Ryan Allis is the CEO and co-founder of iContact, a leading on-demand email marketing service. As CEO, he's managed iContact from its start in July 2003 to its current size with more than 90 employees and 25,000 customers worldwide. In 2005, Ryan was named by BusinessWeek as one of the "Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25." Ryan is also the author book Zero to One Million: How I Built a Company To $1 Million in Sales and How You Can Too, published by McGraw-Hill. As an email marketing expert, Ryan will provide guidance in his blog posts on how to enhance and improve your online marketing campaigns.
An important aspect of email marketing is taking the time to organize your contact lists and ensuring that your messages will be delivered with confidence. Today, email marketers are finding many shortcomings in sending out...
Creating strong relationships with customers through your email marketing campaign is critical for maintaining true customer retention. Getting to know your audience, defining your purpose, and providing incentives to turn prospects into customers will encourage...
Publicizing discounts and expiration dates are great ways to attract new businesses from casual readers. With this, it creates a sense of urgency for each sale. However, when using those techniques, it is important to...
More than half of all email users today are using multiple accounts. Because of this, email marketers believe standard email messages are less targeted to users and are falling on deaf ears. Creating effective content...
One overlooked aspect of email and online marketing is the topic of accessibility. Many web sites have evolved over the years to become more accessible to people with hearing and visual impairments. In addition, new...
You developed your business idea, closed on deals with suppliers, ordered your inventory of products, written your business plan, incorporated, and raised the money you need to get started. Now what? Every aspiring entrepreneur should...
Product development is a crucial step in building a company that will produce top sales. Through the years, innovation has been at the core of creating successful business models or new products. The question you...
Once you are able to truly afford it, hiring new employees is a great way to begin or continue expanding your business into a more sustainable company. If you surround yourself with people who both...
Email marketing is back in the news with some statistics that could help you improve your email campaigns. According to a recent study by the Aberdeen Group, companies that targeted and personalized their emails received...
As a business owner or entrepreneur, one of the best things you can do for your company is to host an event in your local community. We’ve spoken a lot about getting your business’s name...
I’ve written a lot recently about how and when to send your email newsletters over the summer and holidays. While many people are on vacation, studies show that they still check their personal and work...
I hope everyone had a great and relaxing Fourth of July weekend, and that you are gearing your business up for the second half of summer. Over the course of the summer months, at least...
With hundreds of millions of registered users across the world, social networking web sites are among the most popular places to communicate and trade information. There are numerous reasons why people use these sites: to...
In the past few years, we have seen a dramatic shift in the way we talk about our environment. From heated debates in Congress about amending our energy policies, to the fervor generated by Al...
I’ve spoken in the past about the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and how it affects email marketers. Congress passed the CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) to establish guidelines for those...
In the last post, I discussed the benefits your business can receive by personalizing your email messages. Personalization can be a powerful way to reinforce the connection between your company and your customers. Although a...
Email marketing services like iContact have a powerful method of improving the open and response rates for your email newsletters: message personalization. People generally respond more favorably to marketing when you make them feel unique....
Earlier in the week, I began a discussion about what you should not do with your email newsletters. In his article, “The Eight Deadly Sins of Email Marketing,” Ron Evans talks about the worst things...
I’ve spoken at length about what to say in your email messages to make your company more attractive to your potential customers. I have also discussed ways to improve the look and feel of your...
After a nearly two-decade hiatus, Indiana Jones is back in a new adventure that is ripping through box offices across the world. Ever since Raiders of the Lost Ark captured the world's imagination in 1981,...