templates – Nicole Munoz Consulting

Setting Up Autoresponders and Adding Broadcasts

Before we dive right in to setting up emails, it is important to understand the difference between these two autoresponder email types:

Follow up email (is sent at a specific point after a subscriber has signed up:e.g. 2 days after the subscriber signs up)
Broadcast (is sent to every subscriber – or to specific lists or types of subscriber – at the same, specific, single point in timee.g. On the 15th of December, 2013with conditions such as:Only to those who have been subscribers for 30 days or less ORAll active subscribers, etc.)

A follow up email is dependent on the subscriber cycle – on where she is in your sales funnel and list.

A broadcast is “external”, dependent on a specific event happening on a specific, one-time-only date. You can also set specific conditions, including or excluding subscribers who meet certain criteria.

Newsletters, Sales Offers and Holiday messages are typical broadcasts.
Welcome letters, mini-courses and thank you letters are typical follow up emails.

The Benefits of Follow ups vs. Broadcasts:

Follow up emails	Broadcast emails
Maintain regular, habitual contact Increase trust and loyalty Make subscribers feel special Are geared to specific subscriber sub-types (e.g. those who have purchased vs. those who haven’t)	Allow you to instantly add new offers or products that benefit all subscribers Freshen your selection of offerings Allow you to take advantage of current or sudden trends Can be suited to all subscribers

Aweber is flexible. It is up to you to decide which type of offer is best as a broadcast, and which would be better in a follow up series.

Step 1. Follow Ups Explained

You created your basic list, which you called “frzzledoptin”, complete with a double opt-in Confirmation letter. You kept it really simple and, once they had completed the double opt-in, they were sent to a landing page where they were instantly able to download your sign up gift.

Now you want to stay in touch with your new subscriber, so let’s add some more emails to your “frzzledoptin” list…

You could create a highly-customized selection of emails, spaced out at intervals of your choosing – follow up emails.

Unlike broadcasts, follow up intervals are not based on specific, finite dates – they are based on units of time after your subscriber signs up.

For example:

0 days after (immediately)
7 days after
1 week after

For example, a typical follow up series might consist of…

Email	When sent
A “Welcome” letter	When: Immediately after your subscriber completes your double optin.Often contains:

A download link or directions to the landing page which contains the download link
How often the subscriber can expect emails from you

Follow up letter # 1. (“Did you have time to download your gift?”)When: 1-4 days after signup.Ensuring the subscriber was able to download the gift. Expressing the wish that it was helpful.

Can include “housekeeping” items such as information on how to contact you; or what to do if there was a problem with the download

Follow up letter # 2. A “Tip”.When: 1 week after sign up.Share a short but really valuable tip on any of the following:

How to get the most out of your product/book
A topic your subscriber is most interested in
A resource you find helpful (preferably free, at this stage of your relationship)

Follow up letter # 3-5. Another “Tip”.As above at 2 day intervals. Mix the types of tips but stick to one tip per email.Follow up letter # 6. A Paid ProductWhen: 3 or 4 days after the final Tip.Start out by continuing along the same vein as your previous emails, but segue into presenting either of the following:

Your paid product – offering them even more value OR
An affiliate product you think they would like (with you being the affiliate to another marketer’s offer)

Your “frzzledoptin” list doesn’t have to follow these exact steps. For example, your series could alternately have offered confirmation, welcome and thank you letters; plus a six-part mini course instead of the tips, concluding with a new paid offer, to take them “to the next level”.

People typically run into trouble creating a follow up autoresponder series when they are too rigid, thinking there must be only one set sequence to follow up on a sign up. They try to duplicate what their own favorite marketer did only to find that particular sequence doesn’t quite suit their own sales funnel and subscriber demographic.

So now that you have a clearer idea about follow up and broadcast emails, let’s create both types.

Step 2. Create a Follow Up email

Your first big choice is whether or not to use HTML email templates or simply send plain text messages.

You can decide on either – or even give your readers a choice of – which type they prefer to receive. Aweber allows it to be converted to text automatically for subscribers who choose the “Text only” option. That’s the advantage of using an HTML template: Whether or not the subscriber sees text only is driven by the subscriber herself.

Aweber has a brand new message editor which is much more visual than it used to be, relying on dragging-and-dropping of block elements. It makes the whole process easy.

Log into your Aweber account, and hover over the anchor text on the Messages tab (making sure your “frzzledoptin” list is the “Current List”. Select “Follow up series”.

Click on the green “Create Your First Follow up” button.

(And here’s the beauty of Aweber. Let’s say we set up our list and confirmation email and were interrupted before creating a Welcome email. When you access your list or emails again, if you look down to where the little video link always appears, you will see the wizard pop-up window telling you exactly where you are in the setup process for the list currently selected in “Create and manage lists” – and what you still have to do.

This particular wizard popup tells us that our list and email series is only 75% complete – and now it is time to create that Welcome email.

In other words, it doesn’t matter if you had just followed steps 1 and 2 only or straight away clicked on “Do This Step” in the “Create a Welcome Email” pop-up: You would still end up on the page below.)

And that is where you will start when you create every other follow up email from now on (i.e. Messages tab>>Follow Up Series>>).

Scroll down the page until you come to the editor, and create your Subject line. Remember that you can add fields such as {!firstname} by also selecting a choice in the popup generated by pressing the blue Personalize button.

(Hint: First insert your cursor at the spot you want the new field to take effect.)

Click the Templates button to choose your template.

Choose a category from the Templates drop-down.

Use the vertical scroll bar to select a design from your chosen category

Click “Apply”.

(Notice that “Plain Text is being Auto-Generated”.)

Choose a color scheme, if your selected template offers one.

Locate the block elements that you can choose to drag-and-drop into your email.

Drag each one to where you want it to appear inside your template.

Add, delete or edit elements within the template by double-clicking on existing elements and dragging others down from the block elements bar.

(Use the “X” and “+” tabs to duplicate or delete block elements.)

Drag the actual “Download” button graphic to the size you want, and enter both your download page link and Alt text (use your keywords).

When you have your Welcome message looking the way you want it:

Press the Save button at the bottom right corner of the window

Press the Test button to send yourself a copy of your new Welcome email

(A window will appear, prompting you to input the email address for the test email.)

Check your inbox to see what your subscriber will see.

In the test email you are now reading from your inbox, there will be a blank space where the {!firstname} field should have inserted your name. This is not an error. (Remember, you didn’t actually enter any contact information in any web form yet!)

Your subscribers will enter their names in the web form, and this will correctly generate the {!firstname} field for them.

Return to your Aweber browser window. Click on the Next button.

A new page will open. This is where you set your timing conditions. (Use “0” for a Welcome email, which needs to be sent immediately after the Confirmation.)

Press Save and Exit
Return to the Messages tab for your “frzzledoptin” list to ensure your message is there; and that it is set to send at the right interval.

It is a good idea to test it again by pressing the “Send a test” link.

Step 3. Creating a Broadcast

To create your time-and-date specific message, return to Messages, but this time, select “Broadcasts”.

Most of the process follows the same pattern as your follow up emails:

Press the “Create Your First Broadcast” Button
Enter your Subject line
Select your Template and color scheme
Customize and create block elements and fields
When Newsletter or sales offer is to your liking, scroll down and click the green “Next” button
Select your Social Sharing options, if desired.

Click the green Next button
You will be taken to a Scheduler page, where you can schedule your broadcast.

If you want to send your broadcast immediately, set your Send Options; then click Save.

If you want to send your broadcast later, on a specific date, move the Scheduler slide button to “ON” and choose your date, time and time zone.

9. The moment you do this, the Save button will turn to a “Schedule and Queue” button with your release date displayed. Click this when you are ready to send out your broadcast.

10. You will have one last chance to make changes on the next page, if you’ve left any time between now and your release date and time. Press Cancel; then your broadcast title to edit.

11. After your changes are made, just Schedule and Queue again.

And you’re done. You now know how to create both follow up and broadcast emails.

How to Make Your First Kindle Book Cover

by Nicole Munoz

Now it’s time to create your first eBook cover with Box Shot King. Before deciding on a template, consider the venue where this book cover is going to be displayed. For example, if you want to upload a Kindle eBook, go to Amazon.com and take a look at how similar books in your genre appear. You won’t have any control over this in Amazon: You’ll merely upload your cover photo as a placeholder, which will appear without any 3D effects. (Don’t worry: Box Shot King will allow you to create a “Flat Cover” version of your 3D graphics.)

On your website, however, you’ll want to spice things up a little more. You want your book to read as a “real” book, so choose one of Box Shot King’s 3D templates.

Step 1. Choose your Template

Step 2. Choose your Background

The moment you choose your eBook cover template, Box Shot King will present you with a selection of backgrounds.

Choose one, upload your own, check out web resources for further backgrounds or customize the default style with your own colors.

When you select one, it will populate in your canvas area, and you can resize to the area you want to select, as well as move your borders around to capture just the right area.

Once you like what you see in the selection area, press the orange “Select and continue” button.

Step 3. Create Your Title

When creating your title, make sure the font supports the feel and tone of your book. For example, if you are producing a Hallowe’en collection of spooky recipes, you might choose a “creepy” font – one that people traditionally and automatically associate with horror movies — such as “Zombie Zone” or “Nightmare”.

(Remember, you add text by pressing the “Insert Text” button, once your background has loaded in. Type your text into the textarea box; then apply your desired font and effects.)

You will also now be able to drag-to-resize your title, so it will fit anywhere you want on your cover. Press the “Submit” button, once you have typed in your Title and applied your selected effects. Your title will now render over your background. You can then drag-and-resize it by the corner of your bounding box, as well as reposition it on your “page”.

Note that you can customize your Title text even further, using the options available in the editing bar:

Step 4. Add an Image

Click on the “Insert Images” tab in your top, horizontal menu, and select a tab; then select a graphic; much as you selected your background.

You can select from galleries, stock photos or upload your own from this location. (You can also use the “Upload Images” tab instead of the “Insert Images” tab.). Your graphic will render (i.e. load slowly within the canvas) and be added to your cover.

You can:

Resize it by dragging
Move it around
Send it behind your text. (You are working here in layers.)

Step 5. Edit Your Image and Working with Layers

By default, since you created your graphic after your text, it automatically populates as the front [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][top] layer. You may not want the title underneath your graphic, so:

a. Click on the element you want at the front (i.e. your title text). You will know if you have selected your graphic or your title, because the element you click on will be outlined in white. (Use the double arrow as your click point for drag-resizing or moving.)

b. Once you have the element you want to position on top selected, click on the “Bring to Front” button

Previously, your graphic was right over top of your title, coloring the letters.

Move your text to the front by selecting the title and pressing the “Bring to Front” button puts your graphic behind the text letters, which usually looks more finished and professional.

Remember; if you don’t like the graphic behind the text after moving it, you can send it “back” again by:

Selecting the graphic
Pressing “Bring to front”

You can add as many graphics and text elements as you want.

But what if you find part of the image is obscuring your text, yet you still want it on front?

You can simply cut out the offending portion by pressing the “Cut Selected Area” button and moving your editing window until the area you want deleted is greyed-out.

Then press “Cut”.

Step 6. Save Your Cover

When you are completely happy with the finished look of your eCover, press the black and red “Finalize” button.

Your final eCover graphic will display, along with a menu bar on top giving details about its contents, including:

Background color
Width (in pixels)
Height (in pixels)

This is what your finished 3D cover will look like, displayed on your Sales page or anywhere else on your website:

You can now choose to:

Edit your cover
Download your cover

If you are happy with the look of your graphic, click “Download”.

If you are not happy with any of the elements, just click on the “Edit” button and you will be able to go back and tweak that element.

Step 7. Creating a Transparent Background

For seamless integration into your website, create a transparent background to your actual, finished eCover graphic by simply checking the “Transparent” radio button.

You will know you were successful because the white page background to your finished cover will instantly change to a checkered background, which in the graphic design world signifies transparency. And the “Background Color” tab will display the word “transparent” inside its textarea box, instead of displaying a color code.

You will not see these checkers on your website. Instead, your actual website background color will show through behind your book cover. (White is the best color for displaying elements such as eBook covers, especially if they contain effects such as drop shadows.)

Any final graphic file with a transparent background will download as a .PNG file. Note that if you change that to a .JPG file, you will lose the transparency.

Step 8. Creating your “flat” Book Cover

But wait – we’re not quite finished yet. Remember how we looked at Amazon.com earlier? We realized that Amazon does not display book covers in 3D. Instead, they want a perfectly flat graphic.

When you are ready to “Download”, you can create that Amazon-style flat rendition of your eBook cover very easily – simply by pressing the “Download 2D” button.

You can do this before or after you press the “Download” button for your main 3D eCover…

You will instantly be rendered an Amazon “placeholder” version of your eCover that looks like this:

Make sure your size is consistent with Amazon’s 1/6 ratio (height and width ratio).

Amazon’s ideal recommended size is 1,563 X 2,500 pixels, but you can downsize all the way to the Amazon minimum of 625 X 1,000 pixels.

You can adjust the size right on your 2D screen:

Once you’ve downloaded your flat file to your desktop, you can then upload this graphic to Amazon to act as your placeholder.

Step 9. Retrieving your Covers

Your created eCovers are not lost, once downloaded – it’s not a one-shot deal, when it comes to creation. They are stored in the cloud, in your Box Shot King files, and you can access them again at any time.

To do so:

1. Open the Box Shot King home page and click on the “Members” tab

2. Log in

3. Click on the anchor text “Click here” under the “Welcome [Your Name]” heading

4. Click on the “My ECovers” tab.

5. Click on the “Edit” button within the thumbnail of the version you want to edit.

And that’s how easy it is to create, customize and retrieve your first eBook cover with Box Shot King.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Top 10 Ways for Creating an Effective Online Brand

by Nicole Munoz

If you’re not actively branding your business, you are wasting golden opportunities to strengthen your online position in your niche.

Creating a uniform goal and plan can help you make sure all your branding efforts are on target. Then incorporate the following top ten ways for create an effective online brand.

1. Identify Your Brand Clearly

Make it easy for people to see at a glance what you and your business are all about the moment they arrive at your web page, read your email or newsletter, pick up your business card or check out your social media pages and posts.

Show (don’t just tell) people:

What you do
Who you are
How you can help or even just entertain them

Letting people know what they can expect from you and your business and what they can trust you to deliver, as celebrity Jackie Chan demonstrates here, is what branding is all about.

2. Pay Attention to Voice

One other aspect of your business needs to be clear and distinctive: Your voice.

“Voice” is the personality you project across all your websites, social media and other forms of contact.

Your voice can be any type you want it to be… But it should fit your mission and your target market consistently, like a favorite pair of slippers. It should be reflected in everything from website colors to the music clips you use with your videos.

Individuality is another important part of creating a consistent voice. You want to show that you can take a secure place among your competitors – but also stand out.

People should feel they know you, when they see your communications and materials.

3. Know When to Use Professionals

Using the right help at the right time will actually increase your branding.

Trying to do it all yourself leads to overload and overwhelm; and that leads to losing track of your business as an entity and brand because you’re too close and too busy being reactive.

Become a true CEO, instead of your own eternal employee. Plan for support that will leave you free to focus on customers, clients – and your branding. Then decide:

What type of help you need
Who you are going to choose to provide that help

Check into potential candidates. See if they have package rates (many contractors do).

This will leave you free to focus on only the essentials of growing your business, allowing you to maintain a focused overview, as well as network and serve your customers and clients to the best of your ability.

And focus is what strong, successful branding is all about.

4. Manage your Online Reputation

One negative comment – deserved or not – can really affect your online reputation. Check comments and feedback regularly to see what people are saying about you.

One easy way to do this: Set up a Google Alert for your name and your business name (if the two are different).

You can set your Google alerts up so that they are highly reactive, if there’s a particular situation you want to monitor, or barely intrusive – simply by setting the frequency at which the results are delivered to your email address (text or HTML).

You can choose to receive alerts:

As it happens
Once a day
Once a week

You can also export your alerts to your hard drive.

But managing your online reputation doesn’t just mean monitoring what’s said: It’s really all about giving people no reason to badmouth you in the first place!

Keep in touch with clients and update them if there are hitches or problems.
Process payments and refunds promptly and cheerfully.
Thank people who do you favors or submit work.

Reputation management is all about giving people reason to praise you and your business.

(And don’t do anything on your social networks that’s at odds with your branding and voice!)

5. Tell Your Brand’s Story

Use your online footprints to tell your brand’s story. Doing this well means knowing:

Where you’ve been
Your mission
Where you are heading

Your “About” Page is a good place to provide a brief history of your business: What inspired it, how old it is, what it looked like at inception and how it has been serving its clientele.

Sending out regular newsletters and press releases, posting articles to your blog and sharing photos with social networks continues your story. But even as you do share your history and story, make sure it’s really all about your customer or client (as Eugene Saturday Market expertly does here on its Facebook Page)

Even though everything you present should be geared towards your end client or customer, they will connect better if they can also relate – and see that you do too.

6. Be Consistently Active and Actively Consistent

The word “consistent” is the real key to branding.

Interact regularly and consistently:

Across all your social platforms
In the type of material you share
With your unique voice
In all your content
- business pages
- buttons
- flyers
- prizes
- surveys
- emails
- newsletters

And every piece of content you put out (e.g. Burt’s Bees).

7. Use Templates

This simple tip is one that, when put to work, can help you easily create a cohesive feel to all your marketing venues. You can create:

Email templates featuring your colors, logo, headshot and signature
Flyer templates
HTML templates for your newsletter
HTML templates for your landing and sales pages
MS Word templates for business correspondence

And for anything else you re-use frequently.

With a template, you don’t have go through your content, second-guessing things like what your exact shade of sub-head red was. Templates saves time as well as helping you instantly brand your business without effort.

8. Go Visual

What were two of the hottest trends in 2012?

Pinterest and Instagram.

If your business doesn’t have a Profile created with each of these two graphic-based social networks, you’re missing a great opportunity to connect with your market.

Once you’ve created a Pinterest for Business account (it’s free), be sure to create more than one Pinboard. (Read site instructions – which are simple – and look at examples; especially your competitors’, if they’ve been more socially-savvy than you.)

Make sure you create an overall plan for your Pinboards. And that each one:

Is interesting and visually dramatic
Triggers emotion, whenever possible
Reflects your brand consistently

Put a “Pin it” button on your site, and activelyask customers to pin your photos. (The Pin it button such as Split Coast Stampers displays makes it as easy as one click for them to do so.)

Make sure you have yummy visual content for them to pin. But don’t stop there, however: Re-pin customer content that fits your brand onto your boards.

Use Instagram to capture photo opportunities and share them.

Finally carry this through to YouTube videos. Create your own channel and brand it with:

Your logo
Your colors
Your graphics

Then create lively videos to regularly share with customers.

9. Go Mobile

What was the hottest trend in 2011?

Mobile marketing.

2011 saw the introduction of QR codes to the Western world. Now you see them everywhere – even on sandwich boards outside your local grocery store, making it easy for you to use the QR code to enter their survey.

When customers use your QR code, reward them with coupons, discounts, or even just great photographs they can share.

Go one step further in using your QR codes to help brand your business: Don’t just use a plain, generated QR code: Have a custom QR code designed containing or incorporating graphics such as your logo – one that makes people instantly think of your business.

(If you can’t yet afford a designer who specializes in QR codes, do it yourself with generators such as Unitag that allow you to incorporate your own graphics into your QR code in a variety of styles.)

10. Optimize Your Signature

Don’t miss the opportunity to make the most of your signature. Include anchor text to your blog or website, as well as your tagline.

Make sure your signature is as consistent as possible, everywhere you use it – forums, flyers, membership sites and in your emails and colors.

Think of your signature as yet another handy branding tool.

Although these pointers include the most basic elements of branding, you’ll find they are still the top ten ways to create your most effective online brand. Get into the habit putting them to work – and watch your branding results soar.