Almost to the Goal Line

The book is in the home stretch. In seven days, the Reality Marketing Revolution goes to the printer. I took a look back at when we started writing the book and found an email from October 2006. That would mean we have been working on the book for 20 months, almost 2.5 years. Wow, that is really crazy. If anyone ever tells you how easy they think it is to write a book, share that story with them.

Here is the latest on our push to get the book to the printer. We are expecting the final revisions to be completed by Wednesday. We will give final approval on Thursday and then the book has to be indexed. That usually takes a couple of days. Our plan is to have indexing done on Monday of next week. Our last chance to review the book copy will be on Tuesday and then we bless it off to the printer on Wednesday.

In just 3 to 4 weeks, the book will be back from the printer and then book promotions starts. Its all about how many copies can you sell. Our plans then move from production to promotions. Did you know that you only need to sell 4,500 copies to be considered a business best seller. Thats our goal. I will keep you posted.

Square 2 Marketing - We Help Entrepreneurs

Sneak Peak at the Book Website

Since the book is at the printer, we are working on marketing and promotions for the book launch. As you would expect, one of the cornerstones of the book promotional effort will be our book website. To get a sneak peak at the pre-release version of the website click here.

Of course, we are looking for your feedback. What do you like about the site? What is it missing? Does it make you want to read the book? Do you feel like you are about to be part of a revolution? How about the free excerpt? Is that enough to get you interested? Do you know anyone else who would find value in the book? Would you forward the site to a friend or fellow entrepreneur?

Let us know what you think. Comment or email me directly.

Square 2 Marketing - We Help Entrepreneurs

Marketing Conference

I recently attended the MarketingProfs event in Boston. Now that I am back, and have had a chance to catch up, I wanted to share some really interesting key learnings with our readers. I think this was one of the better events I have participated in, check it out at this link. They have another event in October in Scottsdale, I would recommend it.

Over the course of the last two days, I attended sessions on email marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing, writing white papers, getting your website sticky and more. While I had pages of notes, there were a couple of tidbits, I thought would be helpful.

Did you know how email management systems (ESPs) track open rates on your email campaigns?

• They embed a 1x1 pixel in each email and when that downloads, it triggers tracking code. The problem is that if you turn off images in your email system, no open is triggered and your open rate maybe significantly higher than you know. More and more people are turning off images, so its something to consider

Do you know what the estimated ROI is on email campaigns across the board?

• $47 to $1 and thats down from last year when it was $57 to $1

Do you know how you get to be in the Sponsored Links section on Google, ABOVE the natural search listings?

• If your Ad Words Ad gets more clicks than the top natural search listing, you get to go to the top.

What percentage of people use the natural search listings, as opposed to the Ad Words listings?

• 60%

Hope you found this interesting, I sure did...email me if you want to chat more about the conference.

Square 2 Marketing - We Help Entrepreneurs

Our Book is Almost Out of Design

The first complete pass of the book is done and we are told, it looks great. Paul (our designer) is re-working the graphics and text for Realty Bytes have not be added yet. We still have lots of edits. We should have next version later today/early tomorrow. Our page count is increasing. This is positive since it will make the book look and feel more valuable.

On a side note, I am attending the Marketing Profs seminar in Boston this week. There is a lot of valuable information at the conference, especially in the areas of email marketing, social media, and websites. One of the interesting learnings involved the increased trend for people to turn off images in their in bound emails. Turning off images, reduces open rates and limits the effectiveness of email marketing. A few tips to deal with the "images off" scenario includes, proper taging of images and the design of email campaigns to be effective with images and without.

The conference is tomorrow as well, I will blog about additional experiences tomorrow.

Square 2 Marketing - We Help Entrepreneurs