Did you know that people are two times more likely to share a negative interaction than a positive one?

In the age of smartphones and social media, people are quick to tweet about your business when things go wrong.

Luckily, a negative tweet doesn’t have to be a disaster for your business.

Here at Constant Contact, we use our @CTCTHelp Twitter handle to provide customer support and transform negative feedback into a positive experience.

We’ll show you how you can analyze, respond to, and resolve negative tweets and reviews on Twitter in three easy steps.

1. Analyze

Seeing a negative tweet — especially one that you feel is unwarranted — can be frustrating.

Realize that you can’t take it personally. I repeat you CANNOT take it personally.

Take a step back, a deep breath, and a few minutes if you need to. The last thing you want to do is reply with an angry tone and escalate the problem.

With a calmer view, it’s time to analyze the tweet — what exactly are they upset with? Can you tell or do you need more information?

140 characters is not a lot to work with, so it’s best to gather all you can from their initial tweet. You can also take a peek at their Twitter profile to see if it offers any additional context of their conversation style and what’s important to them.

2. Respond and Apologize

Even if you think the tweet is unwarranted, it’s time to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. They are taking the time out of their day to tweet a complaint because they believe they’ve somehow been wronged or slighted.

To have a customer or client feel that way, for any reason, is a big deal. There’s always room for improvement and this tweet may be a sign of that.

If you need more information, you can send a tweet with an apology and ask for the details that you need to correct the situation.

Something like: “I’m so sorry! Please DM your username (details, information, etc.) so we can take a look & work on this for you.”

However, if you can keep the interaction public then try your best to do so. You don’t want your customer to feel as though you’re trying to “hide” their complaint.  

At @CTCTHelp, we try to keep our interactions public unless we have to ask for account specific information. (We’ll never ask you to publicly send us your account details. Maintaining the privacy of a customer’s information is essential!)

Either way, we usually see the tides of the interaction turn once the customer knows we’re following up on the situation and working for them.

Twitter for customer service 1

What if the customer is complaining about a process or procedure, but there isn’t a way around the source of their aggravation?

We’ve found that simply sending off an apology isn’t enough, and a trite, “We’re sorry but that’s our policy,” doesn’t carry over well at all.

Avoid the words “policy” and “procedure” as much as possible; there are no good connotations to be had there. Explain the reasoning behind the policy if you can.

We might say:  “I’m sorry for any frustration! This is in place for the privacy & security of our customers’ information.”

Oftentimes, when you explain the reasoning behind an undesired process — especially when that reason is for your customer’s benefit — they’ll be more understanding and willing to work with you.

3. Resolve

Don’t forget to follow through on what you’ve told your customer you’ll do. If you’ve offered to look into the situation and make it right, then do it.

You can even follow up with a customer delighter if your customer had a really negative experience. Something like a discount or other gesture of goodwill shows you take a quality experience seriously.

If the interaction is publicly visible, you’re not only making a good impression on the affected customer, but also every person who visits your Twitter profile and sees the interaction.

Customers are looking for exemplary experiences with businesses, so try to see a negative tweet as an opportunity to show off how responsive and authentic your brand and business can be.

Twitter for customer service 2

Don’t leave your audience hanging! Twitter is a very fast paced network, so the faster you can address and resolve the issue the better.

Even if you can’t resolve the issue right away, make sure to respond in some form as quickly as possible.

A short and sweet tweet saying, “Thank you again for taking the time to provide your feedback! We really appreciate that!” acknowledges their complaint and speaks volumes about how your business cares.

Transform negative feedback into a positive for your business.

9 times out of 10 you’ll be able to repair a relationship with an angry tweeter, just remember to put yourself in their shoes, understand their complaint, and address it appropriately.

Remember that you’re working for both your customer and your business and that this is your chance to show everyone on Twitter just how great a job you can do!

Following these practices has helped our support handle, @CTCTHelp, rank as #1 in an independent study of top SaaS companies providing support on Twitter, and I hope they’ll help you, too!

Have questions about how you can use Twitter for customer support for your business? We’re here to help! Leave us a comment with your questions.

Keeping your small business in business isn’t easy.

And being a family business makes things even more challenging.

If you want your business to flourish for generations to come, you need to address your biggest challenges head on.  

Luckily, you aren’t alone. Many small family businesses face the same problems and have learned to solve them.

Here are five common challenges — as told by family businesses — and how to overcome them.

1. The problem: You’re facing burnout

You can’t escape the stress of your job by just going home.

Family business blends the line between work and life, making burnout almost inevitable.

If excitement and ambition are the fuel that powers your business, burnout is the equivalent of your engine frying.

When Andy and Jackie King sold their house to start A&J King Artisan Bakers, they vowed to avoid burnout any way possible.

“Everyone knows small business owners who get burnt out… We wanted to live somewhat normal lives after a certain amount of time,” Andy explains.

The solution: Delegation

After working hard to establish their business, Andy and Jackie focused on hiring quality employees. They filled positions that they could do themselves to avoid burning the candle at both ends.

You don’t want to build a place that is completely dependent on you,” said Andy.

Avoid burnout at your business by making smart hiring decisions and delegating effectively.

Use these hiring resources to help:

2. The problem: You’re struggling through the slow season

If your business is seasonal, you know this problem all too well.

While there’s barely enough room for you to stand in your own store during the summer, winter tends to leave your shop looking like a ghost town.

This can have you feeling helpless and at the mercy of your audience. But there are ways to regain control during these difficult times.

“We maintain seasonal hours during the spring and fall due to lower foot traffic in the area compared to the peak summer season,” says James Estes, owner of Landfall Restaurant in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. “Often, we have to run incentives to get locals and regulars in the door.”

The solution: Leverage your audience

When times get tough, lean on your loyal audience to help you through.

Email marketing and social media have been a great way for us to take word-of-mouth marketing to the next level,” explains Landfall’s co-owner, Donny Estes.

Your email list is your greatest asset when you’re trying to drive revenue during times of drought. Send out special deals, highlight your inventory, and continue to stay in the minds of your potential customers.

Here’s an example of a coupon they sent to their subscribers to drive business during the offseason:

Family business challenge -- slow season

Read their full story here for more advice: How One Seasonal Restaurant Stays Busy During the Offseason.

3. The problem: You’re not adapting quickly enough

If you’re not morphing, and changing, and growing, you’re slowly dying,” said Andrew Martin.

As third and fourth generation farmers at Honey Pot Hill Orchards, Andrew and Chelcie Martin know all about the struggle to evolve and stay relevant.

For multi-generational family businesses in particular, it’s easy to repeat what’s been successful before and hold onto family traditions.

But business is constantly changing. If you aren’t changing with it and keeping up-to-date on trends, you will get left behind.

The solution: Don’t be afraid to try new things

Growing your business cannot be left to chance. While Honey Pot Hill Orchards only used print advertising at first, they’ve recently adopted more digital channels to grow and connect with their customers.

My family has never really been on the forefront of technology, but we’re doing okay,” says Chelcie. “We’re doing email marketing, Facebook, TV advertising, advertising through Google AdWords, and trying to do a shift more toward digital.”

Don’t be resistant to change at your family business. While some family traditions add to the character of your business, new opportunities help you stay current.

Use these resources to get started with email and social media marketing:

4. The problem: You aren’t fully committed

You care deeply about your business.

If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be putting all your spare time, energy, and money into it.

But something’s holding you back.

Maybe it’s the other job you still hold. Maybe it’s the mentality that your business is just for side money.

No matter what it is, you will need to be 100 percent focused on your business if you want it to really take off, which means making some hard decisions.

That’s where Libby and Brad Birky of SAME Café found themselves before they made the plunge.

“Either we’re gonna really jump in and do this,” said Libby “Or we’re gonna back off and go back to our old lives.”

The solution: Jump all the way in

Brad quit his other job, taking a $60,000 pay cut in the process.

On paper, this might seem crazy. But Libby and Brad knew that for SAME Café to survive, it required all their attention and time.

5. The problem: You’re disorganized

You have a well-developed business with an audience of loyal customers. Don’t let disorganization be your undoing.

As a family business that has been in business for over 20 years, Mother Earth Pillows has a customer database of over 3,500 contacts.

“One of our biggest problems initially was that we knew we were missing lots of interest areas because we didn’t have our contacts well organized,” said Karen Kowal, founder of Mother Earth Pillows.

Solution: Create a system

Creating a simple organizational system is essential to keeping up your business and reaching your audience effectively.

For Karen, her system involved organizing her contacts into multiple email lists.

“We created a general list for our retail customers. And then we have a list of people who live in the area and want to know about specials in our local store.”

Here’s a look at how Karen started grouping her contacts, based on their interests:

Family business challenge -- disorganization

Here are some tips to keep your email marketing organized:

Keep your family business in business with these tips!

Running a family business has plenty of challenges. How will you react?

Will you run from them and ignore any issues entirely?

Or will you face your challenges head on, taking the necessary actions to keep your small family business afloat?

What challenges does your business run into? Any advice you’d like to add to the list? Let us know in the comment section!

I’m sure you’ve asked yourself, “How often should I send email?”

Weekly? Monthly? Any time sales are low?

Start with this question: How many times do you have to ask kids to do something?

Usually, more than once.

It’s often the same with email marketing.

It’s not that people on your email list are children, it’s that they’re busy and your business isn’t their top priority.

If you don’t ask multiple times, you might miss out on sales.

Are you missing out on sales because you’re not sending enough email?

When it comes to email, there are three things you probably want to do more of: Segment, Simplify, and Send.

  • Segment: Separate your contacts into different lists based on their interests.
  • Simplify: Don’t try to say too much in your emails. Stay focused on one main action.
  • Send: Send a series of emails to remind subscribers to take action.

Approaching email marketing this way means you’re not relying on one message to do all the heavy lifting. You’re focused on getting the right messages to the right people at the right times.

Why do multiple emails work?

Think about this scenario.

Have you ever started one task, but then got pulled in another direction? It’s often the same for your customers.

Even if they want to take advantage of an email offer you send them, they can get pulled into something else before they can take action. And then your offer is forgotten.

That’s why we recommend sending a three-email series about a time-based promotion.

A time-based promotion has a time associated with it, like a sale or event.

Your email series would look like this:

  1. Announcement
  2. Reminder
  3. Last chance

The three-email series gives you three opportunities to move people to action.

Here’s an example of a three-part email series you could send to promote a Valentine’s Day sale:

Email marketing sending frequency

Start with an announcement of the sale a couple weeks in advance. Remind them a week later. And give them one final chance to act a day or two before the sale ends.

Pay attention to when people make a purchase in relation to the emails you send.

Opens and clicks alone can be deceiving. Instead, try to tie your emails to a specific business result.

Be sure to use our worksheets to measure your email marketing to get a better understanding of the business impact of your emails.

You may also find that opens and clicks don’t always coincide with sales. For example, your last-chance email may receive the lowest open and click rate but results in the most sales.

Don’t use the excuse, “I don’t want to bug people!”

You may hesitate to send more email because you think you’re going to bug people.

But a survey from Marketing Sherpa found that over 60 percent of customers prefer to receive emails from brands at least weekly.

Yes, you need to send more email than you think.

Don’t rely on one email to bring in all your sales.

Just like kids, adults need to be asked more than once too!

Your customers want more than promotional emails from your business.

Are you giving them tips to use your product effectively? Have you introduced them to the people behind your business? When was the last time you asked them for feedback?

To drive sales with email marketing, look for ways to provide value and build customer relationships. Don’t make your emails all about you.

Use these email writing prompts whenever you get stuck.

We get it. Sometimes coming up with an idea is the hardest part.

If you’re stuck, use these 20 writing prompts as inspiration.

Download your writing prompt worksheet to get started right away!

20 Email Writing Prompts Worksheet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
And check out a few examples from other small businesses:

  • Provide a “how-to” tutorial

Orange Cycle, Orlando, Florida

orange cycle how to tutorial

  • Provide a gift guide

The Basketry, Luling, Louisiana

gift guide example email

  • Highlight your social media profiles

Art Impressions, Salem, Oregon

art impressions email example

Kick writer’s block to the curb!

With these email writing prompts in your back pocket, you’re ready to create a compelling email for your audience.

Start with one of Constant Contact’s mobile-responsive email templates, choose one of the ideas from our list, and create your next email in minutes.

Log in to create your next email. 

Not a Constant Contact customer? Start your free 60-day trial today!

Let me guess.

Your business sells products and services that help your customers.

Your products are unstoppable, your service is unparalleled, and you beat out the competition every time.

There’s just one problem….

Your customers aren’t looking for a hero.

They’re looking for a way to be a hero.

Which is why, Bob Dragich — marketing consultant and owner of Street Gang Marketing — pushes businesses out of the spotlight to make room for their customers.

Take a look at a recent marketing email he created for his client, Full Spectrum Power. Bob’s email received an open rate of 58 percent (over three times the industry average), a 13 percent click-through rate, and dozens of social shares.

Constant Contact customer email -- Full Spectrum Power

Since getting started with Constant Contact, Bob has increased website visits, awareness, and sales for his clients.

“The thing with Constant Contact is it’s active,” Bob explains. “You deliver the message directly to the person. Rather than relying on them stumbling upon it. With all my clients, we see upticks in traffic to whatever we link to. And the most important result is sales.”

Do you offer marketing services to clients? See how becoming a Constant Contact Partner can help you grow your business.

Want to create emails with superhuman results?

Use Bob’s simple, three-step approach to create stronger emails that resonate with your readers and boost business.

1. Introduce your hero

What’s the first thing you want readers to see when they open your email? An eye-catching image of your customer accomplishing a heroic feat.

In the email above, Bob featured an image of motorcycle road race winner, Danny Eslick.

“The most compelling image I’ve found so far is a person enjoying the use of the product,” Bob says. “And if you can get the product in the picture, that’s great. But basically people visually connect with other people. That tends to draw people in.”

Although Full Spectrum Power sells motorcycle batteries, you’ll notice there are no batteries pictured in Bob’s email. Instead, Bob focuses on what the batteries help people accomplish and the emotion behind that accomplishment.

“We wanted to show Danny grinning ear-to-ear, standing on top of a podium,” Bob says. “Focus on people who are using your product and keep your message brief.”

Full Spectrum email example

Tip: Increase website visits by linking your images back to your business website.

2. Spur readers into action with a compelling message

When writing emails, Bob urges businesses to stay succinct and focus on a single, compelling action.

After his leading image, Bob adds a few lines of simple text, including: Powered By Full Spectrum Power. Readers can then click-through to visit Full Spectrum Power’s website and view their products.

Full Spectrum logo

“The main problem I see with all emails that I get is that they’re too long,” he says. “Obviously the people sending the emails are really enthusiastic about their products. So they tend to write a lot.”

Bob recommends being conscious of the reader and how much time they’re looking to commit.

“Time is money and people don’t have a lot of it. So you have to get people’s attention quickly and provide the core and compelling information as quickly as possible.  The best technique is to only have one subject in your Constant Contact email.”

But what if you have multiple things to share with your audience?

“People will accept frequency over length,” Bob explains. “I was only emailing once a month. But now I’m now trying to send a very brief email once a week. You want to keep your name in front of your customer. So when it comes time for them to buy a product, they’ll think of your emails and your business.”

After sending each email, Bob uses his email reports to make sure his email unsubscribes stay low.

With Constant Contact, Bob can collect feedback to see why people are unsubscribing and make sure he’s not overwhelming his subscribers with too many messages.

Constant Contact Unsubscribe Report

3. Increase your impact with social media

“Every time I run a Constant Contact email, I share it on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn,” Bob says.

Using Constant Contact’s Social Share feature, Bob can connect his social media channels with his Constant Contact account and schedule his emails to post on social media on the channels he is most active on.

When he sees an email campaign perform especially well, he runs a Facebook Ad to extend its reach.

“I boosted the email with Danny on Facebook and it got four times the average amount of reach,” Bob says. “It just went completely nuts.”

In total, his boosted campaign received 115 Facebook Reactions and 37 shares — getting his business in front of a whole new audience.

Bob also shared a link to his email sign-up form directly in the Facebook caption, so people could easily join Full Spectrum Power’s mailing list if they hadn’t already. In the week after the email was sent, Bob added 30 new contacts to his email list.

Full Spectrum Power email signup form

Tip: New to Facebook Advertising? Check out how Constant Contact’s Tool for Facebook Advertising can boost your email results.

Now, it’s your turn.

Take a look at your latest email newsletter. Is the focus on you and your business? You may be turning your customers off (and shortchanging your business) by trying to be their hero.

Instead, turn the tables and make your customers the focus of your emails. Look for ways to add customer images, quotes, and case studies to your marketing to make your products and services come alive.

Put these tips to work. Make your customer the hero of your next email.

Don’t have a Constant Contact account? Try email marketing free for 60 days!

When you’re caught up in the day-to-day of running your business, it’s easy to push your email marketing off.

But what if you could sit down and write an email in 15 minutes or less?

Writing your email is faster when you break it down into smaller pieces. Focus on your email subject line, preheader text, image, message body, and call-to-action.

Want to start writing emails right away?

Print out our Email Content Worksheet in our email marketing guide and follow the five steps below on effective email writing. You”ll be able to create an email in record time.

How to write an effective email

1. Write a standout subject line

Your subject line is one of the most important lines of text in your email. This is your chance to pique your readers’ interest in the inbox and entice them to open your message.

You can be creative by asking questions, teasing your content, or adding a pun. Just be clear about what the reader should expect when they open the email and keep you subject line short — about 4-7 words — so nothing gets cut off in mobile inboxes.

2. Add your preheader text

The preheader is the line of text that appears beneath the subject line in the mobile inbox. Think of it as an extension of your subject line. Most mobile inboxes display 75–100 characters; limit yourself to 6-11 words to catch your reader’s attention.

Here’s what your preheader will look like in the mobile inbox:

email design checklist -- preheader

3. Include your logo and an image

Putting your logo at the top of your message reinforces your brand and personalizes your message. Make sure your image links back to your company website, as well.

Adding an eye-catching image that supports your message will also draw people in and persuade them to read on. Don’t go overboard — we found that messages with 1-3 images result in the highest engagement.

Tip: Not sure what images to include? Here’s How to Use the Right Images in Your Email Design.

4. Write your message body

Start with an attention-grabbing headline, either before or directly after your image. Then, write a few sentences to answer: What are you offering? How will it help the reader? What should they do next?

A few sentences will work just fine. On average, emails with 20 lines of text or less see the highest click-through rates.

Here’s an example:

southside cycling example image

5. Include a compelling call to action

Give your readers one clear action to take in every email. Position your call-to-action towards the top of your email so that it’s visible without readers having to scroll down. If your call to action includes a link, make it stand out using a button.

Tip: Here are Creative Email Call to Action Ideas That Really Drive Action. 

Create your next email in record time!

Writing a good email doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking. Use these tips and worksheet the next time you have a spare 15 minutes in your day.

In addition to the steps above, here are some mistakes to avoid:

●  Proofread your email, checking for proper spelling, grammar and punctuation.
●  Be clear and concise and to the point. Don’t make the content too long.
●  Use a proper greeting/salutation and email closing like “dear” and “sincerely.” It will depend on who you are writing to.

We’re finding Facebook to be less and less of interest to us because of the way they changed their algorithms for how our posts work…we found out that without paying for their marketing program, it doesn’t work for us.”

Like many small business owners, Chris Iousa is wondering if it’s time to call it quits on Facebook

Chris has put in the work to grow his Facebook following to over a thousand fans. He regularly posts updates about brunch specials, new craft beers, and open mic nights at his café.  

But recently, his posts have been reaching fewer fans than ever before.

Is Facebook still worth his time?

Despite the decrease in organic reach, Facebook is one of the best ways to make a great first impression on potential customers.

When someone searches for Chris’s café online, his Facebook Page serves as a visible online community, fully equipped with photos, business information, and a look at how the café communicates with its customer base.

But what about reaching existing customers?

When sites like Facebook make changes that limit your ability to reach your audience, you want to make sure you have another way to reach them directly.

That’s why it’s important to move your relationships and build your email list on social media.

Email marketing gives you the power to reach your contacts on your own terms. You can send a message to your contacts directly and track your results to see which contacts are engaging with your email content.

So, how do you get people to take the next step and join your email list?

Here are eight simple strategies to try out:

1. Make it the theme of your cover photo

Your cover photo is right at the top of your page and will often be the first thing people see. You can use this space to create an image that calls out your email newsletter.

Start with one of these ideas for your cover photo, and then add some text to let fans know they can stay in touch through email, as well.

2. Use the Facebook Call to Action Button

Facebook’s call to action button appears above the “Like” and “message” buttons under your cover photo and is another great way to encourage email sign-ups.

Just click on Facebook’s “Add a Button” call to action button and choose the “Sign Up” option. Then add the link to your lead generation landing page so your Facebook visitors can join your mailing list easily.

Here’s how Constant Contact uses the call to action button to encourage people to sign up for a free 60-day trial:

If you’re a Constant Contact customer, check out these tutorials for creating a lead generation landing page, and how to add a lead generation page to a Facebook Business page to get step-by-step instructions.

3. Run a contest

Give Facebook fans an incentive to share their email address by running a contest on Facebook.

Start by choosing a product, service, or opportunity you can give away — this could be anything from a coupon, gift basket, or free ticket to an upcoming event.

Then, make it easy for your fans to enter. You can simply collect names and email addresses to choose a winner at random or ask your fans to provide an entry relevant to your business.

For example, a pet shop could run a photo contest and ask for photo entries for the “cutest pup.” You can even ask your audience to help you choose a winner by posting the photos and asking fans to cast their vote.

Here’s a look at one of the many Facebook contests that Door County Coffee & Tea runs on a regular basis:

example of a contest run on facebook
As an incentive for people to sign-up for your newsletter, run a Facebook contest for new sign-ups only.

4. Offer exclusive content

If your business doesn’t have a product to give away, think about what exclusive content you can offer instead.

Anything from a downloadable guide on cloud computing to a link to a top-secret recipe could be just the incentive your audience needs to give you their contact information.

5. Host an event

Whether you hold an event at your business or host an online webinar, an event is a great way to connect with your audience.

Make sure you’re collecting email addresses during the registration process.

Here’s how the Concord Cheese Shop promotes a month-long event through their Facebook Page.

6. Share your newsletters

What better way to persuade your Facebook fans to sign up for your list than to show them what your mailings actually look like?

With Constant Contact’s Social Share, you can share your email newsletters on your social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Be sure to customize the caption and provide a link to your sign-up page to encourage your fans to subscribe to receive all your future messages.

Constant Contact social share
Share email campaigns on your social media pages with Constant Contact’s Social Share.

7. Promote SMS Text-to-Join

A large portion of your Facebook’s user base will be accessing your page through a mobile device. While they’re on their smartphones already, let them know how they can join your list by sending a quick text.

8. Run a Facebook ad

You don’t have to pay to promote everything you share on Facebook, but if you’re selective and promote posts that will drive action for your business you can see some great results.

Try promoting an email and including an easy way for fans to sign up — make sure you’re taking advantage of the Facebook Ad targeting features so you know you’re reaching the right audience.

Stop spinning your wheels on Facebook

If you’re wondering how Facebook can have a bigger impact on your business, make sure you’re giving your fans additional ways to connect with you through email marketing.

Pick two of these tips and try them out for your business today!

If you’re already a Constant Contact customer, you can access our email sign-up tools within the Contacts section of your Constant Contact account.