Final (of 4) distance training workshops developed for Eco Exotic, a client of the SENADA project (implemented by DAI, funded by USAID). Workshop created and delivered on July 1, 2009 by Ted Barber and Larri Cochran.
56. We will post questions & answers on a private website for group
57.
Notas do Editor
Start with video 7:30am EST: check technical issues (sound, video, quality, recording) Start training at 8a EST START RECORDING Ted: Welcome attendees, intro Larri and me again, this is the FINAL SESSION Ted: First, any questions or comments? Ask Larri questions from participants.Larri: ResponseTed: Remind participants to ask questions. Next slide
Ted: Agenda – a quick review of Session #3, we’ll then look at the blog articles you submitted, Larri will demonstrate again how to prepare and publish an article to your blog. Then she look at how to create an Eco Exotic newsletter (to reach those buyers who do not find and read your blog). Finally we’ll put it all together – Eco Exotic’s online marketing strategy of a blog, newsletter and website, and hopefully have extra time for questions. Next slide
Larri: First we talked about the 5 steps involved in Preparing an Article for your blog… briefly, they are… Ted: Question – Will we be going through these steps again for the articles everyone has submitted?Larri: Well, those who submitted their articles have already done Steps 1,2, 3 and 4… so all we have left is Step #5!Larri: BTW, you’ll use almost the same format for preparing your newsletter, too. Next slide
Larri: Here is one of the examples we looked at… Title, Article, Keywords (red), Link to Eco Exotic’s website (blue)… all checked for spelling and ready to go.Larri: [click on top image] – and here is the article published to our sample “Eco Exotique” blog… so we go from a simple Microsoft Word document with a 2 images in a folder to live on the Internet with all the keywords and links helping search engines to bring traffic to your website. Ted: And that means buyers, right? Buyers searching for sustainable furnishings might find this article, click on it and be directed to the Eco Exotic blog. From there, they can click on the Eco Exotic link (or even the photos if you have inserted links) and be taken to the website where they can learn more and contact Eco Exotic. Ted: So those keywords and links are pretty important, then?Larri: Response…. And let’s review the ones we have identified so far for Eco Exotic Ted: Pause for translation, clarification, questions, discussion. Next slide
Larri: These are some of the keywords we have found for Eco Exotic. It’s a great idea print and keep this list near you when you are writing and preparing articles for your blog.Larri: Remember that this is just a starting list. You may find that you’ll need to add additional keywords as you move forward. Ted: Question - yes, I can see you have added “reclaimed” since last week – so EE should constantly be checking and looking for the best keywords to use?Larri: Response Next slide
Larri: Next we talked about how you publish the article after you’ve written it, selected photos, and carefully checked for mistakes and made sure you have used at least some of your keywords. Larri: Quick review… we will be doing this again today with some of your articles Next slide
Larri: When we were ready to publish, we went to the “dashboard” of the sample blog we set up on WordPressLarri: Remember, this is your dashboard that saves information for your blog (red circle around address)Larri: And you can click on “visit site” to see what everyone else sees each time you make change. (red circle around visit site) Ted: Question: And you said you will be demonstrating this again, right? So we can watch each step and ask questions?Larri: Response – Yes, and once you have spent some time on the WordPress dashboard, you’ll see that it’s very easy to use, which is one reason why we are recommending that EE use WordPress for its blog. Ted: Pause for translation, clarification, questions, discussion. Next slide
Larri: Finally, we ended last week’s session talking about how you can plan your articles… deciding the topics in advance, assigning someone to write the article, and setting due dates.Larri: We call this an Editorial Calendar – it is really helpful for managing your blog. Go to video Ted: Pause for translation, clarification, questions, discussion. Next slide
Ted: That was a quick review of last week… any additional questions? Ted: Remember that these slide shows are available online – if you don’t have the address for the website, please ask SENADA. We will also be sending you recordings of all 4 training sessions so can listen and watch at your own pace.Next slide
Larri: Now for the fun part! Some of you sent in the articles we asked you to write for today’s session. We only received a few, with photos, but they were very good… well done!Larri: So now we will review these articles, then prepare them for the Eco Exotique blog… the same way we did last week. Ted: And, as Tris has proposed, we will announce a winner of the “blog article contest” after Larri’s review… Tris, did you get a prize for the winner?Larri: And finally, we’ll will go ahead and publish the winner’s article and photos to the practice blog. Ted: Question – If there is time and everyone would like to see it again, can we publish more of the articles to the Eco Exotique blog?Larri: Response [Go to Word documents] Ted: Pause for translation, clarification, questions, discussion. Next slide
Larri: Now for the fun part! Some of you sent in the articles we asked you to write for today’s session. We only received a few, with photos, but they were very good… well done!Larri: So now we will review these articles, then prepare them for the Eco Exotique blog… the same way we did last week. Ted: And, as Tris has proposed, we will announce a winner of the “blog article contest” after Larri’s review… Tris, did you get a prize for the winner?Larri: And finally, we’ll will go ahead and publish the winner’s article and photos to the practice blog. Ted: Question – If there is time and everyone would like to see it again, can we publish more of the articles to the Eco Exotique blog?Larri: Response [Go to Word documents] Ted: Pause for translation, clarification, questions, discussion. Next slide
Larri: Now for the fun part! Some of you sent in the articles we asked you to write for today’s session. We only received a few, with photos, but they were very good… well done!Larri: So now we will review these articles, then prepare them for the Eco Exotique blog… the same way we did last week. Ted: And, as Tris has proposed, we will announce a winner of the “blog article contest” after Larri’s review… Tris, did you get a prize for the winner?Larri: And finally, we’ll will go ahead and publish the winner’s article and photos to the practice blog. Ted: Question – If there is time and everyone would like to see it again, can we publish more of the articles to the Eco Exotique blog?Larri: Response [Go to Word documents] Ted: Pause for translation, clarification, questions, discussion. Next slide
Larri: Now for the fun part! Some of you sent in the articles we asked you to write for today’s session. We only received a few, with photos, but they were very good… well done!Larri: So now we will review these articles, then prepare them for the Eco Exotique blog… the same way we did last week. Ted: And, as Tris has proposed, we will announce a winner of the “blog article contest” after Larri’s review… Tris, did you get a prize for the winner?Larri: And finally, we’ll will go ahead and publish the winner’s article and photos to the practice blog. Ted: Question – If there is time and everyone would like to see it again, can we publish more of the articles to the Eco Exotique blog?Larri: Response [Go to Word documents] Ted: Pause for translation, clarification, questions, discussion. Next slide
Larri: Now for the fun part! Some of you sent in the articles we asked you to write for today’s session. We only received a few, with photos, but they were very good… well done!Larri: So now we will review these articles, then prepare them for the Eco Exotique blog… the same way we did last week. Ted: And, as Tris has proposed, we will announce a winner of the “blog article contest” after Larri’s review… Tris, did you get a prize for the winner?Larri: And finally, we’ll will go ahead and publish the winner’s article and photos to the practice blog. Ted: Question – If there is time and everyone would like to see it again, can we publish more of the articles to the Eco Exotique blog?Larri: Response [Go to Word documents] Ted: Pause for translation, clarification, questions, discussion. Next slide
Larri: Now for the fun part! Some of you sent in the articles we asked you to write for today’s session. We only received a few, with photos, but they were very good… well done!Larri: So now we will review these articles, then prepare them for the Eco Exotique blog… the same way we did last week. Ted: And, as Tris has proposed, we will announce a winner of the “blog article contest” after Larri’s review… Tris, did you get a prize for the winner?Larri: And finally, we’ll will go ahead and publish the winner’s article and photos to the practice blog. Ted: Question – If there is time and everyone would like to see it again, can we publish more of the articles to the Eco Exotique blog?Larri: Response [Go to Word documents] Ted: Pause for translation, clarification, questions, discussion. Next slide
Larri: And the winner is……Djawa Collection! All the articles submitted were great and we really appreciated everyone who took the time to put one together. Larri: We selected the Djawa Collection’s article because it was well written, it had a large number of great keywords that sounded “natural,” it had great images including the FSC logo, and it had 2 links back to EE websites (JawaFurni and Eco Exotic) – remember, it is very important to have those links.Larri: It was also innovative in that the writer added links to Wikipedia for words the audience might not know.Larri: So congratulations to the Djawa Collection writers! Ted: And Tris, tell them about the prizes they’ve won!! Next slide
Larri: So let’s go live to Wordpress.com and post the winning article on the “Eco Exotique” blog Ted: Now this is not the real Eco Exotic blog, right? This is the practice one we created?Larri: Response[Click on image to follow link]Ted: Pause for translation, clarification, questions, discussion.Next slide
Ted: So once again we have seen how to prepare an article and publish it to a blog. If this was the real Eco Exotic blog, we would be addingnew content to the Internet that can help buyers find Eco Exotic when they search for sustainable furniture and home accessories. Ted: Would anyone like us to publish another article to see it again? Ted: Next Larri is going to show us how we can create a newsletter from the blog. Next slide
Larri: One of the last pieces to the Internet puzzle is adding the Eco Exotic newsletter into the mix. As we’ve said in past sessions, with a little planning, you’ll be able to use articles you’ve developed for your blog as content for the newsletter.Larri: To give you an idea of what your newsletter might look like, I updated the original design I did a couple of weeks ago. As you’ll see it looks a little bit like the Eco Exotic website, a little bit like the Eco Exotic blog, and a little bit like the newsletter section on the Eco Exotic website – with a few additions.Larri: What you see here is the “homepage” for the newsletter. It includes introductions to 3 articles with links to the full articles, it includes a special message section for buyers with a link to more information and, at the bottom of the page, it includes links to the home page of the Eco Exotic web site, a direct link with contact information so it’s easy for buyers to get in touch with the right people at Eco Exotic and it includes a link so the viewer can subscribe, or “sign up”, and give you his/her email address so you can send them additional emails and product/sales materials. Ted: Question – What would you use the “special message” section for?Larri: ResponseLarri: Remember that the newsletter should not be long – just 2-3 articles with a short announcement or article just for buyers. Ted: Pause for translation, clarification, questions, discussion.Next slide
Larri: What we recommend for the most effective newsletter is that you select the topics from those you’ve already used on the Eco Exotic blog – just make them a little longer with more information for the viewer. You can even use the same photos. Ted: So you are saying that they don’t have to write new articles for the newsletter… just use the ones they wrote for the blog? Larri: ResponseLarri: We also recommend that you create the newsletter and then save it as a PDF – that way everyone can read it AND (this is important) they can print the newsletter so that it will include all the articles, the Eco Exotic logo and branding and, most importantly, the correct contact information. The newsletter should make it easy for buyers to do business with Eco Exotic.Larri: Finally, we advise you to upload the newsletter PDF to the Eco Exotic site in the Newsletter section. We recommend this for 3 reasons: first many companies don’t allow attachments to come through their email systems, so there’s a good chance your email would be blocked and the buyers would not receive them. 2nd, as part of the search engine optimization tactics we’ve talked about, the search engines really like it if you add new pages to your website on a regular basis. So if you add your newsletters to the EE site, those will count as new pages AND that will help the EE site place better on search engine results pages. The 3rd reason we recommend not sending out the newsletters as attachments is that you want the buyers to come back to the EE website NOT just read the newsletter on their computer. If they come back to the site they will see additional information on the site and learn more about EE. Next slide
Larri: But putting your newsletter on your website isn’t enough. To get the best results, you should:Send a summary of the articles by email to all the people in your email database (all the buyers you’ve met, plus anyone else who might be interested in Eco Exotic)In your email, be sure to include links to the newsletter and Eco Exotic website Ted: Question – so by sending out an email with a summary of the newsletter articles, you are encouraging more people to visit the EE website, right?Larri: Yes, exactly. Send out as many as possible. Ted: Question – So what exactly does a summary email look like?Larri: A summary email gives your readers a little bit of information from the newsletter, but requires them to click on a link that will take them back to the EE site to read the rest of the article… Larri: Let’s take a look at an example Next slide
Larri: Here’s a sample of an email summary like one that you might use to send out the announcement for your newsletter to the buyers on your list. [Go to Word document]Larri: As you can see, it has a clear subject, is written directly to your reader, and provides a short description (summary) of each article in the newsletter, with a link (blue) to the entire article.Larri: Each link takes the reader to the newsletter on Eco Exotic’s website. Ted: As I can see at the bottom you’ve also added a description of EE and include more linksLarri: Yes… more chances that the reader will click on a link and visit your website… even the Eco Exotic logo has a link embedded in it. Ted: Question – and I see that there is only 1 image… the EE logo… not photos. Why is that?Larri: Response Ted: And is there an attachment?Larri: Response Ted: Pause for translation, clarification, questions, discussion. Next slide
Ted: Here is the same Editorial Calendar we looked at last week, except we have added the newsletter to it. Ted: As you can see, we have put the newsletter at the end of the month so that you can use the blog articles you wrote. Then you simply write a little more, perhaps make them less conversational (explain), and create your newsletter 2 weeks later. This is important – you want to keep your news current and therefore interesting! Ted: As Larri advises, you can create a PDF and upload it to your website. Then just send out an email to everyone in your mailing list with a link to this newsletter. Next slide
Ted: So there you have it. From all the Internet marketing tools available out there, Larri has helped you focus on just the most important ones… a blog, newsletter and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Ted: Let’s now review this strategy and see how it all fits together. Next slide
Larri: Review the key elements of an online marketing strategy and how they can be optimized to improve search engine results CLICK on Blog to go to sample EE blog!!! Ted: Question – how are the blog and newsletter related? What is the difference and why do both?Larri: Respond Next slide
Larri: And here’s what the strategy looks like if we use your website, blog and newsletter in place of the “sun & planets” diagram that we’ve been using for the past few weeks. Explain briefly…..Larri: And again, remember, that all three pieces – the main site, the blog and the newsletter – all work together, they look like each other, they link to each other, they have the same keywords – all designed to tell the search engines who EE is and what you do!Larri: With that information, the search engines, in return, will send new viewers, new buyer AND consumers to the EE sites. More traffic to your sites = more opportunities to make new sales! Ted: And that’s the whole purpose of using these Internet Marketing Tools… right now, a buyer interested in sustainable furniture and home accessories searching on the Internet cannot easily find Eco Exotic. But by following Larri’s advice, you will greatly improve the chances buyers in the U.S., Canada, Europe and many other markets will be able to find you and contact you. Ted: Pause for translation, clarification, questions, discussion.Next slide…
Larri: These are the keys to Eco Exotic’s success. You will have three powerful marketing and sales tools that can reach your target buyers in the North American and European markets. Again, they share a consistent brand, keywords & tags, current information, and links to each other. Ted: Right now EE just has the website, with only 1 link. And the website is not optimized for search engines with keywords and tags. But by editing the website and frequently updating it, creating a blog that has a new article published each week (using the same keywords and tags as the website, and inserting links), and creating a monthly newsletter from those blog articles… EE can greatly increase traffic to its website… buyers. More buyers will find EE on the Internet. This is very, very important for EE companies – for all of you. Whether you exhibit at more international trade fairs or not, it is critical for EE to begin using these Internet marketing tools to help buyers find you online. Remember, a buyer like Neil is not going to trade fairs, and he is not traveling to Indonesia, and he doesn’t use many agents. So how does he find new suppliers like you? On the Internet. But he can’t find you unless you make yourself visible. Next slide
Larri: Quick summary of today’s topics Ted: Let’s hear more of your questions – we are happy to review any material from all 4 sessions. (check to make sure we have answered all of them that were emailed to us, as promised!) – Ted print up list of all emailed questions
Larri: handing over these blogs… address, password, etc will be given to SENADA to give to youLarri: How best to use them Next slide
Our email – send your question We’ll post questions & answers on a website (private) for everyone to learn If you want, we will provide each EE company with a practice blog and give you suggestions Through end of July Pro bono… from us