The Bottom Line to Successful Email Fundraising & Marketing

The bottom line to successful email fundraising & email marketing consists of the following four simple steps to help you stay on track:

4 STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL EMAIL FUNDRAISING OR EMAIL MARKETING

An excellent way to communicate, email has become so efficient that it has the U.S. Postal Service trembling in its boots!  But seriously, if you're still doing direct mail only, you need to add email marketing to your mix of online fund raising tools. And to get the most out of your email fundraising or email marketing program you need to implement the following four strategic steps to success:

1)    Build Your Email House File - The most successful professional fundraisers are using email marketing programs to solicit their house files.  I know this may be a long process to develop these lists, but once you have a robust house file acquisition process in place, your email lists will grow and your efundraising or emarketing communications to those lists will deliver for you maximum results, way above any external list file rentals.

Typically, your house file consists of various sub lists like your customer file (first or two time buyers); your best customer file (regular, large or monthly donors, for example); and your prospecting file of requestors who have asked for call backs, downloaded white papers,  signed up for your newsletters, etc. 


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Simple Ways to Grow Your Facebook Page from Zero to 5,000

Facebook is far more than the name “social media” implies. It has become one of the most effective marketing venues the world has even seen. So why is it that, although you’ve created a Facebook page for their business, it just sits there? Why don’t people notice it? With countless people with Facebook accounts, why do you have only two fans after an entire year of exposure? Well, it might depend on your concept of exposure. And it might amaze you that there is nothing new under the sun.

Rule Number 1: Let People Know You Are There. - Tell people that you are “in the square and open for business.

Rule Number 2: Don’t Just Be There. Have A Purpose. - Not everyone needs a Facebook page. But everyone with a product or cause to promote does. 

Rule Number 3: Make Their Visit Worthwhile. - Post valuable content on your page. Interesting content is okay, but valuable content is better.

Rule Number 4: Give Them a Reason to Return - Create contests and have giveaways. Post teasers about upcoming articles or freebies.

Rule Number 5: Encourage Interaction -  This is the a la mode on the pie, the icing on the cake, the gold nugget in the stream.

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Consider Email Fundraising Now!

Did you know that Americans spend more than two and a half billion hours online each week? According to a recent Harris Poll, more than 80% of us-184 million people-are now online for an average of 14 hours weekly.[1] And trends in nonprofit giving indicate that more people are likely to give online in the coming years.[2] Email marketing can help you take advantage of this trend and reach more people through targeted messages.

Okay. But we have a Web site that gets lots of traffic, and even donations. And we send out a monthly enewsletter. Isn't that enough online marketing?

Frankly, NO. Not only is email marketing one of the most effective channels for fundraising, it has many benefits that you can't get from a Web site alone. And email fundraising is different than just emailing. Business email or enewsletters convey information or perhaps get a response to a short question. Emarketing is a call to action-its purpose is to get readers to click to a Web page and complete a form, request a response, or make a gift.

Learn more about some of the advantages you can gain from email fundraising, click HERE.

The Bottom Line to Successful Search Engine Marketing

The bottom line to successful search engine optimization services consists of the following six steps to effective internet marketing in search.

6 STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

    Since the inception of the Internet, one of its most popular uses has been Search.  As a result, Search Engines, such as Google, Yahoo and Bing have became prevalent and Search Engine Marketing has become a viable way for businesses to market themselves online.  But due to fact that you usually have extensive competition when participating in Search Engine Marketing, the successful company needs to know, and adhere, to all of the following practical steps, in order to be successful in search and related internet marketing ideas.

1)    Conduct Comprehensive Keyword Research

Preparatory to undertaking your Search Engine Marketing Program you must devote the time, money and energy to conducting comprehensive Keyword Research. Start with the Google Keyword Tool which is free to utilize.  You may go through mulptiple rounds of research to really find all the terms that relate to your company, but don't worry.  A really good set of keyword research may turn up nearly 1500 search terms that work for you...maybe even more. One client we did Keyword Research for had nearly 50,000 applicable terms at the end of their keyword research project.  Once you have completed your Keyword Research, prioritize the search terms intowinnable keywords for your company, meaning those you have a probable chance of winning a Page One ranking.  

Obviously, determining winnability is a vital step, so we use three strategic indicators to help us weed down our list into those that we might potentially win a page one ranking on in Google, Yahoo or Bing.  1st is any term under 2500 a month in Google Global Search Volume. 2nd is any term costing under $2.25 per Google PPC. And 3rd is any term ranking under 45% per the SEOmoz Difficulty Ranking. 

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5 Proven Search Engine Marketing Ways to Bring Qualified Traffic

Gone are the days when all you need to do to run an online business is to build a website, send it to the major Search Engines and wait for visitors to come. Today, you need to proactively drive highly qualified traffic to it and convert visitors into clients. 

Search Engine Marketing is not just presenting flashy website, people are no longer buying that. What you need today is to find a hungry niche and sell them your product or services. The question then is how to drive a great deal of hungry visitors into your website. Here is a five-tiered approach to accomplish that:

1. Search Engine Optimization - It is a fact in online marketing that people will mostly see your website through the Search Engines. It is therefore imperative that the major ones at least (Google, Yahoo and Bing), will find it so that they can feed it to those who are searching. This means that your website should be Search Engine Optimized so their robots can crawl and index your pages. This will greatly influence your ranking in the search results.

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15 Easy Internet Steps To Get More Visitors To Your Church

There is, without a doubt, nary a pastor or church in the country that doesn’t want to get more visitors to come to their church.  With a pure heart and amessage to share, their intent is to provide for those visitors programs and services that will enhance and improve their life style.  As the 21^st Centurydawns it has become obvious to email marketing specialists that the Internet is a wonderful way for churches to evangelize and make themselves known to a lost world.  Randall Mains, Founder and CEO of PATH-MAKER  MARKETING LLC, one of the premier e-mail marketing professionals in the country, agrees that the following steps are an easy way to inform prospective visitors about your church and what it has to offer.

1.  Launch Google Ad Words - - Target Geographically
2. Get your CHURCH found on Google by claiming your Google Place.
3. Get your members to give your positive reviews on Google Places.
4. Claim your Bing Listing
5. Claim your Yahoo Listing
6. Launch Facebook Ads - Target Demographically
7. O[pen a Facebook Page for your church.
8. Get listed in the top 40 directories in your community.
9. Get an account in Linkedin, the Top business directory.
10. Get an account in the other top 9 business directories.
11. Get a twitter account for your church.
12. Get a flcker account.
13. Open a channel in Youtube.
14. Open a channel in Vimeo.
15. Open up blog accounts in Blogspot, Typepad, Blogsome, Blogger, Etc.
    AND HERE ARE THREE BONUS STEPS!!!!
16. Put out an email blast to a local email list.
17. Put out a send out card.
18. Take an AD in a local christian directory - Most have an Online Directory

As an email marketing company, PATHMAKER MARKETING, LLC knows that the above

suggestions will work, if given the time to develop.  If you need a professional e-mail marketing firm to help you accomplish the above, PATHMAKER andRandall Mains stand ready to assist you.  To learn more, go to Pathmaker Marketing. 

How Visible is Your Website?

The only way to know if something is effective is to measure its potential and its results.  Having a cool website is good, but having a website that increases your business is GREAT!  And there is a way to KNOW how effective your site is.  Pathmaker Marketing LLC has developed a unique method for measuring the potential and effectiveness of your site.  It’s called a Visibility Report.  And here’s the best part:  It’s FREE – absolutely FREE.  And it’s accessible right here on the Pathmaker website.

With no obligation whatsoever on your part, Pathmaker will generate a custom, metrics-based report that will give you a precise assessment of how your website measures up against its potential to be DYNAMIC and to be a tool that drives customers to your business. 

The company’s proprietary software will scour the internet to provide you with an analysis of how your website scores relative to six key elements that are absolutely necessary for a successful internet presence.  Those elements include:

1. Your local search engine ratings
2. Your local directory citations
3. Your competitors’ local directory citations
4. Your social media presence
5. Your keyword rankings
6. Your customer reviews

Your site will receive a score for each element, measuring the visibility of your site as a percentage of its potential.  Finally, the report will give you a composite score, revealing the overall visibility of your site.   A clear explanation of the findings accompanies each score, so you know where the gaps are and you have a general idea of how to address those areas that could use some improvement.  You’ll even know how your visibility compares to your competitors’!

We want your website to be effective and your business to be successful.  The Pathmaker Visibility Report will give you an awareness of the reality of your site’s status that will be beyond your expectations.  With the insight you gain, you will know EXACTLY the steps to take to make your site exponentially more effective.  They are all steps that anyone can take.   If you have questions, need assistance, or would simply rather have an experienced professional do the job - Pathmaker Marketing has the resources to quickly and efficiently improve your online visibility and, ultimately, grow your business.

For your FREE Visibility Report, click here.

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Basic HTML

While the number of changes regarding the Internet seems to come Geometrically rather than Arithmetically, email marketing experts know that there is one standard that is vitally important to successful E-Mail Campaigns: HTML. The abbreviated form of Hyper Text Markup Language, HTML is basically the "Computer Language” that is read by browsers and lets it know how to display things in your E-Mail, from Font to Colors and from where images are positioned to paragraph breaks!

The email marketing professional is aware that while there are a number of Internet Languages, not all are suitable for E-Mails. For example, a popular, and effective, language for Websites is CSS or Custom Style Sheet. However, most ISPs tend to "strip out” CSS in e-mails, thus making the E-mail that was CSS unreadable and, obviously, ineffective. While your designated recipient will receive your E-Mail, there is no idea what it will look like, so avoid CSS when designing HTML E-Mails. Another language not supported by E-Mail is Flash. Avoid that in HTML E-Mails as well.

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