D. Marie Smith
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How to Set Up an Email Marketing System for Your Small Business

4/25/2025

 
​If you’re just getting started with email marketing, follow these steps:
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1. Choose an Email Marketing Platform
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​Pick one that fits your budget and needs. Some of the top easy-to-use DIY platforms are: 
  • MailerLite helps you design and send beautiful newsletters, promotions, and updates to your customers. It’s super easy to use, even if you’ve never done email marketing before.
  • Mailmeteor works with Google Sheets and Gmail to send personalized emails in bulk. Imagine sending 100 emails, but each one feels like it was written just for that person.
  • Mailchimp is a popular tool that helps you send emails, build websites, create ads, and manage customer lists—all in one place. It’s more advanced but still beginner-friendly.
2. Build Your Email List (Use my favorite Tech Tool HERE)

  • Add a signup form to your website and social media accounts
  • Offer a discount or freebie (% off order, eBook, checklist) to encourage sign-ups
  • Use your phone to collect emails from customers in-person and other ways online

3. Create an Email Marketing Plan
Decide:
  • How often you’ll send emails (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly)?
  • The type of content you’ll share (news, promotions, tips, product recommendations, etc.)?
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4. Execute Email Marketing Plan

​Don't forget to include:
✅ Welcome emails for new form signups
✅ Follow-up emails after an action or purchases on Owned Platforms like your website and emails messages
✅ Abandoned cart reminders to recover lost sales for eCommerce brands
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5. Track & Optimize Your Emails

​Check open rates and click rates to see what’s working, and tweak your strategy accordingly. Statistics by industry are listed below. 
Average Open Rates (Source Mailchimp)
  • Government: 40.55%
  • Media & Publishing: 34.23% 
  • Retail: 35.05%
  • E-commerce: 29.81%

Average Click Through Rates (Source: Mailchimp)
  • Retail: 2.08%  
  • E-Commerce: 17.4%

Top Digital Marketing Tools for Entrepreneurs in 2025

12/10/2024

 
Are you ready to grow your business in 2025? As technology continues to improve, entrepreneurs and business owners have access to more tools than ever to refine their marketing strategies. Whether you are just starting or looking to level up, using the right tools can help you streamline tasks, attract more traffic, and increase conversions.

Here’s a handpicked selection of the greatest digital marketing tools to help you grow in 2025.
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1.SEMrush  HERE

When it comes to SEO, SEMrush is a powerhouse! It offers capabilities for keyword research, site audits, and competitor analysis. With its easy to navigate platform, you can monitor your website’s performance and identify possibilities to improve your position. SEMrush’s content marketing tools helps you to develop optimized content that interacts with your audience!

2.Canva  HERE
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Visuals are a key in catching attention on your website and across social media platforms. Canva provides  design tools that are straightforward to use, even if you are not a designer. With its extensive library of templates and themes for social media, presentations, and infographics, you can create good looking visuals that highlight your business! 

3. Hootsuite  HERE
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managing many social media networks can feel difficult, but Hootsuite simplifies the process. From scheduling  posts to tracking engagement, and measuring results, all from a single dashboard. Its analytics offer useful data to help you change your strategy efficiently.
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4. GMass  HERE
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Email marketing remains a great way to connect with your audience. GMass simplifies email marketing with capabilities to customize messages, track responses, and automate follow ups. Whether you are nurturing leads or maintaining customer relationships, GMass lets you save time while staying organized.
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5. Asana  HERE
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Organization is vital for entrepreneurs, and Asana makes project management simple and straightforward. From managing campaigns ,coordinating content development, Asana’s task lists and collaborative features help you keep on top of your work and fulfill deadlines.
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6. Google Analytics  HERE
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Understanding your website’s performance is key to making informed marketing decisions. Google Analytics gives  insights into visitor behavior, traffic sources, and conversion rates. Use this day to refine your marketing plan and increase your outcomes.
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7. Zapier  HERE
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Automation is crucial in 2025, and Zapier helps you connect your preferred apps to reduce repetitive tasks. Whether its synching data across platforms or automating notifications, Zapier frees up your time to focus on building your business.
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8. HubSpot  HERE
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HubSpot offers a full array of tools for inbound marketing, CRM, and social media management.  It helps you attract, engage, and keep audiences while delivering detailed reports to assist better your methods over time.
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9. Later  HERE
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For managing social media content, Later is a helpful resource. It allows you to schedule posts visually, track performance, and organize media assets. It's especially great for entrepreneurs trying to boost their Instagram approach.
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10. Sprout social  HERE
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Sprout social is a great tool for managing your social media presence. It allows you to plan posts, track engagement, and gain insights into audience behavior through detailed analytics. With its social listening features, you may track mentions and trends to stay connected with your audience. Sprout Social makes managing social media effortless and effective.
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Ready to Transform Your Marketing in 2025?

With the correct business tools, you may optimize your process and gain remarkable outcomes in 2025.  Whether you are focusing on SEO, social media, or email marketing, these tools can help you design a more effective approach.
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Are you ready to refine your marketing approach and archive substantial results? Let's talk how i can help tailor solutions to fit your goals.
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Schedule an appointment with me HERE, I look forward to helping you succeed!​

Boost Online Sales Like a Pro with Affiliate Marketing

10/1/2024

 
Are you ready to take your business to the next level and supercharge sales? Well, you're in for a treat because today we're diving into the exciting world of affiliate marketing and how it can work wonders for your product or service-based businesses. Get ready to level up your sales game by learning the potential of affiliate marketing and getting the tech tea on the best tools you can use to build your own affiliate program.
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​What is affiliate marketing all about?
Affiliate marketing is like having a squad, brand ambassadors who spread the word about your product and services to their network, via custom website links. In return, they earn a commission for every sale or lead they bring in for you. It's a win-win situation – they get rewarded for their hustle, and you get a boost in sales. Talk about a modern business power move!
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​Working with affiliates is a strong marketing choice but, can anyone do it? Well, actually, yes! You just need the right tech tools to ensure your success. You can see a shortlist of the top affiliate marketing management systems you can use for your brand: 
  • Zoho Thrive: https://go.zoho.com/lR7 $0 and up per month
  • Affiliatly: https://www.affiliatly.com?aff=1733 $16 and up per month
  • Rewardful: https://www.rewardful.com/?via=d-marie $49 and up per month
  • Tap Affiliate: https://fas.st/t/1pgYteti $89 and up per month
  • Referral Factory: https://referrals.referral-factory.com/uNJ68r3r $89 and up per month
  • Refersion https://www.refersion.com/pricing/ $99 and up per month
  • Partner Stack: https://partnerstack.com/platform/affiliates price not available online
  • Impact IO: https://impact.com/partnership-management-platform/ rice not available online

​Tracking and analytics play a crucial role in affiliate marketing management systems. They help you keep tabs on the performance of your affiliates and understand what's driving sales. Plus, with the rise of affiliate networks on platforms, finding and getting found by those perfect partners has never been easier.
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​When it comes to affiliate marketing, we've got three main stars of the show: 
  1. Merchants: that's you, the business owner
  2. Affiliates: your amazing sales-boosting partners
  3. Customers: the happy souls who end up with your awesome products or services
It's like a trio working together to create a sales powerhouse. So, why should you jump on the affiliate marketing bandwagon? The benefits are just too good to pass up. From expanding your reach to cost-effective marketing and only paying for actual sales, affiliate marketing brings a
whole new level of oomph to your sales strategy. And for small businesses looking to get effective marketing, this opportunity is crucial! Schedule time HERE if you want more info on Affiliate Marketing or any other business and branding needs.

​D. Marie Smith is a source for tech learning, reviews, and online services. Click the subscribe button below and sign up to be notified of our new content and exclusive details on products, services, and more!

An Overview of Zoho Cloud Software

8/20/2023

 
Cloud software is a needed tech tool for businesses and brands because they help manage the company's operations, automate processes, and equip you with professional tools that serve customers and employees. One of the most diverse Cloud Software solutions for small businesses and large enterprises is Zoho and its features rival the likes of  Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Zoho has also been used by large organizations like Delta Airlines, Amazon, and Loreal. Keep reading to get the  game on 11 ways Zoho can work for you and your team:
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Marketing
  • Social Media: Build your content calendar, publish posts, and measure success with a single tool.
  • Emails: Create campaigns with an easy-to-use tool designed to help streamline communications, automatically organize your lists, and build 1st party audiences. 
  • Marketing Plus: Access a collection of tech tools that allow you to do a vast number of marketing functions in one ecosystem including the two above. ​
Collaboration
  • Email and Documents: Better control communication with customers, suppliers, & co-workers.
  • IT Helpdesk: Create tickets,  automate thenext steps, and give access rights to customers and internal teams with ease.
  • Project Management: Develop processes that help plan, track, and implement business projects.​​
Sales
  • Bookings: Meeting scheduler that helps send reminders and allows for prepayment. 
  • Affiliate Programs: Revenue share your website’s eCommerce sales with people who promote your product or service with this pay as you go service.
  • Customer Relationship (CRM): Manages customer relationships by tracking every step their experience.
Operations
  • Finance: Access apps and APIs that help to manage invoices and payments, budgeting, reporting, and so much more.
  • Human Resources: Manage your workforce’s performance, trainings, hours, wages.

At the current moment, I am testing Thrive,  Zoho’s affliliate and loyalty program tech tool (see HERE).  Have you ever considered or tried a Zoho product? How does it compare to other platforms in the marketplace? Let us know in the comments.
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    D. Marie Smith

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