Yesterday when I sent out my monthly newsletter I thought of not only my daughter’s school, but ever school in the nation that sends home important flyer’s that never make it home and emails that never get opened. Since every parent and child over the age of 12 has a mobile phone I wanted to share an awesome and affordable solution to all the wasted paper & unread emails that are being passed around. The latest statistics are that only 20% of email subscriptions get read and they get read within 10 days, whereas 97% of text messages get opened and read with 6 minutes.

How to effectively get your message out to 97% of your people within an average of 6 minutes or less

I stumble across a lot of cool tech toys & technology and here’s one I’m VERY impressed with! These guys at yeptext pack a lot of bang for the buck. They offer SMS Marketing packages stating at $9.00 a month which is insane! I believe the most valuable ones they offer are the 750 texts and one keyword for $29.00 and the 1500 texts and two keywords for $59.00 Check out the screen capture below, it’s just a quick run down it and for more info on the yeptext guys go to yeptext.com

A clever & affordable way to build a serious mobile number database

An email is only as good as your recipient getting it. With today’s spam filters the open rate has continued to diminished.  These lower stats really rain true when using HTML graphics & video. I started testing new email & video email marketing products and below is an example of one that has significantly increased not only my open rates, but click through rates & time viewing. Take a look and let me know if you have any questions. Thank you for connecting with us, Small Biz Marketing L.L.C.

A great way to increase your email open rate when email marketing

My good friend Ben Boykin with Emergent Interactive turned me onto a really cool and FREE toy from Visual Bee which is a free plug in that really brings your dull boring PowerPoint presentations to life. Check out this video and you can see how easy it is to be a Rock Star at your next presentation!

How to put your next PowerPoint presentation on steroids

Sometimes I run across some pretty cool stuff and I have to say this is one of the coolest! I picked these up at Best Buy and I love them! If you run, hike, walk, or anything else, it’s a must have. I also use them when I’m doing yard work & they are great in the coffee shop. Check out the video demo of the Motorola S10-HD Bluetooth Headphones

Here’s a great way to do whatever you want with music wireless!

2011 was a challenging year for a lot of people, & the small business owner wasn’t exempt from the challenges. We at Small Biz Marketing hope that this video helps you think of some good ideas for your friends & family…

Ways that you can give some great gifts this year & support your local economy

Over the last several years I’ve spent countless hours and thousands of dollars driving all over the city showing people what I do, the products I offer, etc… Today I still meet with people but with today’s technology it’s just not as often. I was approached by a good friend Shawn in Las Vegas that said “JD why aren’t you using webinars in your business”? I said I really never gave it much thought. Shawn went on to say his favorite thing to say to someone on the phone is “Hello this is Shawn, did I catch you in front of your computer”? And when he told me how easy it was to archive them for later viewing that’s when the light bulb really came on. Hmm doing something once that can be viewed hundreds of times. So I looked at a few webinar platforms out there & found one by comF5 that worked for me. Regardless of what you use, I’d like to just encourage you to use something, there’s several good ones. Since then between comF5 and the other Small Biz tools I feel like I’ve added a lot of time to my life, less fuel in my car, & WAY less frustration driving all over town. Now for those of you that don’t know me, I’m a networking maniac & I love getting out there and meeting eye to eye but over the last couple years I’ve found that a lot of work can be done through today’s technology. I have another friend who’s in Real Estate Buddy Blake who does “The Monday Morning Coffee” and has knocked the ball out of the park by using webinars. So go online and research some of the webinar platforms out there and see what’s best for you. The one I use is less than a tank of fuel and it allows me to stream multiple videos, PPT’s, YouTube videos, and it’s very interactive with my audience.

Below is an example of what the system looks like & you can watch any archived examples of how any Small Business Owner could use the system.

How to avoid spending a lot of time and fuel showing your product

Video Blogging and YouTube Posting