When you compose an email for marketing purposes, keep these points in mind:

• Create a title for the email that will cause readers to want to open your email. People glance at the first few words of the email title to even decide if they are going to open it or delete it.
• Write interesting headlines. So you’ve gotten the reader to open your email, now give them a reason to read on. Glancing at the headlines should make you want to read the news item.
• Keep main articles concise, interesting and to the point. Get to your point quickly, whether it is an offer of some sort, or any other call to action. People’s attention spans are very short, especially in email.
• Create links back to your website when possible.  Readers will click on the links if they want more information.

There are many places you can source an email list for marketing purposes. Most of the time you must buy a list and the prices and quality of the lists you purchase may vary. A good place to start is by exporting the contacts from your email or address book.  They are most likely current clients, business associates and friends. The first time I exported my address book years ago, I was surprised to end up with a list of over 400 email addresses.  If you would like to purchase a list of email addresses, there are many options available to you. Remember to decide upon a target market for your purchased email list. For example, are you trying to source a list in Las Vegas of Small Business owners on the west side of town or specific to zip codes or is your target a national audience of dog owners let’s say.

Websites you can purchase email marketing lists from:

The process is fairly simple. You need to find an online company, set up an account, pay a monthly fee depending on how big your list is and how many times a month you email your list. They will have instructions on how to import email addresses from your address book or the list you’ve purchased.

Do I really need a business plan?

For most Las Vegas businesses the answer to this question would be yes. The majority of new businesses and ones that require investment by way of a loan or a business partner, a business plan is an absolute must. Potential investors will want to see, for example, your growth projections before they commit to invest in your business.

Types of businesses that do not require a business plan:

• A business that is happy to stay as is and has no plans to expand
• A business that never has the need to take out a bank loan
• A business that is a one man shop, self-sufficient, without the need of outside help.

It is one thing being aware of your need for a business plan, problem is most people have no idea of how to go about creating one.

The business plan will show its readers all the plans and growth of your business and how you are going to reach these gaols. You need to have a solid strategy in place before even attempting to write your business plan. You should know the direction you are going to take, the investments you are going to make in hiring staff, and equipment. You need to have business goals and an idea of when each goal is going to be met.

In the majority of cases a business plan is used to attract people to invest into your idea and your business. It is your sales copy in effect and therefore must be a professional, well laid out and solid business plan, people will take you seriously and invest.

On the other hand if it is rushed, badly written and weak, you are not likely to receive the financial backing you’re looking for.

What should be included in my business plan?

Readers of your business plan will not only want to know about the business itself, they’ll also want to know about you and your experience. Be sure to give them a brief summary of your history and what you have achieved career wise. Jot down all of your ideas and really sell the positive side of your experience and character to them. The fact that you’re hard working and that you work well under pressure. You love a challenge and can work well as part of a team and on your own.

Describe the current market place that your business is in, your competition and the opportunities for growth in that market.

List out financial figures including operating costs, projected earnings, growth forecasts and any financial history the business might have had already.

Show in your business plan that you are flexible, that you have a plan B if plan A does not come to light.

Sell them your ideas by telling them why you’re setting up the business in the first place for example, and where you dream it will be in five years time. Lastly, be sure to include a mission statement.

Many companies and businesses in Las Vegas make the mistake of launching a website and thinking that drones of visitors will magically arrive each day. Not true. Just like a business card that sits in your pocket if you don’t hand it out to people, most of the time a website can sit out on the internet and if you don’t market that web site, people may not even know you or your business exists.

Here are some ways you or a professional internet marketing company can help market your business online:

• Launch a Website – if you don’t already have a web site you are WAY behind the curve.  Get one up right away.
• Search Engine Optimization – research keywords and key phrases that people would find your website during a search on a search engine and put those words and phrases into the copy on your website, make those same words links between your website pages and place those same words into your website’s site map.
• Online PR – There are many opportunities for online PR and Press Releases. For more information see my article on Press Releases for Your Las Vegas Business.
• Google’s Free Online Marketing Tools – here’s a list from wikipedia.org. Very helpful and mostly free.
• Pay-Per-Click Campaign – ever wonder what those Sponsored Listings are when you search on google, yahoo, msn or aol? That’s right, they pay. You can set up your own campaign, choose they keywords, set your monthly budget and start coming up right along side your competitors by setting a pay-per-click campaign.
• Email Marketing – Use a company like Constant Contact to set up an email marketing campaign. You can upload your list of contacts, choose a template and write your email newsletter, it’s easy and fun.
• Launch a Blog – Do you have a lot to say about your particular area of expertise or industry (like I do, hee)? Then launch a blog and tell visitors what you’re thinking and let them find out who you are and what your business specializes in.
• Banner Advertising – Consider buying space on a targeted web site that promotes your products and services. Set up a special landing page so you can track the results

A professional email marketing services company in Las Vegas can help assist you in desinging a template for your email marketing campaign, help you import your contacts and can train you on how to write your own newsletters, send them out to your database and track the results of your efforts.

In general, you can sign up with a company, like constantcontact.com, and starting at $25/month (cost depends on the size of your email database and the frequency you send emails out to that database), you can communicate directly with your clients and customers from your email database and inform them of:

• Latest company news
• Timely articles, tips and tricks
• Changes in your product and services offerings
• Key management changes
• Specials, promotions and bargains
• Keeps your company in your customer’s mindshare

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. RSS is a network of web feeds used when publishing blogs – and other online publishers like news feeds – over the internet. These feeds are of great marketing value when they are syndicated out regularly changing or timely blog or web content into the internet automatically. People can subscribe to these feeds and website developers and web masters can pull these feeds as content into their own websites.

How Can You Read an RSS Feed?

RSS Feeds are read by other websites and subscribers by using a RSS Reader, a software that allows you to pull the RSS feeds from websites and display them for you to read and use as content. An RSS reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.

Here are a list of a few popular RSS Readers:

• AmphetaDesk
• NewsGator
• Google Reader
• Bloglines