Using Social Media to Grow Your Business – March 24, 2010

How to start using Social Media to Grow your Business/Organization.

Panel discussion on social media topics relevant to businesses and organizations. This will be the main introductory event of a series on social media, with several follow-up sessions.

Topics include: Linkedin, Twitter, Blogging, Website, Email, Audio/Video

Panelists:

• Kenneth Lang (MGD Services Inc)
• Maria Semple (The Prospect Finder, Constant Contact consultant)
• Abby Kohut (Absolutely Abby career blog)
• Gabriela Levit (Jacaranda Technologies, LLC)
• Roland Reinhart (Reinhart Marketing Group) — MODERATOR

Refreshments/appetizers will be served

Date: Wednesday March 24, 2010

Time: 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM

Location: Affinity Federal Credit Union
73 Mountain View Boulevard
Basking Ridge, NJ 07920

For More Information:
Phone: 908.218.4300
Email: event@scbp.org
Register online at the Somerset County Business Partnership website

Online Branding and Networking for Small Business – Feb 18, 2010

Internet Networking: Making tips from the Board Room work in the Chat Room

Join Amper, Politziner & Mattia and the Small Business Development Center at TCNJ to learn how to brand yourself online. This presentation is geared specifically toward small business owners.
Enjoy an interactive session with an expert in this arena. The session will provide an overview of:

• Carving out your niche online
• Social media for business
• Building your online networks
• Tactics to get value from your efforts

Registration/Breakfast 7:30 am – 8:00 am
Presentation – 8:00 am – 9:30 am
Networking – 9:30 – 10:00 am

Specialized Knowledge & Applications
Cost: $10 (non-refundable donation to SBDC – TCNJ, not related to CPE)
Includes breakfast
RSVP by 2/17/10
Secure your seat and register online today.

When
Thursday 2/18/2010, 7:30-10:00 AM

Where
The College of NJ
Loser Hall
2000 Pennington Ave. (Rt. 31)
Ewing, NJ 08628
Contact Lorraine Allen at 609.771.2947.

Presenter
Roland Reinhart has developed and executed scores of direct marketing programs for major brands in numerous industries for over 20 years. His company, Reinhart Marketing Group, works with non-profit organizations and businesses to attract customers and increase marketing effectiveness.

Download/print Event Flier (PDF)

Technology Resources for Small Business Startups – Feb 11, 2010

TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES FOR SMALL BUSINESS STARTUPS

As an entrepreneur, you need access to the tools that help you be competitive on a bootstrapper’s budget. Increasingly, top technology vendors have discovered that it is profitable to lure “the little guy” and the net result is that you, as the business owner, can benefit profoundly from a number of free, low cost, and advertising-supported technologies.

This class reviews a wide range of solutions including:

• Voice communications
• Email
• Website design
• Website hosting
• File hosting
• Data backup
• Online marketing
• Project management
• Productivity
• Collaboration

To register, contact Small Business Development Center at Raritan Valley Community College:
Subject: SBCE – Small Business
CRN 23103
SB173-01

Date: Thursday February 11, 2010
Time: 6:00-9:00pm (1 session)
Location: Raritan Valley Community College

Register Online: http://www.sbdcrvcc.com/courses
Or call: (908) 526-1200, ext. 8516

Investment: $40.00 ($25 tuition, $15 reg)

Instructor: Roland Reinhart
Marketing Consultant/President
Reinhart Marketing Group

http://ReinhartGroup.com

Drive Traffic to Your Website Using Search Engine Advertising – Jan 28, 2010

Drive Traffic to Your Website Using Search Engine Advertising:
A Guide to Google Adwords and Google Analytics

Engage consumers while they search for information related to your business. In this course learn how to: identify unique keywords and phrases that consumers are currently using to find your business (and competitors), write ads, design landing pages, setup a campaign in Google AdWords, test the effectiveness of your ads and learn more about the visitors to your website using Google Analytics.

To register, contact Small Business Development Center at Raritan Valley Community College:

Subject: SBCE – Small Business
CRN 23101
SB204-01

Date: Thursday January 28, 2010
Time: 6:00-9:00pm (1 session)
Location: Raritan Valley Community College

Register Online: http://sbdcrvcc.com/courses.html
Or call: (908) 526-1200, ext. 8516

Investment: $40.00 ($25 tuition, $15 reg)

Instructor: Roland Reinhart
Marketing Consultant/President
Reinhart Marketing Group

http://ReinhartGroup.com

How To Select Email Marketing Service Provider

I’ve been asked many times to manage email newsletters for people. Most I decline. Why? Because to do it right takes a serious investment of time and money. I am happy to work with you to develop lead generation and customer retention campaigns.
However, for the rest who aren’t committed, I’d rather teach them to do it themselves.

When you are ready to evaluate tools, I recommend you start here — TopTenReviews.com has a very helpful comparison chart of email delivery service features.

I’ve managed dozens of campaigns over the years and used many systems that cost from $25/mth – thousands per month. I honestly don’t prefer any one in particular — all have quirks. If I had to choose one, I’d probably recommend Blue Sky Factory, who cost a much more than the average DIY services. But that’s for you to decide – there are many factors to consider ranging from quantity to feature set.

It’s All About Delivery

Delivery is such a challenge because you can get flagged as spam by:

• The Internet Service Providers (ISP)
• The recipients email service
• The corporate email system
• The end-user’s own filters

So regardless of the service provider, the most important features I recommend you look at for your evaluation purposes have to do with helping you get delivered to the inbox. They include:

• Relationship with the ISPs — Critical because it can help get your messages delivered and lower the risk of hitting the junk box.
• Delivery Testing — the appearance of your HTML email can vary so dramatically in client applications (i.e. Outlook 2000 vs Outlook 2003, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, etc.) vs Web browser-based email clients (i.e. Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.). Many services offer some sort of cross platform testing so you can work out the bugs before sending to your list. It also helps to send to a seed list of your own accounts as a safety check.
• Delivery Scoring — some providers have functionality/algorithms to make you aware of concerns that could get you flagged as spam so you can fix before sending.
• Reporting — Make sure all the basics are covered: delivery, undeliverables, open rates, click stats. Integration with Google Analytics is a plus.

Obviously I could add more, but to me, these are the most critical to get delivered to the inbox – and that’s just the first half of the challenge. The next is getting your email opened and your recipient to take action. But that’s a story for another time.

Please share your experience with us.

What’s your favorite Email Marketing Service and explain why. Thanks in advance!
-Roland