Category: High-Voltage Newsletter

Upper Limits Reaches New Heights By Pat Hawn Senior Marketing Advisor pat@marketvolt.com  Scaling a vertical rock face might seem tough, but once you get some solid advice and good tools you’d be surprised at how high you can go. It’s sort of the same with email marketing. Just ask Lindsey Schaefer, General Manager at Upper Limits, the premier indoor rock gym in the Midwest. Upper Limits has been using MarketVolt for almost two years, and Lindsey has taken its use of our technology to remarkable heights. Lindsey has implemented a robust program for following up with first-time climbers — incorporating auto-triggered emails, coupons and surveys — all through MarketVolt. Learn how Upper Limits uses MarketVolt  Time Zone Feature Coming Soon By Bill Langton MarketVolt Chief Technologist blangton@marketvolt.com MarketVolt will soon release an update that will allow users to select a prefered time zone. The new feature will be particularly useful for clients outside of the Central Time Zone and those with users in multiple time zones sharing the same account. After the release, all date and time values displayed or entered in MarketVolt will be shown in the time zone specified by the user. For those outside of the Central Time Zone, this new feature will mean no longer having to do time zone math to set a specific mailing delivery time or see when a link was clicked. A separate announcement providing more specific instructions will be made shortly before the new feature goes live.  Small Business Monthly Conference Will Feature MV Founder Tom Ruwitch By Peter Shinkle MarketVolt CEO St. Louis Small Business Monthly will hold its 20th annual business conference, the St. Louis Business Expo, next month in St. Charles. MarketVolt Founder and President Tom Ruwitch will lead the kickoff seminar, a discussion of online marketing techniques that companies can use quickly and easily. The event, which takes place April 8 at the St. Charles Convention Center, is free and open to the public. It features speakers discussing subjects ranging from digital marketing to corporate partnerships and cloud computing. The conference web site provides this summary of the kickoff seminar: “Interactive marketing expert Tom Ruwitch will share seven examples of proven marketing tactics that he or his clients have employed to close more sales, improve customer retention or generate referrals. Tom has selected real-life examples that you can apply without busting the budget. This is not some theoretical, hocus-pocus. These are real strategies and tactics that Tom has taken directly from his playbook and that you can add to yours.” For more information, visit the conference web site.  Recommended Productivity Tools By Tom Ruwitch MarketVolt President I recently asked several business experts whom I know, “What is one of the online tools you’re using to help you operate more productively and how does it help?” Here are a few of the answers published on the Experts for Entrepreneurs (e4e) blog. Experts 4 Entrepreneurs is a community for savvy business people who want to grow their businesses quickly, run them more efficiently, and enjoy the fruit of success and living well. I contribute regularly to the e4e web site, and MarketVolt hosts monthly e4e workshops on a variety of topics.  Learn more about e4e…

Forward to A FriendDo you know people who want to grow their businesses more productively and profitably? These free marketing tips might help. If you share this email with your friends, we would be grateful (and they will be, too)! Share This EmailClick the button(s) below to share this email on your favorite social networks. Thanks for spreading the news!      Connect With Us Join Our Email ListIf you’re seeing this email online — rather than in your inbox — or had it sent to you by a friend or colleague, you may not be on our mailing list. Join now to receive emails from us with with strategy, tactics, tips, and news to help you grow your business — productively and comfortably.

Anatomy of a Business-Building Survey By Pat Hawn Senior Marketing Advisor Here at MarketVolt we recommend surveys to clients all the time. They’re a great way to take the temperature of clients, learn more about prospects and generally get some easy engagement going (ask questions, get results, share and discuss). Well, I put my money where my mouth was and dropped a survey into my Valentine’s Day message to clients. Here’s what we learned from the survey — along with some tips about how you can use surveys to grow your business.

Great Email Tips from a MarketVolt Client By Anna Wiesler Marketing Advisor  At MarketVolt, we often get asked about improving subject lines. Can a subject line increase my open rate? The answer is ‘yes,’ and the next question is: how? Our friends at Geile/Leon marketing agency — who also happen to be our clients — have written a great blog post: Optimize Your Subject Lines for Email Success. Click here to read our summary on Geile’s Post…

Email and Social Media Combined Pack a Powerful Punch By Cara Owings Marketing Advisor Email has always been a great marketing tool to use, but we don’t recommend that you run email campaigns in a vacuum. Combining different marketing channels — such as social media and email — will increase your marketing ROI.  In our blog, we share specific ways for email and social media to work together…

Marketing Lessons from NBC and the Olympics By Tom Ruwitch Founder and President Earlier this week, NBC premiered The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. Why now? Easy. The network has a huge captive audience watching The Olympics. Promote the new show repeatedly during the games. Encourage viewers to “tune in tonight.” And, voila, you have a massive audience for your premiere. NBC paid $775 million for rights to broadcast the Sochi Olympics and the network will reportedly spend more than $100 to produce the telecasts. Wow! Why spend nearly $1 billion? Because exclusive content sells — especially when it’s scarce! On an email-only exclusive blog post, we describe how we at MarketVolt use exclusive content and we offer suggestions on how you can improve your marketing ROI by offering exclusive content. Every organization has some degree of exclusive content, so take advantage of it!

Refer a Friend — and Reap Rewards By Peter Shinkle MarketVolt CEOMarketVolt is a highly cost-effective tool for email marketing, delivering great return on investment. But did you know that you can reap even more financial rewards by referring us a new customer? Under MarketVolt’s Referral Policy, if you refer us someone who becomes a customer, we will provide you with a credit of 15% of the new customer’s first year license fee. This is just another way that MarketVolt helps you drive down your marketing costs. Read more about the program here…

Forward to A FriendDo you know people who want to grow their businesses more productively and profitably? These free marketing tips might help. If you share this email with your friends, we would be grateful (and they will be, too)!

Share This EmailClick the button(s) below to share this email on your favorite social networks. Thanks for spreading the news!

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Join Our Email ListIf you’re seeing this email online — rather than in your inbox — you may not be on our mailing list. Join now to receive emails from us with with strategy, tactics, tips, and news to help you grow your business — productively and comfortably.

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Wishing You the Best in the New Year At this time of year we find ourselves taking stock of all the things we have to be grateful for, as well as all of the things we hope to achieve in the New Year. For MarketVolt, this means appreciating all the wonderful clients we are able to serve. Our clients are spread across the United States, and as far away as Russia and China, and to every one we want to say thank you and we wish you the best of success in 2014. The year 2014 holds tremendous excitement for us, as our development team is gearing up to roll out new features to enhance our software. We also will be building out our Application Program Interface, which will enable us to integrate easily with an array of other software systems. As a result, we enter 2014 filled both with gratitude for the past and optimism for the future.  Best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2014! The MarketVolt Team Resolve to Improve Your Marketing Results In many ways, the key to success in email marketing is to strike a critical balance. The simple fact is that in the modern era, technology gives us tremendous power to do many things. To go to extremes, consider the absurd: If we want, we can send a thousand emails to a customer per month. But the simple fact is that such a customer would be outraged and would instantaneously seek to unsubscribe from our email list. It becomes immediately clear that the balance we must strike is to send out emails that achieve our goals, but also show respect for our customers and their most precious resource — time. This principle underlies three New Year’s resolutions for better email marketing that we have posted to our blog… What is a MarketVolt Marketing Advisor? It can be a tough world out there, with many competing platforms for marketing and an array of other challenges that face every business or non-profit. Of course, it is possible for anyone to spend hours researching the best possible strategies for email marketing, social media, and print and broadcast ads. But wouldn’t you like an expert to help you find your way? MarketVolt stands alone in the digital marketing world for its provision of a free marketing advisor with every account. For most of our competitors, providing a real advisor who will discuss marketing strategy and critical decisions with you is simply not possible. For others, it’s only possible if you are ready to pay signficant additional fees. At MarketVolt, it’s just part of what we do every day. MarketVolt provides an account advisor for free with every account. This is a person who has been trained by MarketVolt in the use of our technology and other media platforms, and who understands the challenges that businesses and non-profits face. A MarketVolt marketing advisor is not simply a sales person, but is a trained marketing specialist who will be there for you call after call, issue after issue. While our marketing advisors cannot provide endless amounts of time, we have yet to find a case where we have had to tell a customer they had to stop asking questions. Please, ask away!  Helping solve marketing puzzles. It’s what we do every day.”  TEDxGatewayArch Confluence: Jan. 11We are proud to be a sponsor of TEDxGatewayArch Confluence. Join us on January 11th at the Sheldon Concert Hall for your chance to engage with St. Louis’ most innovative minds, technologically enlightened, and unforgettable entertainment. All in one place for one day.  TedxGateway Arch is a group of passionate St. Louisans who have come together to bring the best of our area’s innovative ideas, people and entertainment to you! Recently St. Louis Magazine stopped by to learn more about us. You can read the article here. CLICK HERE to learn more and to buy your tickets.

MarketVolt Expert Featured in Video SeriesMarketVolt President Tom Ruwitch is among the featured speakers in a free video series from our friends at Experts for Entrepreneurs.  What you’ll learn in this free training series: VIdeo1 – Creating a Communication Strategy that Converts Leads into Sales (with Tom Ruwitch) Video 2 – Planning and Prioritizing Your Growth ObjectivesVideo 3 – Strategies for Identifying & Targeting Your Ideal Clients The feedback from those who attended live was really outstanding, and now you can get access to the same awesome sessions. (Not to mention even more bonus resources) This free offer is only going to be good for a limited time, so jump start your 2014 business now. Forward to A FriendDo you know people who want to grow their businesses more productively and profitably? These free marketing tips might help. If you share this email with your friends, we would be grateful (and they will be, too)! Share This EmailClick the button(s) below to share this email on your favorite social networks. Thanks for spreading the news!      Connect With UsWe always have touted the power of social media – especially in combination with email marketing. We’ve recently committed to spend more times in our social networks and provide better value to our friends and followers. Please join us – on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and our blog where we will post marketing tips, share interesting news, extend special offers, announce special events, and share other great content to help you grow your business and operate more productively. Join Our Email ListIf you’re seeing this email online — rather than in your inbox — you may not be on our mailing list. Join now to receive emails from us with with strategy, tactics, tips, and news to help you grow your business — productively and comfortably.

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Publish Your Mailings Online to Expand Your Reach, Attract More Leads and Build Your List If you have an email marketing program, you should post most (if not all) of your emails to the web. One reason: social media. By publishing your emails, you make it easy for people to share your email on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media channels. MarketVolt enables you to automatically publish a copy of your email to the web and include “share this on social” links in the body of the email. Here’s a recent post from the MarketVolt blog that gives you other reasons why should publish your emails and best practices for doing so.  ​MarketVolt Makes This Simple MarketVolt gives you a way to publish your mailings easily – either on a page we host for free or within your own web site. Here’s how… Socialize with Us! We always have touted the power of social media – especially in combination with email marketing. We’ve recently committed to spend more times in our social networks and provide better value to our friends and followers. Please join us – on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and our blog where we will post marketing tips, share interesting news, extend special offers, announce special events, and share other great content to help you grow your business and operate more productively.   Facebook  LinkedIn  Twitter  Blog  For MarketVolt Users Recent Software Enhancements You may have noticed some changes to the message editor in the MarketVolt system. Since our last edition of this newsletter, we have: Changed the editor skin to make it easier on the eyes and make it easier to find the functions you need.Eliminated an issue with Internet Explorer. If you use that browser to edit your mailings, you know longer need to use “compatibility mode” to make it work.Begun testing other improvements in editing functionality that we will release soon. We’ll keep you posted as we plan and release these changes.	Professional ServicesMarketVolt is best known for its powerful email marketing software. But did you know we also offer a variety of professional services to help you plan and execute your marketing campaigns? ​Creative Services and Campaign Execution   Our team can assist with any facet of campaign execution. From one-time projects such as template design to ongoing engagements such as monthly newsletter production, we can do it all.  We have your back if you don’t have the resources or the desire to execute campaigns yourself — or in a one-time emergency when you need our help. Learn more… ​Strategic Consulting  Our Marketing experts can help you devise strategies and tactics to maximize the return on your marketing investment. Email marketing doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It’s part of a broader marketing mix, and it must work in concert with the other elements of your marketing program. Learn more… Share With A FriendDo you know people who wants to grow their businesses more productively and profitably? These free marketing tips might help. If you share this email with your friends, we would be grateful (and they might be, too)! Share This EmailClick the button(s) below to share this email on your favorite social networks. Thanks for spreading the news!      Join Our Email ListIf you’re seeing this email online — rather than in your inbox — you may not be on our mailing list. Join now to receive emails from us with with strategy, tactics, tips, and news to help you grow your business — productively and comfortably.
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#FNorGreetings672676# Here’s the October edition of MarketVolt’s High-Voltage Marketing Tips. You received this email because you have been (now or in the past) a registered user of MarketVolt’s email marketing software and/or you opted in on our web site or at one of our events. We hope you find the marketing tips, news and event announcements useful. You can opt-out at any time by clicking the “Remove yourself…” link in the email footer. Thanks! The MarketVolt Team Link to view in browserLink to Forward To A Friend
Don’t Fall for the “Inbound vs. Outbound” Myth To market your business successfully, you must combine inbound marketing tactics that attract leads with outbound marketing tactics that engage prospects and convert sales.  Don’t fall for the pervasive myth that says “inbound marketing is good” and “outbound marketing is bad.” You need both as part of your marketing mix.  Learn more… Hey, My Name is Not “Blank” Have you ever received one of those “personalized” emails that starts with “Dear…” and then follows with a blank space? Oops. I guess they didn’t have your first name in the database.  Personalized salutations can make an email more engaging, improve response rates and increase future open rates. The same is true for subject lines. But you look like a fool and annoy your recipients if you begin your email with “Dear <blank>.”  You have two choices: Don’t personalize your emails at all or personalize your emails the right way. We recommend doing it the right way. Here are some tips to help you, along with some ways MarketVolt’s email engine makes the job simple… Share on Social Media…	Free WebinarJoin us this Wednesday, October 16, 1-2 p.m. CDT. MarketVolt’s Tom Ruwitch will show you how to attract more leads, engage prospects, close sales, and retain customers — using email and other interactive technologies. Proven strategies and tactics to attract, engage, close and retain – productively, comfortably, and profitably. This is a FREE WEBINAR. The presentation will occur online. You can “attend” from the comfort of your own desk via your computer Click for webinar info and registration. Share With A FriendDo you know people who wants to grow their businesses more productively and profitably? These free marketing tips might help. If you share this email with your friends, we would be grateful (and they might be, too)!

Introducing the Marketing Strategy Webinar Series Mark your calendars and register now for a FREE WEBINAR: “Grow Your Business Productively & Profitably with Interactive Marketing.”  Interactive marketing expert Tom Ruwitch will show you how to attract more leads, engage prospects,close sales, and retain customers — using email and other interactive technologies. Proven strategies and tactics to attract, engage, close and retain – productively, comfortably, and profitably. This is a FREE WEBINAR. The presentation will occur online. You can “attend” from the comfort of your own desk via your computer. Register now!MarketVolt Developments Product Enhancements Coming Soon From: The Desk of Bill Langton, MarketVolt Development Chief To: MarketVolt Software Users Our team has been hard at work enhancing the MarketVolt software. Here are two development projects currently underway: An improved API (Application Programming Interface) so MarketVolt can integrate with other programs more seamlessly. For example, you will be able to transfer data to and from MarketVolt and your third-party customer/prospect database without manual data entry or list upload.  Editor improvements so you will have better control and more consistent results with text formatting, bulletted and numbered lists, and other elements of your mailings. We expect to unveil some of these enhancements in the weeks ahead. We’ll keep you posted.  Meanwhile, we also welcome your feedback. If you have requests or suggestions, please email us at suggestions@marketvolt.com MarketVolt How-To: Cancel Mailing Delivery Once in a while, we have that oops moment when we want to cancel delivery of a mailing that we’ve already scheduled. You can cancel delivery of a mailing as long as you act more than five minutes before the scheduled delivery time. Here’s how: Go to the statistics page for the mailing in question (“Mailings” Tab > Mailing List > click “statistics” for the mailing in question). Under the “Who and When…” heading on the statistics page, you will see the scheduled delivery time. If you still have time (if they mailing is not already out the door), you will see a “Cancel Delivery” link. Click the link, and then confirm that you wish to cancel. You will return to the statistics page where you will see a record noting that the delivery was canceled. For more detailed instructions, click here. St. Louis Networkers Join Us at the Big Bash Thursday 9/12! It’s the biggest business networking event of the year in the St. Louis region. It’s the Big Bash, and we’re proud to be among the guest sponsors. More importantly, we’re excited to be among the several hundred business people who will be networking at this event, looking to make connections and have a blast. When: Thursday, September 12, 2013, 5:30 to 9 p.m. Where: River City Casino and Hotel; 777 River City Casino Blvd; St Louis, MO 63125 (Link to Map) What: Eleven associations, chambers and charities all inviting their connectors to hang out at the same place and time. River City Casinos strutting its stuff with great food and drinks to show of its brand-spanking-new event center. Cost: $30 cash at the door. In the past, the Big Bash has attracted 800 local business professionals who want to build relationships with like-minded people in a relaxed, fun environment. River City will do it right with great food, two beer and wine tickets, and free covered or valet parking – all included in your entry fee. More event details, participating groups, and attendee lists at www.bigbash.org Don’t Be Greedy with Your Signup Form  When it comes to email signup forms, less is more. The less information you request from a web site visitors, the more likely they are to sign up. If you get greedy and ask for too much information, potential registrants will turn away. We recommend that you ask for nothing more than name (optional) and email address (required) on your signup forms. Some internet marketers will even forego the name. We explain why in this post from our blog. MarketVolt is Growing, Too At MarketVolt, we’re all about helping our clients grow. Here’s a sampling of what we do: we help commercial real estate firms sell more buildings, help health care providers build a better relationship with their patients and help universities connect with new students. Now, we’re doing some growing of our own—we recently hired three new account executives. Anna Wiesler, formerly marketing coordinator for the Physical Medicine Clinic in Granite City, Illinois, joined MarketVolt in July. Justin Duncan, formerly a sales associate with US Cellular, joined MarketVolt last month. Also, Cara Owings, formerly director of business development for VisionWorks Marketing Group in Columbia, Mo., has joined MarketVolt and will lead MarketVolt’s operations in the central Missouri region. The account executives are responsible for locating new customers and providing those customers with advice and consulting services to maximize the benefits of MarketVolt’s email marketing software and related services. To speak with one of our new account executives, please send an email to sales@marketvolt.com.  Anna Wiesler Justin Duncan  Cara Owings

Security Comes First

Every day seems to bring the latest big news about a security breach, whether it’s a national security leak, theft of credit card numbers or invasions of privacy. We at MarketVolt are dedicated to vigilance in protecting the data you store on MarketVolt systems. We never sell your list of recipients and we maintain the highest security protections around all your data.

Examples of our security measures include stringent password protection policies, state-of-the-art encryption, firewalls, intrusion detection and anti-virus protection. For our customers who pay with a credit card, you should know that we do not store your credit card number. This might make for a hassle the next time you renew, but that is a small price for peace of mind.
We provide the heightened levels of security required of firms in the health care and financial industries that handle confidential personal information, yet, here is the key: one can never be satisfied. The security landscape is changing constantly in the technology industry. As chief technologist for MarketVolt, I am constantly on the lookout for potential weaknesses in our defenses. 
But I need your help.

We encourage our MarketVolt customers to embrace sound security measures in using MarketVolt software and services to achieve your digital marketing goals. 
Here are a few recommendations:

1. Do not share your MarketVolt username and password — with anyone. 
2. Passwords should be at least 8 characters in length. 
3. Vary the types of characters in your passwords; include numbers, letters and special characters when possible. 
4. Do not use an easily guessed password. Examples include ‘password1’, ‘1234567’, ‘letmein’, birthdays, children’s names, and other common words. 
5. Do not store sensitive information such as credit card or social security numbers in your MarketVolt database.

If you have any questions about MarketVolt security, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. 
Thank you,
Bill Langton
Chief Technologist
blangton@marketvolt.com

New Feature… Add Social Media Share Buttons to Your Mailing Letting your recipients share your messages in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ can now be done via our new social sharing function. Just follow these steps. Click the    button when editing a messageSelect the desired social media outletsClick InsertButtons as seen below will be added.      When a recipient clicks the button, they’ll be prompted to share your mailing. (Go to the bottom of this email to see this in action. We’ve added the links.) You’ll be able to see who clicked to share because we’ll track those clicks and report on them on the stats screen!

Tips from the MarketVolt Blog Email is a Great Way to Qualify Prospects Before CallingCold-calling can be a miserable experience, especially if you’re plowing through a list of unqualified prospects. Email can help you identify who is interested and who’s not so you have far less pain and far greater success when you call. In this post from the MarketVolt blog, Tom Ruwitch explains how to use email to ensure you’ll be a welcome guest when you call.  Read more…

We Value Your Feedback Would you like to use MarketVolt on your phone?Some of our clients have told us they’d like to access some of MarketVolt’s functionality on their mobile phones. If we offered limited mobile functionality, would you use it? Click “yes” below to tally your vote and to tell us what functions you desire in a mobile version…  YES!

We’ve Moved Please Make a Note of our (Temporary) New AddressMarketVolt has outgrown its office space so we’ve packed up our computers and moved to a new location, just down the street. Our new address is: 11628 Old Ballas Road; St Louis, MO 63141. All postal mail should be sent to this address. And all live training sessions will be held at this location.  This is a temporary office space that we will occupy for a few weeks until our permanent new office space is renovated and ready for us. We’ll keep you posted on the move.  Our phone numbers and email addresses remain the same.

Upcoming Events – Thursday, August 30 Tom Ruwitch Featured at Leadership & Strategy Speaker Series MarketVolt’s Tom Ruwitch will present “How to Move Prospects From Maybe to Yes” 7:30-9 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 30, as part of the Leadership & Strategy Speaker Series, a business education program presented by Friends & Alumni of St. Charles Community College, Charter Business and the Greater St. Charles County Chamber of Commerce. The event will be held at the St. Charles Convention Center located at One Convention Center Plaza in St. Charles. In this program, Ruwitch will talk about how to move buyers from maybe to yes. He’ll address why marketing materials – print ads, broadcast pieces, email and social media — often don’t get the responses we want or expect and how to remedy that.  Click here for more information…

How to… Edit a mailing that’s been scheduled for delivery Stop that mailing! We’ve all done it. We hit the send button, or in MarketVolt’s case, confirm, then we notice a typo, “I put April 5 and it’s supposed to be April 6!” To enable a mailing to be edited once it’s scheduled for delivery, the delivery must be canceled. You’ll find a link to cancel delivery on the statistics screen. Once canceled, the mailing can be edited. Please note, when rescheduling delivery, choose time that is at least 1 minute different than the original time. TIP! When scheduling delivery of a mailing, give yourself the opportunity to cancel and make changes. Once a mailing is within five minutes of its delivery time, it can no longer be canceled.

Newly Hired! Meet Becki BenzWe are delighted to welcome Becki Benz to the MarketVolt support team. Becki brings many years of experience working in client support. When screening candidates for this position, we were extremely impressed with Becki’s technical knowledge, her organizational skills, and (most importantly) her personal qualities. She’s a great listener, friendly, and eager to help clients. We know she’ll be a great addition to our team. Becki replaces Sandy Barnett who resigned last month. REMINDER NOTE FOR OUR CLIENTS: Please send support requests to “helpdesk@marketvolt.com” or call 314-529-1435. Sarah Wright, Becki and the rest of the MarketVolt team will field those emails and calls and provide the extraordinary client care that you have grown to expect from MarketVolt.

MarketVolt Referral Program Spread the Word and Reap the Rewards Did you know that we have a referral program that rewards you when we land a new client to whom you recommended MarketVolt? The program is simple: Direct Referrals Pay 15% We ask all prospects how they heard about us. If they say someone at your organization recommended us, we’ll consider that a “direct referral,” and we’ll credit your account 15% of the gross first-year license revenue from the new account. Indirect Referrals Pay 7% We will give you credit for an “indirect referral” anytime we sign a client who learned about MarketVolt by receiving an email from your organization. We’ll credit your account 7% of the gross first-year license revenue from the new account.  Simple as that.

From the MarketVolt Blog Sales Lessons From One of My Favorite Movies MarketVolt’s Tom Ruwitch offers an amusing take on how not to sell in this post from the MarketVolt blog: When I meet an obnoxious, pushy salesperson, I call that person a “Ned.” That’s a reference to Ned Ryerson – the insurance salesman who went to high school with Bill Murray’s character, Phil Connors, in “Groundhog Day.” “…Here’s the scary thing: Everyone has a little Ned buried deep inside, and our inner Ned can escape without our realizing it. With email, social media and other interactive marketing technologies, we can deliver a pitch to larger audiences with greater ease than ever before. This makes Ned even more dangerous. Do you always suppress your inner Ned? Are you sure? As you read what follows, look in the mirror and ask, “Is this me?” Read on to learn how to recognize and suppress your “inner Ned.”

Thank you Sandy Barnett Bittersweet news from the MarketVolt support desk: Today is Sandy Barnett’s last day with MarketVolt. The news is bitter, of course, because we will miss Sandy. The news is sweet because Sandy has chosen to make the move so she can spend more time at home being a mom — something she is really excited to do! Farewell to you, Sandy. And thank you! IMPORTANT NOTE FOR OUR CLIENTS: Our mission to provide exceptional customer support does not end with Sandy’s departure. Please send support requests to “helpdesk@marketvolt.com” or call 314-529-1435. Sarah Wright and the support team will field those emails and calls and provide the extraordinary client care that you have grown expect from MarketVolt.

How to… Resize and Crop Images for Optimal Results We’ve found an easy-to use (and free!) online tool to help you resize your images for use in your MarketVolt mailings. Simply go to webresizer.com, upload your image, enter your selections, and download the corrected image back to your computer for uploading to MarketVolt. More detailed instructions can be found here. If you try this out, please tell Sarah what you think of the program.

Recent Changes Get HTML of Mailings Using the Publish LinkHave you noticed a new link on the preview page of your mailings? It’s the Publish link. Based on responses from our users, the ability to self-archive and re-publish emails is a high priority. To address that need, we’ll be rolling out publishing options for mailings. Getting the HTML of a mailing is the first phase. To get the HTML of any mailing to publish and host on your website: Click the publish link from the mailing preview/edit screen. Click the “select all” linkCopy to your clipboardon a PC use Ctrl Con a Mac use Command CPaste the text to any web editing software or directly into a CMS.

New Template Released Three Bar Header with Single Column Message Area and Learn More This new layout allow you to create templates with the following features: Mobile-friendly one-column layout.Banner image used in first row automatically scales downMessage areas automatically scale down For best results, keep all images used under 300pixels Three header areas which can be used forA bannerA tag line or menu barA newsletter titleLearn more icon and link space

Strategy Seminars and Webinars In the weeks and months ahead, MarketVolt will be hosting several live and online events designed to help businesses discover how to use email and other interactive marketing solutions to grow their businesses more productively and comfortably. Seating for these events will be limited, and we’ll usually announce them in advance for our clients in this newsletter. So keep opening these emails to check for events that you might want to attend. Our next event is for nonprofits: Internet-Powered Fundraising Learn how to use the internet to achieve your fundraising goals without busting your budget or making your head spin. Hear tips and recommendations about web site design, email marketing techniques, search engines, and social media. Get advice about how to align your online efforts with your overall fundraising strategy to manage your time and budget most effectively and maximize return Where: St. Charles Economic Development Council 5988 Mid Rivers Mall Drive ; St. Charles, MO 63304 Directions When: Friday, March 30 9-10:30 a.m. Admission: FREE Registration Required: Click here to reserve your spot Please spread the word to any nonprofits that might benefit from this free event.