by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.

The marketing world moves ever so quickly. Keeping up with these changes isn’t always easy, although it’s vital to stay ahead of them, in order to succeed and maintain a sense of relevance with your audience. It’s no longer enough to create a brand, product, or service and expect it to sell.

In order to start seeing success with your marketing strategies, you need to stop pushing your products on people and instead focus on the needs and desires of your target audience. Instead of focusing on a message for them to buy your product, be more focused on the features your ideal customer is looking for. People want to be approached as individuals. So, focus on building relationships and providing value, then deliver your pitch.

Due to big data and the internet, you’re now able to create hyper-personalized experiences based on what customers do online, thus enabling you to build better long-term relationships with them. This, in turn, leads to more brand loyalty and larger revenue opportunities down the line.



What should you do now?

In the past, effective marketing tactics were about using the right platforms for promotion, targeting specific audiences or demographics by using keywords and hashtags on social media sites and using retargeting campaigns on those sites where possible.

Going forward, business owners will be required to take risks, listen more intently when engaging with customers online, and invest in their branding in order to remain competitive.



What are some changes you need to be ready for?

1.  Know your purpose

Purpose overrules product features. Why are you doing what you’re doing? If you have a big idea or a problem you want to solve, then that is your purpose.


2. Know your customer

 They are at the center of everything. Knowing your customer personas and dividing them into clear segments allows you to specifically target each segment.


3.  Create a personalized and relevant customer experience

As soon as they choose to connect with you, consumers expect a seamless experience from your business. You can do this only if you utilize the power of technology and data. These two things will help you create a personalized and relevant customer experience when existing and prospective customers interact with you.


4.  Be sure marketing remains at the center of your growth strategy

Marketing messages need to be personally relevant and aligned to an individual’s situation and values, as opposed to demographics, such as age and gender.

Marketing begins with knowing your customer segment. Using segmentation and personas can bring deeper insights to media strategies, and creative marketing approaches can be carried through the entire customer experience.


5.  Use digital tools to make interactions more personal

Embrace digital technology. Digital tools allow you to make interactions more personal. You may even be able to deliver personalized products, depending on your product or service.


6.  Get serious about the potential of social media platforms

If your business relies on online sales, getting serious about the potential of social media platforms needs to be at the top of your list.


7.  Use a multichannel strategy

How do you interact with your customers? You may use chatbots, contact emails, and a phone-based contact center. All of your channels are equally important, as they impact the customer’s opinion of you or your organization.


8.  Focus on delivering a mobile strategy

The mobile experience for your customers should be at least as good as a desktop-based website. The key elements of a successful mobile site are simple navigation, clear site-search options, and quick load times.


9.  SEO is more integrated

SEO (search engine optimization) is one of the oldest and most valuable forms of digital marketing. Since algorithms have continuously become smarter and more contextual, your SEO needs to be focused on integration that provides an outstanding and meaningful experience to users, and less on “hacks” and “tricks.”


10. Look for opportunities to partner with influencers in their space

Influencer marketing continues to grow. Since the influencer is endorsing the product, influencer campaigns naturally provide context and relevance.


11. Focus on what really drives your business growth

You need to become more strategic and focus on what really drives your business growth. As automation, AI (artificial intelligence), and machine learning take away a lot of the grunt work of digital marketing, you must become more strategic, as the options in digital marketing continue to grow.


12. Assume Facebook will continue to dominate

Facebook isn’t going anywhere. It has billions of users and the numbers continue to grow every month.


13. Be sure your website is optimized

Websites continue to get faster. Although website traffic is overwhelmingly mobile, most websites still don’t have fully mobile-optimized experiences. Speed will become ever more important.


14. Become more focused

You should become more focused and do fewer things better. With the explosion of digital marketing options, many businesses are spread too thin across too many channels. The smart thing to do is focus on dominating one channel.


The majority of business growth comes from the foundational tools used in digital marketing. It’s easy to become distracted by shiny new digital objects. Although marketers love new trends and want to be on the leading edge of new technologies and platforms, you shouldn’t forget to focus on your foundation. Optimizing your base digital implementation will more than likely provide a better return on investment than experimenting and getting distracted with every new tool.

As you move forward, I hope you keep these 14 marketing trends for the future of your business in mind as you continue to build and grow.


Get Your System With Autoresponder Here

by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.

You may think that, with the rise of social media marketing and digital technologies, marketers and businesses would shift away from email marketing.

That’s not the case. Email marketing is still a dependable tool. Research shows that, in the future, email will become some of the most widely used and popular communication platforms.

There is a range of effective and free email marketing tools that you can check out for organizing and scheduling your various marketing campaigns. Then decide what best suits your needs.


Why should you stick with email marketing?


Worldwide use of email is increasing because it allows you to:

1: Personalize

Email marketing allows for personalization. You can create customized content for your consumers based on their buying patterns, behaviors, and more. You can use automation software tools to see where your customers are in a sales funnel and create specific content for them.


2. Have Better Outcomes Than Most Other Marketing Channels

Email marketing delivers a better ROI (return-on-investment) than some other marketing methods.

For the best results, you should regularly monitor the metrics of your email marketing campaign by checking your click-through rates, engagements, bounce rates, and other factors.


3. Cut Costs

Email is both inexpensive and straightforward. You don’t need a large budget to advertise, or to produce and print ads, so there’s no need to hire a digital and video production crew.

You may need to hire a professional graphic designer to create pleasing visuals along with first-rate content.

Also, email is an effective way to connect with potential customers on mobile phones.


4. Create Brand Loyalty & Connections

You can use email marketing campaigns to improve brand awareness among your customers.

For example, you can send informational content concerning your mission and values, and interact with your targeted groups.

More than likely, with a better understanding of what you’re about, potential customers will be willing to engage and connect with you.

So, create consistent, long-term email marketing strategies to keep consumers anticipating your next email.


5. Integrate Seamlessly With Other Marketing Means

If you’re using other marketing methods, you can integrate them. You can seamlessly integrate your social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, by placing those platform icons in emails and asking readers to follow you.

To show consumers’ a preview of your business’s Instagram profile, you can display a collage of Instagram posts in your emails.


How can you future-proof your emailing strategy?


Use these three tips to keep up with the future of email marketing.


A) Use time-based triggers

To help keep your strategy relevant, use time-based triggers for your automation, like:

1. Follow-up emails set to go out a certain amount of time after your initial email
2. Automatic emails on birthdays
3. Follow-up emails for users who interact with your site
4. Abandon cart emails

These triggers reach users at the right time after completing a desired action.


B) Always keep your subscribers foremost in your mind.

You want them to engage with your business, so always think about what will be the best experience for them. You might add an interactive element or change a button color.


C) Test emails

Since the future of email marketing is always changing as well as subscribers’ interests, and tastes, you should always test your emails.

Testing lets you know what’s working for your audience. You can test many elements of your emails including subject line, button colors, image choices, personalization, length, CTA, etc.

Testing lets you know what your audience likes or doesn’t like, so you can continually improve your campaigns.

Keeping on top of email marketing trends is necessary for keeping your email marketing approach current and effective.

Keeping your audience uppermost in your mind when laying out your email marketing campaigns will help you deliver emails that drive success.


Get Your System With Autoresponder Here

by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.

In part 1 of Beginner Blogger Mistakes to Avoid, we discussed 6 mistakes.

Following are the remaining mistakes to avoid:


7. Not tying specific posts into the larger picture.

Specific posts should relate to the broader picture and to your readers’ concerns.


Solution: Identify the problems and concerns they’re facing.

What will be the benefit for readers taking action?

What do they think are the consequences of not taking action?


8. Using stream-of-consciousness writing style.

You don’t want your writing to be a brain dump. People usually scan a blog post. So, it needs to be well organized.


Solution: Use a template, outline, and section headers.

Write an outline before you begin your post.

Make a list of the top things you want readers to get from your post. Then, pare those into larger section headers. Putting in a section header every few paragraphs. This makes your blog post more enjoyable and easier to read.


9. Relying on the conceptual rather than concrete.

Don’t rely on conceptional and vague ideas. Include actual, actionable steps to be taken for success.


Solution: Include actionable steps to achieve success.

Content creation should be useful. Your audience should be given something. It could be a “how-to” recommendation for a particular strategy or simply a suggestion for a tool or tactic to make a process easier.


10. Not using data as evidence.

When you make claims in your post, use data and research to back them up.


Solution: Use data to support your statements.

If you say that people prefer one social media platform over another, you need to show proof of your argument.

Some places to find great data include:

Hubspot Research

Pew Research Center

Marketing Sherpa

HubSpot’s State of Inbound Report


11. Not adding enough context.

Not using examples to back up that what you say is important.


Solution: Use visual aids and additional content to illustrate your ideas.

Saying that one product is a better bargain than another is fine. Don’t just make the statement and move on. Add more content to show why by actually comparing the two and showing the additional benefits of the one over the other. Write for the person who’s just learning about your topic.

For more specificity, you can hyperlink to other posts that relate to your current topic.


12. Borderline Plagiarizing

Don’t copy and paste content to your blog. Your post must be in your own words and in your style of writing.


Solution: Give proper credit.

If you quote someone’s content, you must cite the source.


13. Not Editing.

You’re not done when you finish writing the post.


Solution: You must take time to edit your writing.

Proofread your post. Check for typos, sentence structure, there/their type mistakes, format, and flow.


14. Trying to be perfect.

Don’t try to be perfect. It won’t work. You’ll always find one more thing to correct.


Solution: Publish. You can update later.

After you’ve put in about thirty minutes editing, just publish the post. You can always update it at a later time.


15. Not being consistent.

It’s important to be consistent for your sake and so your subscribers learn to know what to expect.


Solution: Use a calendar.

Before you start blogging, set up a planning strategy that includes how often to post, dates to post, when to do related duties to prepare for each post such as research, the actual writing, etc.

You can use Google Calendar, excel spreadsheets, other sources or just make your own when first starting to blog.


16. Concentrating on fast traffic.

Your focus should be on long-term traffic.


Solution: The ROI of your blog is the accumulation of organic traffic over time.

Publish content that has durable relevance on a consistent basis, to help drive traffic. This is known as “evergreen” content. It’s great quality and is relevant year after year with minimal attention required.


17. Not growing your subscription list.

To get traffic, leads, and eventual customers you need to get subscribers. You can add a call to action (CTA) to your blog to grow subscribers.


Solution: Set up a subscription CTA and email newsletter.

Use your email marketing tool to set up a welcome email for new subscribers and place a simple sign-up form at the top of your blog. You can also use PPC advertising, email, and dedicated landing pages for subscribers that direct people through channels like social media and other pages on your website.

Some other things you can do include offering incentives for signups, promoting on your “About Us” page, adding footers that act like CTAs to blog articles, and using SEO (search engine optimization) for each article you post.

These are beginner blogger mistakes to avoid.

Not making these mistakes and using the suggested solutions to avoid them should set you well on your way to productive blogging.


Your Autoresponder and More

by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.

When you tell people that you blog for a living, they think it’s easy, that you just sit at home all day on the internet writing. They say anyone can do that!

But, when they actually try it, they realize it’s much harder than they thought. At first, they make many mistakes like any beginner.

The challenges are pretty easy to avoid if you know they’re coming.

Below are some common mistakes most beginners make and some tips for avoiding them.


What is a blog?

A blog is short for weblog, a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. — Wikipedia

Blogs can help you establish authority in your industry, drive traffic to your website, convert traffic into leads, and grow your business.


What are the most common blog post mistakes?

1. You think of ideas that only interest you.

No matter how great you think your post is, you’re writing for other people.


Solution: Blog posts should reflect your company’s or your site’s larger goals.

You’re blogging to offer solutions to your audience’s problems and to grow your business. All of your blog posts should be written with these goals in mind and have a natural tie-in to issues in your industry while addressing specific questions and concerns of your prospects.


2. You forget about your persona.

If you want your blog content to generate traffic, leads, and sales, it must resonate with your audience and make them take action. You have to have an idea of the person you’re trying to reach – age group, interests, male, female, income range, etc.


Solution: Understand your persona’s problems and frustrations and solve them.

You can bridge the gap with your content by defining your buyer persona and the things that are important to them.


3. Your writing is too rigid.


You should write like you talk, in a style that is effortless to read.


Solution: Write blogs that are personable.

So, relax your style of writing and be more conversational. Use contractions. Throw in a pun or two.


4. You think people care about you as a writer.

People care more about what you can teach them than they do about you and your experiences.


Solution: Show your personality without obscuring the subject.

You can introduce parts of your personality in your writing to make people feel at ease. Some people crack jokes, some reference pop culture, and others use vivid descriptions in their writing.

The choice is yours. Make your tone personal and engaging, as if you’re in a face-to-face conversation.


5. You digress

Although you’re encouraged to let your personality shine through when you’re writing, don’t abuse the privilege. Don’t bring up too many personal experiences that bury the point you’re trying to make.

Don’t digress into these personal anecdotes and analogies too much — your readers aren’t sitting in front of you, which means you can’t guarantee that you have their undivided attention. They may lose patience and bounce from your article.


Solution: Assert your argument repeatedly.

Restate your point in every section of the article, to prevent your writing from losing its audience. Commit to an overarching message and deliver it gradually, repeating it several times throughout the post.

State your main point upfront. Don’t spend several paragraphs telling a story of how you came to do a certain thing before getting to the main focus of your post.


6. Not narrowing your topic.

Don’t use topics like:

“Internet Marketing”

“How to do Social Media Marketing”

“Digital Marketing”

These topics are too broad. To get the most short-term and long-term benefits of your blogging, you need to be very specific.


Solution: Start with a clear, concise idea.

A working title isn’t final — it’s just a solid perspective to keep your writing on track. Once you get this stage right it’s much easier to write your posts.

This is a link to some sources to get ideas. (I get no commission)

https://coursemethod.com/blog-topic-generator-tool.html



Your Autoresponder and More

by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.

What is burnout?

Burnout is the accumulation of work-related stress coupled with continued pressure to perform at an increased level over time without sufficient breaks and downtime.

What are the signs of stress?

1. Fight response

People who have a fight response to stress may have increased irritability and anger. They may have an urge to lash out, raise their voice, be accusatory toward others or the situation. This response can also show in their physical demeanor such as tightening of parts of the body and muscles, and high blood pressure.

2. Freeze response

The freeze response is manifested in an inability to concentrate, the mind freezing or locking up, brain fog, and forgetfulness. Those suffering this response may be avoiding certain situations and distancing themselves from others, and are becoming demotivated at work and in other parts of life.

3. Flight response

The flight response can cause people to become restless, fidgety, and unable to sleep. People suffering this response to stress may be having anxiety-like symptoms, such as a tight chest, affected breathing, stomach pains and excess sweating.




How do you manage stress?

If you notice any of these symptoms, it’s important to manage them as quickly as possible in order to avoid burnout and to keep your brain and body functioning in a healthy way.

Following are some things you can do to avoid burnout.

Sleep

Establish a consistent bedtime routine, so your body and brain know when to start winding down. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.

Do not exercise, use caffeine, nicotine or alcohol for a half hour before going to bed, and limit blue light exposure from mobile devices. This will improve sleep and good quality rest.

Exercise and movement

Aerobic exercise will pump endorphins through the body, reducing stress. And, physical activity leads to positive physical effects, such as improving cardiovascular, digestive and immune health and can protect the body.

Do not over-exercise. Exercising too much and too hard without adequate recovery can add to the burden on the nervous system. Those who like to do intense exercise might want to do less to give their nervous system more recovery time. Choosing other types of exercise like walking, yoga, and pilates instead of some of the more strenuous workouts during the week, can be beneficial.

Along with exercise, daily pick-me-ups such as spending 10 minutes in a park or the garden can be beneficial in minimizing stress. Fresh air and greenery are instant mood boosters that do not require putting time aside like a long, strenuous workout. These also provide the necessary regular breaks from work and help avoid burnout.

Journaling

Reflecting through writing is an effective way to manage stress, since it encourages you to explore the cause of your stress. It’s a good way to gain a deeper understanding of stress by putting it into words and then working to improve the root causes of negative stressors.

Reflecting will also provide the tools to mindfully treat stress triggers, rather than simply managing the symptoms of the stress. This will reduce overall stress as problems are solved and removed, leading to greater long-term confidence and avoiding burnout.

Take a break from technology

While on a morning walk before starting work or while attempting to wind down after dinner, we can be tempted to check messages and emails. Thus, the home office space becomes blended into the living space. This constant exposure to work-related technology can have psychological consequences and lead to an inability to switch off.

Social media can lead to distraction and prevent you from getting tasks done, and this can lead to work backlog, and ultimately contribute to burnout. Set clear parameters for work time.

Be conscious of how much time you spend on social media and look for ways to reduce this.

Maintaining Social Connections

Control what you can. Feeling like you have no control over your situation is another common burnout contributor.

It’s very powerful to accept that you cannot control certain things, and work on what you can.

Try some relaxation techniques, from breathing to mindfulness, which engage the parasympathetic nervous system.

And you can always share your concerns and fears with your trusted social connections.

Prioritize and plan

Regularly step back and look at what needs to be done in order of priority, and direct your energy accordingly. Do not let the small, less-important tasks overly absorb your limited energy.

Look at the big picture and make a plan. Then break the plan down into smaller tasks that you can direct your energy toward on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis, until you feel like you’ve got things under control.

At the beginning of the day write a to-do list. At the end of the workday look at what you achieved to remind yourself of how much you do and recognize what you can let go of.

Remain focused and don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ to things that distract from your plan.

When you have the tools to recognize and manage stress and burnout, you can take control and manage many of the variables that can contribute to this. Stress and burnout are something that we all experience at various stages in our lives, but we have inner resources such as adaptation skills and resilience.

So, the first step in avoiding burnout while working from home is recognition and then taking the necessary steps to alleviate it.



Your Autoresponder and More

by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.

There are several trends and technologies that have emerged over the last several months that point to what the future likely holds. There is increasing use of chatbots, a focus on voice-driven search optimization, and the use of artificial intelligence. Added to these top three are podcasts and video.

Due to an increasingly cluttered communication environment, marketers are seeking ways to better engage with their target audiences. Personalization is a trend they believe holds promise.

“Technology is having a real impact for marketers, improving efficiencies and boosting customer satisfaction. Here, experts weigh in on what marketers can expect going forward.”

Please read this article for more information on these developments.

Hosting and more

by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is the act of selling products and services utilizing the internet through social media, SEO, email, and mobile apps. It’s basically any form of marketing involving electronic devices. It can be done online and offline.

For a well-rounded digital marketing strategy, both online and offline are important.


Why does digital marketing matter?

Digital marketing matters because that’s where the attention is. Google and Facebook control more eyeballs than any traditional media company.


There are four main categories of digital marketing:

1. Enhanced offline marketing

This type of marketing is entirely offline but is enhanced with electronic devices.

An example is restaurants using iPads for customers to create orders.

When you walk into an Apple Store these days you see people leaning over iPads, Macbooks, and iPhones.


2. Radio marketing

Radio marketing was introduced to the world by Guglielmo Marconi who transmitted the first wireless signals. While it took a few years for radio to reach the general public, people realized they could use it for selling.

This was the birth of digital marketing.

In recent years, radio moved to having hosts read a script you or they have written that promotes your product.

To set up a sponsorship find your local radio stations with a Google search. The stations should be able to provide data to help you select the right audience whose reflects your company’s target demographic.

For example, if you’re promoting infant car seats, you want to find a radio program whose average listener is female between the ages of 24 and 40.


3. Television marketing

Television marketing is the industry where the most money is spent each year. The average American 18 and older spend more than four hours a day watching TV. This includes shows that are streamed.

TV in the form we knew is dying out. If you plan on doing offline digital marketing, It’s best to “spend your time and money focusing on a marketing platform or channel of the future.”


4. Phone marketing

More Americans are using their phones to access the internet than desktop PC or laptop.

Every phone has two apps – calling and texting.

You can do cold calling (trying to sell people a product with no prior contact), although you can’t scale as on social media or with email.


Marketing via texting works better.

If you’re a restaurant, you can offer special deals, coupons, and discounts to get more customers and turn walk-ins into regulars.


Pharmacies use text reminders, as customer service, to alert customers when their prescription is ready to be picked up.


You can use QR codes for customers to access your webpage. There’s no special app needed, since all you need to do is scan the code with your smartphone to open the page.


The internet is not the only place for marketers to have success today, although every marketer will, eventually, have to master online marketing.


The offline and online marketing worlds are running into each other. Devices such as refrigerators, ovens, and even billboards are all being modernized to leverage digital media.


Using a few of these offline marketing tactics can help you avoid putting all your eggs into one basket and help diversify your lead generation beyond social media, content marketing, and such.



Your Autoresponder and More

by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.

Are you the only person in your business or are you just starting a business?

You can run a small business on your own, although it requires planning and lots of patience.

You need to write your business plan, meet with a business advisor to discuss activating your plans, and have patience.

Your business plan needs to include the right business structure. You’ll need to prioritize tasks and set goals.


Following are 5 tips for starting a one-person business:


1) Start as a Side Business


Continue reading…


Your Autoresponder and More

by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.

What is creativity?

This is in the dictionary:  1: the quality of being creative   2: the ability to create

A Google check shows this: the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.

These are just for starters. Of course, you can find many more definitions and even come up with some of your own.

Anyone can be creative. Creativity is not something that is bestowed upon a few seemingly extraordinary people.

Research shows, that once you get beyond the average I.Q. of about 100, intelligence and creativity are not at all related.

You still have the potential for great creativity when writing copy.



Why Are Some People, Seemingly, More Creative Than Others?

Seemingly is the operative word here.

You may not be striving to write a book. But, when it comes to writing copy for your online business endeavors, you’re trying to get prospective clients’ attention and to get them to take a specific action for a particular purpose.

It’s a matter of immediacy, a sense of urgency. 

You want to come up with different ways to get prospects attention and to engage them. It may be time for another blog article and you need new ideas.

In these situations creative thinking is crucial.

You may have tried what someone else has advised that didn’t seem to work for you, or you may have some mental blocks.

Imani Campbell of The Sage Neuroscience Center states “A mental block is your brain reaching a barrier in accessing creativity, motivation, or productivity.”



So, What to Do?

This inability to clearly think or process information can be caused by many things.

If you really care about the outcome of something, you can become very anxious. For instance, that article you need to write looms like a giant question mark. What ifs begin to creep into your thoughts – what if it’s not good enough, long enough, clever enough, etc.

Whoops! Here we go with the blockage.

People learn bad habits that are mental blocks to creative thinking. These seven things may be holding you back:


1. Using different types of thinking simultaneously

Creating is generating new ideas, picturing, looking forward, considering possibilities.

Evaluating is analyzing, judging, picking apart ideas, and categorizing them as good and bad, helpful or not.

You need to separate the two. Set down your ideas first, then go back and evaluate their worth.


2. Following advice without question

There are many gurus who tell you their success secrets. It’s fine to listen, but following advice without question could lead to stifled creativity. Many have found success doing what others said wouldn’t work.


3. Fear of failure

No one likes making mistakes or failing. However, trying too hard to avoid failure sets you up for avoiding success.


4. Lack of confidence

There’s some level of uncertainty in every creative undertaking. A little self-doubt is natural.

Just have confidence that you can create and effectively carry through with solutions to challenges.

You’re on your way to becoming more confident and more creative when you understand that ideas often seem ridiculous at first, that failure is a learning experience, and nothing is impossible.


5. Discouragement from others

Most people will not see things as you do.

You may be all excited about some new venture you’re considering and they say you need to be sensible or they subtly imply that it won’t work.

Ignore them and once you’re successful, they’ll have to reckon with you.


6. Information overload

Over analyzing and cramming so much information into your brain before actually starting a project can cause you to lose the ability to act. You have to know when to stop collecting information, for that article, and start writing.


7. False limitations

Don’t become trapped by false limitations, self-imposed products of your experience. Be open to new things.

Step outside your comfort zone and explore something unrelated to what you do. Consider how people in those areas do what they do. You may find something that seems impossible today doable in the future.



How do You Regain Creativity?

Now that you know what may be holding you back, there are several things you can do to free your natural creative abilities:


1. Establish routines

Plan your necessary daily activities so you can have free time for creative ideas to show up and proper space to develop them.


2. Rest your mind

Block out the noise in your brain with scheduled time for daydreaming.


3. Move around

To create space for mental clarity you can walk, jog, run, etc. each day.


4. Complete mini projects

For practice in completing goals that require long-term commitment, perform a small task each day so that at the end of the week you’ve finished a project.


5. Take steps that help you achieve your long-term goal

Break down your long-term goal into a list of manageable tasks for each day, and check off one daily no matter how small. Don’t do more.

This is about sticking with a large project, rather than doing a lot of tasks fast and suffering burnout or losing interest.

You want to get into the habit of taking steps that help you achieve your ultimate creative goal.


6. Relax

Do something every day that you love. Spend 10 minutes daily doing just that and focusing on the good feeling you get.

You’re more likely to get new ideas when you feel relaxed.


7. Play around with your thoughts

Don’t always accept thoughts as truth. Think of the opposite as being true. If you’re worried that a situation may not go as planned, see the possibility of it going smoothly. Envision how you want it to go.

Playing around with your thoughts allows more creative solutions to arise.


Remember, creativity is not something that is bestowed upon only a few individuals. People learn bad habits that are mental blocks to creative thinking, and there are ways to regain your creativity.

These are just a few suggestions to increase creativity in your writing.



Your Autoresponder and More

by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.

If you’re just now thinking about setting up a blog, the first thing you need do is start building your list, on the first day.



Why Build a List First?

You need to start building your list ASAP! It’s absolutely necessary if you want to run successful email marketing campaigns and reach people who are truly interested in your business.

Despite the popularity of social media channels, email marketing remains one of the most used digital marketing techniques.

If you want a successful business, you need people to market to.



What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing as defined in Wikipedia, is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email… Email marketing strategies commonly seek to achieve one or more of three primary objectives, to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness.

An email is often the first step in a customer’s journey with you, the initial communication.



What is the Connection Between an Email and Your Blog?

You can think of your blog as your main base of operation, the place where you send people for your products/services or any related information. It’s a marketing tool.

It is also the place you can acquire their information in order to begin a relationship with them so they can get acquainted with you, and begin to like and trust you.

These are the people who will receive your emails. This is a part of your list building. Once your blog is set up, you can strategically place opt-in forms on it asking visitors to fill in their information – full name and email address – so you can contact them. Stick to the basics, name and email. Nobody wants to fill out much more than that.



How Do You Get People to Give up Their information?

1. Pick an email marketing service. I use Host Then Profit (affiliate link).

If you’re just starting out and your budget is tight, you can use a free service. You’ll need to check around and compare the pros and cons so you can choose one that best suits your purpose.

2. Place opt-in forms on your blog.

3. Give visitors a reason to give you their email address. Offer them an ethical bribe (subscriber bribes, lead magnets, opt-in bribes, free offers, free gifts, and content upgrade).


Most people won’t give you their email address out of the goodness of their heart, even if they like you.


Freebies are proven lead magnets.


Give them a free worthwhile gift.


Your subscriber’s bribe should be simple.

Don’t fall into to the trap of trying to get too large and creative with your lead magnet, which could end up in you not creating one at all.

You can educate your visitors by giving away free downloads filled with actionable tips and helpful tools they can use.


Some things you can give away:

Free blog articles
Emails with coupons
Videos
Tutorials and courses
Templates
E-Books


You can start with a one-page simple short PDF checklist offering tips on a particular subject.



To build an email list from nothing you need:

 1. To understand your audience

Decide who will be your audience — name, job title, work, demographics like age, gender, education, etc. In other words, create a persona.

You can find out a lot about people through social media channels.

2. A website

Your blog will, eventually, become your website.


In the meantime, you can use a landing page, a single-page website that contains your email opt-in form.


You can use any of the services below to create an opt-in form.


Some of them have free trial periods.

Landerapp.com
iContact.com
Hubspot.com
Leadpages.net
Wix.com


Note: Some advertising channels require that you have a multi-page website that includes pages such as Contact, Terms of Service, and Privacy Policies.


3. An email marketing service. I use Host Then Profit (affiliate link).


4. A great offer, a free worthwhile gift.


Now that you have some pointers on what to do before you start blogging, start building that list.

Hosting and More