Podcast Archives -

I recently viewed an ad from someone looking to promote a workshop on chatbots and how they are going to be an email marketing killer. I signed up because I wanted to see how this person was using chatbots.

First, I needed to provide my email address to sign up for the workshop. That shows you that email marketing is still powerful. Next, I started to receive a lot of bot messages and at times, I felt like it was interrupting my day. I needed to keep going back to Facebook Messenger to interact with the bot.

For me, I do not think that chatbots are ready for prime time. Messenger is really meant for friends and family and at times, to speak with businesses, if you initiate a conversation. What I experienced was different. I received messages every couple of days.

You can use a chatbot on your site or on your Facebook Business Page to help answer FAQs, but I would hold off on using it to nurture prospects until it is ready for prime time. I have been using ChatFuel for a while and also know Larry Kim, CEO of MobileMonkey, through my work at iContact. You should check them out!

Email Marketing is still the best channel for marketing.

iContact discount code: HMBT for $30 off

Book: The ABCs of the Customer Journey: A Beginner’s Guide to Automation, Branding, and Customer Service

[youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ch47rWyxO4[/youtube]

*Edited to include MobileMonkey

The post HMBT #119: Bots vs. Email appeared first on .

If you are using email marketing to promote your business, you need to clean your list every six months to a year. You do not have to just remove subscribers from your list, you can send them a series of about three emails to try to win them back.

You can use a subject line of say “Are we breaking up?” for the first email to try to get them to open the email and engage with it. Ask your subscribers if they want to continue to receive your emails. You can then send them two more emails in an attempt to salvage them.

The most important reason that you want to have a clean list, is that it will help you with your email deliverability. More of your emails will get into the inbox. Email providers like Gmail and Yahoo are looking at what your subscribers are doing with your emails and if they are engaging with them. If they are engaging in a positive manner, they will send more of your emails to the inbox. If they engage in a negative manner, it will lessen your chance.

Forms of engagement would be opening, clicking, forwarding, starring, marking as important and also removing your email from the spam folder, marking as “not spam”. Negative engagement would be ignoring, unsubscribing, deleting marking as spam and bouncing. This type of engagement hurt your inbox placement.

Identify people who have not opened your email in a while (six months to a year) and run a re-engagement campaign. Remove the subscribers that do not show they still want your emails. You can always add them back later when they show interest.

If you would like to talk about best practices for list hygiene, let me know.

[youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujJvI5c1f_Y[/youtube]

Audio:

The post HMBT #118: Spring Cleaning appeared first on .

Eric Megert, a comedian, talks about how to use comedy when you are a business owner. Maybe while selling or just going about your day.

What does it take to become a successful comedian? Eric said perseverance and the ability to fail (bomb) is important. I mentioned that I discussed failure in a previous episode. Don’t be afraid to fail.

Also, look at your verbiage and how you talk. You need to get to the point as soon as possible. When selling, in comedy, and when speaking to an audience, it is about them and not you. Your communication needs to be valuable and you need to get to the point as soon as possible.

We then discussed improv and using it to help make improvements in sales. Eric said that he talks about his family and relationships when on stage. He shared a quick joke with us.

I asked Eric about one thing that he learned from comedy. He said to be introspective and do not believe the hype. He mentions someone he knows that opened for Dave Chappelle one night and then went back to his job the next day washing cars.  There is always going to be someone better than you, but you still need to get out there and do your thing and age does not matter.

You are never too old to learn and improve. Keep reading. Make sure to keep your brain stimulated. I mention an article about doing things that you are not used to doing, like brushing your teeth with your opposite hand that you normally use. This forces your brain to adapt and think. It will help with keeping your brain stimulated and responsive.

Eric said to check out the NC Comedy Festival in February if you are in the area.

You can follow Eric on Twitter: @no_research

For a $30 account credit with iContact, use code HMBT.

[youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3NJZt2jkqs[/youtube]

Audio:

The post HMBT #117: Eric Megert Makes Jokes appeared first on .