Gloria Grace Rand

Known as The Insightful Copywriter, Gloria Grace Rand is also an inspirational speaker, author and host of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast. Prior to launching her SEO Copywriting business in 2009, Gloria spent nearly two decades in television, most notably as writer and producer for the award-winning PBS financial news program, “Nightly Business Report.”Gloria turned to writing as a way to communicate, since growing up with an alcoholic father and abusive mother taught her that it was safer to be seen and not heard. But not speaking her truth caused Gloria problems such as overeating, control issues, and an inability to fully trust people. After investing in coaching & personal development programs, and studying spiritual books like “A Course in Miracles,” Gloria healed her emotional wounds. Today, she helps entrepreneurs develop clarity, confidence and connection to the truth of who you are, so you can create a business that has more impact, influence and income!

How to Get Free Publicity with HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

HARO Used to be if a company wanted to get some free publicity, they would fax or mail a press release to a news organization such as a TV station or newspaper. That’s how it was when I worked for the Nightly Business Report back in the late 1980’s.

Times sure have changed.

If you want to reach a reporter today, you can look up their email address on the media company’s website or engage them on Twitter. But there’s another way you can get free publicity — with a service called HARO or Help a Reporter Out.

HARO matches reporters from publications like The New York Times, ABC News, HuffingtonPost.com and more, with sources. When you sign up for the service as a source, you’ll get 3 emails a day covering topics you’re interested in. Each of those emails has a query from a reporter who is writing a story about a particular subject. Anyone can sign up to submit a query – even small business owners who are writing a blog article and need case studies, etc.

Manage Your Social Media in 30 Minutes a Day [INFOGRAPHIC]

Are you struggilng to manage your social media? If you own a small business with only 1 or 2 employees or you’re a solopreneur, I know how tough it can be to manage all the social networking accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. This is one of the areas I concentrate on when I work with clients.
There are only so many hours in the day to get work done. You need to have a life outside of your company! I was thrilled to come across this terrific infographic from Pardot that gives you a schedule to manage your social media in just 30 minutes a day!

5 Proven Ways Speaking Helps You Attract New Clients

Small business owners have a variety of marketing tools at their disposal to attract new clients including internet marketing, email and social media. Those all work well, but I’ve found that speaking is also one of the best ways to get new clients because giving presentations allows you to demonstrate your expertise. And it gives your prospect a chance to get to know more about you as a person, which will help them to decide if they want to do business with you.

Be aware that I’m not talking about giving sales pitches. These presentations should be educational – providing tips and strategies to solve a person’s problem – whether it’s personal or business-related. You can make an offer for your product or service at the end, as long as you’ve served your audience by giving them useful information first.

My Writing Process Blog Tour

This article is a bit of a departure from the tips and strategies on social media marketing and search engine optimization you normally find here. I was invited by a good friend, Wendy Pitts Reeves, to take part in this blog tour which explores the writing process. I met Wendy at a Spark & Hustle conference a couple of years ago. She was so excited because she had just come up with a new direction for her coaching business. That seed of an idea eventually became “Secret Adventures for Courageous Women.” You can read her blog tour article here.

16 DIY Social Media Management Tools [INFOGRAPHIC]

Many small business owners and entrepreneurs struggle with social media management. When you’re trying to maintain an active presence on multiple social networking sites, it can be stressful, especially if you don’t have help. There are plenty of tools out there if you want to manage things on your own. But it also gets time-consuming trying to figure out which service is best for your company.

Socially Stacked has made the process a little bit easier. The company put together an infographic that presents 16 tools to help you manage social media marketing. The tools are divided into 3 categories: social messaging & scheduling, analytics and social landing pages.

MailChimp vs. Constant Contact: Which Email Solution is Better?

MailChimp vs. Constant Contact When I started my business in 2009, I signed up with Constant Contact to be my email solution provider. I had checked out MailChimp, but wasn’t impressed with their interface. It seemed too complicated to create an email campaign. It would have been cheaper to use – you can send 12,000 emails to 2,000 subscribers for FREE! But I decided to pay for Constant Contact. (Their prices start at $15 for 0-500 contacts, $30 for 501-2500 contacts. You can save 10% if you prepay for 6 months, 15% for 1 year.)

I’ve been a satisfied customer ever since and even signed up to be a Constant Contact partner. I was able to defray the cost of the email marketing service by signing up my clients. Over the last few years, Constant Contact has improved their services – especially in the realm of integrating social media. But they’ve also added other products like event planning, social campaigns, offers (like Groupon deals) and surveys.

How to Use Direct Mail to Get More Web Traffic & Sales

direct mail for web traffic Internet marketing experts would have you believe that direct mail is passé, and the only way to generate leads and sales for your business is to have a website, engage in email and social media marketing. I’m not denying that those methods work. I teach all my clients how to use those tools. But direct mail marketing isn’t passé. Direct mail works. Just ask my chiropractor!

A couple of weeks ago, I got a postcard in the mail from my chiropractor. That in and of it self wasn’t unusual. What was unusual about the postcard is the fact that it wasn’t a promotion for his services. (At least not directly.) The postcard promoted his blog!

As you can see from the images below, the front side of the postcard featured the blog’s URL in a bold font, above the recipient’s address, with some copy on the left that details common symptoms of chiropractic patients. The back side of the postcard listed article titles from the blog on a variety of subjects that again relate to the symptoms and/or questions chiropractic patients typically have.