Gloria Rand’s Top 10 Blog Posts of 2015

Wow! Another year has come and gone. Can’t believe it. I think my aunt warned me about this when I was a kid. She said when you get older, the years start flying by. And she was right. Oh well…

Since 2016 is upon us, I thought it would be fun to find out what my most popular blog posts were this year. If you happened to miss any of them — shame on you! — Just Kidding! In all seriousness, if you did miss one, just click the link below and check the article out.

The top ten included several articles from 2014. That goes to show you why a blog is better than Facebook when it comes to connecting with prospects. A status update on Facebook has a lifespan of a few minutes. But blog articles live on for years! 🙂

Read more

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.

Read more

Gloria Rand’s 25 Best Marketing Tips

25 Days 400_edited-1During the month of December, I’ve been sharing marketing tips each day on my Facebook page. If you’ve missed them, here’s your chance to read them all in one place:

Tip #1: Facebook & email — plan ahead. Create a content calendar and provide content your customers really care about. Try focusing on some popular U.S. shopping days, such as Cyber Monday (Dec. 2nd), Green Monday (Dec. 9th) and Free Shipping Day (Dec. 18th). For further info, go to http://gloriarand.com/facebook-email-holiday-sales/

Tip #2: Video marketing — make your first impression count. The new YouTube channel layout allows you to feature a trailer that plays only when non-subscribed viewers land on your channel, encouraging them to subscribe. Take advantage of this prime real estate! For further info, go to http://gloriarand.com/youtube-one-channel/

Read more

5 Ways to Use Facebook & Email to Boost Holiday Sales

Holiday Sales 2013
By Gloria Rand

How is your holiday sales plan coming along? Is your business on track to cash in this year? If the holidays snuck up on you, don’t panic. There’s still time to put together a plan to boost holiday sales.

I received two separate emails this week on this subject. One from Facebook. The other, from Constant Contact. I thought I’d share with you some of the tips they offered to increase holiday sales.

Read more

How Email Can Help Increase Facebook Followers

Facebook and EmailWant a quick and easy way to generate more followers for your Facebook business page?

Use email!

Invite your list of contacts to follow you on Facebook. If you use an email service provider like Constant Contact, you may find a template already created with a Facebook graphic that you can use. As a Constant Contact partner, I can attest to this fact. They have several Facebook templates, including ones that say “Find me on Facebook.”

Read more