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The prospects don’t know you. The main reason to not buy (or rent) an email marketing list is because you haven’t established name recognition with your prospects. Assuming the company from whom you have purchased the list has acquired the names through reputable opt-in means, the problem is that the contacts have opted-in to receive emails from the list company and not your particular company. That means that the recipients may mark you as spam because they don’t recognize you or remember opting-in to receive communications from you.

The leads aren’t fresh. Repeatedly marketing to the same email lists may diminish their value as prospects become increasingly unreceptive to any marketing message.

The lead origin is questionable. When you purchase a list, you may have no way of confirming where the email addresses originated, how often the emails have been used, or whether the emails have been scrubbed for word bounces to prevent identifying you as a spammer. It may simply not be worth the risk of list quality or your reputation to send to a purchased list.

Here are a few ways to grow an email list effectively and strategically:

Generate interest and brand awareness. A sound email list building strategy is to acquire the leads more organically. Make contact through trade shows and organizations. Offer to add prospects to your email list, put an opt-in button or pop-up on your website, and provide something of interest and value. Create multiple means by which interested parties can sign up to receive information from your company. Don’t force your marketing content on leads you don’t know. If someone hasn’t asked to hear from you, it doesn’t mean that they won’t be interested later.

Offer premium content. If the offer is valuable enough to your prospects, they will likely enter or supply their email. Good content examples include webinars, eBooks, templates, white papers, blog posts, specials, services and events (depending on the type of company making the offer). The broader the content appeal, the wider the prospective audience.

Promote your content and get creative. Make sure your content gets out through social media. Blog post analytics can be leveraged to generate leads. For example, if you write 10 blog posts per month and generate 2 leads per blog post, you will acquire a total of 20 leads per month. The compounding results of an effective marketing strategy would continue to drive leads throughout the year. A clever email marketing campaign can actually grow your database through forwarded emails and a call-to-action can encourage sharing. In addition, a re-engagement campaign can help scrub an existing email list, help avoid spam allegations, and remind old contacts about your valuable product or service.

Combine with other marketing efforts. For most companies, email marketing should be only one aspect of an overall marketing effort that encompasses several touchpoints to increase effectiveness. Grow a database of qualified leads by combining with direct mail, company trade show appearances and social media. Multi-channel marketing will help foster brand awareness and drive sales.

How you acquire leads could affect your marketing objectives and ultimately your reputation. The main objective of an email marketing campaign should be brand awareness. Reap long-term advantages by taking the time to grow your own high-quality list. Utilize various marketing channels and encourage email signup by offering quality content your prospects will appreciate and remember. Then, when your prospect is ready to make a decision, you will be top of mind.

Start with a gameplan. Itemize all deliverables and breakdown by task. Some deliverables will be the same for every web development project and others will be unique to the existing client and project. Reusing task sets from a prior job or similar project can help streamline the planning process. Group task sets and organize by deadline to increase efficiency and keep staff focused on their particular assignments while keeping the larger picture in view.

Track milestones. A project gameplan should include due dates for each deliverable. Deliverables can then be invoiced as project milestones to keep the cash flow up while your staff works through the project.

Meetings and communication. Treat clients as team members by keeping them informed of progress through regular communication. The idea is not to commit everyone to lengthy meetings, but to keep clients updated, to remind of upcoming deadlines and to keep the project moving. Frequent communication can also serve as a stop-gap to address any questions, problems or issues, including scope creep and missed deadlines, allowing opportunity for early course correction. Project dashboards or client admin panels are ideal as they can track progress and allow check-in anytime. Online project management software like Asana and Basecamp can do double-duty, allowing team members to access their to-dos, clients to access progress, and everyone to access and upload digital assets and resources.

Project evaluation and inventory. Always take a step back to communicate with your staff and ascertain how the process could be improved. What deadlines were missed and why? What was completed ahead of schedule? What issues or problems were encountered in the process? What improvements could have been made? Evaluate how any imperfections could have been avoided or handled better. Identify weakness in the process and a develop strategy for improvement.

Web projects can be complex and wrought with opportunity for problems. Developing a solid strategy for project management can keep expectations realistic, communication clear, team members focused and deadlines met. Keep clients informed so they feel a part of the process. You will soon be looking back on another successful project!

Who. Are you able to identify your ideal customer? Taking a look into your past client or customer history may help reveal the answer. Who has been the easiest customer for your organization to service? For whom do you enjoy working? If you have been in business awhile, describe one (or several) of your long-time clients. Your ideal customer should be easy for you and your organization to spot. You may be able to develop a couple ideal profiles that possess a common thread. Having an answer to this question is important because it will affect the other two points.

What. Your message should be crafted around your core value proposition as well as your target audience. Imagery and brand will help support this message and make it memorable. What would a successful customer relationship with your organization mean to your target audience, and how can you communicate this message?

Why. Why you? Why you over the competition? What unique qualities do you and your organization possess that would cause prospects to seek you out? What do you do better than your competitors in your product or service category? Perhaps you offer the same product or service, but you have a better brand, or you have packaged your solutions or services in a way that improves the overall customer experience. Why is the critical question because it probes into what separates you and makes you unique.

How. What is your approach? How does it differ from what your competition offers? What makes you different? Perhaps you or your company possess a few characteristics that make for a unique and desirable mix to potential customers. Whatever that mix is, make sure you can communicate it simply, effectively and often to your target.

Any marketing strategy that doesn’t scare, move you from your comfort zone or require anything remarkable of you, won’t be worth achieving. Set your marketing goals high, make them authentic, allow them to make you feel vulnerable. Every marketing task should get you one step closer to achieving your goals and help you to ask the critical questions (i.e. Is my direct mail copy right? Do my Twitter posts support my message?) Using scary as an gauge, although somewhat unconventional, may be a good indication that you are headed in the right direction.

Define your destination. What goals are you looking to achieve with your banner campaign? A realistic goal may include: increase traffic to a specific landing page to measure results.

Plan your course. Create a simple call to action. Craft a strong message to elicit response. Focus on user advantages. Keep messaging concise and well supported by imagery. If you need to promote more than one message or product, consider creating several banner ads, each with a specific, measurable goal.

Maintain consistency. Make sure your messaging supports existing brand, on and off-line. Leverage brand recognition to maximize overall impact. Use limited space well with smart design to support your message and gain attention. Minimize negative space and get noticed with bright colors and clickable shapes. Design banner ads to compliment sites on which they appear. Multiple banner ads appearing on the same site should compliment and support each other visually and contextually.

Position appropriately. Consider how you might attract attention and encourage users to engage with your banner ad. Successful banner ads appear in the right place, to the right audience, and at the right time. A well-designed banner ad must be properly positioned to be effective.

Measure progress. Review metrics to determine whether goals are being reached. Google Analytics can provide real-time feedback on your campaign. Adjust your campaign and test different variations (i.e. color, imagery, messaging) to increase effectiveness.

Banner advertising has become an essential marketing tool for reaching a targeted audience quickly and relatively cost-effectively. Execute a successful strategy by developing measurable goals, crafting a simple branded message, engaging your audience, and analyzing metrics. Then repeat.

Consider content. Have an opinion. Developing a strong Twitter presence helps build momentum. Write for your particular market. Address common industry concerns or questions. Educate, inform, and entertain. Give them a reason to follow you.

Connect with other users. Follow people you find interesting, people you know, and people in your field or business community. Acknowledge those who follow or mention you. Mind Twitter etiquette by avoiding abbreviated texting language and remember to thank users for Retweets and recommendations.

Join the conversation. Join industry related conversation and connect with hashtags like #shopsmall. Engage your audience with promotions or ask questions to invite feedback. Discover points of interest by Tweeting alongside followers in real time. Talking to people directly can help develop relationships.

Theme your tweets. Create a Twitter theme for each day of the week to help eliminate guesswork and aid consistency. Calendar upcoming seasonal or industry events and plan how you can incorporate them into a Twitter campaign. Events help to develop interest and engage. Post information your followers would find useful. Build momentum with a new sales or product launch. Twitter exclusives attract followers and Retweets.

Twitter is a powerful tool with the potential to reach millions of people in real time. Get noticed, build relationships, and connect with new people, all for 140 characters or less! Twitter is really just another facet of marketing your business, and a cost-effective one at that!

Product positioning. Measure your product brand and messaging against the competition. Alongside products in the same category, does your package stand out? How do you wish to differentiate your product? Is your brand and product story clearly defined? Make sure the impression is clear and intentional.

Package function. Examine design options against essential criteria. Use the highest-quality materials available within your budget to withstand the rigors of handling, and as package quality is likely to affect perceived product value. Make sure the package is appropriate for the product. Although this may seem elementary, an appropriate package can encourage the consumer to interact with the product (and therefore the brand). If the package design makes this interaction cumbersome, the consumer may give up on your product and move on.

Product messaging. Making the brand name or identity prominent along with featured uses and benefits is important. Resist the urge to put your entire story on the package. Too much clutter obscures your message. The goal is to help the consumer grasp key product details quickly and move them closer to the buying decision.

Brand reinforcement. Clear messaging is key but so is consistent messaging. Does your advertising (i.e. website, literature, collateral) support the brand of your product? Don’t underestimate their role. The more your target market is able to identify with your message, the more successful the brand and all elements that adhere to the brand.

Visual appeal. The lifespan of a product package is typically five years or less. Packaging should always appear current, fresh and professional. Highlight product attributes that resonate with current customer demands.

Details and legalese. Legal and industry packaging requirements will affect the design and should be considered early. Legal statements must appear on certain types of product packaging, including technical and legal jargon, drug facts, food and allergy labeling, warning labels, and language translations. For example, English copy translated into French or Spanish typically takes up one-third more real estate. Plan and allocate appropriate space to prevent a package from looking cluttered and unattractive.

It is estimated that a package will only receive thirty seconds or less of consumer attention. Maximize product visibility by clearly defining your brand and message. How you brand and position your product to resonate with your audience can be measured in how quickly key messages are communicated, and ultimately how well your product sells.

Map. Keeping progress visible is key for me, and looming deadlines can be a powerful motivator. I like to use a large project erase board, or spreadsheet, breaking the project down by deliverable (perhaps using spreadsheet tabs). Spreadsheets can do double duty as a client status report.

Delegate. If you think you need help in a specific area, hesitation will work against you. The longer you wait to get someone else involved in a project, the more difficult (and time-consuming) it will be to get them up to speed. I always try to line up my resources before tackling the project.

Communicate. I use a custom FileMaker database to track project scope, and Evernote to jot down quick thoughts or details (organized by notebook of course). However, when the details become unwieldy, I reorganize and shift project notes to Basecamp. Project management plus collaboration is helpful, along with the ability to assign and drag-organize todos, involving clients as necessary. Constant communication can help you stay abreast of any changes and keep correspondence relevant.

Report. If the client isn’t involved in a Basecamp project or some other collaborative mechanism, weekly status reports will be appreciated and help keep everyone on the same page.

Relax (if possible) and do the work. When you stay focused and free of distraction, the job will get done. I’ve found that even projects with the tightest of deadlines get accomplished.

Sorting out details and keeping them organized in a manageable system can help you remain free from distraction and focused on project completion. A successfully completed project means I can truly enjoy my holiday, even if it is a few days late :)

Who is the target market? The most important aspect of any project is the audience the client is attempting to reach. Your creative solution should speak effortlessly to this crowd.

What is the business? Understand the industry, product or service. How does the client wish to position themselves in this market? What are they selling? What are the goals of the business? What are the goals of the project? All good questions that only the client, and some careful research, can answer.

What are the expectations? Setting guidelines for what the client expects from the designer and what the designer expects from the client as far as communication, deadlines, materials, costs, etc. will lay the groundwork for a successful project and successful working relationship.

The time invested in developing a thorough brief will save time and money in making sure everyone is on the same page, and everyone reaches the destination sought in record time.

The Company. Leave nothing to assumption. Provide a brief business summary and history. Where’s the company headed?

The Market. A concise evaluation of the company’s product or service with respect to the competition. What has brought about a need for this project?

The Purpose. State the main objective of the project and need for designer involvement.

The Message. What are the expected vehicles for communicating the marketing message (i.e. direct mail, advertising, PR, etc.)

The Task. In what context will the message be communicated? Cover specific items to be included (i.e. text, images, art, colors).

The Audience. Who is this message targeting? What is the demographic profile?

The Objective. What are the specific (measurable) goals of the message?

The Budget. A fair and realistic number should balance the value the client has placed on the project on the one hand, with the investment of the designer’s time and experience on the other. (So, who’s on first?)

The Deadline. Include milestones for consultation, creative, production (including alts), and delivery.

The time invested in developing a thorough brief will save time and money in making sure everyone is on the same page, and everyone reaches the destination sought in record time.