Why you should FourSquare

0 comments

Posted on 7th December 2010 by Tony in Business Advice |Free Tip

, , ,

I’ve just been asked by a twitter-follower on why he should be using FourSquare. It’s a little difficult to explain in 140 characters, so I thought I’d answer him here and then link across …

So what is FourSquare? Basically, it’s a GPS-based game that you use with your GPS-enabled cellphone, like the iPhone, Blackberry, or anything androidy … the basic premise is that you “check in” with the foursquare website where-ever you are and accumulate points and compete against your friends.

Of course, there are other advantages to checking in … you get to find out about great places across your town/city. You find out the “inside scoop” of various restaurants/coffee shops, and you can “unlock” specials or gifts from various businesses by simply checking in.

A few weeks ago I was at the V&A Waterfront and when I checked in on FourSquare I was told of specials nearby, which included free coffee at Truth Cafe, and a free IT magazine from Incredible Connection. Pretty Slick!

Of course, as a business you should really consider registering your company on the FourSquare Website – it’s free of charge – and it will attract heaps of regular customers to your business.

Here’s a great video I found on YouTube which explains it very nicely:

Popularity: 3% [?]


How to Choose an Email Subject Line for Maximum Deliverability

0 comments

Posted on 3rd September 2010 by Tony in Free Tip

, ,

You've Got Mail!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am really big on email campaigns. Build a big database, build a relationship with your readers and then add value to their lives. This “Serve First” principle has helped me build a very successful online business.

This morning I had a very interesting call from a client who is struggling with their email campaign. They have a HUGE database of well over 1 million readers, but last month they received NOT ONE positive response. It seemed incredibly dodgy to me – the Rule of Big Numbers means that someone, somewhere must have opened up the email and made contact with them.

My first port of call was to check the server reliability. Since they host with Kwikkermail, I know the servers are running, and a quick check online showed me that their server was not blacklisted or anything. So what was it?

I quickly asked for a copy of their email, and I knew immediately why things went wrong: they chose a terrible Subject Line. It was basic: “Company A Events Calendar“. Even though people know who Company A is, why on earth would they open up the email? It seems like it’s not even for them!

So, here are a few simple rules I use to increase my maximum deliverability:

  1. Keep in mind that the receiver actually may not know you.
  2. Give them a REASON to open the email.
  3. Something that starts with “How to…” performs the best.
  4. Also “Save …”
  5. Adding a time limit works!
  6. Next, I use the Google Keyword Tool to research a little on how many people actually search for a keyword. Obviously the more searches conducted the more people would read it.

Here are a couple of great examples that have worked well for me in the past:

  1. How to reduce your debt.
  2. How to earn R1million in 12 months (seriously!)
  3. Save 38% every month right now! (details inside)
  4. Change the way you think about Cold Calling
  5. Increase your Home Security today.

The next test is to split test. This can be a bit tricky, but what I would do is split my mailing list up into 4 parts:

10%, 10%, 80%

I then send out an email to the first 2 groups, each with a different subject line. After 24 hours, I’ll monitor the responses. The subject line with the highest open rate, gets the go-ahead for the other 80%.

Popularity: 6% [?]


Cape Town launches new IRT bus service

6 comments

Posted on 7th May 2010 by Tony in Free Tip

, , , , , ,

So I noticed on the news today that Cape Town has launched it’s Integrated Rapid Transport service, having been called the IRT for a while. Anyone living in Cape Town knows all about the chaos on the roads as extra bus lanes have been added to the major routes in and out of the city.

For all it’s beauty and wonders this city is very poorly laid out. The road system looks like God dropped his bowl of spaghetti and there were it fell we laid roads. Public Transport is non-existent. From Table View (a suburb of over 300000 people) there is no train system into the city and the road that leads to town ends up in a single-lane. This means that Rush Hour in Cape Town is actually Rush-3-Hours. If you don’t leave home by 6am you won’t get to town before 8:30.

So we get this new road system, which they have called it MyCiTi and the first few buses were launched today, hopefully bringing the airport-city route online before the world cup. Nice.

But I have a problem with the name. I don’t think it was researched properly. Simple check: www.myciti.co.za will lead you to the Citi Bank Group website. While Citi Bank is hardly recognised in SA, I do think the City of Cape Town should have done a little bit of online research when choosing the name.

Why not just call it “IRT”? We’re all calling it that already. Argh. Politicians. The slogan is also a little silly. I have no idea what the Xhosa Phrase means, but “Laat Wiel” and “Going Places” – while both have something to do with transport, don’t seem much to do with each other.

Here’s a clip I found on Zoopy I thought you’d like to watch.

Look, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy the IRT is finally coming to Cape Town – we need decent transport. But what does concern me is the lack of thought when choosing a name … which brings me to my freetip for this Friday afternoon:

FreeTip: Do some research online when choosing a name. :-)

Popularity: 18% [?]


« Older Entries

Join my Mailing List to learn
some awesome secrets!
* Email
First Name
* = Required Field