Adding an Opt-in Email Sign Up Form to Facebook Page
Hello everyone – happy new week (sort of since it’s already Tuesday)! Between being a mom, going back to school and moving, I don’t seem to have enough time in the day to do everything that I want to do. Oh why, oh why do we need to sleep at all? It seems so frivolous to lay unconscious & prone for a good 5-8 hours a day (more if you’re one of the lucky ones). With that said, and realizing my limitations, I resigned as fall show marketing chair for the Colorado Potters Guild a few weeks ago. I just can’t manage to find the time to squeeze in one more obligation – though I haven’t gone cold turkey. As web-mistress for the guild, I agreed to continue in said position and am also doing the online marketing component by delivering event notifications to local online calendars, magazines, newspapers and am establishing a social networking presence. I just don’t have time to cold call and do all the press releases etc.
The Colorado Potters Guild Facebook fan page
As a marketing tool, Facebook just can’t be ignored by businesses, individuals and non-profits. It represents viral marketing at its best like the old Breck shampoo commercial – “I told two friends and they told two friends, and so on…”. While the Colorado Potters Guild’s Facebook page is in its infancy, I think the venue has potential. Today, I am super excited today to learn that I could add our Vertical Response Email Invitation sign up form directly on our Facebook page. I have the sign up form installed on our website – but being able to add it to Facebook should help us attract new invitees who are interested in handmade pottery.
Do you have a Facebook page set up for your business? Do you want to know how to add an opt-in email form to your site? In the search pane, type in “Static FBML” and then click on the application. Once you are on the application’s page, click on the link in the upper left that reads “Add to my page” → then a pop up menu will appear prompting you to select your page → after selecting your page, go to your business page and click on the link under your profile photo that reads “edit” → from here you click on the “static fbml” application and click edit → copy and paste the code given to you from your email marketing company → save your settings. Once you have saved the code, go back to the main page and click on the + sign at the top of your page and from here you can add the tab for your form. Voilà – I’ve tested my form and it’s live. If you use Vertical Response, they have a video tutorial highlighting the process – not hard to do and it took less than 15 minutes to set up.
Meanwhile I have a quiz for which I need to study, a paper to write (luckily I like writing) and am past due for my morning run which means I have to sign off.
Have a great week,
~Cynthia
E-Newsletter Marketing
Colorado Potters Guild e-invitation (click to enlarge)
As the web mistress for the Colorado Potters Guild, I volunteered to handle email invitations and internet sign-ups for the Guild’s e-communications. I researched a lot of different software applications and companies that could tackle the job into the future before settling on Vertical Response for a variety of reasons including ease of use, cost based on use and not monthly fee, variety of applications, and the fact that it’s web based. The first 500 emails are free to send after which the service costs anywhere from .03¢ an email to .01¢ depending on size of list – the larger the list, the cheaper the cost per email address). The Guild’s email list is less than 100 strong right now – but our snail mail list is 6,000 – 7,000 strong.
One of the goals for the next few years is to move away from mailing out invitations and to rely more on web marketing - imagine the cost savings of a .01¢ per email sent versus .42¢ to send a postcard in the mail twice yearly ($60 versus $2520 for 6,000 invitations sent – not including post card printing costs). The trick lies in getting people on our current mailing list to switch to email invitations. We do not currently advertise any other events, though we might begin opening the studios on First Fridays and other local events.
I’m learning that there is a down side to e-marketing though – based on Vertical Response’s statistical data tools, only 46% of the people on our email list have actually opened our invitation. That means that the email newsletter is ending up in people’s spam folders and might not even get looked at. I’m going to add a disclaimer on our website to please add our vertical response email address to folk’s address books so that our invitations don’t end up as spam – since these are people who want to receive an invitation. I hope to talk to people at the Guild’s sale next weekend in person to explain why they might not have received an e-invite.
Hand-built butter dishes
Meanwhile, I’ve continued making work right up till Friday – but alas, the time has come to stop and switch gears. I need to load the kiln and get this work bisque fired so that I can glaze on Monday, fire on Tuesday and inventory/photograph on Wednesday.
Flower printed box
I don’t have 105 pots (allowance per guild member), but I have made about 60 buttons to fill in the gaps. Whatever doesn’t sell, will make it’s way to my Etsy Shop – which I will empty of pots for the show next weekend. The jewelry will stay in my shop since we aren’t allowed to bring any to the Guild’s sale…yet.
Meanwhile, I thought I was going to buy a new computer this weekend. My daughter has been home sick and yesterday, she spilled a full glass of ginger ale on my laptop’s keyboard. Not healthy, non? Unfortunately (or fortunately), my geek instincts took over and I quickly flipped the computer over to allow it to drain, unplugged it, took all the guts out and waited 6+ hours before reassembling it. With bated breath, I was half disappointed that it booted right up, faster than before. Since I had it disassembled, I took the opportunity to clean everything with compressed air – no more crumbs, hair balls or dust anywhere. My daughter was very upset, thinking that I was going to be really upset with her – but hey, it’s just a thing right? Dang, no new computer…but my files weren’t lost either!
Have a good weekend,
~Cynthia
P.S. If you have a e-marketing solution that you’d like to share, let me know – I’d love to hear about what services and companies that you use to get the word out about events.
