Social media is now a key promotional tool in many businesses' marketing toolkits. However, it's becoming harder to easily manage your social media, given the wide and ever increasing range of social media channels and platforms.

We reveal eight super social media apps we use to manage our social media channels from our smartphones. Some of these apps are similar, so we suggest you try them to find the ones you like best. 

1. HootSuite - You can monitor and post to several popular networks including both Facebook personal profiles and business pages, Twitter, LinkedIn and others. Hootsuite includes built-in custom analytics system, the ability to monitor selected keywords and the option to conveniently schedule posts.  

2.  TweetDeck - Similar to Hootsuite, TweetDeck is available for iPhone, Android and Chrome browser. With TweetDeck, you can watch your updates stream in real-time when you connect with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. 

So you've decided to start an email newsletter. Good for you as email marketing is one of the most productive ways to stay in touch with your clients and increase sales and repeat business.

But for email to be successful, you must, of course, get your emails read. And like most things, success starts with getting the fundamentals right.

Before you push send, check out the 10 'must haves' for an outstanding newsletter. 

 1.       An attention-grabbing subject line

Your subject line is the first thing people see of your email. Your subject line must compel your readers to open your email; otherwise they won’t read it.  It also must be brief (no longer than 50 characters) otherwise your finely crafted subject line will get cut off if it’s too long.

Try giving your readers just enough information to make them curious. Use action words to inspire readers to click. Subject lines that address your readers concerns such as “How to …” or “Top 5 tips…” show you understand what they care about. Finally, another technique is to personalise the subject line with the reader’s first name.

Ever wonder why your inbox is often jam-packed. The answer is simple. Email marketing works!

While the most popular form of email marketing is the email newsletter, we are all too familiar with email newsletters that waste our time or are full of spam. So it's not surprising that rarely a week goes by without someone asking me if they should even bother having an email newsletter.

However, email marketing should not be ignored if you want to grow your business. It's relatively quick and easy to get started and inexpensive. And, if done right, email marketing can generate new customers, repeat sales and profit for your business.

So to help you get started, here are five ways to harness the power of email marketing for your business. 

Direct Marketing pioneer, Bob Stone, wrote one of the most in-depth direct marketing books ever; Successful Direct Marketing Methods. This book sold more than 250,000 copies worldwide and went to eight reprints. He also built a successful Direct Marketing agency and sold it for a king's ransom. 

Over his long career, Bob Stone identified 30 Direct Marketing principles that proved true better than 90% of the time. Taken from the Direct Creative Blog, we list 20 of those principles here.

1. All customers are not created equal. Give or take a few percentage points, 80 percent of repeat business for goods and services will come from 20 percent of your customer base.

2. The most important order you ever get from a customer is the second order. Why? Because a two-time buyer is at least twice as likely to buy again as a one-time buyer.

Have you ever tried to find some information online?

Just when you thought you’d found the right website, you’ve suddenly realised it’s a waste of time because the website copy was full of meaningless rubbish.

Imagine if that website was yours. Would it grab or attract potential clients to your business? Probably not!

Your website must do more than just present information. It needs to grab your readers, hold their attention and reinforce your brand.

Creating good web copy and content is the answer. These tips will help you write attractive copy that’s easy to read and engaging.

We both know marketing needs to be straightforward, measureable and cost effective for small – medium sized businesses. During busy times (which is always!) and times when finances are stretched (which is always!) Marketing can be something that gets pushed to the side. This creates a cycle though. It’s these times that successful marketing can grow your business and customer base and create a more stable and flexible environment. The times you are most likely to ignore marketing is often the best time for it. How do you find the time for quick marketing? We’ve put together the following marketing ideas that are next to free and can be slotted into your everyday functions.

Be careful of carrying on with business as usual this year. Don’t just carry on, especially if that’s what you’ve been doing for a while now. So set aside a small portion of time and money follow these easy tips to get fresh business and to thrive rather than just carry on.

La experiencia de empezar un nuevo negocio es parecida a una primera cita. Sabes un poco de la persona que vas a conocer y tienes una expectativa de las posibles cosas en común que pueden tener. Eliges un look en el que te sientes cómodo y crees que será atractivo para la otra persona. Esperas compartir tus ideas, experiencias y pasiones con la otra persona. Pero en el fondo tienes un miedo de que todo salga mal y piensas que sería mejor cancelar y quedarte en casa tomando una taza de chocolate caliente y leyendo un buen libro.

¿Pero qué tal si hubiera una manera de asegurarse y saber que este es el comienzo de tu felicidad para siempre?

¡Buenas noticias! Hay muchas cosas que puedes hacer en la etapa de preparación de la creación de tu nueva empresa que te ayudará a que eso suceda.

¡Bienvenido de nuevo! Sé que estás ansioso por leer las últimas 15 ideas increíbles para tu contenido de marketing, ¡así que no te haré esperar más!

Si no pudiste ver las primeras 15  ideas, puedes hacerlo aquí!!

 Sigamos, ¿vale?

El contenido que produces puede crear o romper tu marketing. Buen contenido puede ayudarte a cautivar a  tu audiencia, mientras que el contenido promedio es descartado e ignorado. Cuando hablamos de buen contenido nos referimos a todo lo que conecta directamente con los deseos y necesidades de tus clientes ideales y les proporciona razones para creer en tu negocio.

Si últimamente has tenido problemas con el ‘bloqueo del escritor’ y no puedes pensar en buenas ideas para tu contenido ni nada sobre que escribir, ¡no te preocupe más!

En este blog dividido en 2 partes, compartiré contigo 30 ideas increíbles para tu contenido de marketing; 15 ideas primero y luego el resto en la parte 2.

¿Estás listo? ¡Comencemos!