Episode 4

Setting Up a Professional Services Business with the Right Software on a Shoestring Budget

In episode 4 of Getting Down to Business,  Mark Mondo and Cynthia Zimmerman discuss how entrepreneurs can set up a professional services business on a tight budget. They cover affordable or free software solutions for website hosting, CRM, email marketing, video editing, and collaboration tools. We explore how AI tools, like ChatGPT, can help streamline content creation, making it possible to run a business efficiently without breaking the bank.

Key Takeaways

• How to find affordable website hosting and domain services (Weebly, GoDaddy, Zoho Sites).
• Affordable tools for video and image editing (Vimeo, CapCut, GIMP, Canva).
• Collaboration and communication tools for teams (Zoho Cliq, Slack, Zoom).
• Using AI (ChatGPT) to assist with content marketing and other creative tasks.
• Introduction to email marketing tools (Mailchimp, Mailjet) and free invoicing/accounting tools (Zoho Invoice, PayPal).

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The post Affordable Tools for Starting a Professional Services Business appeared first on MondoCRM.

Before you setup any ESP (Email service provider) for your CRM, you must setup your DKIM and SPF records.  You may be asking, “What in the heck does that mean ?”.  I will very briefly explain it; then, cite some resources.

ESP (E-mail Service Providers) such as Swiftpage (now Act!),  MailChimp or Constant Contact send e-mails using their servers on your behalf.   Your clients’ ISPs and spam filters will detect the ESP’s sending the email.  However, some clients’ filters are setup to reject this because a hacker could use the same technique to spam you as well.

So an industry consortium created the SPF and the DKIM record.  The SPF and DKIM records gets added to your DNS settings so other ISPs know that your ESP is actually legit when sending emails on your behalf.

Here are some links for a couple providers.

• MailChimp
• Constant Contact
• Act! Marketing Automation
• Zoho CRM
• Zoho Campaigns
• Benchmark One (Hatchbuck)

Once this is setup, this is another step closer to avoiding the junk box.

If you don’t know what a DNS record is; then, work with your I.T. contractor to set this up.  When we work with our clients, we partner with your I.T. contractor to update this.

The post Increase E-Mail Delivery Rates for E-Mail Blasts from your CRM appeared first on MondoCRM.

Swiftpage E-Marketing will be discontinued on June 30th, 2018.

Swiftpage E-Marketing for Act! will be retired on June 30th, 2019 and technical support ends on March 31st, 2019.  Act! E-Marketing will be supported, and Swiftpage will build upon the Act! Marketing Automation platform.

The post Swiftpage E-Marketing To Be Discontinued appeared first on MondoCRM.

I found a good article on re-connecting with inactive clients and prospects, and it resonates with me because it’s a common request among my clients to use their CRM and tie it to an ESP (E-Mail Service Provider) to reactivate dormant prospects and customers.  By the way, it costs 7 times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing client and the lifetime value is 10 times greater.

We’d like to believe one email blast with the same message to all contacts solves the problem; however, the author believes a win-back campaign requires precise messaging per market segment.  Also, it should be rolled out incrementally so if you do get a high bounce rate, it’s easier to clean up for subsequent mailings.  Acceptable hard bounce rates are less than 5% per campaign before ESPs take notice.

How are you engaging your inactive prospects and clients ?

The first thing we’d do is determine if your bounces and opt outs are in separate spreadsheets, and consolidate that in the CRM.  Then filter the CRM’s to ensure they no longer get emails.  In our practice, we hired a client retention specialist to call clients in addition to email.  To help her out, I created a one click report that finds our clients sorted by account size. It takes her about 1 minute to find out who needs to be called.

The post Re-engage Inactive Clients and Prospects Using CRM & Email appeared first on MondoCRM.

From a business process standpoint:

• Do not buy a list of e-mails and solicit them. Will you answer a cold-blasted-email, no matter how good the offer is ? Not likely
• Ask them to add your e-mail to their safe sender list, and here is a list of systems’ instructions
• Re-Purpose Blog Commentary like this
• Create some sort of relationship beforehand by direct mail, on-site visit or by telemarketing.

From a content-creation standpoint, these factors raise spam scores

• Using an excessive number of consecutive exclamation points
• Using excessive CAPS to write your message
• Using Microsoft Word as your .html editor. Microsoft Word’s .html export tool contains sloppy code, which the spam filters will flag and not deliver
• Using an excessive amount of graphics instead of text. If you send an e-mail with just an image, it may look good for you. However, the spam-bot will flag it.

You can submit your email to some SPAM checker sites as well

• IsNotSpam
• Mail-Tester

Some of my drip marketing campaigns are plain-text in order to increase delivery rates, but I trade off branding and imagery to convey the message.

The post Some Tips on Avoiding the Junk Box for E-Mail Campaigns appeared first on MondoCRM.

It works with the primary e-mail address field of Act! versions 2010+

The post Lookup Multiple E-Mail Addresses at Once in Act! appeared first on MondoCRM.

• Develop a branded guide or tutorial like this
• Interview an Industry Professional
• Re-Purpose Blog Commentary like this
• Host a Webinar Featuring Industry Experts
• Record Those Webinars for Future Prospects & Clients
• Offer a Video Training Series (Free or Paid)

If you are stuck on writing the content, there are reasonably priced content writers on upwork.com, elance.com or fiver.com

The post E-Mail Marketing Content Ideas appeared first on MondoCRM.

• Promise Something Specific in The Subject Line – And Deliver
• Craft a Succinct Header viewable in the Preview Pane
• Make it Mobile Friendly
• Test Timing & Wording Frequently as Visual Design
• Learn What Motivates You to Read Incoming E-Newsletters
• Create One Topic at a Time

The post E-Blast Checklist appeared first on MondoCRM.

1. Create periodic changes in graphic design
2. Focus on one message per email
3. Balance text with graphics
4. Clean out the bounced addresses from the mailing list
5. Acquire help from a writer.  We found sites like upwork, oDesk and Fiver can help at a pretty good price.

The post Avoid These 5 E-Mail Marketing Mistakes appeared first on MondoCRM.

I proved this by segmenting the database by “areas of interest” based on a survey I sent along with re-examining my database to see what features of Act! they inquired about. Once I targeted my list, my open rate went from 11% to 64% with two messages sent the same day to Act! users. One list is “Tips and Tricks” if I don’t know more about them while the second list contains tips on “Automating Act!” based on my clients’ feedback.

 

In addition to traditional CRM training and support services, we offer a service to help you build proper surveys and to properly segment the database before you send your next e-blast.

The post Segmenting The Database Increases Open and Click Through Rates appeared first on MondoCRM.