that…

…it makes it nearly impossible to grow past a certain point, because the structure required isn’t there to focus on the most important elements.

That’s one of the problems I see with a lot of internet marketers, they’re working on a day-by-day basis with very little planning or preparation.

Over the years, I’ve tried numerous times to plan more effectively, to run the business 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year in advance, so that everything is scheduled out and everyone in our team knows exactly what’s happening when.

And every time it’s worked… for a few weeks, before it just kinda stops happening.

So this time I’ve brought in the big guns…

My mum.

Who’s epicly good at business planning and administration!

Having setup multiple international schools, and then been the head until they’re running effectively, means she knows what she’s talking about.

And now… she’s joining my team 🙂

Already I can see processes going in place that are going to make a difference. Our work calendar is filling up with a proper schedule, everything has it’s time and place, which means…
- It’s going to get done faster
- We’ll know exactly when every job will be finished
- There’ll be less stress due to planning
- I’ll be able to spend more time focusing on growth
After all, running your own business is all about growth, assuming you’ve got product quality and profit margins in place.

What does this mean for you?

It means I’m going to share with you the decades of experience my mum has in making organisations run efficiently.

And, the first thing I’ve learnt is all about Organograms.

Which are these awesome things that I’ll explain in my next email.

Until then, remember to find the things you’re not good at, find someone who is, and bring them into your business to do it for you.

Over and out,

Michael

P.S. This morning I did a couple of Facebook Live videos on my Facebook page, showing the cement being poured into the foundations of our building.

And I kinda enjoyed it!

So I’ve made this new post asking what you’d like me to talk about in future live videos.

It could be about business, marketing, lifestyle or just what the hecks going on in my life.

Either way, head over here and let me know 😉
April 12, 2017
How important is the layout of my website?

This is a very common question for people who are setting up a website for their business. You invest a lot of time and usually money into getting a great website set up, so you want every element of it to be just right.

If you are using your website as part of your marketing strategy to drive sales, then getting the best out of your website will be a big priority for you.

And, getting your website set up for success isn’t totally straight-forward!

From what type of content to develop, to where to position your content for ultimate effect, you have a number of factors to consider.

If you haven’t spent years developing websites and discovering what works in terms of content and layout, then you can take a shortcut by using this insightful infographic; 25 features every online business must have in 2017.

Based on extensive research, the infographic will show you exactly what to do in terms of content placement and even provides useful tips on key features.

Your content and how you use it is critical to the effectiveness of your website, so start using this infographic from the team at ukwebhostreview.com to base your layout on and you will soon see some quick benefits.

Simple concepts like positioning the call to action button in a highly visible position at the top of your page and what else to include in your header are examples of the great information you will glean from the infographic.

The positioning of content is so vital in terms of how effective your website will be in compelling your website visitors to contact you or make an online purchase. If you develop a good content creation schedule that is based on attracting your target audience and then place it using this guidance then you can expect to see great results.

March 31, 2017
Are you building your online tomb?

If you work online, then you always need to be progressing. If you stand still then you get left behind very quickly.

Yet, loadsa folks build a website, set everything up and think they can forget about it.

Nuh uh.

That’s not how it works.

Not only does the online world move fast, but your business should be evolving, and that on it’s own means you need to keep mixing up what you’re doing, keep analysing your processes and seeing if you should be doing something different.

If you’re not doing that, then you’re literally building your online tomb, because sooner or later you will be left behind.

And that’s why you’re going to be seeing a bunch of changes on my blog, social media and emails soon.

I’m mixing up what I’m doing.

When I get back from holiday I’m gonna start using social media more, a lot more.

Why?

Because I’m not just going to be talking about marketing, although there’ll still be a bunch of that. But I’m also going to start talking about other things that are happening in my life, things I believe in, things I enjoy, things I see, and things I want to do.

To put it simply… you’re gonna start getting even more of me!

That’s going to happen in my emails, as well as across social media.

Which means… I’ll be posting different things to every channel.

Initially I’m going to be focusing on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And at some point I’ll also bring in YouTube 🙂

Then I’ll change the layout of this email, there’s going to be some more graphics in it, and there’ll be a whole range of chat going on that I hope you’ll get involved with.

Finally, you’ll notice my blog change style, it’s going to become more of an archive for the brain farts I have throughout the day.

All in all, I’m pretty damn excited.

And of course… I’ll keep you in the loop as to how things are progressing from a marketing and branding aspect.

Now, if this isn’t for you, then that’s cool, scroll down and hit the unsubscribe button. No hard feelings.

If it is for you, then you can get involved, heck, I’m asking you to get involved, on all my social channels.

My Facebook page will have videos, images and chats from my every day life going on.

>> Follow me on Facebook here.

Of course, our private marketing group will still be available to talk about everything marketing.

>> This is our private group, request access and I’ll let you in.

I’ll be sharing snippets of what’s happening both with me, and around the world on Twitter.

>> Follow me on Twitter here.

If you like photos, then Instagram is the place to go. I bloody love a good photo, and having just got Photoshop on my iPhone, I’m going to be posting up a ton of them.

>> Here’s where you connect with me on Instagram.

And if you’re looking to make an online business, then you’d better get in pretty darn fast before the April edition goes to print.

https://michaelwilding.com/business-ignition

Michael

March 31, 2017
The real charities vs. shamsters

The subject line of this email is probably going to get me a shite load of complaints.

Particularly when I go into details.

But hey… if you’re reading this, then it did it’s job, so take note about why I wrote it (there’s always a reason) and then rinse and repeat in your own email marketing.

I don’t mean copy word-for-word, I mean use the principles yourself.

To me there are two types of charities, the ones that are always fighting for cash and get very little support, the others are the huge ones that seem to have endless amounts of money.

When I said shamsters in my subject line, I was referring to these giant businesses, but I need to clarify what I meant by it.

I’m not saying that they don’t do some good, I’m sure that they do, what I am saying, is that I personally don’t believe they’re as charitable and giving as they make out.

Just read books such as War Games by Linda Polman and you’ll begin to have your own doubts.

Start doing some Google search on how much the people who run these companies earn, and those doubts will be solidified.

Look into the way they direct market, relentlessly targeting vulnerable people, and you’ll begin to wish you never gave them your money.

As far as I’m concerned, if you’re a charity, everyone who works for you should be paid a fair and reasonable wage, but when you’re at the top of the chain you should expect to get less than you would in a non-charitable private institution. After all, it’s a charity.

Yes, yes, I’m aware of the argument about not getting the best, yada, yada, yada.

However, I refuse to believe that there aren’t enough successful people in the world, who’ve earned all the money they need, who wouldn’t be happy to take a pay cut (while still earning well) to work for a charity.

Anyhoo, I digress…

We’re just about to head over to one of those smaller charities under the name of Shine. It’s for parents of children with hydrocephalus and spina bifida.

Max, as you may know, has hydrocephalus, so we’re going to one of their drop-in coffee mornings.

The first thing I ever do when I see these smaller charities websites, is start to assess what they’re missing.

The Shine website is actually pretty good, but there’s a bunch of stuff they could improve on.

So here’s what I’m going to ask you to do, go and take a look at it at:

https://www.shinecharity.org.uk/

Then…

Head over to this thread in our private Facebook group and leave a comment saying what you would do to improve this site.

Let’s use this site as a case study.

When you’ve left your thoughts on how you would improve it in the Facebook thread, I’ll let you know how I would improve it.

This will allow you to see if you got it right, if you missed anything and most importantly, it will start to give you an insight into how you can pitch to clients and get paid to give this advice 😉

But more on that later.

Michael

March 23, 2017