Omaha, NE) Joseph Moore, founder and President of AmeraScope Media today announced the creation of the free “Branding Storm Wevent Network” for small and medium size businesses who too often neglect one of the most important parts of business success.

“Through our research, we discovered that the business owner has all types of advisors, tax, accounting, property, inventor, sales etc, yet lacks the most important component- a brand!  With 90 % of all new business failing in the first year the most common reason is that they have failed to establish who they are and what makes them different” revealed Moore.

“We decided to create a free weekly 5 minute internet vignette that will provide ready to use branding techniques to increase the owners chances of survival and promote long term prosperity”  We even created a new term called “Wevent” which is a weekly educational event on the internet!  That term is going to represent our brand of education. We are offering The Branding Storm Wevent Network to any business association that caters to America’s businesses for free to be posted on their website as we are not even advertising our company” added Moore.

Andy Greenberg, who is a national marketing, sales, leadership and networking trainer and speaker, added “Joe decided to use a talk show interview style that is informative and fun to watch as it uses personal and business analogies to illustrate that week’s new concept and techniques.  We really want the businesses that are looking at long term growth to take their market by storm and branding is the way to do it” concluded Greenberg.

Mike Mitilier, Founder and President of the Small Business Association of the Midlands will feature the weekly vignettes within 45 days as part of the members’ resource page (http://www.sbamidlands.org) “Anything educational that can help our members and the 33,000+ small businesses here is Omaha will be of great benefit to continued growth.  Branding is a very important part of a businesses long term success” commented Mililier.

“The business owner today knows their products or services perfectly, yet in most cases lack the creative skills and available time to deliver campaigns with “Persistent Consistency” to a branding strategy that inspire loyalty and brand awareness and it is our honor to fill that gap” added Moore.

AmeraScope Media is an Omaha based national company specializing in business sales leads, direct mail, email marketing solutions, search engine optimization, to our full service media center marketing capability an emphasizes “media innovation, creative thinking and measurable results.”

Visit www.BrandingStorm.com for more information or Joe Moore at joe.moore@amerascope.com or www.AmeraScope.com 402-935-7793 or Andy Greenberg at speakingofandygreenberg@cox.net and

http://andygreenberg.wordpress.com

Today business is looking to stretch tight budgets in every facet of business; this is no truer than with the marketing budget. Email marketing has emerged as the clearest opportunity to get more done for less budget. Prospecting is the life blood of any sales program for a business, if used correctly email has a clear ROI (Return On Investment) advantage over any other lead generation medium available. Email has shown, since its legitimate use in corporate marketing in 2005, to be responsive and highly effective in generating sales leads, internet traffic, and customer affinity programs.

AmeraScope Media has been conducting email broadcasting on our client’s behalf since the acceptance of the CAN-SPAM act signed into law in late 2003. This experience allows us to share with you our top ten tips for successful email broadcasting. Before we get started, let’s clarify some basic terminology that should help decide the correct selection (from our perspective) of the appropriate platform to work with. Three simple rules:

1.    Spam is a negative reference to email that is illegal, not all email is created equal, and SPAM has been, and remains, on the low end of the spectrum. Any time someone says they can deliver the email addresses to you, that data has been mined and is not opt-in, therefore not CAN-SPAM Compliant.

2.    The term “Broadcast” is OPT-IN and CAN-SPAM compliant, this is the only email you should be associated with. Don’t think you’re better off working from a $500 list of 1MM email records. In the long run you end up doing more damage to your brand.

3.    CAN-SPAM compliant data requires constant maintenance to remain compliant. For this reason you do not want to take possession of this data, the liabilities are simply just too high.

The ten-best tips for best practices for your next prospecting email campaign.

1. USE A GOOD LIST AND PROVIDER:
This is the foundation to any successful campaign; therefore your list provider must have demonstrated performance and reliability. Understand your list brokers experience in this area, how well they understand what you’re looking to accomplish. This will help make sure the correct list and the correct data selection criteria are used when selecting the email list. They will also evaluate your creative, passing it through spam grading software to evaluate your creative against industry hot buttons for spam email. They should also provide you with the reporting afterwords to demonstrate how well your broadcast performed.

2. DEVELOP A PLAN TO WORK BY:
Plan out your email from the creative process, broadcast, conversion, acquisition, and follow up. You need to understand what the final objective is first, and then work from the end to the beginning. Know what you’re going to do with the results, how will you support the results? How will you handle the acquisition process? Design the conversion process with the "path of least resistance" to increase the conversion rates. Make sure your Web site can handle the traffic directed to your Web site. Plan the broadcast around corporate and civic events in your targeted area to maximize the open rates. This may include selecting one deployment day of the week over another. The email message (creative) works best when you keep it simple. Your message really needs to be clean, clear, and concise, with simple and straight forward graphics. Flash and gimmickry do not really work. Leverage your brand and keep your message short and sweet, your purpose is to create interest and drive the sale through the Web site.

3.  PUT SERIOUS THOUGHT INTO YOUR SUBJECT LINE:
The first thing the recipient will see is the subject line of your email. Once they have glanced past that from address, if your subject line does not resonate with them, they will not give it the light of day. Poorly written subject lines can even cause your email to fall straight into the spam filters and never be seen. Leverage your brand and stress the benefits, forget the facts, people don’t buy facts.

4.  CLEAN, CRISP CREATIVE-GETTING TO THE POINT:
You have all heard the phrase, content is king, this is so true. Most creative is done in HTML because of the visual appeal. However, once people look past the wrapper, they get down to the meaning of the message. Your content will need to say what you want to say quickly. Your message should be read through in less than 30 seconds (that’s between 80-150 words), create the interest, enticing a response to click through to the landing page you have prepared for your campaign. Remember to design your email with all your disclaimers and opt-out language at the bottom of the page. If you have it in the preview area, you will lose the campaign all together. Strong content will also convert to a strong text message that should be delivered simultaneously with your HTML creative. HTML is rejected by some browsers, but the text message will be delivered instead, so the content is king.

5.  HAVE A CLEAR CALL TO ACTION:
Don’t put too much into your message, you eat an elephant one bite at a time. Design your message with a clear call to action. There is no need to use email for branding when you have such a great channel to drive positive ROI. Keep your message strong and you can’t miss, this is the process of creating interest, leave the selling for the landing page.

6.  NOW THE MESSAGE:
Our research shows us that you have 3-5 seconds to set your hook and cause the reader to "read on". Don’t spend the white space talking facts, don’t sell them. People dislike the sales pitch. Describe the benefit that will mean the most to them. Remember, keep it brief. Tie in a picture to help present the benefit. Most people respond positively to visual aids, so choose your graphics very carefully.

7. YOUR LANDING PAGE:
First, your landing page should resemble your email creative that will capture the essence of your campaign. Make your offer compelling, clear. and meaningful to the reader. This is where you acquire brand new relationships, so don’t think that you have to close the sale. The object should be to first capture information; name, email and possibly a phone number. If you can, design your sales message into the landing page that would be a bonus. Your offer, in exchange for the contact information, may be a free offer, don’t be afraid to delay the sale in exchange for the data that can return its value time and time again.

8.  BUILD IN A TEST PHASE
There are often several variables that can affect your overall open rates. Sometimes the variables are not all that clear. Carve out a small portion and test a couple different versions of your creative design to see which one performs best. The larger your campaign the more this makes sense. Testing will require a clear understanding of the results so you can correctly evaluate the test. We recommend you set up a spreadsheet to enter the results so you can compare the results before you decide on the version you will use. Keep your testing rules consistent for accuracy; don’t allow personal preferences to enter into the final result.

9.  REMOVE THE EMOTION:
Too many times people allow emotion to override logic. They also fail to do the follow through, the campaign is not complete until the follow up and analysis has been completed. As with your test, develop a methodology that will deliver the actual results based on the facts. Far too many times people will over rule the results and change up the next campaign because they have a gut feeling. This can be very costly.

10. ANALYZE, REDESIGN, AND REDEPLOY:
Evaluate the data, cross match your conversion with demographic data to help develop a profile for those that convert but don’t buy, for example. This allows you to develop a stronger profile to market to for the next campaign. This will also help you to understand the profile better so you can tweak the creative because you have learned something about how they may respond better. Then finally, repeat the process. Studies have shown that brand strength has a significant impact on the conversion and acquisition rates. The basics of marketing repetition come into play by increasing the brand strength.

Planning, execution of that plan and repetition will build a sales and lead generation program that will deliver great results.

In this segment we will establish the basis of your branding and why it is so important for your long-term objectives. But you must first answer a very simple question for yourself, is it your desire to create a job for yourself, or a business? This is fundamentally one of the most important questions you must answer for yourself before you move on. If you’re just working to create a job for yourself, let me save you some time, this piece is not for you. This is intended for those that wish to create a business of value, which will run under its own power while you not directly involved. A business that builds its brand value in a way people will buy as a part of your exit strategy. This in a nutshell is what we are talking about for you; creating such value in your brand you will have a need for lawyers and advisers that are always available to provide you services for a fee. I do not understand why people overlook their most important adviser, which is their brand adviser.

The concept of branding is really very simple; the practice of branding is where the breakdowns occur. It’s really easy to sit around the conference table and discuss with your colleagues the goals and objectives of your marketing campaigns as a part of your overall brand development.

After you have established your business plan and you design your “Sales and Marketing” budget, there are two things that need to be established. First disconnect YOUR emotion from the process, you cannot allow emotional feelings and sentimentality to enter into this process. Your objectivity is essential in your business, most especially your marketing process. Too many times the process gets derailed due to the emotional ties associated in your day to day business. Learn the process of stepping back, understand the plan and stick with it.

After you have successfully removed the emotion from this process, the next step is equally as important, OPEN your mind. Look past the traditional, look into the process of Multi-Media or Multi-Channel presentation. The standards of marketing even ten years ago are much more involved today. This process of reaching out to your market in this “information age” reaches a level of attentive management that has never been necessary in the past.

It’s easy to understand television today remains very expensive, and will always be that. Yet the average business can hardly afford this media channel while newsprint, radio and direct mail has become the backbone for the smaller business and their marketing. How do you squeeze better performance from your marketing budget with shrinking resources and diminished returns?

Simply put, your individual activities, such as a direct mail piece to drive sales revenue one time, and a radio campaign the next time, ask yourself if you are getting any residual value from those efforts? This is where you define your marketing from your sales efforts. This requires process management to build your brand value. It is not possible to build brand value without a process of “PERSISTENT-CONSISTENCY”. Lacking this will only reduce your brand value, cost you more money in the long-term and can create an even bigger issue of cash-flow, or lack thereof.

So understanding the basics let me ask you, what does Brand Value mean to you? How would you define it? Stop and consider this before you move on:

“The Public value or perception of your company’s product or services”
What is your BRAND value?
The most valued consideration in your exit strategy,
Your Image Is Everything!

Case In Point…
    * Sold in 2003 for $57 Billion
    * Purchased by P & G
    * The “BRAND FIT”
Warren’s personal net worth grew $640 million
Plans are only as good as the execution, but the execution can only be as good as the plan!

So we will end this segment by asking if you have a business?  Have you sat down, put pen to paper and developed the road map for you to follow two or three years down the road? Please do not consider this a wasted exercise and something that you’ll never look back on. If you never look at it again, that tells you the plan needs work and improvement.

In our next segment, we will drill into this process. In the meantime, you can review for yourself the reason for your business, the business plan for your business and most importantly, what you want to get out of your business at the end of the day. After this has been established, the rest of this becomes much easier to personalize in the same way you do your compensation plan.

If you need help or clarification about this, please contact me at:
Joseph.Moore@CLKSearch.com

Joe Moore, founder and President of AmeraScope Media which he started in 2001, announced the launch of several new groundbreaking products designed to accelerate the growth of small to medium size businesses operating nationally and in the Omaha Markets.

“Beginning this February, AmeraScope Media is pleased to announce the release of the Best in Class Cross-Channel Marketing Platform that truly allows the business owner to “Get Personal” with customers and prospects, while developing greater vision of their promotional efforts. Utilizing proprietary technology that tracks delivery and response activity from all forms of media including direct mail, internet, radio and television allows advertisers to better understand which campaigns produce the best results,” announced Moore.

With the US government finally announcing plans and recognizing the importance of the small business in our economy, they also expanded their web optimization to include the many facets of the social media platforms.  For more information contact Joseph Moore at joe.moore@amerascope.com or (402) 935-7793 or Andy Greenberg at speakingofandygreenberg@cox. Click here for original post



ARCHIVES  February  January  December  November  October  September

When we have prolonged sub-zero temperatures, some homeowners may have trouble maintaining desired comfort levels in their homes without supplemental heat. The best supplemental heating source is a UL Listed electric space heater. We do not recommend using a fireplace for supplemental heating since heated indoor air will be going up the chimney and actually make the problem worse.  Also, we do not recommend using an open oven door or stove (gas or electric) due to safety concerns of having these appliances on and often left unattended.   Another action is for homeowners to heat the garage which helps cut the heat loss on any rooms adjacent or above the garage. The best heat source for a garage is a gas fired infrared heater.

Why are some homes uncomfortable?  The engineering standard for sizing heating systems in the Omaha Council Bluffs metro area is 70 degrees indoors when it is 0 degrees outdoors for a 70 degree temperature difference. So if a furnace is sized exactly correct, it would be running 60 minutes out of every hour when the temperature is 0 outside and the thermostat inside was set at 70. Hence if it was -10 outside then the maximum temperature indoors would only be 60 degrees!

Two things help to prevent 60 degree homes. One is when the temperature dips below zero; it doesn’t normally stay that low very long. Our homes have thermal mass, which resists change and delays the drop in indoor temperature.  The second thing is many heating systems are oversized so the heating output can maintain more than a 70 degree temperature difference.

For more information on this or other heating topics, please contact Ron Getzschman at Getzschman Heating LLC.  in the office at 402-272-0289 at ext. 1016 or email Ron at rong@getzschman.com or Joe Moore@ AmeraScope Media at 402-935-7793 ext. 201, email at joe.moore@amerascope.com