If you're a real estate agent / Realtor, I'm sure you're trying to be seen by anyone who's ready to buy or sell a home. But by the time they're looking, it may be too late. Why? If someone doesn't bother to actively research agents and find the right fit for them, they may simply call the name on a listing sign. Right?

But if they do go searching for an agent, who are they going to find? Chances are, they'll find:

• Agencies rather than agents in most search engine results; if they happen to find the agency you work for, what are the odds they'll look to you as the agent?
  
  
• Agencies or agents who are aggressive enough to advertise in the search engines. Given the value of a single client, this is a great idea if you know what you're doing. If not, the cost of these ads could break you.
  
  
• Agencies or agents who are aggressive enough to advertise through social media, through retargeting, through print ads, etc.

In all these examples, I could be talking about you. But the vast majority of real estate agents are not doing these things. Many will simply take calls through their agency, and will perhaps send out some printed letters or postcards in hopes of attracting some clients. Some will also use social media, but the world of social media has changed, and even if you build a big following, only a small fraction will ever see your posts unless you "pay to play."

This is why email marketing is so critical for real estate agents, just as it is for any business. Most marketers will list this as one of the most important things to do from day one in a business. Yet many real estate agents / Realtors never understand the importance in building a consistent clientele in this way.

And given how inexpensive email marketing is, there's no reason you shouldn't be doing it.
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In some cases, you can catch people at the exact moment they're ready to buy or sell a home. But if you want to think long term about your business, then it's important to develop a list of people who grow to trust you over time and remember you when the time is right.

This is why email marketing is so powerful. It lets you stay in people's minds on a weekly or monthly basis by sending out a newsletter. And this doesn't have to be some in-depth email that few will ever read from start to finish. I know one Realtor who used to send out a monthly email with one tip per e-mail that most people would find useful, even if it had nothing to do with real estate.

This way, he continued giving people value, building on the power of reciprocity (where people want to pay you back for the value you have given them; this is built into most people). He also branded himself by following the tip with a reminder about his success in real estate. This helped with both trust ("he's successful") and recall.

Another form of content could be special deals you've scored with local businesses exclusively for your readers. People love to feel exclusive, and anyone who used the deal would get a clear financial benefit for reading your newsletter. Make sure they get their deal by mentioning you to the business -- this way the business can track the benefit of working with you, and YOU are making people say your name and associate that with a great value.

Of course send out your listings. If you have local readers, share your listings. If you happen to have so many that this would overwhelm readers, send a weekly digest of new listings, or send your best ones. You never know who's starting to think about a move, and what listing might strike a chord. Plus, your readers may know someone else who's looking for a listing.

Automatically send your blogs. That's right ... a good system can automatically send out the blogs you write on your site. So if you're having an open house or have other news to share, there's no need to spend time writing an e-mail to your list about it. The system can send this news out automatically. I recommend using one blog for this kind of news and a separate one for your listings and NOT automating your listing e-mails. That's because you'll want to more carefully prepare a listing e-mail. For instance, check out the section on "Images" below.

Think of all the time or money you put into trying to land clients. With email marketing like this, you could spend just a couple hours a month (at most!) putting together an honest tip or deal for your readers. You could have a boilerplate reminder about who you are at the end of each email. It wouldn't take long, and a good autoresponder system (see my recommendations below) can cost just $20/month.

Now imagine that you've built a list of 500 people in your community who hear from you each month. If each one moved only once every 10 years, that would be 50 people per year, or about one a week. Each one might represent both a home sale and purchase. If you only landed 10% of these (5 per year) as clients, wouldn't that be a pretty solid return on a couple hours of effort per month?

Now what if you scored more than 10%? Or built a larger list?

This is the power of staying in people's minds and giving them value over time.
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Of course it's one thing to talk about staying in touch with a list. It's another to figure out how you build that list. While I can't explain all the following in detail in this blog, let me give you some ideas:

• Build your own real estate website so you can attract your own search engine traffic (no other agents to compete with) and direct ads to your own site rather than an agency site (where you could lose those leads to other agents). I think this is critical for every agent, though most won't do it. (Big advantage to you if you do!) Add an email capture for to your site and give people an incentive to join. (Maybe it's just the promise of monthly tips to enhance their lives. But maybe you partner with local businesses and provide a few exclusive coupons in the first email!)
  
  
• Build your own real estate smart phone app and include an e-mail signup form in the app. Apps are likely to soon be a big deal in search engine rankings, and those who jump in early should have the advantage. Meanwhile, the right sort of app will automatically update with blog content and other site content; it can also link to your real estate listings; and besides email marketing, it also allows you to reach out with Push Notifications to everyone who downloads your app. This is an awesome way to send out alerts about your latest listings.
  
  
• Ask your local social media and email contacts if they would like to subscribe. (Presumably you're focused on local real estate, so local contacts are important. Modify this if your business is a little different.) The people you know can start your list and give you incentive to make sure you send something every month. Ask them to let other locals know about the newsletter.
  
  
• Include an invitation at the end of every newsletter for your subscribers to share with others. This invitation comes after you've just provided the reader with value at no cost to them. Again, the power of reciprocity will sometimes come into play here, and they will forward that value on to others.
  
  
• Invite open house attendees to join your list. You can even keep a computer or smart phone open to your lead capture form so people can enter their e-mail address on the spot.
  
  
• Include an invitation to your mailing list in your email signature. This way, as you're sending regular emails to your contacts, they also have the chance to see what you offer and join your list.
  
  
• To try scoring clients when they're thinking of selling their home by offering an email series with tips about preparing a home for sale. So far I've focused on manually sending out an e-mail every month to your list. But these services can also automate emails that go out over time, on whatever schedule you set. With this sort of series, you can offer one tip per day and have them go out every day for a week. This way, someone about to sell their home would get YOUR name and contact information 7 times in a week. If they don't already have a real estate agent, there's a good chance they'll reach out to you when they're ready. And when they join to receive this series, they'll also be added to your regular mailing list.
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Hopefully by now you see how obvious it is that you should be email marketing by building a list and reaching out to that list at least once a month. And hopefully I've stimulated ideas about how to build that list and what to do with it.

Now what service should you use for your email list? If you want to understand WHY I only recommend the following two services, you'll want to read through this blog. It also discusses RocketResponder in great detail so you can see if it appeals to you. But in short, the two offer largely the same service, but I've outlined some of the differences here:

The best choice for you is whatever you will USE. If you need something that's easy to use RocketResponder is a great solution. In my opinion, the advanced segmentation options of AWeber are best for ecommerce businesses. But check them both out -- one will be a good fit!
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BONUS: if you choose to join one of the services above through my link, I will sign up for your first mailing list to provide you with feedback on the signup experience from a user's perspective. This may help you to improve the onboarding process and ultimately get more people onto your list. These are affiliate links, so I earn a little something from you using them, which covers my time in helping you like this. These links do NOT increase the pricing.

Please share! I hope you've found this information on email marketing useful and that you'll share it with other real estate agents! No, of course not your competition. That would be crazy talk. But share it with your friends in real estate who you want to see succeed. Thanks!

This review now includes updates from 2017.

I've been using RocketResponder since its launch several years ago, and I felt it was high time to put together a true, in-depth review to really help people understand the value it offers and how it can be used. So this review will include screen shots and videos along with tips you could use with any newsletter / autoresponder system.

If you're looking for this type of system, I strongly encourage you to read this entire review because of a particular RocketResponder feature that can greatly impact your email delivery rates (helps you legitimately get through spam filters) at a fraction of the cost you'll find elsewhere. 

This review will also include details on when you might not want to use RocketResponder, because I want to make sure you're getting the best system for your needs.

On a final note, my links to RocketResponder are affiliate links. This doesn't increase your cost of the system, and if you choose to sign up through my link, I will be happy to test out your first sign-up process (I will sign up to see what a subscriber sees) and give you feedback on any area I think could be improved. This is input from someone who does writing and digital marketing for a living, so I hope you'll find this to be a great value!
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Just to make sure we're all on the same page, a newsletter service allows you to capture e-mail addresses into an email list and then to e-mail those people whenever you want (as long as they don't unsubscribe). This is what people talk about when they say "the money is in the list" -- you're building a list of people you can communicate with. (But you want to treat them as people -- not as a source of money. Provide them with value and in turn they may want to buy from you over time.)

Usually these services come with an autoresponder feature, which means that you can automate a series of e-mails to those on your list as well. You can set the schedule these e-mails are sent out on -- one e-mail the day they subscribe; another the next day; another 3 days later; and so on.

Since I see autoresponders as critical to most marketing efforts, I'll only discuss services that include that feature. But if you only want to build a list you can e-mail from time to time, and you don't want any bells or whistles, and you don't expect to build a large list over time, you could check out TinyLetter, which is a free service by MailChimp (so it's reputable). Please note that TinyLetter has a list of things you cannot do with its service, including sharing any sort of work from home, MLM, or affiliate marketing information.
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As promised, I said I'd mention when it makes sense to use another service based on your specific needs. Here's my overview on this subject:

• Avoid free services. Most will have quality problems and may not deliver e-mails well. One that looks really promising removes people from your list if they're not active enough on it, which can include whether you're sending enough e-mails. They do this to keep your list clean and delivery rates high, but it's hard enough to build a list without your newsletter provider shooting you in the foot.
  
  
• Traffic Wave is a very old looking system that is good for two reasons, and if this is why you want a newsletter service, then you should go with them. 1) They offer unlimited lists and subscribers for $17.95/month. 2) They have a multi-level referral program so you can earn money when you use it and share it. I avoid it because it feels ugly, it's odd to use, it's missing features I want, it integrates with nothing, and RocketResponder gives you a far​ better service for $2 more when paying month; and the same or LESS when you pay quarterly or annually.
  
  
• MailChimp is one of the most popular options, and it integrates with tons of third-party software, like various marketing tools. I just don't like it because the user interface isn't fun and it's difficult to add nice looking forms to your site to capture e-mail addresses without using outside software or knowing how to program the design. Also, make sure you know that their free service does NOT include autoresponders. Current cost is $10/month for up to 500 subscribers.
  
  
• AWeber is another of the most popular options. This and MailChimp seem to integrate with every other software that automatically integrates with mailing list providers. So if integration is critical to you, these are the best two. (But read this review to learn about how RocketResponder also integrates with other software.)
  
  AWeber and MailChimp both also offer list segmentation based on user actions, which is mainly useful for more advanced users and (in my mind) especially for ecommerce companies. Between these two services, I feel you can't go wrong with AWeber. It has a much nicer user interface and makes it easy to put good looking forms on your site for capturing e-mail addresses. So this is my recommended option for power users who are willing to pay more and think RocketResponder's features aren't enough.
  
  Current cost is $19/month for up to 500 subscribers, and costs are similar to MailChimp costs as your list grows ... sometimes less. Click here to try out AWeber for $1.
  
  
• Other Top-Tier Providers. There are many others on par with MailChimp and AWeber. Some are very nice to use. But since they don't offer much more than those I've mentioned, I'd stick with AWeber if you don't want the value of what I'm showing you below.
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There are many features to show you inside RocketResponder, and we're getting to all of that. But the two key points to RocketResponder are these:

1. RocketResponder is easy to use. It was developed for this purpose, to reduce the complexity that people face with other services. You'll see how easy it is in this review. That's why, for the average business that just needs to grab e-mail subscriptions from its website, RocketResponder is so powerful.
   
   Because of its simplicity, I feel it's an excellent choice for independent restaurants, local retailers, real estate agents, independent service providers (chiropractors, masseuses, plumbers, HVAC, etc.), and anyone who doesn't have a marketing department to run more complicated systems.
   
   
2. RocketResponder costs just $20/month* (or $16 to $18 when paying annually or quarterly) for unlimited lists and unlimited subscribers. Yes, that's it. For lists up to 500 or 1000 people, its price is on par with other services. But if you can build a large list, you will save a lot of money here.
   
   As an example, build a list of 5500 people and your costs at AWeber and MailChimp are $69/month and $65/month respectively. Build a list of 13,000 people and your monthly costs are $149/month and $150/month respectively. Granted, you should be making plenty of money from large lists like those and it may not matter to you. But RocketResponder would continue to be just $20/month or less.
   
   
3. *2017 Update: there is now a white label option that costs more. This can greatly improve delivery rates (and offers other benefits) at a fraction of the cost you'll find elsewhere. Details later in this review.

​Now onto the details. Let me show you what RocketResponder includes and how easy it is to use.
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On the topic of easy, let's take a look at what's involved in setting up a RocketResponder list. Obviously you first sign up for their free 30-day trial. Then under "Manage Lists" you click "Add a List" and just fill out the page shown below. Save. Done.

They also have a TOUR to walk you through each step to get going. If you don't need this tour, you can click in the dropdown menu in the upper right and turn it off.

Below I will show you ways to get people to join your list, but notice that as soon as you've filled this out, you already have a page where a form will be hosted and can technically get people to sign up immediately.

Setting up a list really is as easy as filling out the page above, but there are some options for those who choose to use them. So when you "Manage" the list, you'll see the tabs below:

This page just means you can choose where to send someone after they first sign up for your list and after they confirm their e-mail address. How might you use these (with RocketResponder or any service)?

• After they sign up, send them to a page that thanks them and reminds them they need to finish opting in. Ask them to go immediately to their e-mail and confirm their address. If you've offered them something for joining, remind them that they need to finish signing up to get it.
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• After they confirm, you can send them to a page with any downloadable goodies or other benefits you've promised them.
  
  
• If you use analytics, you can include tracking pixels on these pages to help determine the value of your marketing efforts. How much does it cost to get someone to initially opt in? How much does it cost to get a confirmed opt in?

In both cases, these would be pages on your own website or another page online. It's not something that's built into RocketResponder.

Automation is a feature that let's you add or remove people from your other lists when they subscribe to a particular list. So they might be on a list of prospects, and when they're added to a list of actual customers, you would want to automatically remove them from the prospects list so you don't keep pitching them as if they're not already a customer.

Another use might be this: you might want to try different giveaways to get people onto your mailing list. So different forms on different landing pages would send people to different welcome pages after they confirm their e-mail address. This way you can automate all these people getting their unique giveaways. But in the end, you want ALL of them being added to your main mailing list, so you use Automation to add them to your main list when they join any of these other lists.
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There are several ways to add people to your list:
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• Import them from a list you've built somewhere else and they will automatically be fully opted in on RocketResponder.
  
  In all the remaining options, once they're added they'll still need to confirm their opt in from an email they receive.
  
  
• Manually add them.
• Have them send an e-mail to a particular e-mail address.
• Have them visit the form on a page whose URL you chose when you first set up the list. This can include the beautiful lead capture pages that are included. You do not even need your own website -- RocketResponder can host this page online for you. No extra cost.
• Collect addresses through other software, explained later in this review.

Maybe the most obvious option, though, is to add a form to your website, and I just wanted to show you how easy it is to customize a form.
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Once you're done with design, you're set to take their code (notice the "Get Code" tab?) and paste it into your web page. Hopefully you know how to do that, but if you need a hand and you've purchased RocketResponder through my link, contact me and I can help out.

However, there are some useful options if you click on the "Options" tab. I talked already about landing pages -- where you send someone after they first subscribe and where you send them after they confirm their e-mail address. The form lets you override those options and it does something else: it lets you hide those landing pages. This way someone can't look at the form code and figure out where to get your "thank you" gift (an e-book or something else you might be giving away) without subscribing.

In the image below, you'll also see a couple of options for more advanced users. They'll know what those are for. If you don't understand them, you don't need them for now. (But just so you know ... the "Conversion Image" area is great for tracking the results of advertising efforts so you know where to continue investing your ad dollars.)

One of my favorite features of RocketResponder is that it can automatically send my latest blog posts to one or more of my lists. While this doesn't give me the same control over the look of the e-mail someone receives from me, it also means I can focus on blogging and let the system do the work of alerting people.

All you do to set this up:

• Provide your blog URL or the URL for your blog feed.
• Tell RocketResponder how often to check for new blogs and how often it should send a new e-mail. (It will only do so if there is new material to send).
• Choose a title for the e-mail (could be your blog title automatically added in).
• Optionally choose if you want to say anything before or after the blog content. I usually just remind someone why they're receiving the e-mail.

That's it. Hit save and every time you blog, RocketResponder will do the work of sending your writing to your list. (It shows someone the beginning of your blog content and then they have to link to your blog to read the rest. This way it encourages traffic back to your blog.)
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Whether you're building an e-mail to be sent automatically with the autoresponder system, or you're sending a one-time e-mail broadcast to a list, you have two options with RocketResponder: 1) send a text message; 2) use their drag-and-drop HTML builder, which is pretty awesome.

Below, watch a video showing how easy it is to send a text e-mail. Then see the gif that follows, showing how simple it is to build a beautiful e-mail with drag-and-drop.

Notice the option for automatically sending an e-mail TWICE if someone doesn't open it the first time. They also let you manually resend someone's confirmation e-mail to get them on your list. You can only resend one time so they aren't getting spammed, but it helps them if they missed the first confirmation message.
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Tracking is another area where RocketResponder keeps it simple, allowing you to see who's opened your e-mails, clicked on them, bounced (e-mail didn't go through), or unsubscribed. You can see an example below from an e-mail sent to a small list I stay in touch with.

Since many people struggle with writing, and wouldn't take the time to write their own autoresponders despite their value in marketing, I've always liked this feature. If you are a subscriber to certain email marketing services, you'll be able to automatically send a series of emails to other people using the same service.

Not all services offer this, so if it's important to you (for instance, you have a sales team you want to support), make sure the software you're looking at includes it. RocketResponder offers this, so you can include it in your list of options.
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When I wrote earlier about RocketResponder's competition, I talked about how easily some of the providers, like MailChimp and AWeber, integrate with other software. I'm mainly talking about marketing software that automatically pushes leads into your autoresponder software.

So let me be clear about RocketResponder's flexibility. RocketResponder can probably integrate with ANY of the software out there if the developers of the software take time to connect to RocketResponder's API. Don't let the term scare you -- it just means they can do so as easily as they set up AWeber or anything else.

It's just that RocketResponder is a hidden gem​, and until more people know about it, they don't typically integrate with it unless they're asked. However, I've asked and had a company integrate with RocketResponder without a problem.

Also, sometimes you don't need a direct integration. I use marketing software that simply asks you to add the HTML from your lead capture form. (Which I showed you earlier.) It then figures out how to add someone to your list on RocketResponder.

Finally, there is a service called Zapier that connects all sorts of software, including RocketResponder. This opens up tons of opportunities for your creativity. You can also use this to connect with Privy (there is a free version), which gives you an alternative way to collect email addresses onto your RocketResponder lists.
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If you're serious about getting your emails into people's hands, it's critical that you understand the white label option. See, with most newsletter services, all customers are sending through the same servers, so your delivery rates are affected by things other people are sending. All senders share an email reputation, even if you deserve a better reputation and better delivery rates.

This is why large companies will pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars each month to send through a white label option -- this is set up with their own URL so it looks like every email is sent from their own servers. This way they build their own reputation. Having emails (and links in each email) come directly from your own URL rather than that of a newsletter service helps you legitimately bypass security and spam filters, as long as you haven't earned yourself a spammy reputation with bad emails.

This is also good for branding purposes -- with a white label option, your readers never see the name of your newsletter service (and never wander off to learn more about it). All your links, all your emails, refer only to you and your business.

There's another important benefit: some services will let you archive your emails on a website. This way people can read your past emails if you want to make them available. But without white label, those are posted on the website of the newsletter service -- NOT your website. All this extra content helps the newsletter service get more traffic instead of YOUR site getting more traffic.

Adding content to your site is one key to long-term search engine visibility. So if you can archive all your emails on your own site, this is a big benefit to you. And with white label emails from RocketResponder, you can do this.

Again, other services typically charge up to thousands of dollars per month depending on the size of someone's list.  With RocketResponder, it's just $99 per month.

If email is central to your business, this is an extraordinary value and I highly recommend it. At this price, you once again get unlimited lists and subscribers, and all emails will appear to come from a single business rather than from RocketResponder.
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That largely covers what RocketResponder offers. Again, its hallmark is simplicity and affordability. It does offer a couple other features, like reminder messages and widgets to publicly show subscriber totals. (When you have a large list, this can show social proof of value and encourage more people to join.)

But what you're looking at with RocketResponder is something that's super easy to set up. And at just $20/month or less (or $99 with white label) no matter how many subscribers you get, this should never be a financial barrier. Power users who need list segmenting and other specific features may prefer something like AWeber, but for your average business that just needs to capture e-mail addresses and send a monthly newsletter, or broadcast its blogs on autopilot, RocketResponder will do the trick.

Remember, if you choose to subscribe through my link (click the banner below for a free 30-day trial), you can get in touch and ask me to review the first signup process you set up. This will let you hear from someone else's perspective how smoothly it went, and I will give you feedback about anything I think could be improved.

Did you find this review helpful? Please share with others who could benefit from a simple, affordable autoresponder system!
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Two of today's newsy names have just made big changes to how they do business, and it raises the question of when it makes sense to change a business model.

On October 6, McDonald's rolled out "All Day Breakfast." While there are some limitations, this was overall something that McDonald's fans had requested for years. Now there are a lot of pundits talking about whether or not this will be enough to save McDonald's, and only time will prove anyone right or wrong.

But the point with McDonald's is that they've been falling from their once great heights, and they have to do something to adjust to today's market. So kudos to them for trying something. They're also working on some healthier food options, and I suspect that both will be good moves for them. I personally wonder, though, whether the brand itself is what consumers are looking for. In an apparent effort to create a different feel to the business, McDonald's launched a new creepy Hamburglar, as you can see from this Google search result.

In any case, when business is NOT going well for a long period of time, some sort of change is needed, and McDonald's is responding. We'll see if they responded in the right way.

Meanwhile, though, this brings up the question of whether you ought to change your business model when things are going exceptionally well. Or at least appear to be going well.

Jet.com emerged from beta in July of this year with a goal of having millions of members by the end of the year. They are touted as an Amazon competitor, but they had a different business model. They would make most of their money from annual memberships of $50 and then provide prices close to wholesale. Which would be highly valuable to the consumer, if they truly gave wholesale prices, which are often 40% or more below retail. In this model, if you shifted just $500 per year in groceries and home essential shopping to jet, you might save $150 or $200 per year. And I think many people would do much more shopping than that.

Since their launch, Jet has become one of the leading online retailers, is approaching 20,000 orders a day, and has garnered all sorts of media attention. Seems like the kind of results you'd want to have. 

But even as I've shopped at Jet, I couldn't help but feel I wasn't really getting wholesale prices. In fact, I would compare with Amazon and a couple other low price stores; Jet was often the lowest. But not always by a ton, and not to the tune of making me think I was buying at wholesale. In fact, prices seemed to be creeping upward since launch.

Then yesterday (October 7) just 3 months after their public launch, they announced that they would offer memberships for free. This only confirms the fact that they're not offering wholesale prices, because they have to make profit somewhere. And what this says to me is that they don't want to beat Amazon by being different. They want to beat Amazon by being the same. Sure they have tricks like choosing smart cart items to save even more. But in short, they're trying to get people to sign up and shop regularly for low prices.

Amazon's already doing that, Jet. You had me at "wholesale," and sure ... you'll continue to have me with low prices. When I can find what I want. But Amazon has a big jump on Jet in terms of functionality, features, infrastructure, selection, a marketplace where others can sell items, a powerful affiliate force, and so much more. It makes me wonder how long Jet can compete by being another version of Amazon. Or for how long they can lose money trying to beat Amazon prices while ramping up. Or really ... why they changed their business model.

This isn't to say the new approach won't work better. But they must have thought long and hard about a membership site that offered wholesale pricing. Why would they so quickly abandon something they knew would take several years to turn profitable?

I'll love to see where this goes, and more competition at this scale is generally good for the consumer. But it makes me think on business models and when it makes sense to change. And I'd love your insights on McDonald's, Jet.com, or anything related to this topic of changing business to stay on top.

I've been wanting to write for a while about digital ads and conversion rates because there seem to be so many assumptions without understanding how complex the answer is. Although, in short, you can simplify it by saying, "It depends." On the business. Its goals, revenue per conversion, etc.

But I came across this article today on The Myth of 2-3% Conversion that I thought was really well written, and still applicable despite having been written a lifetime ago in terms of digital marketing. In fact back in 2007.

More important than just touching on the myth of an "average" 2-3% conversion rate in paid ads, he goes on to talk about what might be right for a business. In the end, of course, it boils down to making more money from those ads than they cost. Enough, in fact, that you cover the ad costs, and all your business costs, and end up with profit. I mean, that is what business is for, yes?

That's 2 calls in 2 days, both from a company called Marketo. They used call centers to reach me during my business day, the first time inviting me to a webinar and the second time -- if I understood the caller correctly -- to invite me to some sort of event that was not a webinar.

Before I get further, let me mention the point of this blog post: to bring up the questions we ought to consider when we choose how to market. I don't have any hard data about whether we should cold call in this way, so I won't be answering the title question, but invite your opinion on it. Instead, I want to point out that this is a different approach to cold calling. And it falls in a fuzzy grey area of whether we should or shouldn't.

So these days we're surrounded by advertisements, and everyone's trying to break through the noise. And sometimes, as we all well know, businesses cross the line between shining their messages at us and actually interfering with our lives.

When we're driving down the road, we all know we'll see ads. In some ways, these interfere with our lives -- billboards have replaced trees, the screams of ads might drown out own our thoughts. But in a sense, we have tacitly agreed to have these ads here by choosing to live, perhaps, in or around a city and drive on paved roads, etc. We've chosen this as society, and those who want to avoid it might need to live in farm country.

We're also hit with ads across media like TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and yes ... even social media. In these cases, we've agreed to accept these ads in exchange for benefits that are free or subsidized because of advertisers. So we might not love the ads, but they're worth our while. (And in the digital age, we can often "upgrade" something to remove this subsidy.)

But as far as I can tell, there's no social agreement that by buying a phone, we've given permission for others to call and sell us things. Now if the phone were given to us for free, in exchange for receiving one sales call a week, then we'd be agreeing to it and getting a benefit for it. Or if we were given discounted phone service for the same sort of thing, then this sort of calling would be legit -- especially if we were able to opt into topics of interest for those calls. (You can call me about books and digital products, but not about underwear and socks.)

This is basically what Amazon has done with their subsidized Kindles. Pay more for a Kindle without ads, or pay less for one with ads. (Though these ads are far less intrusive than a phone call that takes your time. Not to mention that cold calls have opened the door to scammers that have cost so many people so much.)

The point here is that, on some level, we at least agree to ads in most cases, and in some cases we even invite them. (Like when you sign up for someone's mailing list.) And it seems to me that, the more we can get someone to INVITE our communications, the more effectively we can carry on a conversation with them and ultimately grow our business.

In a similar way, the more we can give through our communications, the more we can engage and become a community with our audience, the more likely we are to break through the noise when it comes time to talk about our products and services. And so we don't need to resort to cold calling at least for this following.

In short, cold calls are out (they were never "in"), and invitation is in (it has always been "in").

But what happens when someone cold calls you to invite you to something? To give you something? This is what Marketo did twice in two days. Both times I was unhappy about having my work flow disturbed by a phone call for something I wasn't interested in. Both times I declined the invitation. But in both cases, I was being offered something for free, and they never asked if they could just pitch their product to me. I know that would have happened during the events, but hopefully in an educational way, in a way that showed me what I could accomplish ... and by the way (they would tell me), Marketo would be a great way to accomplish it.

To be honest, I'll feel more resistant to any exposure to Marketo in the future because of this interruption. But I can't help but feel that this is a far better approach to cold calling than a traditional sales pitch. And I'm curious what kind of results companies are having with this.

I still feel that there are other ways Marketo could reach me when I am most receptive. Ads that target keywords can invite me to a free webinar on a digital marketing topic any time I'm looking for keywords related to its topic. They could run video ads to hit me when I'm watching YouTube -- another place I've tacitly agreed to see short ads (that I can usually skip) to receive the benefits of YouTube. They could market to me on LinkedIn since I have terms related to "digital marketing" in my profile. They could be very targeted about reaching me in way that asked no time from me. Could Marketo get better results in this way? Could they keep from making me disappointed in their brand?

I'm genuinely against brands that cold call me. I will never hire you or buy from you if you cold call me. But I'm less against you if you "cold invite" me. And that's why I'm just annoyed with Marketo.

What do you think? Are you open to cold invitations? Have you tried them in your business and have they worked well for you? Have you had any negative reactions to it that hurt your business?

Dish Network is currently running a series of ads featuring identical products at different price points. And -- whether it's real or acted -- they show people utterly confused by the options. "What's different about this one? Why does it cost more?" they wonder.

And Dish's point is that they aren't different ... and why would you pay more for the same thing?

While humorous and noticeable enough to talk about (they obviously got my attention), I'm noticing it for the wrong reason. To me this ad campaign is saying, "We're the same as our competition, but we cost a little less." And this is the classic race to the bottom -- who can charge less for the same thing?

Building a brand is about differentiating yourself from the competition, whether because of features or customer service or the sheer "feel good" that comes from your message. Building a brand is what allows you to keep operating with reasonable profit margins. Racing to the bottom is an ongoing task of better buying, increased efficiencies, and a ravenous need for volume. These are two very different models ... although usually combined to some degree, and the question is one of emphasis / balance.

In any case, I thought it interesting that Dish's campaign was so clearly talking about how they were the same; and while many people will no doubt respond to the savings, I felt like this campaign was distinctly shooting their own brand in the foot.

As it turns out (click this link to see), the campaign is actually not at all about being the same for less, even though the images and videos use that message. So again, humor aside, I feel that this sends decidedly confusing signals.

In fact, they're offering you a good deal for 12 months, just like anyone will to acquire a new customer. After that, their monthly price is almost identical! (Less than a 3% difference with Dish a tiny bit lower on the packages they've compared.) But if you visit that page, you'll see that they've emphasized a TON of benefits to having Dish over having DirecTv.

Now this isn't to say that Dish is better or that DirecTv wouldn't have its own benefits to tout. This is only pointing out that the front end commercials getting you to visit Dish were saying almost exactly the opposite thing as the end result. Wow.

Meanwhile, maybe an even more interesting point in all of this is that they're bragging on a 290 channel package vs. a 225 channel package in an age when everything is moving toward personalization and people want to be able to pay for only what they want, and not a bunch of extras. Who wants to pay $50/month for a package of channels they'll never watch just to get access to a sports package that they'll actually watch? But that is how the old guard works for now.

At least Dish came out with Sling, offering people a much smaller package of channels without the need for a Dish at all -- just an internet connection. This seems clearly the way of the future, but until more people drop the big packages and move to Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, and the like, Dish and company will keep squeezing out profits from over selling while they can. We vote with our wallets.

Call me crazy, but I suspect there are ways to monetize personalized packages in a way that would yield them more money, and the first companies to aggressively pursue that avenue may be the gargantuans of tomorrow. Will that be Dish? DirecTv? Or someone else?

If you're a small business that relies on "free" traffic from good search engine rankings, hopefully you've heard about Google's upcoming "Mobile-Friendly" algorithm update. Supposedly beginning on April 21, sites that are not mobile friendly will not do well in Google search results on mobile devices.

As far as I can tell, desktop searches will not be affected for now. But people are now searching as much on their mobile devices as they are on desktops, and this trend is only growing. This is no doubt especially true for local businesses when people are on the road trying to find a local restaurant or any solution to a problem at hand.

I opened this year with a blog on the need for having a mobile friend site, and this drives home the point. If you're not ready for mobile traffic, you won't be getting much from Google. So have you developed a mobile friendly site?

Being ready means either having a responsive site (once that automatically adjusts to a device), or a separate mobile site, optimized for mobile devices, which automatically shows up on those devices (in place of the main website). If you don't have this kind of solution in place, you can no longer afford to wait on making it happen. And if you need a hand, I hope you'll get in touch.

Of course another way to make your business mobile friendly is by having a smart phone app, which doesn't have to be expensive and can let you reach customers on a regular basis with simple "push notifications."

Digital marketing is a phenomenal opportunity for businesses to market on budget and in a way they can measure. And going mobile is a central part of doing this today. So how are you going mobile? And what questions do you have about doing so?

I'm super excited to be able to offer something I'll bet few (if any) online are willing to offer.

I've been writing press release for years, and now I'm able to include distribution equal to the largest services online ... at half the cost. AND ... for local businesses, I guarantee results.

Yes, this is still perfect for ANY size business, because I reach all the major media along with bloggers, the Associated Press, and the news section of the major search engines. It's truly inclusive. The biggest online service charges $369 for this, and they do NOT include writing.

But I'm offering writing PLUS this distribution for just $249. Oh, and true to mccardellwrite style, that includes unlimited revisions to the press release because I'm not happy until you're satisfied that it's just how you want it.

Yet I'm taking this a step further for local businesses. If you're a local business, you've got to know the value of someone searching for your business type along with your city name. That's a targeted, local prospect. I guarantee a minimum of THREE first page results on Google within days of distributing your press release (and I'll show you those results).

For details, please visit my press release page. Questions? Please contact me.

It's a new year. Not just any new year. It's 2015.

That's right, 15 years have passed since we entered "the future" -- the year 2000. Back then, Google had just been born (and could be gamed like crazy), most websites looked like children had built them (and that was sometimes true), and probably most businesses thought that sites were unnecessary. After all ... they still had the Yellow Pages.

Today, most businesses know that websites are completely necessary, and many are coming to understand that mobile websites are important too. Either you need a separate mobile site (easier to read on a small mobile screen), or you need an "adaptive" site -- something that automatically adjusts itself to every screen.

And really, you need more than just a website. You need one that: 1) gets traffic; and 2) converts traffic. So ... have you covered all your bases?

The world is honestly going digital, and unless you're in some sort of unusual niche where these realities don't apply, the question is whether you've invested in the continuation of your business. If you're not going digital, if you're not investing a serious portion of your marketing budget into online options (which are FAR more measurable than direct mail, TV or radio ads, etc.), there's a good bet you're leaving money on the table or even putting your business at risk.

So are you ready to make a digital marketing resolution? It's 2015, and it's time to know that digital plays a massive role in the successful future of your business and to invest in line with that fact. What digital marketing resolutions will you make? Are you just getting a business online for the first time? Do you need a mobile solution? Do you need to add e-commerce, or to start running (and tracking) paid ads? Do you need more people finding you through natural search engine results?

What do YOU want to accomplish online in 2015? So much can be done, and you may be surprised at how much you can get online compared with what you can get through old media solutions.

If you want to start developing your digital marketing efforts this year, please contact me and let's talk. One of my favorite things is helping business owners or marketing managers avoid getting oversold or overcharged by others. Obviously I'm encouraging everyone to spend on digital marketing, but only to spend where it makes sense and in ways that can be measured. This is critical to seeing, long-term, that you've made a good choice and that you can continue spending with a positive return on investment.

If you're already growing online, if you're already developing what you need to in our digital world, fantastic. Then it's just time to celebrate a new year and the prosperity ahead. Wishing you the best!

Just a quick notice about my latest article, this time on Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising on Google Adwords and Bing Ads. If you're running your own PPC campaigns (or overseeing an agency and need a little knowledge to better keep an eye on them), these tips can be really important.

This is a long article, in an effort to get you some meaningful information.

PPC Advertising Tips