Email Marketing solutions

A Transparent Ad Campaign - Email Marketing and Advertising Services

2009-07-11T07:56:00.001-07:00

Email marketing is one of the quickest and the most cost effective way of getting customers. There is a lot of transparency in this kind of advertising as apart from eye- catching graphics, you can also include information about your product for the benefit of those who are interested in details. This also gives the receiver the liberty to go through the mail at leisure and actually think about the product. It is very cost effective as the emails cost very little and is very less compared to other form of advertising.

Features Of A Good Email Advertising Service

When a company of good repute is hired to do the Email Advertising Service for you, you can be sure that your emails are sent to only those people who want to know about your products and that you are not spamming anybody. A company that caters to both small and large volume requirement should be chosen and it should also deliver the campaign as quickly as possible. Only people who have opted in will get the emails and hence the emails will be more productive as the chances of a purchase is higher.

Email Marketing Software

Software that performs the email delivery is available with which you can time when the mail is sent and manage a large list of emails. This software also collects the emails that have opted out and removes them from the list. The software can track if the mail is delivered, checked and if the link is opened. This method has more transparency than hiring a company as you will know who is receiving your emails, how many responded, etc. This method is easy to use and does not require technical knowledge, quick and reliable hence will soon become a very widely used mode of advertising.

Author is an expert writer, publisher and online newsletter. He has been writing about on topic Email Advertising Service. For More Info Visit at http://www.wagonmailer.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Jae_Kook

6 Steps to Write Attractive Email Messages

2009-07-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

People receive hundreds of email messages every day. They read only a few of them due to interesting material and attractive style but most of the email marketing messages are deleted or considered spam due to ineffective, abusive or dangerous message and attachments. You can increase the chance of your email being read by writing an interesting message that is relevant to your recipients'. It is not difficult to write an attractive email messages since only a few steps are required to be considered while writing an interesting email message. You should write concise and short sentences and paragraphs since readers ignore long blocks of text. Below are seven steps that will help you create attractive and interesting email messages.

1. Target topics and statements of purpose of your email messages should be highlighted with separation marks and proper formatting. It enables the recipients' to focus on the main points by creating a barrier between the main statement and its explanation.

2. You can use bullet points to get the attention of your readers towards certain points of your email marketing message. This will amplify your message and help you summarize the ideas you are trying to convey.

3. Use exclamation signs to make your main sentence emphatic. It also conveys to the readers' that an important point is being made. Although, repetitive use of exclamation marks can be counter-productive, do not use it more than once or twice in the message.

4. You should not capitalize all the letters of subject line since it is ineffective and people delete such email messages. Use normal case throughout the message, including in the subject line.

5. You should check spelling and grammar of your email marketing message because misspelled words may diminish the value of your message. You can use various tools to check spelling. However, words may also used improperly in sentences; proof read carefully to avoid such errors. Improper use of words in a sentence may change its meaning, hence proofread properly.

6. You should focus on just one product or service to get a good response from your recipients'. Don't provide too many links and conflicting offers in your message since it may distract your recipients'. Add a link or two to websites relevant to the message. Once you have got attention of your reader then your email marketing message will be profitable.

Khurram Zaveri is a well known internet marketing expert. He is the creator of Spryka Email Charger, the best mailing list management program.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Khurram_S_Zaveri

Easy Steps on How to Get an Opt-In Email List

2008-08-20T23:07:00.000-07:00

Despite what you may have heard, email marketing is not dead... and you're going to discover every single step you need to take to effectively create and use your own opt-in email list in today's Internet marketing world.

You'll be spoon fed tips you must know, strategies you must use, secret methods you must apply and lethal mistakes you must avoid.

If it takes a prospect you're targeting an average of 7 times before they buy, is it any wonder why the most successful Internet marketers are constantly expanding and working their lists?

...Well Then, Why Aren't You?!? Sometimes it is just a matter of knowing what to do and how to do it, right? Well let me give you a few tips and some easy steps to follow.

Here is just some of what you will learn:

Discover how to utilize the power of auto responders and make unbelievable amounts of money! This secret alone will make you 10 times return on your investment...

How to build your opt-in email list by offering free articles, ebooks and mini courses. Once they are a subscriber then you can continue to offer them information and products that they are looking for and they will become life-long customers. The key is to get them to buy from you on an ongoing basis.

How an internet marketers best friend will send your sales, leads and subscriptions through the roof (and it's not what you think).

How to write content like you've never dreamed possible with a PRO Writer.

Know the killer unknown strategies and methods to make your products irresistible....

The secret to keep your visitors you've already paid for keep coming back and constantly buying.....

And MORE

You should not annoy your customers by emailing them every day or sending the same email twice. This becomes irritating and after awhile you just delete those emails without even looking at them. Emails should be about your products and information that your customers are looking for. You don't need to be boring and tell them about your life as people are busy and just want to know what is in it for them and how it can help them.

It is one of the greatest and most effective ways of advertising and it pays to know how to do it.

Written by Sharon Wittmeier
For more information and a free IM Ebook Click Here: http://www.webpromoproducts.com
websitemarketing.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sharon_Wittmeier

Email Marketing Tips - 5 Important Elements of an Email Marketing Software

2008-08-20T23:06:00.001-07:00

A well chosen e-mail marketing software can greatly enhance the quality and results from your efforts. The program you choose should be capable of sending out bulk mails and also have other enhancements and features. To increase your e-mail marketing profits, you should consider the following important elements in choosing the software.

1. Templates

The software you choose should have multiple templates so that you can create several professional type e-mails which can be sent to subscribers and recent customers or leads.

2. Tracking

The software should have the ability to track your e-mails. Tracking will help you to focus on those prospects who are more inclined to read your mail and respond to it.

3. Manage lists

The e-mail marketing software should be able handle a number of lists, i.e., list of customers, leads, potential customers etc. To automate your e-mail marketing campaign this facility is imperative.

4. HTML/Plain text

The E-mail marketing software should be capable of handling text as well as plain text messages. This is necessary because certain customers may not be able to read HTML at all.

5. Personal tone

While writing your e-mails for e-mail marketing, use personal tone to create an impact on the reader. In most cases, the list provides you the first names of the contact and you can program your mail to carry the first name as the salutation. It is better to write the follow up e-mails on a one to one basis rather than standardized mails.

Now go and choose the software which will bring you everlasting profits.

Fabian Tan is a well-known Internet Marketing expert and the author of the popular 45-page Report:

"Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!"

Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your FREE copy now!

Also, quickly download his FREE "Explosive Traffic System" report that shows you how to generate 10,000+ visitors per month at no cost! => http://www.ExplosiveTrafficSystem.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Fabian_Tan

Email Marketing Secrets - 6 Killer Tips to Pump Your Account With Cash From Email Marketing

2008-08-20T23:06:00.000-07:00

The most effective marketing tool to sell products or services today is the e-mail marketing. The number of internet users world wide and the seamless character of the internet makes it even more easier. The following tips will help you to get started.

1. Your prospective customers should know about your business. You can achieve this through article writing and providing a link to your website. Submit your articles to a number of article banks.

2. Look for website that have a high page rank within your niche and create links to it. This will help you increase traffic to your site.

3. An opt-in page or a squeeze page on your website is must. Potential customers will give you their contact information through this page.

4. Following up with your contacts is the next important step. After you mail them the product information, make sure that you send in reminders, preferably in the form of useful articles and other information relating to the product.

5. Tracking the e-mails you sent is also important. Also, use an autoresponder to keep in touch with your customers at regular intervals.

6. Lead generation companies can provide you valid and important leads. Buying from them would be a smart move. But, be very cautious when buying leads. Explain your product and the type of leads you need. Qualify your requirements adequately and let the lead generation company know that you will pay for valid leads only.

When you follow these tips, you will be on your way to a successful e-mail marketing venture.

Fabian Tan is a well-known Internet Marketing expert and the author of the popular 45-page Report:

"Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!"

Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your FREE copy now!

Also, quickly download his FREE "Explosive Traffic System" report that shows you how to generate 10,000+ visitors per month at no cost! => http://www.ExplosiveTrafficSystem.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Fabian_Tan

Email Marketing Services - The New Form of Promotion

2008-08-14T02:55:00.002-07:00

Everyone knows that the primary use of Emails is communication. You send emails to your friends and your friends reply that. Is that not so? But now things have changed to a great extent with the growth of Internet and with the advent of online marketing. Now Internet marketing is affecting the lives of people. Since they are doing online shopping for buying many items. Many companies are involve in solving daily problems of people, be it home related, financial, health-related or some other problems, through Emails.

People also respond to these Emails and they prefer an Email as the most effective medium to know anything about various products and services. If you are interested in promoting your products through Emails then you can use various Email marketing services. These services ensure that your products get good promotion and reach to masses in short time. These are efficient tools and work great for the sake of brand awareness and brand promotion. An email is extremely cost-effective as a marketing tool and when used properly it can improve your market presence to great levels.

It hardly makes any difference if your business is big, small or medium. Even if your business is 1 day old then also you can use it easily for brand awareness. An Email marketing services company can let you know how you can use it to communicate more information frequently to your online prospects. Through email campaigns companies use newsletters, customer promotion letters, latest sale notifications, new service announcements, invitations and greetings to develop curiosity in the prospects. These campaigns prevent your customers from leaving your company and so this is how you build a relationship with them over time. This is the best way to beat your competitors.

Furthermore, you can also add coupons or helpful hints in an email message and send it to your prospects. These activities motivate them. You can take the help of an Email marketing services company for this also. Through these services you can give your brand an edge in a tough and competitive online market. You can either choose bulk-email marketing or opt-in or permission-based campaign. Learn more about them through an Internet marketing company.

Author:
Author is expert in Email Marketing, presently render her services to Rupiz Xpress that helps you in building email campaign, lead generation, etc.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lalita_N

Opt-in Email Marketing - As Effective As Communication

2008-08-14T02:55:00.001-07:00

Running a successful Email campaign is a very difficult work for any company. These days companies and businesses are opting for Internet marketing companies to get help in this special kind of promotional technique. As you know that two kinds of Email campaigns are popular in this field. One is bulk Email marketing and second is permission-based or opt-in Email marketing. Both of these categories of Email campaigns have their own benefits. In bulk-list category you are sending mails to unknown people and in permission-based Email campaign you know your customers.

This difference between the both tells the whole story as why opt-in Email marketing is more popular among advertisers. In this case your prospects know you and you know about them and this is a chance of making them your repeat customers. In this kind of marketing you have the opportunity of convincing more and more to your prospects. Companies in need of aggressive product promotion turn towards this solution which is known by its effectiveness and and also for cost-effectiveness. You can make a budget of your choice and also choose the Email format which you like. Generally, companies prepare attractive newsletters, information brochures, what's new write-ups and other types of promotional messages.

These write-ups are sent to an opt-in list of prospects who want to know these products and services. New services and products are get noticed in this way and it accomplishes the main aim of these mails. These days all kinds of businesses are taking the help of opt-in Email marketing. Be it a retail business, or a cosmetics agency, or a publisher or any kind of promotional business model, all are using this tool. If effectively managed then opt-in Email advertising is highly result-oriented because here your promotional Email is sent directly to your prospects.

Therefore it is necessary that you take the services of an efficient Email marketing providing company. The company would let you know how you can communicate more information, frequently with your prospects. Since, communication works so this Email campaign also works.

Author:
Author is expert in Email Marketing, presently render her services to Rupiz Xpress that helps you in building email marketing campaign, opt-in email marketing, custommized lead generation, etc.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lalita_N

Email Blaster and Email Marketing Know How

2008-08-14T02:55:00.000-07:00

Lets face it we have all heard the money is in the list. The list, the list, the list, thats all we ever hear. Well suppose you have a good list of opt-in subscribers or you have several thousand good leads you would like to send your information to. Without a good email blaster it's like sitting in a boat with no oars. Having all the opt-in leads in the world will not help you if you do not choose the right email blaster.

Not all email blasters are created the same. We're presuming you have permission to email these people, (meaning they have requested information from you or your affiliates at some point) Some email blasters will send your message to there spam box, and we all know allot of people do not even bother to looks in there spam folder.

There are many email blasters available, some even free. Choosing a free email blaster is often limited to the number of emails that you can send out, and Some free email blasters even put advertisement with the email you're sending out, so be careful when choosing and email blaster for your marketing needs. Read the fine print if you're going to choose a free email blaster, otherwise you may end up promoting someone elses program or offer along with yours.

Most of the time it is better to choose an email blaster that guarantees a deliverability rate of at least 90%, and there are several of them on the market to choose from. Most of these email blaster programs will require a monthly fee to use there service, and most of them will even handle you're opt out subscribers.

For More Information on picking the best email blaster programs for your email marketing needs Visit: http://email-blasters.blogspot.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Millard_Jacobs

Email Marketing Services - If Growth is Your Priority

2008-08-06T23:42:00.003-07:00

Without promotion, it is difficult to get a good market position. That is why every business person tries for better tools of promotion. The tool must be efficient, up-to-date and cost-effective. The channel of promotion also plays a major role in advertising. With the advent of Internet one tool has become much famous which is efficient, modern and cost-effective as well. That particular tool is an Email. Yes! An Email has become one of the best online product promotion tool and many companies are opting for Email marketing services to gain a good market presence.

It has been proved that now online customers prefer an Email as an information source regarding certain product or service. Because it is convenient, reliable and less time consuming. So, more and more companies are using this tool to promote myriads of products and services. A number of industries are using an Email as their promotional tool. Be it wealth management firm, accounting firm, software firm, healthcare industry, auto-industry, consumer product firm or technology vendor. Interesting thing is that every industry is gaining benefit from this.

In fact, Email marketing services ensure total solution of online advertising. Here the Email list of a target audience is selected and you reach to them via an opt-in Email campaign. You can also use a bulk mail campaign. You can send greetings, product launch information, company newsletter, event invitation etc. to your prospects in the form of Emails. Through these mails you reach quite a huge number of Internet users who are using Internet for various purposes including online shopping. These emails provide their solution in some or other way and that is why it has instant results.

The whole process of an Email campaign is very easy and if you have an internal database with direct mail information, then you can practice it very easily. If you don't have any idea about how it can be done efficiently then you can take help of Email marketing services companies. You can get consultations regarding developing an Email content. Opt for them and practice an affordable, result-oriented and transparent tool of promotion.

Author:
Author is expert in email marketing, presently render her services to Rupiz Xpress that helps you in building email marketing campaign, email marketing services, email marketing UK, email campaign etc.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lalita_N

Uncover the Best Email Marketing Resources Known to Man

2008-08-06T23:42:00.002-07:00

Online advertising through email has garnered a considerable amount of trust among marketers, and has gained considerable visibility on the Internet. The long list of options, and effects, that may be brought about by online marketing all come together with the idea of gaining product visibility and customer patronage, obtainable through the easy, convenient, and low-cost technology of email communication.

Email marketing extends from company notices for the customer regarding product information and purchase-related concerns, to entire newsletters that include every possible piece of knowledge related to the product that marketer wants to make customers aware of. The information that may be included in an email marketing communiqué is endless, and comes down merely to message selection and execution designed to have the greatest impact on the customer.

Considering this trend, there have emerged an extensive number of resources available to marketers who want to take advantage of the benefits of email marketing. These tools offer a vast range of tools from marketing advice, industry news, and directories that may prove essential for effective marketing strategies:

ClickZ

One of the most trusted email marketing resources online, this website provides technology-related news, Internet research results, company features, expert opinion pieces, and even case studies and interviews regarding a number of available products, and emerging online trends.

iMedia Connections

This site works to provide various products and services for email marketers, with one of their offers being an information hub of several email techniques that email marketers may take into consideration upon launching their ad campaigns.

BeRelevant

This page that at first glance takes the look of a simple online blog provides valuable information regarding the best and most effective practices to be considered by any marketer using email as a main communication tool. Focused on email marketing, the website features article with titles such as "Use Serialization to Boost Your Readership", "Study Reveals Email Tactics of Top U.S. Retailers", "Cool Email Idea: Email to Encourage Store Traffic", and "How to make sure your email is legal".

The website is a great information source for tips and reminders related to email marketing.

Emailresults.com

This provides a comprehensive online directory that features email marketing agencies, email consultants, and various services that give assistance for other online marketing strategies such as online ad space, cost-per-click ads, and newsletters.

About.com

One of the biggest information sources on the World Wide Web, this collection of articles and other resources contains a section on email marketing, complete with everything from tips, technology and marketing strategies, and other related pieces of advice that may in the long run be valuable to advertisers.

Some of the available entries include those titled "Instruments of Email Marketing", "Address Recipients with Their Name in Email Campaigns", "Email Marketing Needs to Reflect Your Corporate Design," and "Inform Your ISP About Your Email Marketing Activities."

Email Marketer's Club

A haven for advertisers depending on the email technology for their marketing needs. This website provides an online network for email marketers, thereby providing their subscribers access to contacts, advice, and other information that can only be gained from those involved in the same game they are.

Campaign Monitor

The website provides a source of ideas for email marketing designs, with contributions as well as suggestions centering on the most common design issues.

Email marketers interested in achieving the greatest level of effectiveness from their email designs will find assistance with a featured product that promises "no nasty templates or design restrictions", "comprehensive design testing," and the option to "run your email through spam filters before you send it."

Other features include other additional tools such as email personalization, a Send schedule, and other related elements.
To learn what most network marketers will never know about how to market via email follow the link in my resource box now.

About the Author

Kevin Tyler Smith is an expert Internet network marketer. "Who Wants To Learn How To Profit In MLM Online In 24 Hours or Less Using A Secret Strategy To Pull Profits In MLM In Less Than A Day.... While Exploding Your Downline Growth? Not only is it fast, but it's lazy" Everything explained on the other side >>> http://www.EZWealthStrategy.com Discover the rising of a true network marketing story here >>> http://www.KevinTylerSmith.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin_Tyler_Smith

What is an Internet Marketing Email List?

2008-08-06T23:42:00.001-07:00

An Internet marketing list is a group of people that are interested in your product or service online. You might have heard some Internet marketing people refer to it has "list building".

List building means the process of building a list of people (usually by collecting their names and email addressed) that may be interested in your product or service. If you are familiar with certain types of businesses online such as the mortgage and insurance industries, these companies purchase "list" of people that may potentially buy their products and services.

They then have their sales or telemarketing department randomly call these people to try and look for "leads", some of these leads turn into customers. The process is pretty much the same with a business online if you are using this model.

The only difference is that instead of buying your list, you have to build it yourself using traffic generation techniques. You will have a form on the website that you send people to that will have a way to collect a name and email address.

The idea is to communicate with the people on your list, of that group some will become leads and some of those leads will become customers. List building is one of the most important things you can do for your online business.

It is a fact that you need to communicate with your prospects multiple times before they purchase a product or service you are marketing, by building an email list you will have the opportunity to have multiple contacts with your prospects.

I wasted 17 months trying to drive profitable traffic to my website, but you should not do the same. Instead click here to get a copy of my "Quality Traffic Report". In it I will show you my results after testing Content Marketing vs. Google pay per click, you can use the results to start driving profitable traffic to your website and also increase your opt-in rate. visit http://www.qualitytrafficbuilder.com/traffic

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Akintayo_Binuyo

Email Marketing Software- Useful Info For Online Marketing

2008-08-06T23:42:00.000-07:00

You see, we should be very thankful that we are born in this modern generation due to the existence of the Internet. With the Internet, all information (whether about email marketing software or any other such as paid email marketing, email database, free marketing service or even easy email marketing) can be found with ease on the Internet, with great articles like this.

Define your topic of interest. What do you like to talk to people about? What do you like to learn more about? What do you like that other people like? What types of other people like what you like? Answering these questions will lead you to powerfully target email promotion. Targeted email promotion will bring you the highest and most rapid results.

It is also a fact that many webmasters can generate much higher traffic through email promotion than they were ever able to attract via search engines. Top email promotion tips result in more sales.

Many email promotion programs grow organically. An idea is born, an email is sent, it works, and another email is sent, and so forth. While there's nothing wrong with this approach, you can often accomplish more in a shorter time frame by putting sensible or good email promotion into place.

Don't forget that even if your immediate email marketing software quest isn't answered in this article, you could even take it further by doing a search on Google to get specific email marketing software information.

If you want your email to be read, provide a good subject. There are many spam blockers that would prevent your email from coming in to the mailbox of some people. Therefore, your subject should not sound as if you are just making a sale. You should attract readers and not spam blockers.

Test your opt-in offers. I met a man at my son's soccer practice who said the three most popular sellers on the Internet are poker and pills. You need to discover what's popular with your potential subscribers, what will motivate them to sign up for your email newsletters? The best way to do that is to rotate your opt-in incentives and the language you use to describe them, testing each one to see which incentives pull the highest number of opt-ins and the lowest number of subsequent unsubscribe, since some incentives, if too attractive, attract too many incentive-collectors.

Your email will be more attention-grabbing if you include photos and graphics. The links on your email should direct the reader to a landing page that describes your product or service. Directing the reader to a landing page is more effective than directing them to your home page. Be sure that your website contains a Privacy Policy that assures people that you will not sell or misuse any personal information.

Many people that searched for email marketing software also searched online for email distribution, bulk mailing software, and even email marketing software that makes.

So here is chance to get your free tips on email marketing software and in addition to that get basic information on saving money visit http://advice4unow.com/emailmarketingnews

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Deepak_Kulkarni

Email Marketing: Reclaiming Lost Territory

2008-03-11T02:43:00.000-07:00

The statistics you receive on your email marketing campaigns can be a bit deceiving. The numbers of delivered emails may seem high, but you have to remember that some email accounts may view a bulk fed email as spam and send it to a file that is never visited by the email account holder and is ultimately and automatically discarded without the customer even being aware it arrived. The good news is many email service providers and email marketers are working together to increase email deliverability. Currently the figure for non-deliverable emails stands at just over 20%.

Your client can help improve that figure if they automatically whitelist or approve your email for acceptance by their email system. Individual Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can also be contacted and, by following their procedures, you may find your emails going to the right email box without being subjected to the junk or spam file.

Because spam has been so prevalent it has taken a significant amount of work to keep email relevant while making it more difficult for spammers to make email their playground. This interim period has caused many recipients to become frustrated with email, but the persistent work of many has helped to reclaim this effective communication tool.

Consider the following from Epsilon Interactive…

1. Too many marketers continue to miss out on deliverability "easy wins." The number of marketers encouraging consumers to add them to their address books, which provides marketers with benefits commensurate to Enhanced Whitelisting, remained unchanged between 2005 and 2006 (43 percent vs. 42 percent).

2. Relevance rises. The majority of consumers (60 percent, up from 57 percent last year) agreed that the email communications they receive from companies they do business with are more targeted/relevant than the communications they received from those same companies last year.

3. Email’s impact on purchasing is felt across channels. Consumers who receive legitimate email offers are more likely to act on them, with 47 percent of respondents saying they would make a purchase online after opening a relevant email and 65 percent indicated they would purchase offline based on the email they received.

Epsilon also indicated consumers are more adept at recognizing false positives and are much more aware on online safety and spyware issues.

It would appear that legitimate email marketers as well as the email recipient are willing to work together to find the best solution in sending and receiving emails that are welcome and informative.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects.

How To Take Advantage of Remote Site Syndication (RSS)

2008-03-11T02:42:00.000-07:00

For starters, RSS is more easily understood when the separate components are defined. RSS feeds use a language called XML, similar to html. XML has the capacity to identify structures in a document due to their special mechanisms. The structures determine how the content will be arranged within the document. RSS is widely used within big news websites. The RSS files create data feeds that can deliver headlines, links or almost any other bit of information to a news reader (a.k.a.channel viewer application).

The feeds are monitored by readers that will notify the user when any new information is presented. This can be readily applied to your marketing efforts. One of the most popular ways to use RSS feeds is to replace email marketing.

Despite claims from many marketing experts that say email marketing is still a good strategy, with the increasing spam filters combined with scares of opening up a virus, people are becoming a lot more skeptical of even opening your email. Even though you've got a long list of email addresses, the odds of them being opened are low, which makes for a strategy that isn't likely to get you anywhere.

RSS works differently, and is a great advantage over email marketing. You'll have a much greater chance of being opened because your messages won't be filtered. This means that there's an increasing chance that your messages will be read, which is effective for the results you're looking for. Another great aspect of RSS is that autoresponders can be used.

One way to use the advantage of the search engine is to include feeds on your blog or content site. These feeds allow you to have content that is constantly updated, which is just what the search engines are looking for. Thus, more traffic is directed toward your web page.

Other popular ways include using RSS feeds to increase traffic to your blog or sales site or by making it possible that your messages and information are seen on thousands of websites, blogs and desktops online.

If you're serious about using RSS to expand your marketing strategies, the best way is to create your own feed. This opens the door to a wealth of opportunities for your business. By creating your own feed, your information gets published on every site that uses your feed to gather the supplied information. Consider using automated software to make your work a little easier. It has the capacity to supply the feeds to marketers by submitting your RSS feeds to a variety of directories.

RSS is becoming increasingly popular among Internet marketing businesses. It's a great opportunity to help advance your efforts. Take advantage of this new technology before it's yesterday's news.

Case Study - Viral Marketing Drives People To Drink

2008-03-10T02:48:00.000-07:00

According to Wikipedia, Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness...it can harness the network effect of the Internet and can be very useful in reaching a large number of people rapidly.

Apparently it can convince people that they should drink coffee processed from cat excrement, too.

No kidding.

While the behavior of these cat - poop - drinkers would provide hours of blogging entertainment as a subject all its own, we are delving into this sensational stunner to speak to a larger point. Some argue that it's a decaying rather than a compounding function. But for purposes this article, we'll maintain that when strategically planned and executed, viral marketing can have wild implications for your business.

Okay, okay, first we'll dish the dirt:

Jim Cone is owner of 'Coffee and Tea Limited' located at the Mall of America here in Minnesota. Jim is offering the most expensive (and arguably the most bizarre ) type of coffee in the world - java roasted from beans already partially digested from Indonesian civet cats. The beans are retrieved from the excrement, thoroughly washed and roasted at about 420 degrees. 'Kopi Kuwak." Is the name.

Jim Cone told CBS News: "...It's a very rich, ah, cup of coffee, very chocolaty, ah, actually a carmelly taste around the bottom of your tongue."

No kidding!

I live in Minnesota. And I love coffee. Rarely seen without it, actually. But like the good search marketer, I retrieve my news from Google, and am often times more interested in upcoming mergers in 2007 than I am in what my local news station has to offer. (Perhaps this simply means I don't observe the news as much as I should...) In either case, I usually get a good amount of current events from my clients during the day, and, needless to say, several of them came callin' on the coffee lady's cell today with 'You won't believe what I heard this morning....'

Again, like a good search marketer, what do you suppose was the first thing I did?

Technorati.

How many people have blogged about this? And...how did they find out about it?

Google.

What news stations reported on this besides the one in my home town?

Digg.

Who read these news stories and submitted them?

Is this a case of viral marketing, and could it become a marketing pandemic? We're not sure yet. But by asking these questions, the evolution from simple story to marketing pandemic can be tracked, analyzed and recreated in order to harness the power of viral marketing.

Let's take a look at how this viral marketing fairy tail begins...

Like most brand awareness, It starts with PR. Once upon a time, a local news station reports this story on the evening news. This of course is not viral marketing per say, rather public relations, but could arguably called the 'first falling domino.'

Mainstream Media Teams up with Word of Mouth. I'm not a fan of radio in Minneapolis, but that doesn't mean other people aren't. Apparently the KS95 served up this steaming hot cup of a story on their morning show, and two of my co workers caught the whiff. My interest is peeked. I've caught something.

The most powerful and far reaching media giant grabs hold...the Internet! No medium has grown faster than the Internet. With an estimated 175 billion users online, and with 90% of those being search engine users, the internet has become the bloodline that carries these marketing viruses. Like the rest of America, I turned to the internet and found that:

Technorati returned 1,458 results for blogs containing the term 'kopi luwak.'
Of those 1,458 results, just under 20 were posts directly relating to this purveyor out of Minnesota, and 11 were submitted just in the last 2 days since this story broke.
Most of these 11 bloggers cited word of mouth as their information source.
Apparently out of those bloggers, none are search engine marketers or savvy web 2.0 techies, because as yet, no social content sharing network has picked up this gem.

This is where the story becomes on-belay. If web 2.0 decides they like the story, (that's content sharing networks personified) if its worth sharing, we just might have even more to report on. I'm sure Hubby, who also works in web, will have plenty to say to his coworkers after he finds out his his Lady was home from work late because she was at the Mall of America drinking a cuppo-cat-poo.

No kidding.

We are going to follow this story, and we want you to participate. Email this story to two people. Submit it to Digg. Think we're self interested? Find the news story on CBS and submit that. Drop us a line and let us know how many people you infected. A few quadratic equations later, we'll be back to demonstrate the exponential power of viral marketing, the internet, and web 2.0

*Author's Note: Even if you're convinced that viral marketing can do wonders for a business (just ask Jim Cone - I'm going to when I patronize his Coffee shop tonight.) the larger question remains: "Yes, sure...but how can I make viral marketing work for my business?"

Although most e-businesses are have launched or are planning to launch viral marketing campaigns, there is one obstacle that prohibits marketers from reproducing them successfully.

Many marketers have trouble identifying what kind of information rivets audiences, and more importantly, what prompts that audience to pass along that information either by word of mouth, or via the internet. Using a meme tracker can help to identify relevant and viral quality topics.

Email Marketing Can Help Improve Your Online Marketing Services

2008-03-10T02:45:00.000-07:00

Many of you might disagree with the fact that email marketing is an essential part of your online marketing services without which, your business might have to suffer. Here are a few integral points that state the importance of email marketing to your online business.

The first and a necessary use of email marketing is that it enables you to build a healthy relation whit your customers and clients. Many businesses do not realize the need and importance of this purpose, but it is truly an essential factor which helps in boosting your online business. It is always a polite and courteous gesture to talk to your customers and clients at regular intervals.

Email marketing has been popularly known to have enhanced sales and online marketing services for a company. The simple logic here is that if a customer has bought a car from your online store, you can send him emails informing him about other related products too. For example a car stereo system, a car a/c, or other related car accessories.

Email auto-responder are of great help in building your marketing and customer relations efforts. All you need to do is load a series interesting and compelling messages and set your auto-responder to desired dates. Doing this will lighten your burden of every time someone registers with you, the auto-responder will take care of the series of stages he/she needs to go through. But make sure, that these messages are interesting and friendly, so that the user does not feel unimportant for receiving mails through an auto-responder.

Publication and distribution of news-letters is also an important email marketing strategy that is also known to gear up your online marketing services. It is an easy and low cost method of marketing online which is equivalent to the print newsletters that are distributed offline. The crux here is to make interesting and creative news letters that will not only provide a good look and feel but will also put across your message is a more effective manner.

There are several ways in which email marketing can be utilized to improve your online marketing services, but what is essential in all this is to keep an eye on your strategy. Always monitor your technique to evaluate which part of your strategy are providing maximum results and which other parts are not being so effective.

Why Advertisers Should Use Email Marketing

2008-02-26T03:59:00.000-08:00

Email marketing is a kind of direct marketing that makes use of email messages as its way to communicate fundraising or commercial messages to a certain group of people. Each email message, which is sent to a prospective client or customer, can be called email marketing.

The term is also used to refer to the act of sending email messages, with the aim of being able to enhance the relation between merchants and their current and old customers, as well as to instill the loyalty of these customers to their companies for more repeat business.

Email marketing also refers to a means to attract and acquire new clients or to persuade existing clients to immediately buy a product. With the process, advertisements in the email messages can also be added.

A lot of companies today make use of email marketing because of its numerous advantages. It basically allows the distribution of information to a lot of specific and potential clients without having to spend too much, unlike the other media investments like printed newsletters and direct mailings.

Email marketing could also be done instantly compared to mailed advertisements, as an email could arrive just after a few seconds after sending it. It allows the advertiser to be able to offer the message to its target audience compared to websites, which waits for visitors to come.

It is also relatively easy to keep track of them. Advertisers could track the users using web bugs, un-subscribers, bounce messages, click-throughs, read-receipts and other ways. These could be utilized to be able to measure the positive and negative responses, open rates and to correlate a company's sales with its marketing schemes. Advertisers are also able to generate a lot of repeat business easily and affordably.

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Bulk Email Marketing Advice

2008-02-26T03:57:00.000-08:00

This article shows the safest way to apply bulk email marketing. It provides tips on how to get the best results from bulk email marketing.

Bulk email marketing is a tactic whose influence should not be underestimated. It should be taken seriously as an effective and powerful strategy. Whether you have been in business for 30 years or even 30 days, when it comes to your marketing plan this should be a part of it.

With regard to advertising, bulk email marketing is the most effective way of airing your message provided you make sure that your list has been built on the basis of a good and growing reputation, in other words never abuse your list by sending out mostly sales pitches.

Know that when you do broadcast your advertisements they are going to a well-targeted group that have actually requested to receive the sort of information you are providing. In this regard, a list for such broadcasts could be obtained from gathering data in response to surveys or previous mailings. So, from an initially large mailing list you can identify a smaller subset upon which to focus your marketing efforts.

Always build your list using an autoresponder that provides for a double opt-in. Anyone can enter any email address they want in an opt-in form so its essential that your prospect explicitly confirm their wish to receive information by responding to a confirmation email sent to that email address.

Buying a bulk email marketing list is usually not a good idea. Many are out of date containing either defunct or fake email addresses. Some email addresses on these lists belong to people who have been blasted with spam from dozens, if not hundreds, of email marketers. These people are likely to complain.

Following Best Practices In Affiliate Marketing

2008-02-25T03:00:00.000-08:00

It’s not always easy to keep up with each of your affiliate program’s terms and conditions but in my opinion it’s absolutely necessary.

My rule as an affiliate marketer is to do the right thing and follow the rules of the game. I believe it leads to stronger relationships with merchants who may be more willing to work with you.

Pay Per Click Advertising:

Always follow the merchants policies regarding PPC advertising on search engines. If you don’t like them, then pick a different merchant.

Merchants have worked long and hard to make their companies what they are. They own all trade names and trademarks and have the right to decide how they are marketed.

News Letters: Follow best practices, the law and market with integrity. I’m still amazed at some of the emails that I receive on a daily basis that don’t follow CANSPAM regulations or affiliate program guidelines.

As a consumer I stay away from these types of advertisers. I believe they’re dishonest in their business practices and don’t have integrity.

I believe marketers should act with integrity and respect in their business dealings.

If you are putting together a newsletter, always ask your affiliate manager for written approval.

I’m still amazed how some of my merchants are so happy that I actually ask for their approval when marketing their programs on newsletters, blogs, etc.

Are there that may dishonest marketers out there? I don’t think so. I think many affiliates just don’t understand or know the rules of the game.

I suggest that all affiliates learn acceptable affiliate marketing practices.

There’s a lot to learn but it’s absolutely necessary to know the dos and don’ts about affiliate marketing.

Use of Merchant Banners, Logos and Trademarks: I think it’s absolutely necessary that affiliates follow the guidelines for the use of a merchant’s banners, logos and trademarks. It’s their property and they have the right to decide how they’re used.

Merchants also have a decent idea about what works in marketing their program. Follow their lead and suggestions.

Blogs: Blogs are very popular and they provide a powerful way to market an affiliate’s website.

Like other mediums, it’s important to seek affiliate program approval to market a merchant on a blog.

Unless the medium is a sub page of an affiliate site’s domain, the right conduct is to seek merchant approval.

I’ve had very few merchants that have refused my requests to market their program on my blogs, especially if the blogs can be seen as an extension of my site.

Ethical & Legal Conduct: It should be obvious that following the law is an absolute must when conducting your affiliate marketing endeavors.

I go one step further. I do my best to follow ethical business conduct. I also do what I personally believe is right. Just because something is legal, doesn’t make it ethical or moral.

I ask myself this question: “If I wasn’t making money doing this practice, would I think it was right, ethical and moral?"

If the answer is no. Then the practice is not right for me.

I believe that most affiliates are honest marketers and follow best practices in their marketing endeavors.

I’m extremely proud to be an affiliate marketer

Affiliate marketers should think about their potential customers and follow best affiliate practices when marketing to their potential customers.

I believe that if best affiliate practices are followed success in affiliate marketing will be much greater.

Formatting Your Press Release

2008-02-25T02:59:00.000-08:00

Once you know the basics involved in writing a Press Release, you'll find it's a pretty simple process to put one together. In fact, if you conform to "industry standards" and include the information that reporters and editors are expecting to find, your press release stands a very good chance of actually being used.

Here are the formatting rules you need to follow

Use mixed case. Never submit a press release in all UPPER case letters. It's much more difficult to read that way.

Always follow the rules of grammar and style. Errors in grammar and style affect your credibility. Excessive errors will cause your press release to be rejected.

Don't use HTML. When sending your press release to online Media, do not embed HTML or other markup languages in it. Including such formatting will negatively impact the readability of your press release.

Use more than one paragraph. If you can say everything in only a few sentences, then chances are you do not have a newsworthy story. (Note - You may hear that your press release should "never" be more than one page long. I have found that a press release should be as long as it takes to tell your story. If that means one and a-half or two pages, then that's how long it should be. Do your best to keep it short and sweet, but don't take out important information just to make it fit on one page).

Include a summary paragraph for online submissions. Some online news services request that you include a one-page summary of your press release. This is because some distribution points only receive your headline, summary and a link to your press release.

If you are submitting to online services, not including the summary paragraph may reduce the effectiveness of your press release. This is not usually necessary with print, television or radio media.

Write your press release on a word processor instead of composing it online. When you've finished writing it, print it out, and proofread it. Rewrite, edit, and proofread again, until you've got it exactly how you want it, and there are no mistakes.

Because most people have a harder time proofreading their own writing, ask someone you trust to proofread it for you.

Do not include your e-mail address in the body of your release - especially when submitting your press release online, or publishing your press release on your website or in your blog.

You can include your email address in the contact information if you wish, but if it goes online be prepared to be spammed. Most online media services will have a place for your email address in the submission process, for your protection, and most of your local media will prefer a telephone number to contact you with.

Here is a basic template you can use when writing your Press Release

Starting at the top of the page, on your company letterhead, write the words "PRESS RELEASE" in all capital letters, centered and bolded.

Hit the enter-bar twice, so you go down two lines.

On the left hand side of the page, write the date you want the information to be released, or if it's "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" write that, again in all CAPS and bolded.

On the same line, but to the far right, write the words "CONTACT INFORMATION" again, bolded and in capital letters. Go down to the next line, and list the contact person and their phone number.

It's always a good idea to have two contact people whenever possible and two phone numbers for each of them -for example, the office number and cell phone numbers. You can also put your email address here.

Hit the enter-bar twice again, and type in your headline. (It needs to be centered and bolded, but not necessarily in all CAPS). Your headline needs to be short, snappy and relevant. You want it to grab the reader's attention.

Go down two spaces again.

The body of your press release should be double spaced and typed in an easy to read size 12 font, such as Times New Roman or Arial. Leave lots of white space in your press release - use at least one to two inch margins around your page.

The first paragraph of your press release needs to provide the reader with enough basic information to make them keep reading. It should answer the "W" questions - who, what, when, and where and why. As you've only got a few sentences, make every word count.

The second paragraph of your press release will answer the "so what" question. It needs to explain who is going to be interested in this information and why they should care about it. The second paragraph is an ideal place to include a quote, or a touchie-feely "Kodak" moment to add human interest to your story.

The third (and often final) paragraph of your press release should answer any other questions the reporter or journalist might still have about your story. Here is where you can include information about your company, or any technical stuff.

Make your press release long enough to say what you need to say. If it goes beyond one page, then centered under the last line on the first page, write the word "MORE" in all caps and bold it.

Then on the second page, on the top right hand side of the page, write "Page 2" and on the line under that, write the title of your press release again.

That's all there is to it. Although the information you provide will be different each time you write a press release, the basic format will always stay the same. You've now got enough information to be able to write your first press release. So, write on and good luck!

Email Marketing - The Lifeblood of Your Business

2008-02-23T03:57:00.000-08:00

Email marketing is the most important aspect of any online business. It's important to build your list so that you have potential customers to market to again and again! Why take the chance of a person visiting your site one time, when you can capture their information and possibly sell to them down the road?

If you haven't already done so, you must start an email marketing campaign for your business. Add a form to your site, asking visitors for their name and email address. The less information you ask for, the more likely that they will give it to you! To increase the likelihood that they give you this information, offer a free report, ebook, goody basket full of information, etc.

Another aspect of email marketing is an autoresponder. You can find some very good ones that are cheap, and even free. The autoresponder will capture your visitors name and email address, automatically adding them to the database. When you set up your email campaign, your visitor will get all of your emails, which should contain helpful, relevant information, along with a possible product sell toward the end of your message.

Always give your potential customers honest, important information they can use when you email them. Make it interesting so you keep their attention, relate it to your product in some way, and present a call to action toward the end.

Adding a sense of urgency works well in email marketing. Give your reader a reason they need to buy NOW - special price, limited quantity, etc. Adding a postscript (P S) at the end of your message as a final chance is also effective.

With a well thought out email marketing campaign, your sales could possibly sky rocket! Why take the chance of losing potentially wonderful paying customers? Get an autoresponder, add a form to your blog or site, and start collecting information. It's essential to the success of your business.

How To Build An E-mail Marketing List

2008-02-23T03:50:00.000-08:00

With the Internet growing into one of the largest and the most economical marketing tool it is no wonder everyone who is selling something (and everyone we meet on the net usually is) is looking for a way to make an inexhaustible e-mail marketing list.

Though it is good to have a few thousand people on your e-mail marketing list to reach out to them through your news letter or some update of your site, there is something called 'online etiquette' that applies to internet marketing as well. There is a little secret that few people know, or follow, about building an e-mail marketing list - it is imperative to the success of your internet marketing program - do you want to know what this secret is? Sure you do!

Well here it is - people like to be 'ASKED' if they may be added to an e-mail list. This is the first imperative step to building a successful e-mail marketing list and is called 'opt-in e-mail marketing. NEVER trick a visitor into giving his or her e-mail address.

Start by asking people to join your e-mail list (or rather it would be WISE of you to ask them to join). It is actually up to you. So how do you go about asking them to join? Well to begin with you should have something on the first page, or landing page, that offers your visitors an incentive to fill in their name and email address. This form should be very clear that they will be getting a newsletter, say fortnightly or monthly, if they fill in the form. This is the best way that will keep people on the list.

Here is a sure-shot e-mail list building recipe:

1. Always take your visitor's permission to add them to your e-mail marketing list.
2. Thank the visitors for the email addresses you get on your list.
3. Know that the customers on your E-mail marketing list really want to hear from you and will respond when you email them.

Remember to:
· Offer your visitors an incentive to get their email address. Some ideas of incentives include: a free report or guide, entry into a contest, product demo or samples, a complimentary consultation, etc.
· Provide valuable content on your site. Offer tips and advice for the customer along side your marketing message to keep it from looking like 'trap' for an e-mail. If the visitor is interested he will want to know more and will sign up.
· Ask for valuable marketing data on the sign-up form. Pick only one or two things to keep the registration process short and easy. What data could really help you with your marketing? Knowing their gender, age, location, interests?

Remember Not To:
· Sell or give away your e-mail list.
· Fill up their inbox with messages. Keep to a monthly or weekly schedule at most.
· Bog your message down with lots of advertising. It will quickly be deleted.

Email Marketing Techniques For Maximum Profit

2008-02-21T03:07:00.000-08:00

Email marketing is one of the most profitable things you can do online, but you have to be able to do it well. What is the point in building a list if no one is going to open your emails.

You must list build and create your email marketing campaign in such a way that the people who are on your list will desire to open your emails, and read them, and click through from them.

Think about something for a moment. What do you want out of your email marketing campaign? Do you want lots of subscribers? Do you want lots of opens? Do you want lots of clicks? Or do you really just want buyers? My guess is, you want buyers. You don’t really care how many subscribers you have, how many email opens you get everyday, or how many clicks you get, as long as you get buyers. Subscribers, opens, and clicks are simply measurement tools – that’s it.

You will not get rich online just because your metrics are right- the people have to want to buy from you, they have to want to open their emails from you.

So you want buyers. What creates buyers? Trust. That’s right. People buy when they trust. That’s it. If you develop trust, and you provide a product that they want (and that should be a given, if you are targeted in your marketing), they will buy.

So you have to run and build your email campaign in such a way that people will open, read, and respect your emails.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

An Introduction To Email Marketing Strategy

2008-02-21T03:05:00.000-08:00

What is spam? Spam is any electronic communication that is unsolicited by the receiver. Taken literally, it is junk mail, full of unwanted ads that litter your inbox on a daily basis. Although hiding behind the guise of a marketing strategy, spam turns off more customers, hardly inciting interest in the product. Spam takes up a lot of space and, interestingly enough, eats up enough bandwidth to litter the information highway. What to do about spam? Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Report it

Spam needs to be reported, in order for Internet service providers to know exactly who the spammers are. As with anything, ignoring spam will not solve the problem, as it will not disappear on its own. Take an active step in reporting spam, since this will make a difference in weeding out those annoying spammers.

Block it

Once you've opened your web-based email, take the time to block spam rather than simply deleting it. Deleting spam only solves the problem temporarily. Use a blocking program that can easily be downloaded from the Internet.

If all else fails, seek help

If, despite numerous precautions, you still end up with spam, don't lose hope. A lot of websites out there are dedicated to helping you in your battle with spam. Just remember that you are not alone. More help is on the way as governing bodies are getting involved in this issue as well.

Email marketing strategy, more commonly known as spam, is actually a decreasing trend nowadays as more and more governing bodies are taking actions to curb it. At the moment, 18 states have already embarked on programs aimed at eradicating spam.

As a marketing strategy, spam actually does more harm than good. Dealing with it is basically the same as shooing away unwanted salesmen from your front door, but with annoying frequency.

How to Romance a Newsletter Marketing Audience

2008-02-20T02:59:00.001-08:00

If you're trying to direct-sell your product or service every time you send an email newsletter to your subscribers, you may be missing their sweet spot. Soft-selling is crucial. And how cozy and inviting you make the environment makes a big difference, too.

Want this relationship to last? Well, do some soul-search about your e-newsletter. Ask yourself these three questions and refine your email campaigns. You may get more hugs, love and sales by doing so.

1. Is your newsletter theme focused and to the point?

It takes too long to read a book inside one email. Be thoughtful. Just give newsletter readers the headlines and a killer lead paragraph -- and then provide a link to the entire story. It's great to have multiple story angles in the newsletter, but less info in each section is more. Make your newsletter sexy -- make it a real tease! One juicy bite is enough to draw readers in. (Think: magazine cover headlines.)

2. Is there eye-candy to keep that love letter engaging?

Break up the copy with visuals. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, use fewer real words and let images do some of the talking. An example. One of my favorite e-newsletters is from photoblogger Diana Pappas (http://dianapappas.blogspot.com). She gives subscribers a stunning photo a day -- very little else.

3. Do you ALWAYS give your subscribers something special?

If you love them, show it. Your email subscribers would be excited to receive a "VIP" discount on your services. Go ahead and offer a completely free service to the first couple of people who email you back. Or how about a link to related free ebooks? And guess what: If you provide a link to something awesome that's not on YOUR site, they'll come back to you.

In other words, email newsletter marketing is *relationship* marketing. It's a two-way street, so evaluate what more you can give in each issue. Be distinctive. Stand out further to embed your brand in their hearts.

You can start by stepping closer. Identify ways to be more considerate, user-friendly and service oriented. That's the only way to romance busy email readers these days.

The Ways To Be Successful With Email Marketing

2008-02-20T02:55:00.000-08:00

The decision to learn how to do email marketing should be very automatic. Building a list, sending out emails to that list, and making money are all connected. Email marketing can be a very profitable way to make your income and can lead to much success online.

I am referring to building your own list of opt-in subscribers to market to. Yes this will take some time and will be more work than purchasing or renting a list, but you will also make a ton more money and the results will be well worth your time and energy.

Let's get on with how to do email marketing. Basically it starts with an auto responder service which you can get for around $20 a month. That is your only real cost as long as you already have a hosting account and a website. If you don't already have a website and a hosting account that is where you should start.

Let's assume you do and you, then start with an auto responder. Once you have signed up you will be able to create a form that will allow your website visitors to sign up for your newsletter, free course, free eBook download, or just to receive special offers and advice.

Next you can create email messages that can be sent to your list in intervals. You can choose to have each message sent 2 days apart or whatever you decide. There is a lot of flexibility with this systems and it will benefit you greatly. All you have to do is plug the messages into your auto responder, set a time that you want them to go, and when someone opts into your list the will begin to receive the messages automatically.

For example, if you set it up with 10 messages to be sent every 3 days and I sign up, then I will get a message every 3 days until I have received all 10. This is a huge benefit and will save you a ton of time.

You now have a little knowledge about how to do email marketing and how to start building your own list. This is just a start and it is a strong recommendation of mine that you find an e book about email marketing that you can purchase. This is always the best way to find someone that is already very successful and get their secrets and tips. I know that is how I started.

Bulk Email Marketing Advice

2008-02-19T01:53:00.000-08:00

This article shows the safest way to apply bulk email marketing. It provides tips on how to get the best results from bulk email marketing.

Bulk email marketing is a tactic whose influence should not be underestimated. It should be taken seriously as an effective and powerful strategy. Whether you have been in business for 30 years or even 30 days, when it comes to your marketing plan this should be a part of it.

With regard to advertising, bulk email marketing is the most effective way of airing your message provided you make sure that your list has been built on the basis of a good and growing reputation, in other words never abuse your list by sending out mostly sales pitches.

Know that when you do broadcast your advertisements they are going to a well-targeted group that have actually requested to receive the sort of information you are providing. In this regard, a list for such broadcasts could be obtained from gathering data in response to surveys or previous mailings. So, from an initially large mailing list you can identify a smaller subset upon which to focus your marketing efforts.

Always build your list using an autoresponder that provides for a double opt-in. Anyone can enter any email address they want in an opt-in form so its essential that your prospect explicitly confirm their wish to receive information by responding to a confirmation email sent to that email address.

Buying a bulk email marketing list is usually not a good idea. Many are out of date containing either defunct or fake email addresses. Some email addresses on these lists belong to people who have been blasted with spam from dozens, if not hundreds, of email marketers. These people are likely to complain.

All About Email Marketing

2008-02-19T01:52:00.000-08:00

Email marketing is a booming and potential marketing stunt through sending emails to prospective clients, informing them about products and services and other useful information. It is equally effective for serving as a perfect communication channel with the existing clients, partners, and shareholders. In this modern time, the meaning of email marketing has been understood in a wide sense and leads can be generated quicker than ever.

How to Write an Effective Email?

Writing an email has become so common in today's life and people usually communicate through sending emails to each other. This system of communication serves as a strong link and can result miraculously. In this write-up, we will discuss the tips through which an impressive email can be written:

Business mails are used extensively these days. Sometimes, due to improper format and lack of clarity does not give you the desired result. Therefore, it is better to following a particular style and format for your mails.

1. Effective Subject Line

First and foremost, you require a good and striking subject line for your mail. It will help your customer to get enough encouragement to read the body of the mail. An unusual subject line catches interest and acts as the first hand information about the concerned product or service. So, a good subject line is required.

2. Easy to Read

Your email should be easy and convenient to read. It must be written in simple and understanding language providing comfort for readers to get its meaning properly and with ease.

3. No Attachments

It is better not to attach any documents of other details with a promotional mail as a reader would not have liked to read it. Stick to the particular information in the mail.

4. Mail Yourself

You can send a copy of the prepared email to your mail account also. It will help you to get the impression and impact of that mail. You can judge the email as a reader and improve accordingly. Email programs are fruitful when done with proper care and precautions. It will also reflect your company's vision and approach so handle it carefully.

Making the Business Case for Email Marketing

2008-02-18T01:23:00.001-08:00

Thinking about starting an electronic newsletter or email marketing program, but aren't quite sure what results you can expect from this time investment? According to industry experts, a well designed and implemented email marketing program can:

* Increase customer retention; a 5% increase in retention yields profit increases of 25% to 100%
* Stimulate repeat business from existing clients who spend, on average, 67% more than new customers
* Influence purchase decisions; according to 53% of consumers surveyed
* Strengthen customer loyalty; acquiring a new customer can cost 5 times more than keeping a current one.

For the small business or "solo-preneur", the combination of a content-rich website and a consistent, quality email marketing program is the foundation of your marketing engine and is the boxing equivalent of a "knock-out two-punch". Your search engine optimized website with a prominently displayed newsletter signup box can draw in new business prospects, automate your newsletter subscription process, and cultivate those same prospects with an ezine loaded with valuable content that positions you as an expert in your field. Let your marketing engine work for you while you are focused on other, high value business tasks...or playing golf...whatever!

With all the buzz about driving increased website traffic, one fact remains undisputed. A good email marketing program remains the number one way to drive traffic to your website. And we all want visitors coming to our sites and staying awhile, reading about our products and services and the great benefits enjoyed by our customers as a result of doing business with us. But another great feature of website traffic coming into our sites from external links is that the search engines place high value on external linking in their search rankings.

So, my advice to you is - stop thinking about starting an email marketing campaign and just go do it! The positive impact it will have on your business will far outweigh the cost of creating and implementing your program.

Why Advertisers Should Use Email Marketing

2008-02-18T01:20:00.000-08:00

To Build a Profitable Online Business You Need Several Mailing Lists

2008-02-14T01:36:00.000-08:00

Many Affiliate and Internet Marketing businesses will find one major benefit from using multiple mailing lists will be a big increase in product sales and profits. The goal you see, is to develop a unique relationship with your subscribers and to build a high level of trust in your recommendations.

If you offer a variety of products, services or information; it can be very helpful in building a lasting relationship to create several separate mailing lists to serve each of the different areas you are promoting.

For example:

Your target market is made up of pet owners. One mailing list can only go so far to serve the needs of pet owners since there are so many different types of pets and each category has different needs.

Knowing this you may set up and offer several sub lists. You could have one for Dogs, Cats, Birds, Reptiles, etc. You can go even farther and split each of those list into several more specific lists. For dog owners you could have small dogs, large dogs, show dogs, etc, and do this for each pet category.

Another example:

You serve the Internet Marketing and home business market. You're teaching others how to build a profitable online businesses. Because you know that different businesses benefit from varied strategies, you can offer lists for the subgroups that you've identified: Affiliate and Network Marketing, Products Creation, self development, etc.

You can build a more profitable online business by separating your targeted market into more specific mailing lists. You can also create a more unique relationship and deliver information that more specifically meets your clients individual needs.

You will find that some things may be practical for all pet owners in a specific category. In most cases though you will find that overall the more specific you can be with your information and promotions the better satisfied your clients will be. You will also find that the more satisfied your clients are the more profit you will make for the effort you put out.

As a Internet Marketer you want to build a profitable online business. With that idea in mind it is in your best interest to build a credible and trusting relationship with your subscribers and customers. You can better fulfill that task by making your information and products as customer specific as possible.

With relationship building as your main focus, it is much more easily accomplished when your focus is on as detailed an area as possible. Think about your desired goals, what you would want if you were the subscriber and create your lists with that in mind.

Effective Email Content

2008-02-14T01:35:00.000-08:00

The simple email has developed and gained good reputation as the perfect marketing tool. Because of its inexpensiveness and speed, it is beyond the shadow of a doubt that the email is the favorite marketing tool of online marketers in this marketing age. That said, it is imperative that the email must be managed efficiently especially in terms of its content. Content is the driving force behind the success of the email marketing campaign. What is being written in the email can either make or break the hopes of the campaign.

Email content is the meat of the email; customers must read the content to know and understand what is the intention behind the message. The content should be given serious consideration and planning. No effort is to be spared in thinking and writing out an informative and value-adding content to delight the customers.

To churn out effective email content that will ultimately bring success to the email marketing campaign, it is imperative not to neglect the following pointers:

(1) Good and well-crafted headline

The first line that the customer reads will be the headline. Ensure that it is appealing, interesting and of course compelling. The curiosity of the customer must be aroused. The emotion of the customer must be caressed. The stay will be longer as the email continues to be read. "3 good tips that you can now use to tackle your back pains" is one example of a compelling headline.

(2) Proper usage of keywords

In the headline, it is necessary to use keywords that will highlight your product or service. Such keywords will lend support even more to your content being searched by others if they are appropriately repeated over the whole length of the content.

(3) Proper content length

For email content to be effective, it must be kept short and to the point. Throughout its length, it should not divert and miss out on the intended objective of the whole email message. It would be disastrous if the content is lengthy only to defeat its very own purpose of getting the desired attention of customers.

(4) Provide for easy reading

The most effective way to make reading easy and pleasant for the customer is to make use of bulleted lists. These will make the presentation neater and professional, and providing the customer with a quick browse of all the points listed. This method provides user-friendliness and convenience without any fuss at all.

(5) Make use of testimonies and personal experiences

It is important to make effective use of testimonies and personal experiences. Credibility and trust which are so vital to the sale will be achieved if visitors do believe in your product or service, and if they also do understand you well when they step into your shoes. To further drum up the impact, making effective use of expert references and useful statistics will help produce amazing results.

(6) Keep on track

It is imperative to always stay on track with the defined aim of the email. There should be only one purpose in mind, with no deviation from it at all times. There should be only one intention that should lead to only one ultimate call-to-action. It is recommended to perform some checks along the way.

(7) Make visitors stay longer

Email content can either be attractive or repulsive. Visitors should be enticed to stay on to the end. The only way to do it is to put your heart and soul into giving them the answers to their questions. The prerogative here is full focus on the provision of proper solutions to the needs of customers. Customers are the king. They should always have the top priority on your mind.

(8) Be sincere and transparent

The email content must show elements of sincerity and transparency. It should explain clearly good reasons for the immediate purchase action by customers. Fill their minds with belief and trust in you and your product or service. They have to know for sure that you are sincerely there for them, always!

(9) Be friendly - use your voice

Throughout the email, the content must speak with a voice from you, one that shows sincerity to offer help, gives a listening ear, and gains trust from the customers. Show them you are friendly in your approach. Shower them with love. Of course, do not forget to maintain your professionalism.

Writing email content that will attract more customers and positively affect your bottom line requires hard work in its planning and construction. Write well and your ship will sail smoothly. That said, it is time to seriously put into action the above strategies that will support your aim in delivering effective email content. Write well for a great sail!

Effective Email Marketing - Does YouTube Come To Mind?

2008-02-13T01:41:00.001-08:00

The power of effective email marketing is simply stunning. You're a small baseball card company in Arizona. And you know that to get really targeted traffic you need to blog and do a lot of other content-rich (make Google happy) things.

Because at the end of every day, Google cares about only ONE THING...delivering content to the people doing searches. So as this baseball card company, you put on your home page an OPT-IN mechanism that captures people's first names and emails and then allows you to establish a line of communication with them.

Holy everything, batman (and diminutive Robin)...this is the greatest thing in the world for your online business. You now have a way, no, a process, for showing people why your company is better than everyone else. People can now stare at you and listen to your pitch over and over and watch the amount of PASSION you have. And that is something that traditional advertising has ALWAYS lacked.

Guys, girls...this is what you have waited for...this is what you need to tap into YESTERDAY. I could care less if you go through it with me, but do it. Tomorrow morning. Your business will grow exponentially if you are willing to be its ambassador and tell people the great content that you have. Forget opinion, that's just what happens. (And that comes from someone with about 19 years worth of Madison Avenue experience...)

PUSH your great content forward...if you do this you become attractive. We know, through testing that the average person needs to see your message about 7 times in order to get the right vibe for you. To feel as though they are getting the SMARTEST purchase. Now knowing that, why try and run around something that you know works? Effective video email marketing is about to become a huge force.

Send Video Emails - You Got A Mind That's Ready To Be Blown, Right?

2008-02-13T01:40:00.000-08:00

The search has long been on for the best ways to send video emails as a way of increasing business.

Online marketers now finally get the fact that the YouTube philosophy and the public desire to click the PLAY button is something we are now dealing with on a daily basis.

And the rush to join that obsession is loud.

Online marketers need to understand that they will need to "speak" to their hottest prospects on an average of about 7 new times in order for that person to fall in love with you.

To feel as if they have gotten the best price from the right source.

These are tested facts. And you and your business need to play into what WORKS or you will stay a little fish (which is fine) or you will demand that a new aquarium be brought in.

When you send video emails whether as yourself on camera or some beautiful woman or a male actor, you are putting into play a series of "let's get to know each other" presentations. A series that has proven to work.

Hell, great copywriters talk all the time about the fact that a single sales letter can make their clients MILLIONS...so what do those odds go to if you send out a series of them...through video...via email?

There are certain business achievements that simple become part of our culture and those laggards always have to catch up.

This is a huge one, and the smartest internet marketers know that when they send video email they invite the best guests to their site.

Email Marketing: How Much is Too Much?

2008-02-12T01:14:00.000-08:00

I have a special new email address. It's in addition to my primary email address and it's where I tell online marketers who want my business, to send their mailings.

I didn't want to do it. I didn't want anyone to be excluded from the group. I'm sure the online marketers are very nice people with great big hearts. And I'm sure that when I receive those frenzied emails with subjectlines like, "Dina, Last Chance to Attend the Hottest Seminar This Week!" these folks don't realize that they've been relegated to my Not Urgent or Important email account.

Sorry, guys. I didn't want to sequester you off like I did, but your nerve-rattling emails fly in every day. You send me emails EVERY DAY! That's really not right. That's more than I hear from my clients!

Jenna Glatzer, freelance web writer and marketing genius in my humble opinion, said it best when she said that email marketing is a great way to build your brand, but you shouldn't be sending out those mailings more than once a month, maybe twice. Jenna, if you ever read this... I'm a huge fan and you make an unbelievably great point.

If my favorite internet marketing guru sends me an email once or twice a month, that gives me a chance to really look forward to whatever terrific insights he has to share. When that email finally lands... oh boy, am I excited! If he's offering a special promotion... well, maybe I'd better sign up! Because if I don't, the next one's not coming around until NEXT MONTH!

Now that I have quarantined the overzealous emailers in a new email box, I have the pleasure of watching them duke it out for the prestigious title of Most Emails In a Day. I shouldn't poke fun but I can't help myself. You're telling me what a smart marketer you are, and that all of your offers are so rare and highly sought-after. But I know that if I miss today's promotion, tomorrow there will be another one just like it. The day after that, same thing. That's a great way to keep me procrastinating forever. Thanks!

How often do you email your potential customers? Do you realize how intrusive and badgersome frequent emailing can be? When folks share their email address with you, that's a pretty great privilege! Don't clutter up their personal space. Why? Because clutter eventually gets packed up in boxes and stowed out of sight.

Top Email Marketing Firms

2008-02-12T01:13:00.000-08:00

Email marketing is one of the best approaches to direct marketing available today. Several firms have been using email marketing strategies with good results.

An email marketing campaign is generally one of the largest components of internet marketing efforts. So, it needs to be done in an effective manner to achieve the kind of success you have envisioned. Effective email marketing involves sending targeted creative messages that generate a good response rate. Individual efforts by companies might fall short of such goals. In such cases, the services of email marketing firms should be utilized.

An effective email marketing company should be able to cultivate relationships with ISPs on the behalf of the company they are working for. They should be able to give your emails a thorough evaluation from a marketing perspective and make any changes that are needed. These firms should be able to deliver email with the proper protocols. Data, like number of emails sent, number opened, number returned, and number of click-throughs are important feedback. This kind of data will help you design future campaigns, rethink your approach, and evaluate your efforts.

Top email marketing firms perform critical list management functions, i.e., incorporation of new subscribers and deletion of unsubscribed or bounced names. The top email marketing firms make it their business to stay up to date on spam rules and regulations.

Top email marketing firms use mass email marketing software. This kind of software is easy to set up and use. It allows the firm to work using their existing OS and personalize the email messages that they want to send. Such software packages provide a built in database to manage lists and filter any email list based on specified criteria. Some programs offer email newsletter templates, easy message editing, compatibility with web editors, ability to work with existing ISP mail settings, and support of embedded images. Some of them even handle unsubscribe requests automatically.

Referrals from companies who are using email marketing strategies successfully are the best way to locate top email marketing firms.

Making the Business Case for Email Marketing

2008-02-11T00:36:00.000-08:00

E-mail Marketing Page Layout - Divide It Into Thirds

2008-02-08T01:20:00.000-08:00

The "Rule of Thirds" describes the rules of art and design which also works for an opened e-mail. Basically imaginary lines are drawn dividing the page into thirds both horizontally and vertically.

When you place important elements of your composition where these lines intersect, it is more pleasing to the eye. In addition to using the intersections you can arrange areas into bands occupying a third or place things along the imaginary lines.

Good places to put things include a third of the way up, a third of the way in from the left. You get the idea. Using the Rule of Thirds helps produce nicely balanced, easy on the eye copy.

Thus, an opened e-mail is divided into thirds: a top, a middle and a bottom with the top containing a headline and salutation, a middle containing the body of letter, and a bottom or footer containing the call to action and signature.

Writing headlines may be the most important copy writing skill. Most writing designed to persuade sinks or swims right out of the gate. Readers make snap decisions based on a quick scan of the top of the page. More often than not, they'll simply move on to something else unless your copywriting skills have been put to use crafting an excellent headline. A great headline can also communicate a full message to its intended audience and it absolutely must lure the reader into your body text.

The opening or lead paragraph's purpose it to give you the basic facts while persuading you to read more. The first sentence in an opening paragraph is called the lead sentence and it must be written to intrigue or make the reader want to read more. Often this means that the lead sentence needs to be slightly controversial or different to entice the reader to read more. This is often called the "hook".

Your offering's uniqueness needs to repeated through the body of your copy---this is what makes the reader take action. The benefits of your offering are placed in the middle of the e-mail or the paragraph that follows the lead.These benefits may be best presented as bullets:

- three to five bullets will suffice

- benefits must crisp, clear, and tangible

- they must be written in the reader's language

One more thing: only one subject per e-mail. Respect the reader's busy schedule and get to the point but make it only one point. Customers tend to scan e-mails, and if several propositions are presented, even the hook will go unnoticed.

The call action (CTA) of your e-mail tells the reader what to do and what to expect after they do it. It tells them what is in it for them? Marketing messages that support a product or service purchase should direct the reader to the CTA; this could be a landing page where they can "buy now" or "learn more". When the call to action is to direct the reader to get the full story at the website, you need to tell the reader not only what to do but what he can expect by doing it.

Opt In Email List - Power With Email Marketing Campaign

2008-02-08T01:19:00.000-08:00

In this article I write about two issues concerning list building: what is the most effective way to collect the email addresses and what to do with those addresses?

1.Put The Opt In Form On Your Site And Blog.

If you put yourself into the trousers of your prospect, would you be interested to know, what you are ordering?

I bet, yes you would!

The only right way to build opt in email list is to collect the names and addresses from your own site or blog. In tis way people know, what kind of information they are getting.

It is clear that the list building takes time, but through effective email marketing campaign you can start to market to the people, even if you have ten names on your list.

My own opt in email list grows by about 40 new names per week. It`s really not a world record, but it makes over 2.000 people a year, and these people are INTERESTED about what they have ordered.

I use the opt in form on all of my site pages ( including articles ) and on my affiliate marketing blog, so when the site visitor is fascinating about my information ( sometimes it happens ) he can sign in immediately and get more useful information.

The idea is to turn the "hot" visitor into a long term friend and use the email marketing campaign to keep contact with him during a long period of time.

By the way, my list building target for this year is a little bit higher, I try to get 3.000 new names. That would be a great kick for my online income too.

2.Remember: Your Friends Are On Your Opt In Email List.

What is the most unpolite way to keep contact? Well, I think one of the worst ways is to use email marketing campaign, which is based on autoresponder emails. Especially if they look like that!

Emails, especially from friends, are seen always as personal messages. It doesn`t matter, that the receiver understands that the email is a part of a email marketing campaign!

This means that an effective marketer segment the addresses on his opt in email list and sends taylor-made messages for each segment. This increases the conversion rate.

So very clearly the email marketing campaign is 100 % relationship building, using autoresponder, yes, but by sending segmented messages.

The reason ,why people has joined your opt in email list is, that they are waiting valuable information. The information, which they can utilize in their own internet business.

This is very important point, especially when the email marketing campaigns last several months or a couple of years.

Email Marketing Tips - How to Use Autoresponders in Your Article Marketing

2008-02-07T00:29:00.000-08:00

Writing articles enables you to build up your credibility. When you share useful information that helps your readers, they begin to trust you and are more likely to purchase from you.

Using autoresponders enables you to increase your sales by following up with your visitors, keeping your marketing message on their minds, and emailing special offers to them.

Below, you have three tips to help you add email marketing to your article marketing efforts.

1. Promote your ezine.

Use your entire resource box to promote your ezine. Share a few benefits of joining your ezine. Then link to your ezine's sign up page with some anchor text. Your sign up page will then seal the deal of converting your readers into subscribers.

On your sign up page, create a winning headline and list key benefits of joining your ezine. Tell your readers about any bonus or bonuses you are offering for joining your ezine.

In addition, share testimonials for your ezine and for your bonus if you have them so that you'll be able to further increase your credibility.

Note that you can link in your resource box to your sign up page that you link to on every page of your site.

You can also create a squeeze page that shares the same information - effective headline, benefits and some testimonials - and link to that page in your resource box.

The difference here is that your squeeze page won't link to anything else. It won't have your site template or have advertising on it. It will only have your information including your privacy statement and your subscription box for your visitors to join your ezine.

2. Promote an ebook.

Create a squeeze page to promote your ebook. Then use your article's resource box to promote your page.

Like with your squeeze page to promote your ezine, start your copy with an effective headline. Also share some benefits of getting your ebook. Show how your ebook will help them.

Use a list to share these benefits, and share some testimonials.

Below this copy, put your sign up form where you'll double opt in all your new subscribers.

Also like with a squeeze page to promote an ezine, don't link to anything else on this page. Give your visitor only two options - to join your list or leave your page.

3. Promote an email course.

Look at your articles that are all on the same topic and use them to come up with the different parts of your course.

For example, if you've written articles on writing article titles, writing article bodies, writing resources boxes and article promotion, you could use these articles to create a four part course.

Simply use the information that you have in your articles as a quick start guide to writing the different parts of your course.

Email Marketing

2008-02-07T00:28:00.000-08:00

Internet marketing by using email is really no secret--we've all seen it in our own email inboxes. It is a form of direct marketing that uses emails to communicate with potential customers. Email marketing has been in use since email began and has proven to be an easy, effective, and inexpensive advertising method. It's so popular that estimates indicate companies within the United States alone spent $400 million on email marketing in 2006.

Broadly, email marketing could refer to any email sent to potential customers. However, there are a few things that set certain emails apart as true email marketing. Emails that are categorized as real email marketing do one of the following:

--Improve and enhance the relationship between the business and their customers so that repeat business is encouraged.

--Attract new customers.

--Convince past customers to make a purchase.

--Include advertisements for companies other than the one that is sending the email.

There are many advantages to email marketing. For one thing, it allows businesses to quickly and easily reach a large number of customers through a mailing list. Sending email is also much more economical than sending print advertisements, and the results of the advertising can be easily tracked through the use of the links in the email.

Email marketing is also an instantaneous form of advertising that needn't wait on print schedules. An email advertisement can be sent with just a click of the mouse, so businesses can react very quickly to new trends and changes in the market.

One aspect of email marketing that is increasing its popularity among both businesses and consumers is that it is environmentally friendly. There's no need to cut down trees for paper and, therefore, no paper to fill up the landfills. If a customer doesn't want the advertisement, they click the delete button.

Though there are many advantages to using email marketing, there are also some disadvantages. The biggest and best-known disadvantage is spam. Unfortunately, before acts like the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 that prohibit the use of spam, many companies sent unsolicited bulk emails to everyone and anyone. As a result, Internet users found their inboxes flooded with ads they didn't want. In response to those spam emails, Internet users weren't reading any of the email ads they received--even the legitimate ones.

Because of the early use of spam, companies are still trying to rebuild the reputation of email marketing. Today, marketers who violate the CAN-SPAM Act are subject to an $11,000 fine for each individual receiving a spam email. To help ensure compliance with this act, many marketers choose to use specialized software to help them follow the law.

There are service providers who will assist businesses with setting up their email marketing campaigns to remain in compliance with laws. These services include email templates and handle the subscriptions and removals of individuals from the mailing list. They also provide their clients with information about the number of messages that were actually opened and how many individuals actually clicked on the links contained in the messages.

The use of opt-in lists has greatly helped to reduce spam. Visitors to a website can choose to register to receive email messages from the business. This is called "opting-in." These customers can also remove themselves from the list when they no longer wish to receive messages from the company. Using an opt-in list not only helps the customer avoid unwanted email, it also helps the company to ensure they remain in compliance with anti-spam laws.

All in all, email marketing can be an exceptional way to draw new and repeat customers to a business. However, businesses that choose to create an email marketing campaign must be familiar with the regulations surrounding the use of email for advertising purposes. The penalties for violating the law are steep, and sending spam email will serve to alienate more customers than it will ever attract.

5 Tips for Successful Email Marketing Campaigns

2008-02-06T02:22:00.001-08:00

Your email list is your biggest online moneymaker. You should build your list slowly using bonuses, and free stuff to entice prospects and customers to join your list. Treat your subscribers with respect, and they will do the same for you.

You can begin mailing to your list as soon as you have your first subscriber. When you send the mailings, be sure to follow the tips below. Keep in mind that the money is in your relationship with your list, not in the list itself.

1. Send informative articles.

Send information to your subscriber list that is informative, and has real value. Give your subscribers a reason to not only stay on your list, but also have them anxiously awaiting your next email.

2. Make your emails easy to understand.

Write in an interesting, conversational style, keep the big words to a bare minimum, and use small paragraphs with white space between them. Each paragraph should be just a few sentences, and then skip a line. It lets the reader focus on each point. He doesn't have to deal with finding his place in long rambling paragraphs that all run together,

3. Keep your customers informed about updates and news.

The people who subscribed to your list are interested in your topic. Keep them informed about product updates; and news about the topic, or your company. They will appreciate the information as long as you make sure it is timely, accurate, and informative.

4. Be a straight shooter.

Tell it like it is. Don't fill your emails up with a bunch of hype. You can tell the truth, and still make the sale when the time comes, if you do it correctly. Your customers aren't stupid. They know they can't lie on the couch and have a million dollars fall from the ceiling. You should bond with your readers. Treat them as you would as friend.

5. Rise above the noise and be different.

Use alternate methods to attract your customers. Video, audio, and webinars are some examples. You can have your email link to a page that has video or audio explain your concept or product. If you setup a webinar, you can record it for future use as a video.

Chocolate Marketing - Email Campaigns Rich in Decadent Promotion

2008-02-06T02:21:00.000-08:00

Indulge yourself! Create an email marketing campaign that gets opened every time. Along with the many responsibilities of the average web-designer/come business person on the net comes the idea of creating an effective marketing campaign. It's easy! So they say...

Just say no to SPAM

That's the first tip they give you. Don't build your email list from readers who don't want to read your material. Never, EVER, NEVER EVER send out SPAM.

Avoid SPAM sounding Titles

Keep your titles real and connected. It's relevant to your subject, so write them that way, and don't use those spam-my words. Take a risk and be real when you create your titles. Use content value oriented words and skip the clichés.

Build an Opt-in List

This is crucial to your success. Without an opt-in list, your emails won't be read, they'll be overlooked and avoided. Offer something to capture their name and email. It's okay to give stuff away. You'll get more than enough back in return.

Don't overload your Reader

Overloading your readers with massive send lists just doesn't work. It overloads their inbox and feels like spam. Resist the urge to send email every day.

Consider the Readers NEEDS

What does your reader want from you? Remember what you promised them? That's a good clue. Now, give them what they want. Are you ready to indulge yourself in Decadent Marketing Concepts that WORK?

Email Marketing Tips - 3 Simple Effective Email Marketing Tips

2008-02-05T00:55:00.001-08:00

Email marketing is a powerhouse of an income generator for your online business and the following tips are sure to boost your results.

Email Marketing Tip #1 - Use your existing database of leads to help you add even more leads to your list. This is a very rarely used technique that is very powerful.

You can give a free report to your current leads and let them give it away. Inside the report you can brand it so that for each one your subscribers give away, they get a percentage of any sales made on your products.

Imagine having two or three hundred people giving away your freebie and each one of them giving ten or twenty subscribers each.

Email Marketing Tip #2 - Never stop adding leads to your list. Just because you think you might have hundreds or thousands of leads on your list, does not mean you should stop adding to it.

Your email marketing profits will be a direct result of how many leads you have on your list.

You should be making about fifty cents to one dollar per lead on your list. So the more leads, the more profits. Very simple math will tell you that having a list of five thousand should be able to earn you nice monthly income.

Email Marketing Tip #3 - Use as many proven methods as you can to add fresh leads to your list. Strive each day to add atleast ten new leads.

You can add the leads by using a variety of proven email marketing techniques such as: writing and submitting articles, coregistration, ezine advertising, ad swapping, and many others.

The bottom line is to use as many of these email marketing tips as you can and keep putting a constant and consistent effort into it.

Opt In Email List - Power With Email Marketing Campaign

2008-02-05T00:54:00.000-08:00

Email Marketing - Would You Like That Served With Double Or Single Opt-In?

2008-02-03T23:52:00.000-08:00

In the USA, Double opt-in has been regarded now as Best Practice for many a year. However, many of you may be surprised to know that double opt-in is not a CAN-SPAM requirement, nor is it a requirement of countries which have the tightest legislations.

So why then double opt-in? What are the benefits of double opt-in and why haven't other countries embraced it as Best Practice as heartily as the USA?

In a nutshell, I believe that it is to do with the amount of spamming a country produces. Whilst there are some other benefits of double opt-in, the main benefit is that you have foolproof evidence that a subscriber has signed up.

This is beneficial within the USA for 2 reasons:

1: The USA in general has an Opt out legislation.

2: The USA has the 2nd highest amount of spammers worldwide.

The results of the above is that generally speaking, recipients in the USA tend to hit the 'this is spam' button rather than the 'unsubscribe' link, due to the more lax legislation, which requires recipients to unsubscribe rather than subscribe. Therefore, if you use double opt-in and are accused with spamming, you can, armed with your irrefutable double opt-in information for the complainant, approach the ISP when you're blacklisted and refute the charge.

However, this is not the case with countries which have 'opt-in' legislation such as UK, Australia, France, Italy, Germany and the likes...As their legislation is based on opt-in, rather than opt-out, the practice of reporting as spam instead of unsubscribing has not been as big an issue, which in turn generally reduces the chances of being blacklisted.

Therefore, due to stricter legislation and less spamming activity, other countries haven't implemented double opt-in as stringently as the USA has - basically, because the need hasn't been there.

Before we go any further, let's look at some definitions:

Single Opt-in: Single Opt-in is regarded as when a subscriber registers to receive email communications from yourself via either sending an email to you requesting to subscribe or subscribing using a form on your website. A confirmation or 'welcome' email may or may not be sent. I'm not sure about the percentage of legitimate marketers using 'single opt-in' VS 'single -opt-in with confirmation email', however from my observations; it would appear as though the majority send either an automated confirmation email (required by most ESP's) or a welcome email.

Double Opt-in (otherwise known as 'Confirmed Opt-in' or 'Closed Loop Opt-in'): This goes one step further. Within the confirmation email, a request is made for the subscriber to click on a link to finalise their subscription request. Only upon clicking on this link are they subscribed.

Each side of this debate has legitimate reasons for their preferred choice, so let's look at the positives and negatives of each:

The Case for and against Single Opt-in (with confirmation email):

You retain 100% of your subscribers. Providing, also that you send a confirmation or welcome email, you should also be able to determine immediately whether the email which was used for the subscription was a functioning email address.

From a Business point of view, single opt-in's lead the way. As Ann Holland from MarketingSherpa succinctly stated:

"Professional publishing means running your company as a business. It's smart business to not put barriers in front of a sale (or opt-in). Every barrier reduces the opt-ins, even from very willing folks, by a big percent."

"If I changed my company's policy to double opt-in - which would reduce our new monthly opt-ins by perhaps 50% - I would then lose substantial revenues. Not smart business." Not every company can afford to lose 30-50% of their potential subscribers. It is easy and tempting to pass off the 'lost subscribers' as not being worth having anyhow, as obviously they weren't interested enough to reply, but there's enough evidence to support that it's not just due to lack of interest that they are not completing the double opt-in process...

Bill Nussey from Silverpop recently said: "And, in my view, the only way to make customers even angrier than sending them unsolicited email, is NOT to send them the critical email updates they went out of their way to request."

According to MarketingSherpa's Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007 (USA based), only 37% B2C firms use single opt-in. It is interesting to note, and therefore to put into perspective that all reports stated in this article are USA based reports. Not only does this show the popularity of double opt-in in the USA, but also, many of these results, such as the above result, are USA specific and cannot be taken as general worldwide findings.

The Case for and against Double Opt-in

Even way back in 2002, ClickZ was reporting between 40-60% losses and things haven't changed much since then...all reports seem to indicate that the losses average out to being 50%.

Marketing Sherpa revealed in a 2005 study performed by Pivotal Veracity that 18% of filtered messages were transactional - such as Welcome messages to new opt-ins.

It's not all doom and gloom though. Advocates for double opt-in state that lists grown using double opt-in result in higher quality lists. This is based upon the premise that they were dedicated and interested enough to complete the subscription process.

Subscribers who have double opted-in are also more likely to actually receive the e-communication within their inbox than a single opt-in subscriber. Marketing Sherpa reported a 10% difference in deliverability between double and single opt-in lists.

Traditionally, one of the benefits of double opt-in has been that you end up with a cleaner list...however as the trend for single opt-ins now is to send a confirmation or welcome email, this essentially should produce as clean a list as a double opt-in list, providing you action the undelivered addresses and delete them from the list.

The advocates for double opt-in would also say that you stand a greater chance of the subscriber forgetting they had signed up if you used only single opt-in....however, I find it difficult to believe that they would remember any better, simply because they had responded to an email.

The main points to remember, whichever option you choose, is that by making your e-communications interesting, relevant and regular, you will increase your chances of retaining your subscriber and not causing them to 'forget'.

I personally don't believe that you can generally state that one option is better than the other. Each business needs to make a decision for themselves based on their geographical market, industry, whether they're B2C or B2B and finally, whether like MarketingSherpa, it ends up being a matter of economics.

Effective Email Marketing

2008-02-03T23:51:00.000-08:00

There is one question that I hear most from small business owners looking to crack the nut of online advertising. It's a nut that continuously eludes even the craftiest of businessmen.

"Where can I purchase a list of email addresses?"

HTML email newsletters and email campaigns are great! They are a fantastic way to build awareness of new products, position yourself as an expert and touch every client on a regular basis. They help to drive a constant flow of repeat traffic to your website, and correctly instituted, result in big sales increases.

Now our marketing execs, just having crafted a new newsletter and having found Constant Contact or one of the multitude of Email Marketing web sites, are eager to get a list and start advertising to every inbox in a thousand miles. They're blown away by the price point difference, between the email and direct mail. Finally, they can reach everyone and for almost nothing... and there is the catch.

It's relatively easy, with a quick Google search, to buy a list of anything. You want the entire library records of Omaha, Nebraska... Done! How about the addresses of every construction company in the nation... Done! Email addresses can be purchased with ease as well, but a word of caution on any of these lists...

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO SPAM EVERY POTENTIAL CUSTOMER?

There's a couple of big points here. Not only is spamming illegal (and there can be some pretty big penalties for this, i.e. shutting down your domain), but it's also just not wise from a marketing standpoint.

Hold on! What about direct mail? Everyone knows that you can get a list and send out as much as you want. Companies do it every day, and it's considered one of the most effective forms of advertising.

While all that is true, remember that the big advantage that email marketing has over direct mail is price point. In fact, while direct mail is legal, it's also costly. This serves as a self limiting factor. You can only send out as many ads as you can afford. A computer, on the other hand, can send out a million emails in an hour for almost nothing.

I don't know about you, but getting SPAM leaves a pretty bad taste in my mouth. It sure doesn't provide me any incentive to use the service of a company, so unprofessional, as to cloud my inbox with every offer, promotion or survey they can think of. In fact, it can do a lot to hinder the building of customer relationships that CAN help drive your business to the next level.

Email marketing is and should be conducted on a permission basis only! In fact, the other name for this type of service is "permission based marketing". If spamming is reported, the email dissemination service will ban you very quickly.

So here is the big question. How do you reap the big benefits of email marketing? How do you get permission to send out your emails? How do you build a list?

Well, every business card in your Rolodex is fair game, but we highly recommend that you contact these people before entering their name into a database. Enter-to-win campaigns are also a popular way to build your list, but require you to have a storefront. Having a signup box on your website is a must. Each type of business is unique and requires a different solution. There are just too many options to list here, and new, creative ways are being invented everyday. Every beginning email marketing campaign should start with a thorough conversation on how to build a successful list and appropriate names where possible.

Used properly, email marketing can position your company as a provider of solutions instead of a spamming pain in the neck.

Direct Mail Marketing Versus Email Marketing

2008-02-02T02:07:00.002-08:00

Everyone wants to get their business out there for everyone to see without costing an arm and a leg. You finally started your online business and now you need to get the customers you need in order for your business to take off. The longer it takes for you to come up with a strategy the longer it will take you to get started. There are a lot of things that will help you decide how you should target the right audience, no matter what method of marketing you will use; the age of the group you want to target, level of income, gender, location and more. Knowing the answers to all of these will help you target the right people without wasting time.

First of all you must define email marketing. It is essentially getting the news out or the product introduction to people using an email address. The internet is endless and almost everyone has an email the only problem with this is that you cannot access their email by simply typing in their name and finding the address. There are several companies that have obtained email addresses and compiled a list together. Then you will simply need to pay for these lists so you can have access to them all. It's not easy getting a hold of a list that is update, as some are pretty far behind. You may end up paying for a list that has little to no accurate email addresses and you are getting further behind in launching your business. In order to verify the most updated email address list you will need to ask for verification before paying. You may want to request two email addresses on the list so you can use as a sample. You may request to email one of their past customers to see how they found the list to be. Anyone can sell you a list but it is up to you to verify.

Direct mail marketing may take a little longer to see results but then people can sit down whenever they have free time to ready what you have to offer. Sometimes it is not easy to understand an email that has been sent, especially if it is covered in designs or bright colors. This can be very distracting to those that have already put in a hard day at work and just want to relax. Direct mail marketing is more like "the old fashioned way" of doing something. Don't think of it as snail mail, think of it as reaching people when they are ready.

If you have a product to sell you will appreciate even one or two customers. In order to get started you may want to try a little of both in order to see which one will make a difference and bring you positive results. That way you are not wasting a lot of time on a method that will not work in the end. The best place to start is with your own contact list. Friends and family would love to see you get ahead and introducing the product to them first is the best way to test the waters.

Email Marketing Strategy For Your Online Business

2008-02-02T02:07:00.001-08:00

Having an email marketing strategy for your online business is a must. You will discover, through publishing your own newsletter that it will provide you with the opportunity to educate your customer's by giving them more information on the products or service you are offering. Use yourself for an example. When you gain more knowledge on a product or service and have all the information you need to get the full understanding of how it works, aren't you more likely to buy?

Email marketing is not only a great way to update and educate your customer's on your products and services but it is also a great communication tool; by publishing your newsletter, you will be able to deliver your content of great value directly to your customers and prospects. After you have delivered your email to your readers, your readers can visit your web site at their own leisure and respond to what you have to offer.

Let's put it this way, I'll use my self as an example. When I receive a newsletter and read it and like what they have to offer but I don't have the time to go to their web site to see what the offer is about, I'll save their newsletter for when I do have the time to check it out. If I like what their offering me, I end up buying it. This how I discovered how valuable email marketing is for an online business, through my own personal experience.

Through publishing a newsletter, you will build personal credibility. Building your personal credibility will help you build an email list quickly and is cost effective. Once your customers see that you're a credible person in your field, you are on your road to success.

When publishing a newsletter, don't just put a bunch of ads in your newsletter. If your newsletter is nothing but an ad sheet, you can be assured that it will almost never grow. Your customers will hit the delete button before they get through the first paragraph if they didn't already hit it when they saw it in the subject line. After a while of just getting ads, when they see it is from you, they won't even open up the email. If you're looking to build your email list, then make sure quality information comes first and then quantity is sure to follow.

If you can demonstrate to your customers on a regular basis that you are competent in your field and are able to help them, they're a lot more likely to buy something from you. This is email marketing at it's best, sending messages to a warm and friendly audience of interested people who you already know have a interest in what you are selling.

Now this is where email promotion marketing comes in. Email promotion marketing is where you use the method of leverage with your existing customers to gain new customers. You will discover that this is a great opportunity to develop a good marketing strategy to capture a lot of email addresses. Use different ways to encourage your existing customers to get new customers to subscribe to your newsletter.

A good method to use with your existing customers, who are well pleased with your products, is to ask them to inform their friends and let them know how pleased they were with your products. Have them forward your newsletter to a friend if it is good valuable information you are offering, ask them if they would take part in sharing it with their friends. Be creative, use your imagination to come up with some good ideas. (Tip) Word of mouth goes a long way on the internet.

Why should I publish a newsletter? What good can they do for me? One of the reasons for publishing a newsletter is to stay in touch with your customers and potential customers, not to mention the low cost. This tried and true email marketing method is one that every major marketer uses today and have been using from the start. If you're just beginning, this marketing method will work for you also.

Take a look at the most successful business online today. You'll find that these successful businesses are without fail the same businesses that are building up their opt-in email list. They know how very important email marketing is for their online business. As I said many of times, the key to a successful online business is to provide your customers with high quality information.

Nonprofits Need An Email Marketing Strategy

2008-02-01T01:38:00.001-08:00

Consider that there is an estimated 97 million people within the United States and Canada have access to the internet- which is about 30 percent of the total population. Almost everyone with a computer and internet access has an email account, and yet, many non-profit organizations do not make it part of their marketing strategy to collect email addresses from their members, donors, or activists! Most non-profit or conservation organizations have attracted a large group of people who believe in the cause of the organization enough to become dues-paying members or otherwise support the issues. Most nonprofits are communicating with their members with mail, phone or fax- but very few are using the email effectively and they are missing a huge opportunity to reach out to current and future members to become a more powerful non-profit organization.

If your own non-profit organization is not yet using email as an effective strategy for communicating with your membership, you still should be collecting this information for the future, and make it a point to integrate email communication into your strategies as a non-profit organization as soon as you have built a small database of members email contacts.

Email should be a vital use of technology for non-profit organizations, and particularly those who have membership groups. Previously, many non-profits would use standard, print newsletters but their turn around time involved production cycles of up to two months! Between creating the layout and design, printing the newsletters and mailing them, it is difficult for newsletters to convey timely information when they are printed and mailed versus the email version which can be used to communicate this week's news... this week. Another major benefit of using email to communicate with your membership is lower costs.

When your non-profit decides to use email to communicate, you want to be sure that the communication is tailored to your membership. While it's tempting to put in things you want people to read about your organization, the most effective email newsletters are those that offer what the target audience wants to read about, so be sure to consider what your target market is likely to want information about and not so much about what you wish they'd know!

There are many opportunities to offer value to the membership through email newsletters and quick email broadcast messages, including new information about your organization, useful tips, an events calendar, or educational opportunities that are directly related to your industry or non-profit cause. If you are able to offer some form of interaction for the readers, you will encourage discussion and have a better "open" rate among your members. The "open" rate is the number of people who actually open and read the email you send out. You can improve your "open" rate by offering consistency to your emails- if people are expecting to receive your email every Thursday, they are more likely to look for it and open it than if it comes sporadically.

One way to increase your email readership is to make it easy for people to forward the newsletter on to their friends and associates. Create a link that automatically lets them forward the newsletter if they find it useful, and be sure to thank them for doing so. You may also want to offer the newsletter to people outside your membership base, as a way to enhance your prospective member list. If these prospects find your newsletter helpful, they may then decide to become members or otherwise support your non-profit organization.

Tips for Viral Email Marketing

2008-02-01T01:36:00.000-08:00

Viral marketing activates when it goes transmitting your messages via word-of-mouth in an uncontrollable manner from one person to another. It brings positive effects rather than negative. It's contagious in a way but is always beneficial to any online business. This is especially so when the transmitted message comes from a trusted friend.

There is no such thing as planned viral marketing. Viral marketing just happens to activate accidentally and result in explosive transmission. This may be caused by a great piece of information in your email or perhaps by some hilarious joke in your message that is so interesting and amusing to the reader. When we relate emails and viral marketing together, we have to be aware of the fact that the email may actually be the cause of the viral marketing reaction. With this reaction, other kinds of viral movements may be triggered off. In other words, it is similar to a domino effect. Typically, the end result is always the desired outcome.

Viral marketing campaigns have always incorporated emails as its primary feature. This is attributed to the fact that emails are the fastest and most inexpensive of all marketing media. We can create splendid buzz with help from emails. We are able to generate more interest when our emails are noticed by web surfers, marketers and non-marketers alike.

What are the ways that we can execute viral email marketing effectively and bring in massive income? Here are the tips which should contribute to its success:

(1) Write clear and simple messages - This is basic rationale. With a message that is deep and complex in its structure and meaning, it is very likely that the relative campaign is not going to succeed. Visitors may have to think hard about the meaning of those complex sentences before thinking of buying. The decision to buy will be stifled and delayed from taking place in a short time. It is only good that the email message should be short, simple and distinctly clear. Only then will there be a better chance of good returns and higher viral conversion rates.

(2) Increase creativity - There can be so many topics to write about for your emails. The best ones will be those that are creative and have funny videos, cute pictures, stimulating pieces of news etc to stimulate and captivate the visitor's attention. After emails are sent out, we should engage in requesting the recipients to join us in sharing the buzz creation. A good example would be requesting them to post their viral messages onto their pages on either MySpace or FaceBook. They can also post badges onto their blogs.

(3) Implement a monitoring system for the results - Every campaign must be monitored for its performance. Compare whatever results attained for the campaign with those of the original goals. From the metrics, we should be able to ascertain what offers are bringing in good returns. We will also be able to make relevant changes to boost our blogs, forums, video sources etc in order to reverse the bad results.

(4) Offers must have a maximum ceiling - No offers can be stated without any cap whatsoever. It is senseless to offer ten dollars discount for every ten people recommended. This may cause privacy issues that may affect the marketer's reputation. If such an offer really gets emailed, consequences would be drastic. We can only imagine the message will be sent like a spam, possibly overloading servers. Therefore, the best solution would be a tangible value-added offer, by which viral email marketing works effectively.

(5) Welcome referrals - Referrals who come to you from your subscribers are like additional gems to your goldmine. They must be warmly welcomed. An opt-in checkbox to receive future mails can be constructed specifically for them. To produce better results, it is recommended that the subject lines in referral emails be warmly personalized to show that it originates from a good friend, for instance, " Christopher Jones thought you will have a great liking for the sofa on sale at 20percent discount at Great Sofa.com". A warm welcome to a referral is undoubtedly an incentive for successful viral email marketing.

(6) Ensure no message overload - It is obvious that sometimes we may have sent too many emails at any given time. The only course of action to take is to ensure there will be no message overload, especially when we ourselves are heavily burdened with replying emails. We must not only monitor what are the results attained so far for the campaign, but also the open and click-through rates, as these will show us how many actual responses we have actually received. This will reflect the recent pattern and level of engagement in emails.

For viral email marketing to be successful, it is significant that the primary objective of the campaign be clearly defined, the results well measured, and a good proactive contingency plan be instituted at the outset of the campaign. That said, by using the aforesaid tips for viral email marketing, chances for attaining success for your online business using viral email marketing strategy will be raised considerably.

Email Marketing Profits - How To Turbocharge Your Email Response Rate

2008-01-31T01:26:00.000-08:00

Want to get more bang for your buck in email marketing? You must learn how to increase your response rates. In other words, you have to get more people to open your emails, read them, click through to your links and act on your offers.

The goal of email marketing is the same for any marketer: to get a reader to take action on something, whether it's buying a product, filling out a survey, subscribing to a sub-list or joining an affiliate program.

Before you write your content, you have to decide what action you want the reader to take. If you want him to buy your product, keep that in mind as you write your email. When you write your call-to-action, make sure you tell him to buy.

Your subject line is the most important factor in determining whether your subscriber opens your email. Make sure your subject line is interesting and not boring. Proven ways to increase your open rate include using numbers in your subject line and asking questions. These two tactics get people curious enough to open it. Your subject line should also be benefit-filled if possible. By combining the power of curiosity and benefits, you have a powerful subject line.

Next, it's time to write your body copy. It's better to write shorter content these days, since people are often very busy in this age. So write a short benefit-laden email that works towards getting the click throughs. On your website and blog, you can have the main content. This also works well for avoiding the spam filters, since the filters have lesser words to catch.

Email Marketing Still Outperforms All Other Marketing Channels

2008-01-31T01:25:00.000-08:00

Email Marketing has lost some of it's power due to rampant abuse and spam that have the effect of desensitizing peoples perception of the medium and confusing users as to what is legitimate or junk. That being said email marketing still outperforms all other marketing channels in terms of cost and return on investment and there are steps you can take to effectively build relationships online that will mitigate the discontent where it exists.

If you have never created an email campaign the easiest way to get started is to simply examine the marketing emails you receive. There are numerous online resources that can assist the newbie email marketer but for those of you who have some experience with email marketing campaigns this post will cover optimization of your email marketing and improvement of your email marketing results.

Formatting the copy

The format of your email is critical. Important information goes at the top and I mean the very top of the email. Though it is common practice in most businesses to put a graphic header in the email this is a classic mistake. Most email readers now block images by default forcing your recipient to take an extra step to see your graphic content. This is unlikely as your reader scans through several dozen or more emails. Business users typically use the preview pane in outlook to aid in the scanning of email content. An image header in this view will appear as a blank space or just the alt tag for the image. These users give far less weight to emails that are not formatted for their ease of use.

The Subject Line

Subject lines should be short, catchy and relevant to the email content.

Bad example:

Webinar - Learn how to maximize your email marketing for increased productivity and ROI

Better example:

Email marketing roundup, productivity and ROI

Best example:

Top 5 Tips email marketing ROI

Start with a well defined subject line. In the three examples above you can see how each subject would lead you to take a completely different approach to the same content.

Layout Style

There are two primary layouts used in business email. Single link Event/Promo style and Multi-link Newsletter style. Each has a specific use. You have probably seen and may even be tempted to create a newsletter style marketing email with offers and special sales and incentives but this is a mistake. Our research has shown that customers respond far more favorably to a single purpose marketing email but wont scan through a newsletter style promotion to compare the various sales offers. Newsletter subscribers on the other hand will anticipate the longer newsletter format and scan through multiple story excerpts looking for relevant content but will also be turned off by newsletter disguised sales promotions.

Using Layout style to your advantage

Do create a newsletter that outlines headline news and interesting story lines and then send separate periodic single purpose marketing emails to promote events or special promotions. Studies have shown that an average customer takes 3 marketing touches for brand awareness and 5 marketing touches before the sale. So it is to your advantage to send separate emails over a period of weeks rather than trying to jam everything into one newsletter style email.

Tracking and Metrics

Most any email marketing service provider will have the standard tracking tools available.

You want to track:

Deliver-ability and Bounce Rate (Are my emails being received?)

Opens (Are my emails being read?)

Click-through (Is my content generating interest?)

Keep a log of these metrics and compare percentage change from email to email and month to month. This will allow you to measure the impact of subject lines (Opens) and content offers (Click-through) . Over time you may see certain offers resonate with your customers better than others. Use this information to improve your email marketing effectiveness.

Marketing Management

Create a calendar of your fiscal year and break that into four quarters. Now notate all trade shows dates you will be presenting/attending. Around each of these dates you can anticipate sending an invite to your prospect list. You can also plan your monthly newsletter. Now look at what remains in each quarter and plan another 3 to 5 promotions that will go to your house list and other rented or 3rd party promotions. This calendar approach will commit you to driving a full force email marketing effort that will give you the highest possible returns.

Top Ten Email Marketing Tips

2008-01-30T02:06:00.000-08:00

Everyone who's ever had an email account has had to deal with it: The dreaded SPAM that builds up in an email account, especially if it's not checked on a daily basis. Yet, despite most people's downright disgust with SPAM, email is still an essential part of their lives.

And because of the prevalence of email in today's world, email marketing is still a popular way for online business owners to promote their products and services. However, if you opt to use email marketing, there are several tips you should keep in mind.

Never SPAM. If you live or have customers in the United States, you must know that according to the FCC SPAM is illegal. Even if SPAM isn't illegal in your country, avoid it altogether. SPAM will only serve to annoy prospective customers.

Avoid "spam-my"-type words. Sometimes emails are marked as SPAM simply for the words that are contained within the text. Always avoid such words as earn, money, and guarantee when you send emails to your list.

Don't use a free email account. People love free email accounts because they're, well, free. But, as a marketer, you cannot rely on a free email account for your email marketing purposes. Rather, you should purchase a domain name, and use your own, professional email account. Free email accounts shout "amateur," and because of their strict SPAM filters, free email accounts may mark your prospective and current customers' email as SPAM.

Build an opt-in list. Never send out unsolicited emails. Doing so constitutes SPAM. You must build an opt-in list. Create a squeeze page and offer all those who sign up for your list a special deal: a free report, a free ebook, or a free e-course. Make sure that your subscribers have to opt-in to your email list.

Purchase an autoresponder. An autoresponder is invaluable in ensuring your subscribers opt in to your list. You can purchase an autoresponder service from online businesses like Aweber.

Consider your customers' needs. Some people, either because of where they live or because of cost, still do not have access to high speed internet service, so they're still on dial-up. Offer your list the option of receiving both plain text and HTML emails. That way, those subscribers on-dial up won't have to wait impatiently for HTML emails to slowly load.

Email your list only periodically. Don't email your list every day, or else you risk annoying your potential customers. Rather, email them periodically, whether it's once a week or every other week.

Personalize all of your emails. Make sure your emails always have the recipients' name included in the title of the email to make them feel as though you're personally talking to them.

Offer your list valuable content. Don't just send your subscribers sales pitches. Rather, offer them niche-related content that will in some way benefit them.

Include an offer in your emails. If you have a product or a service, or if you know of a product or a service you think will benefit your customers, by all means include an offer in your emails. Just don't make it a habit to only send emails when you have an offer for your subscribers.

E-mail Marketing Success

2008-01-30T02:05:00.000-08:00

Email marketing is one of the main marketing medium for online marketers. With the huge impact that email marketing has made on web marketing, there is no reason to turn away from this potential money-making avenue. Still we have to understand and know how and when to use email, as well as when not to use it. This is crucial as it decides whether we'll make or break this money-making machine.

Just being as web surfers, we send out emails to our friends and companies most of the time. We will also check our mailboxes everyday for incoming emails. Email is seen here as an effective way by which you can maintain your relationship with people you know. From the marketer's point of view, email is a fantastic opportunity to establish good relationships with prospects and existing customers. As marketers, we can build this important relationship with customers by engaging in constant conversations. It is only during such conversations that we will be able to know and understand what are their buying patterns and preferences. We will be able to assess what is known in marketing language as "consumer behavior". With such data accumulated on hand, we can do a little more research and fine-tune our product or service and customer service, in order to achieve email marketing success.

Using email, we are able to inform customers and prospects about our new and latest products or services and all the offers, bonuses, freebies and discounts that we will be offering. What better way to make this announcement other than via email that is, as you know, cheap and fast. With the help of technological innovation, you can place your offers, bonuses, freebies and discounts in your email message and link them to your salespage where they will be able to read more. An important point to note is that your message has to be compelling, providing a valid reason and strong motivation for the prospect to click on the link.

Where speed is concerned, we know that there is no other medium that is able to make transmissions any faster than email. Email is via electronic technology and this is another reason why online marketers revel in this innovation. It works speedily, and is easily the best communication medium for the purpose of providing and maintaining customer relationships. Complaints can be easily tracked and resolved almost instantly when incoming mails are checked regularly. Special requests from customers or prospects can also be easily acceded to by a simple click. Additional information about the product or service can also be relayed instantly via email. These efforts can be best rewarded only through email marketing.

We may think that the interest of the prospect may not be constant sometimes in any circumstance. Email dispels this perception. Email is one place where the marketer can sustain the interest of the prospect effectively. Placing the offer link in various places of the email message works wonders. This is tantamount to restating your offers to capture and remind the prospect of your offers. Simply, the reason is because we know that people read emails very quickly without digesting them! They scroll the messages without really paying attention to your words. So locating the offer link at multiple places often helps in this respect.

Email marketing helps online marketers in many ways. For any marketing campaign to succeed, it is imperative to have follow-up done regularly. We know that email is relatively inexpensive. All types of customers are important to marketers. Mailings received earlier must be followed up diligently. Surely no marketer would want to lose any of these customers who are precious to the bottom line. With the inexpensiveness of email, it makes sense to do follow-up diligently. Corporate marketers will endorse the fact that the email is really an effective tool to boost attendance for conferences. Of course, we do not forget that via email, people are always able to do last-minute registrations for any event without any fuss.

Email marketing will help online marketers to increase sales orders, retain customers , and importantly, to build much better relationships with customers. It is the only marketing medium that is not only fast and effective, but also cheap and inexpensive. Online marketers will be able to bathe in email marketing success.

How Much Is Your Free Email Account Worth?

2008-01-29T01:06:00.001-08:00

Most people do not think about what I call on line assets. Many folks have assets on line, items that are worth cold hard cash, but never think about it. While most free email accounts will not let you sell your address outright, your email address can be one of the most valuable assets you have on the Internet other than maybe your domain name and website content.

Most people do not think of optimizing their email address, even when doing on line marketing, and I think that it is a big mistake.

Did you know that most people will delete an email based on one of two things, the header, and the address itself. If you have an email address like yru3394@yahoo.com, what likely hood do you think that others will think that your email message is important to them? Probably very low. And from my personal experience, if you use your business name in your email address, unless you already have a relationship built up with that prospect, your email address only makes it simpler for them to throw your message in the trash. If you have a relationship with the prospect, the exact opposite however can be true, it then allows them to pick out your messages easily for reading.

But how do you get this relationship started to begin with? In such an impersonal environment as the Internet, your own name is not only unique, but it is an excellent relationship builder. Using your own name, even with a free email ISP, lends credibility to your message even before it is opened.

I am opposed to the use of spam, and in fact I feel that it is a horrible waste of time and money for the marketer in most instances, but I do know, that when I am perusing my spam box for mail that was filtered on accident, the spam that uses a personal name in the address actually catches my attention even if I do not recognize it. I do not usually read the spam, but I do notice that my attention is attracted, even when I know it is spam. So what do you think the effect is in a persons in box?

A lot of people focus on the ISP that they use, saying that to have your own domain is best, and to use a free email spells out "amateur", but I do not think that this is necessarily true. On line relationships are built on trust, and even though a local ISP email domain name or your own website domain may give a little credibility, personalization is a much greater relationship builder then the use of someone elses' company name to hide behind. Most people are smart enough to realize that the only difference from a local ISP and a free one is in fact a few dollars, and buying trust is never a real benefit in the long run, and we are all familiar with the "ISP jumper". Long gone are the days of ISP credibility.

But if you use your name, it will make your prospect want to know who you are, and once they know who you are, they will look for YOU in their in box every day.

So go ahead and save a few bucks with the use of a free email account. They are convenient, save disk space, are mobile, and do not cost a thing, and in fact are actually more recognizable in today's age then your local ISP.

They key to the value of any asset online is the ability to create a personal relationship. So what is your free email account worth?

Email Marketing Truths

2008-01-29T01:04:00.000-08:00

Every marketer, I'm sure, would want to build beneficial and long-lasting relationships with his or her customers. In so doing, customers will then be more attentive, engaged and loyal to their marketers reciprocally. Customer retention will positively affect your credibility in the long run. Who wouldn't wish for such scenario especially when the ultimate results will most probably be higher sales and profits, coupled with the possibility of increasing your customer database?

What is email marketing? We all know what email and marketing are about as distinct separate terms. Email marketing is merely the objective of marketing to transmit communications to the prospect visitor until such time that he or she is turned qualified or returns to buy your product or service.

Why email marketing? How has it been a help to marketers? To answer these questions, let's look at some reasons why it is now considered as another marketing medium.

* Ease of use - It is now extremely easy to develop effective email programs that will help you as the marketer to build customer relationships. Amazingly, the programs are user-friendly without the need to be technically inclined. Such programs will also allow marketers to effect complete and smooth management of their campaigns. Email is fast and instant. We can actually develop our email marketing programs over time to make it more efficient.

* Interactivity - We are surely aware that we can track email each time we check our mail boxes. Isn't it wonderful to know that you are actually in the real-time world of interaction with your senders. You are privileged to speak with your sender by just a click. What is very important to marketers is feedback. As customers feed comments, marketers are able to study their buying behavior via the landing page. On the lighter side, email gives you the chance to stay in contact or tell a story. You can also use it to build up loyalty for your brand of product or service.

* Inexpensive - Certainly we cannot disagree that email is extremely inexpensive. This fact is welcome news to marketers to construct their email marketing programs so as to benefit from their inexpensiveness, saving their money for other projects. They are able to do follow-ups with the opportunity to have more conversions from prospect to buying customer.

* Provides information - In order for email marketing to be effective, it is recommended that you send only important and relevant information in the emails to customers, that is to say, unique message as well as dialogue should be specially tailored for onward transmission to the customers. They must be made aware of our good service to them, that our products or services are unique to solve their needs, and more importantly, to show them that we are good listeners too.

* Trackable - Through email, we are able to know what has happened to our programs. We will definitely receive different results when we send out emails with different subject titles and headlines with differing offers and bonuses. Email marketing gets a real boost with this tracking feature of email. Future messages can thus be improved to increase clicks and conversions.

We have now seen why email marketing is considered an integral part of the marketing media. We have only to acknowledge that it is a tool great enough to affect positively your bottom-line when the final click comes.

Article Marketing Secrets

2008-01-22T02:18:00.000-08:00

Article marketing is one of the easiest ways to generate quality, qualified traffic to your web site, and I want to share with you now some secrets of article marketing.

First off, before I get into any secrets of article marketing, let me explain what is not a secret: how article marketing works.

The basic premise with article marketing is that you write articles that are related to topics on your web site, and then you put links to your web site in those articles. You submit those articles to the various online article directories, and they publish your articles on their web pages.

So what are the secrets?

One more disclaimer – these are not really secrets, but since almost nobody does these, then I assume most people don’t know them. You see, the average person submits somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 articles. But the average fulltime article writer submits perhaps 20 or more per day. And you have to assume that article marketing works if people are willing to spend the time to write and submit 20+ articles per day, and call it a living.

Now – the secrets.

1) You have to write more than 7 articles. If you write and submit correctly a lot of articles, people see your name online a lot, they run into your articles all over the web – and they naturally assume that you are an expert. Who are you going to believe – the guy with 1000+ articles, or the one with 4 articles?

2) The article directories that have high page ranks in the search engines can get your articles into the top ten spots for select keywords – something that your puny little site can scarcely do. So when they get your article to a top ten spot, you get clicks from the articles. And the clicks are high quality, because they not only originated in a search engine, looking for you (higher quality than PPC) – but they have read your article and have decided they want to know more from you. This is really high quality traffic.

3) Your own subscribers will develop more trust in you as they read your articles online. This will augment your web site, your email campaign, your sales campaign – everything.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘

How Important is Creating Credibility with Articles and Web Content?

2008-01-22T02:15:00.000-08:00

Email marketing used to be the best way to get your name in from of people. Mass emailings were once considered the fair-haired child, but those days are no longer. In fact, people who have to resort to email marketing and spam are often seen as less credible than those who use more non-invasive methods.

In order to boost credibility, people are turning to article writing and web content. In some ways it makes sense: if you were looking for garden tools and wanted the most current innovations, you might trust someone who has written and is published on the subject before you would trust someone who clogs your inbox with email hairballs.

However, a real expert will have to establish himself or herself by providing good information. These days many people can get “published” just by posting material on a content website. Big deal. If the articles are published in various places and picked up by an online magazine or two, those are much better references--especially if the online magazine is specific to the subject that the author is writing about.

Also remember that many people hire these articles to be written by others. Ghost writing does not make an expert, but often experts in the field aren’t necessarily good writers. So the only true way to tell if a person has credibility is to check referrals and contact them personally to see if they can answer your questions well

Marketing Article - Why Write Marketing Articles?

2008-01-17T04:28:00.001-08:00

At this point, I am going to assume that you write articles. So why write marketing articles?

I think that one of the reasons is that people are looking for marketing articles – they want to learn how to do marketing, especially online marketing, web marketing, article marketing, etc.

When you write marketing articles and post them online to the various article directories, including the one this one was originally posted to, you gain web traffic via the search engines.

You see, people online search the web, and they generally will read the articles that come up in the top ten results of their search results in the search engine they used. And the big article directories, especially the one that this was originally published on, have the page rank to get your article to the top ten results, especially for 2nd and 3 rd tier and long tailed keywords.

So when you write marketing articles, you get world wide readership and that can mean world wide visitors to your web site. An astonishing number of the people that visit my web site, although I am in the US, are in countries all around the world. Literally all around the world. I think I have subscribers in every continent around the world – maybe excluding Antarctica – so if you are in Antarctica – you know what to do!

Anyhow, write marketing articles, submit them to the top 5 article directories (or at least just the one this one was published first to) and watch the traffic roll in. By the way, you have to write more than 2 or 3!

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘

Increase Targeted Traffic to Your Web Site II

2008-01-17T04:27:00.000-08:00

Increasing targeted traffic to your web site is one of the easiest ways to boost your online productivity. No matter how good your sales page is, no matter how good your squeeze page is, if you do not have targeted traffic to your web site, you are not going to make money online.

You simply have to have traffic to have anyone even look at your web site to make a decision. So how do you increase the targeted traffic to your web site?

1) Article marketing is an incredible way to increase targeted traffic to your web site. Simply write articles that are themed similarly to your web site, add links to your web site within the articles, and submit the articles to the various online article directories.

2) Ezine advertising is also a good way to increase targeted traffic to your web site. You have to be careful, and be sure to test everything that you do, as ezine advertising can be expensive, and some ezines are actually quite worthless – and there is no way to really know without testing. Buy a small ad to test them – if you can’t pay for the ad with the conversion on a small ad, you probably can’t on a bigger ad, either.

3) If you have a considerable budget for testing, try PPC. Two things to note: it is not magic, and requires intensive testing and development before it starts to break even. Buy a manual on how to do it, and do what the manual says. Test everything, and recognize that you will probably lose money at first – and if you do not have at least $500 to lose on testing, do not even think about it.

4) Another option is targeted opt in email direct marketing. You will have to do some testing with this, also, and be sure that you adhere to all the SPAM and email laws that apply to your jurisdiction and the jurisdictions in which you mail.

The 5-Minute Guide To Profitable Email Marketing

2008-01-03T03:17:00.000-08:00

It's a challenging task to make profits from email marketing. There's plenty to consider, and if you're not careful, you can easily be bogged down by the task. Here's your 5-minute guide to making profits from email marketing:

The Type Of Email

There are generally three types of emails you can send to your subscribers - content emails, promotional emails and an email that is a combination of both content and promotion . To succeed in email marketing, you need to use all three types of emails at different intervals. The best way to use them would be through "staggered marketing" - for example on one day you might send a promotional email, but your next email would be a content email.

Your Email Subject Line

The subject is the MOST important part of your email. It is the first thing your subscribers notice, and determines whether your email is opened or not. Many email marketers spend a lot of time on the content of their email, but rush through their subject line. In fact, it should be the other way around. Spend a lot of time on your subject line. Make sure it spells out the benefits for your subscribers (why should they open YOUR email?) and gets them itching to open your email.

Your Email Content

Short emails work the best in getting results and click-throughs. Often, when someone opens his email inbox, he is bombarded with so many emails that he simply cannot take the time to read a long email. Write a short, benefit-driven email that focuses on getting the click through. If your email is a pure content email, you can provide a link to a blog or to your website, where you have the content located.

Email Marketing

2008-01-03T03:15:00.002-08:00

The new buzzword in the context of advertisement and marketing is e-mail marketing. The series of questions which comes up in your mind after hearing it are what is e-mail marketing? How it is carried out? What are its advantages? And what are the pros and cons in this context?

To explain to a layman, e-mail marketing is basically the advertising and direct marketing done by the companies and organization of any products and event by sending e-mails to mass in their mailbox.

Tips & Tricks

" "Form" line of the mail must be very strong to make the person to read the mail.

" Subject line of the mail has to be attractive to compel to read the mail.

" The mail must be concise & focused. Formatting must be done with lot of white space so that it is easily readable.

" None from the inside of the organization should assess the e-mail send mailed for the campaign. Any one who is unbiased and does not belong to the organization must always do assessment.

" Use of Viral E-mail marketing

" Opt in e-mail

" Bulk e-mail marketing

" E-mail newsletter marketing

" Offering of incentives are to be done to the person those who have major contribution in the campaigning.

" Avoid e-mail marketing during the holidays.

" You must not forget the preview pane in your campaign

" Experiment must be done with link placement in newsletters for maximizing performance.

" Get newsletter subscribers with sweepstakes

Compelling Letters

The key to any product marketing and advertisement is to make a person read the mail, which has been delivered in his mailbox. This is most fundamental and key operation from where e-mail marketing starts. Following information will be helpful to you to write a mail to reach out to your potential customers.

" Create a clear call to action in e-mail marketing campaigns Make sure the recipients of your email marketing message know what you expect them to do (and what they can expect in return).

" Avoid using $$$ signs in e-mails send out during campaigns

" Remember the preview pane in your campaign. Move the boring stuff down the page, and greet recipients with your best offer instead.

" Emphasize must be laid on words, not on exclamation marks in your copy.

" Putting the right links in the right places in your newsletters is very important for maximizing performance.

" Reflection of your cooperate design through your e-mail is very necessary. Making the reader know that the marketing is for your product.

" Whether to publish your newsletter, as HTML or plain text must be decided by your recipients.

" Make landing pages fit your e-mail marketing campaign. A campaign for email marketing is nothing without any landing page, so be certain that it visually belongs to the campaign and doesn't irritate the user.

" "How can I do this?" content ideas are very essential.

" To provide useful service and prove your expertise in the field consolidating news are required in the mails, which are send.

" Pre filling of forms on landing pages. Make purchasing easy by pre filling forms on pages reached from your newsletter.

Viral Marketing

This is a kind of chain reaction. Once a recipient is mailed he then forwards the mails to his friends and relatives and this reaches a very large population of people in search of potential customers for the product or event.

Requirement for this type of campaign

" A very good concept of marketing and advertising principles

" Forwarding of e-mails by sign up offers

" Driving of website traffic is required

" Design of incentives programmers are required which can be handy for the future campaigns

" Advertisement can generate revenue. More people see or click on the ad when the e-mail gets forwarded.

Outcomes of viral e-mail marketing

" Exponential rise in number of people able to read the mail.

" A sort of brand exposure is reached

" Product information and cross-selling takes place

" Generation of revenue is established.

" Getting names of anonymous subscribers helps conversion of users into subscribers whom you can personally greet by asking their name.

Advantages

" It is less expensive compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters

" Properly and e-mail marketing has given high return on investment.

" In comparison to mailed advertisement it is instant and lets the advertiser "push" the message to its audience.

" Measuring of open rates, positive or negative responses, correlating sales with marketing can be done.

" With "track to basket" exact Return on investment can be calculated.

" It has no impact on the environment.

Mistakes committed

" "Register" and "buy" in subject lines are common.

" To avoid mistakes during campaign outsiders must be given the responsibility to asses the mails as the outsider would be unbiased

" Negatives feedback should be reduced while viral marketing as far as possible. Companies considering an e-mail marketing program must be certain that their program doesn't infringe Spam laws for example the United States Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, the European Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 or their Internet provider's acceptable use policy.

What Is Ethical Email Marketing Basically?

2008-01-03T03:15:00.001-08:00

Email marketing as its name suggests is using email as a means to do your own marketing on the internet.

The basic mechanics behind it is that you collect the emails from your website visitors and email them your offer or anything related to your niche.

For example, if you are blogging or have a website about "breeding arowana fish", you put a subscription box where your website visitors can leave their name and email in exchange for some kind of information that you offer. This information could be in the form of an e-course about arowana, an e-book or just simply a permission for you to send out more information on the website whenever you update it.

People who are interested about arowana will definitely like to be updated about anything related to this fish and they will allow you to send more emails to them. Of course, you want to also include a note saying that by filling up the webform that you put on your website, they allow you to send more emails in the future.

Then, when you get their names and emails, it becomes your goldmine.

You can send out the product that you promised immediately (e-course or e-book) or update them with current activities you have on your website. From here, you can also send out advertisements on the products related to arowana, and since this group of people are really arowana lovers, there is a high chance that they'll buy the products that you recommend (or advertise).

If you are the product owner or an affiliate for the products that you recommend to this mailing list, you will generate an income from sending out your emails. This is because, in the eyes of the people in your mailing list, you are an expert in arowana or at least a person that they can trust enough to buy your product recommendation.

Email marketing will work in any niche if you do it right, and the powerful tool you can use to build your email database is by subscribing to one of the autoresponders services such as GetResponse or Aweber.

Emails - Why Do You Hit Delete?

2008-01-03T03:14:00.001-08:00

We all do it.

We open an email, start reading a few words and then think, "I don't have time for this." We hit the delete button and go on our merry way. Sometimes we don't even open up the email before we get trigger happy with that delete button.

The next time you stretch your right pinky finger (or pointer finger for the hunt and peck types) over to the delete button, stop and ask yourself why. Why are you deleting? If you can see the "whys", then you can turn it around to see what not to do when you send out emails to your own list.

What time of the day is it?
You might think this is a silly question at first blush, but it is important. Do you find yourself consistently deleting emails between the hours of 10:00 am and 4:00 pm? If you do, maybe it's because this is the time when you need to accomplish something, whether it's at a real JOB or with your internet business. I think you might find that most people read their emails and are more likely to buy first thing in the morning, or in the evening after dinner time.

Too many promotions and no real content from this person?
There are times when you look at the sender's name and groan... not another promotion. Since it's easier to resist their pitch if you don't open their email, you hit the delete as fast as you can. Don't be that guy. Send some useful info just for the heck of it, without strings attached.

Too many emails from this sender.
Some people just won't leave you alone! Even emails that aren't trying to sell us something become intrusive when they come way too often. It's like your mother calling you twice a day. You like her, but not that much. Decide what is right for your list and your niche; even once a week may be too often, and twice a day definitely is!

This sender has lost your trust.
Maybe it's all the hype words in their email - "killer!", "this will make you an overnight gazillionaire!", "he's the real deal!", etc. Perhaps you bought into the hype and bought the product only to be disappointed big time. Now you have a hard time believing anything they say. Make sure you're not one of these types by really reading through and perhaps testing out a product you want to promote. Sure it takes a little time, but your credibility has a price tag and you can't be bought, right?

Who the heck is this person?
Sometime we get emails and don't recognize the signature line at all. "Do I know him?", "Did I opt-in for something that I don't remember?", "Is this a virus?" We've all gotten plenty of unsolicited email and it's maddening to spend precious time on these. The point I'm trying to make here is that you have to send emails to your lists regularly so they remember who you are. You can't send out a couple emails right after they sign up and then not send anything for 2 months. As unflattering as it sounds, people won't remember you.

These are only a few reasons why you might delete an email. Only you know for sure. The next time you hit delete, take a moment to think about why. When you have reasons for the "whys", you can take a good hard look at the emails you send. That way you can do your best not to have your emails be a delete statistic.

5 Steps To Email Advertising Success

2008-01-03T03:12:00.000-08:00

Email advertising has become a very popular way to get your offer out and viewed by millions. It is a very cheap form of advertising and can be highly effective because most of the time the people that see your offer have either opted-in to view offers like yours or they have no interest but then become interested when they view your offer. Email advertising is fast and efficient and response time is quick. There are 3 types of email advertising:

1. Opt-ins - These are targeted prospects that have asked for product offers similar to your's. This is an effective form of email marketing with a good response rate.

2. Ezines - These are sent to targeted prospects from ezines that people are subscribed to. This one can be highly effective. Prospects are subscribed to the ezine and most of the time, look forward to the email.

3. Bulk Emails - Send to everyone and anyone regardless of whether or not they are interested in the product. Most of the time these emails get deleted straight away - unless you can come up with a catchy headline that grabs their attention and makes the recipient open the email out of curiosity - then they are deleted most of the time. This is the least effective form of advertising, however, you should be able to hold some attention, depending on your offer.

So Opt-ins and Ezines are the best form of email advertising that you can use. They say the average person has to see an offer up to 7 times before they will take action and purchase - if they are slightly interested in the offer. You must be consistent in your email advertising campaigns and use a good trusted email advertising service that can get your offers out to millions of targeted prospects. Here is an excellent service that can get your offer out to 75 million targeted prospects and ezine subscribers and over 5 million websites http://www.traffic101.bloggers-guide.com

Here are 5 easy steps to creating a very successful email ad:

1. Only promote or create products that look good and are useful and highly effective. Promote products that are, in your opinion excellent and are worthwhile products.

2. Create an attention-grabbing headline that describes your product's best and most desirable benefit. The idea is to get their attention and make them open the email, especially those that received your offer through bulk email.

3. Write your ad, listing every single benefit that you can think of. The more you list the better.

4. Ensure that you have a way of capturing the email addresses of those that do make a purchase. You will want to send them more offers at a later date.

5. Put your email advertising service to good use and send your offer out to millions. Remember to be very consistent with your offers.

Email advertising is very effective due to the massive numbers of people that get to view what you have on offer. Imagine getting a decent offer out to millions of people, and imagine if only 1% of those people purchased your product every time you sent out an offer. Imagine if 3% or 5% or even 10% purchased. Email advertising is excellent. I recommend that you should at least try it with a decent offer and see where it could take you.

SPF Records - The Key to Email Marketing Success

2007-12-19T21:59:00.000-08:00

Are you managing email promotional campaigns without an SPF (Sender Policy Framework) record in place? If so, you could be losing thousands of emails to spam and bulk mail filters, diminishing your results and hurting your bottom line. But SPF is an easy, one-time fix that can give your message a potential VIP pass into your customers' Inbox.

SPF helps anyone dramatically improve email deliverability. It's a basic Domain Name Service (DNS) record associated with your domain name. Your SPF record tells Internet Service Providers like aol, gmail or a specific company domain name, responsible for delivering your email messages to customers that you're really who you say you are. It's much like credit card authentication prior to purchase. You would not accept a credit card without first running it through your merchant system for approval or decline. So why would you ask your customers to blindly trust all email arriving in their Inbox -- especially when identity theft and phishing threats abound.

While it sounds technical, SPF set-up is extremely easy. Plus, it's free - and you only have to create your record once. You can either use a Wizard, like that available at OpenSPF, to walk through each step, or you can create a record manually with your domain name registrar or hosting provider. Your email administrator or web host can also help you. Be sure to provide the sending IP address of your Email Service Provider.

Remember, avoid common mistakes webmasters make when sending emails.

* Use your domain name as the "From" address. For example, if you send email from sales@yourcompanyname.com, remember to publish your SPF record from yourcompanyname.com.
* Don't use free providers as the "From" address. If you send email using a free email provider like gmail or yahoo, you cannot set-up an SPF record.

Domain name ownership is inexpensive and provides one of the easiest ways to express your professionalism and improve deliverability.

Writing Effective Email Newsletters

2007-12-19T21:58:00.000-08:00

Email newsletters are clogging your inbox. And it's not just you. It's everybody. Email newsletters are a great way for people to stay in touch with their audiences and everybody knows it. And that means everybody has a newsletter and they all want you to sign-up, giving them your email address along with an invitation to email you with whatever they might be offering.

This is not entirely a bad thing. Fact is; we're receiving more free information than we ever have before. All these merchants are trying to capture our attention and gain our trust with valuable content. And of course, we have to option to sign up for whichever newsletters we might be interested in so the information we're getting is essentially by request. But the sad reality is that most email newsletters never get read. In fact, a recent study found that only 19% of email newsletters ever get looked at. That's bad news for those writing them.

If you've had any experience with email newsletters, you'll know that they tend to fall into two buckets. In the first bucket, you'll find the cookie-cutter newsletters with standardized formats, nicely crafted colorful layouts, interesting sidebars and perfectly positioned articles. In the second bucket, you'll find the emails that come to you regularly from a provider you signed up for but that look more like a personal text email than a formal newsletter. And as it turns out, these two approaches deliver very different results.

The probability of having a conversational text-based email read are far greater than having a standardized and html-formatted newsletter read and it's because recipients perceive the former as a personal message and the latter as spam. Of course, it doesn't take long before they realize that the supposedly personal message is spam as well but if the opening sentence or two are captivating enough, the recipient may already be caught in the web and destined to read the whole thing.

For those of us who send out periodic email newsletters, there are a couple lessons we can learn from all this. For starters, if you're using a standardized newsletter template, consider changing to a less structured and more conversational format. And by the way, this includes the title. Don't reference "monthly newsletter" in the subject line. Instead, use something more timely and unique. Use a title you would write to a friend, something that looks more personal.

Anyone who uses Outlook knows that the preview pane allows you to glance inside the email before actually opening it. This is where the standardized format can really hurt you. If the contents are just straight text and appear more conversational, the chances of having the email opened goes up dramatically. And a strong timely subject line adds to that probability as well.

Once the email is open or at least being viewed through the preview pane, make absolutely sure your opening sentence or two are dynamic and captivating. Make sure those opening words are well-written and that they clearly define the value available to the recipient if they read further. This is the biggest mistake of standardized newsletters. They always have some boring standardized text at the very top. Don't do it. Make sure your opening sentence is unique for each newsletter and encourages the recipient to continue reading.

Taking this approach may reduce the perceived formality of your newsletter but it will definitely increase the number of people who read it. Don't get caught up with the formality issue. If you're presenting valuable information, your clients will respect you plenty. The sad reality happens when you send out valuable information and nobody knows because nobody read it. You're better off catering to people's natural curiosities and writing your periodic newsletters in a casual and personal way.

Picking The Right Email Internet Marketing Service Is A Good Foundation

2007-12-18T01:10:00.001-08:00

The list the list the list, the money is in the list. More appropriately we should call it the subscribers opt in list. Permission base marketing is the big changes in marketing caused by the internet. Because of keywords and all of the tracking of individual's website viewing habits, advertisers are better able to focus their marketing dollars on people who fit into categories that better reflect sellers target markets.

This is well know by many, the other interesting part that makes the playing field level for a lot more people is the fact that email is free. Well sort of... The bottom line is that now I can put a message in front of you whenever I want and it doesn't cost me any more to do it once a month or once a day. This gives me the opportunity to educate, build trust, and learn more about my customers than ever before. Well, I guess it could be done before, but now you don't have to be a gagillionare to do it, in other words, just about anybody can do it.

The bottom line is that your list doesn't have to get very big, before this whole process can become quite unmanageable. Or at the very least extremely time consuming. Isn't the point of a home based business or working at home to have more free time, not less? So what is the key? The key is picking a suitable email internet marketing service. There is no shortage of options when trying to decide what might fit your needs. You can pick one that you load on your computer, one that you load on a webhosting server, one that is a major service provider to thousands of people sending mass emails, or smaller mom and pop companies that you might have the webmasters personal email address.

The bottom line is who you are, what you know and understand about technology, what you like and what you don't like will all play a role in your decision of what will fit your needs. For this reason, I recommend trying a few free trials and really take some times and look at what is out there. You are probably thinking, I don't have time for that? Let me be the first to tell you, that whatever you decide, there is going to be a rather lengthy learning curve, so make sure they have good support.

Because of the opt in process, and what happens if they do it right, don't do it right, what they see afterwards, and what the confirmation page might say, be prepared to put some time into your autoresponder, the good news is, that it will be time well spent and will even pay dividends. Subscribe for my ezine, and you will have a chance to only learn a lot more about Internet marketing, but how you can get your own 400 day prewritten autoresponder.

4 Steps To More Effective Email Marketing Efforts

2007-12-18T01:08:00.000-08:00

Email marketing is a cost effective tool when it comes to talking about marketing techniques online. Every website is dependent upon a good marketing campaign in order to generate profit and to be seen in popular web searches. Without properly focused marketing efforts, the best of the websites can remain unknown to people and thus, would not serve its purpose of giving you monetary advantage.

For you to direct your marketing efforts in the proper direction, it's pretty much a given that you properly plan the steps that would take you to running a profitable business online.

• First of all, start by developing a good, simple, easily understandable and attractive email to be sent to your prospective customers. Make sure that the content you create is to the point and delivers what it's intended for.

• Secondly, define who should be your target audience. This is extremely necessary as your marketing campaign can really flop if you do not know whom to target.

• Thirdly, avoid mass mailing. Don't send out emails to just anyone. Your intention is to be read and not end up with your efforts in the trash cans. If you just send out emails by grabbing email lists from where ever you can them, your efforts are likely to be wasted.

• Lastly, always keep track of where you have sent your emails and occasionally, ask for feedback from your list. This will help you to bond with your list of prospective customers. Always provide an email address where they can contact you should they have the need to.

Targeted Email Marketing - Little Known Secrets About Targeted Email Marketing

2007-12-15T02:36:00.000-08:00

This article was written keeping all our views and ideals about targeted email marketing in mind.

Autoresponder Access to Secret Pages

The presentation of an article on targeted email marketing plays an important role in getting the reader interested in reading it. This is the reason for this presentation, which has gotten you interested in reading it!

We have included the secret of targeted email marketing here so that you will learn more about its secrecy. It is only through it's secret can you learn more about targeted email marketing. People love to have access to things that other people can't get. It makes them feel special, and it is a marketing tactic that really works. Granting access to secret pages works well on the Internet. It works best when it is limited. For instance, you can grant access to only a lucky few, or you can have a time limit for accessing the pages. You can grant access to secret pages on your website with an autoresponder.

A substantial amount of the words here are all inter-connected to and about targeted email marketing. Understand them to get an overall understanding on targeted email marketing.

The way this works is quite simple. You create a directory on your website that is password protected, with one login and password that everybody can use. You then create some valuable content for that directory. You can call this your secret vault or your private stash or anything else you want to call it - as long as it sounds like something that your visitors may really want to get their hands on. For instance 'the secret tools that helped me earn thousands each month' would probably entice many people who want to learn how to make money.

Once you get the directory and the pages set up, put the URL of the pages and the login name and password in an autoresponder. Write a sales page and distribute it to your opt-in list, or have other list owners distribute it to theirs. Make sure you 'limit' the offer. Don't let people assume that you are going to share this secret information with the rest of the world - they want to be the only ones with this special access!

Keep access to the secret pages free. The goal is to get people to those pages, so that they can purchase your products or services. However, remember that you've advertised secret tools or secret information.Therefore, when they get to those pages, there must be something of value there for them to collect - for free in most cases. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you will be losing money by giving something away for free - you won't. In fact, you've already gained by collecting the names and addresses of the people who were interested in your secret information!

Again, this is a marketing tactic that really works, and it is a great way to use an autoresponder. Once people have requested the information for your private pages, you can email them periodically, using your autoresponder, to let them know about updates to the secret site. While you are updating them, you can also tell them about other specials or new products in your line. The world of targeted email marketing is an interesting one. It is with this objective that this article on targeted email marketing was written so that people got to know more about it.

Lucrative Email Marketing - 6 Ways to Email Marketing

2007-12-15T02:35:00.000-08:00

How many spam email do you receive everyday? Some online users are so tired of them that they set their preference to receive email only from people that are listed on their address books. Some advertisers abuse this technique not knowing that it can do more harm than good for their business. In this article, you will learn the 6 powerful ways so your email will be read;

1. Use the recipient's name in your e-mail. Make your recipients feel that they are not just part of your list by addressing them using their first names.

2. Never use dollar sign on the subject of your email. Most spam emails use $$$ in the hopes that they will entice potential clients to open them. But online users today are clever than ever. They usually customize their spam tool to direct emails containing $$$ to their spam folder.

3. Avoid sending promotional email during holidays. It saves you time and effort. Holidays are usually the time for online users to go on vacation and they don't have the time to open their email. Focus your energy on sending promotional email one week after the holidays.

4. Create call to action. Make sure that your email clearly communicates your instructions on what you would like your readers to do. Make sure that you present a step by step guide on how they can go to the website you would like them to visit or how they can purchase the products and services you are promoting.

5. Incorporate an unsubscription link on your email. You would never know when somebody want to stop receiving email from you, thus, it is beneficial that you make it easier for them to unsubscribe to your list whenever they want to. By doing this, you minimize the chances of getting a spam complaint from your recipients.

Targeted Email Marketing - Useful Tips to Profit with Email Marketing

2007-12-12T02:01:00.000-08:00

Email marketing can be quite easy if you have got the experience and skills of a seasoned net businessman. However, the things you need to know about email marketing can easily be learned - so do not worry so much and concentrate on learning as much as you can about this tool which can really help skyrocket your business profits on the world wide web. What you need is to know the simple but effective things that any savvy internet marketer needs to know - and grow from there. These may be simple but are definitely effective and will truly help make your internet marketing a whole lot better.

For one thing, you need to make sure that you have an updated list or database of customers who will check out your announcements. Do not let your database stagnate - even if you have really witty emails for sending, those will only be wasted because the people in your list are those who do not regularly check out their accounts. Another thing you need to consider is to make sure that your email is short but sweet. Meaning, get straight to the point and deliver the message without making the reader go through long-winding sentences which you think are designed to make them all the more interested but will actually bore them to death. And finally, your email marketing message must always contain the important information they will need in order to access more data or the product or service itself. This means a link to your website, your contact details, and email for queries. It will be difficult if you just respond to all emails, so let them do the exploring themselves and put a link to the site where the item or service is located. Get on and get started with email marketing today!

Targeted Email Marketing - Little Known Secrets About Targeted Email Marketing

2007-12-12T02:00:00.000-08:00

This article was written keeping all our views and ideals about targeted email marketing in mind.

Autoresponder Access to Secret Pages The presentation of an article on targeted email marketing plays an important role in getting the reader interested in reading it. This is the reason for this presentation, which has gotten you interested in reading it!

We have included the secret of targeted email marketing here so that you will learn more about its secrecy. It is only through it's secret can you learn more about targeted email marketing. People love to have access to things that other people can't get. It makes them feel special, and it is a marketing tactic that really works. Granting access to secret pages works well on the Internet. It works best when it is limited. For instance, you can grant access to only a lucky few, or you can have a time limit for accessing the pages. You can grant access to secret pages on your website with an autoresponder.

A substantial amount of the words here are all inter-connected to and about targeted email marketing. Understand them to get an overall understanding on targeted email marketing.

The way this works is quite simple. You create a directory on your website that is password protected, with one login and password that everybody can use. You then create some valuable content for that directory. You can call this your secret vault or your private stash or anything else you want to call it - as long as it sounds like something that your visitors may really want to get their hands on. For instance 'the secret tools that helped me earn thousands each month' would probably entice many people who want to learn how to make money.

Once you get the directory and the pages set up, put the URL of the pages and the login name and password in an autoresponder. Write a sales page and distribute it to your opt-in list, or have other list owners distribute it to theirs. Make sure you 'limit' the offer. Don't let people assume that you are going to share this secret information with the rest of the world - they want to be the only ones with this special access!

Keep access to the secret pages free. The goal is to get people to those pages, so that they can purchase your products or services. However, remember that you've advertised secret tools or secret information.Therefore, when they get to those pages, there must be something of value there for them to collect - for free in most cases. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you will be losing money by giving something away for free - you won't. In fact, you've already gained by collecting the names and addresses of the people who were interested in your secret information!

Again, this is a marketing tactic that really works, and it is a great way to use an autoresponder. Once people have requested the information for your private pages, you can email them periodically, using your autoresponder, to let them know about updates to the secret site. While you are updating them, you can also tell them about other specials or new products in your line. The world of targeted email marketing is an interesting one. It is with this objective that this article on targeted email marketing was written so that people got to know more about it.

Are You a Spammer?

2007-12-05T03:21:00.000-08:00

My money says that there is about a 50% chance that you are a spammer and don't know it. Why do I think so? It is my observation, that although the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 is old news, half of the commercial e-mail marketers either ignore the law or simply don't understand it.

I monitored my incoming e-mails for the last seven days and guess what I found? About 50% of the e-mails that I received were not in compliance. Most of these e-mails came from the sources that I had opted-in. By the way, these were mostly legitimate firms that sent e-mails that did not get caught by my spam filter.

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 very specifically identifies the following:

• Bans false or misleading "from" lines
• Prohibits deceptive subject lines
• Requires an opt-out method
• Requires that e-mail be identified as an advertisement
• Requires the sender's valid physical postal address.

Further, each violation is subject to fines of up to $11,000! That is huge! While it is true that prosecution has been modest to date, it is increasing. The courts are getting progressively tougher while consumers and businesses have grown weary of the constant bombardment by spammers-opt-in or not.

The law is quite specific, yet companies are largely ignoring it. Why? Ignorance of the law is a factor, but the lack of enforcement is the root cause.

My recommendation is to obey the way today and avoid the wrath of the court system. There may be reckoning and it won't be pretty.

Go For Free or Pro Safelists

2007-12-05T03:20:00.000-08:00

Free and Pro Safelists are two different types of safelist subscriptions.

Free safelists are a good way to test your product before assigning a budget to your marketing campaign. All you have to do is create an effective ad, sign-up for a free subscription, insert your ad where directed, and with one click, your message will be sent to thousands of other free members on the safelist.

You can usually only send your ad once a week with a free membership, and you will receive emails from all members on the free safelist. But it couldn't be easier to update your ad weekly, and you will reach thousands of potential prospects with the ease of a single click.

Because of the amount of email you will receive with a Free membership, you must be sure that your email server has sufficient space, or your mail will be bounced back, effectively closing you out of the safelist until you clear your inbox. Some free safelists will remove you from the list entirely if you bounce mail more than a certain number of times.

Also, be aware that many free safelists do not allow hotmail and other free email accounts. It's important to understand and follow the rules of any safelist. But remember, Free subscriptions means free advertising, with the guarantee of safe mailing because your mail will never be viewed as spam.

Pro membership is a paid subscription and offers additional benefits. You are allowed to send your ads more frequently, usually around three or four times per week. Some Pro memberships allow you to update your mail daily, which also means you can change the product or service you are promoting regularly. Additionally, you will only receive mail from other paid members, substantially reducing the amount of ads in your inbox.

Some safelists let you personalize your messages by adding headers and footers, and the character count of your email is usually substantially greater with a Pro membershp than with a free membership. Some additional benefits with a Pro subscription include:

* ·Free link tracking to other paid members, which includes tracking hits, browser type, and operating systems, etc.

* One-click submission of ads

* Virus protection

* banner advertising

* activate or deactivate vacation mode

* affiliate programs

* ads saved in list's database

* greatly reduce the number of emails you receive daily

* extra bonus downloads

* send ads in text or html format

* auto email cleaners

* URL trackers

It is sometimes a good idea to test your ad out in a free membership. Try out different headlines, copy, graphics, and text, and then when you have discovered what works for your product or service, upgrade to a Pro membership.

Try out a few different Free safelists first, and track your responses. You will find that some lists work better for your needs than others. Keep track for the first few weeks, and upgrade only to those lists that your have received a good response from.

Different safelists have different benefits and extras, so check out dozens before you begin signing up. Once you do, you'll be on your way to an extremely effective marketing campaign as long as you monitor your safelists accounts carefully.

The Power of Using Email in Your Marketing!

2007-12-02T08:04:00.000-08:00

Without a doubt, email marketing is one of the most cost effective and work smart methods for marketing your business. You can reach thousands of prospects with just a simple click of a button. Yet, most marketers struggle to get effective results from their marketing efforts.

Not only are you faced with the CAN-SPAM Act and being compliant, but the email systems your prospects use can easily filter out your email before they ever see your message. Plus, people are bombarded with an avalanche of emails every day. This makes email marketing very challenging.

The great news is you can learn how to be effective using email as a method of marketing. Your success at using email effectively begins by understanding some very simple fundamentals regarding the use of email. These basics must be learned and applied, especially if you want to tap the true power of using email in your marketing, so you can have a competitive advantage.

As with any marketing method, it will take you time, patience, and consistent tracking of your marketing actions. Just because you have an email address and something to offer, does not mean you will get the results you want when you send an email message. There is much more to it.

As a Certified Training Consultant and Success Coach, I have worked with thousands of marketers over the years. I have also observed through their marketing efforts, as well as through all the emails I receive everyday, that most marketers misunderstand email marketing. Therefore, they get pitiful results. The misunderstanding is not only in how to use email but also in the power email marketing can provide to their business.

In March 1999, I began a track of personal success that helped me achieve a record of consistency in my marketing efforts. In fact, I personally sponsored over 800+ people total, which spanned a record of me sponsoring an average of 10+ people a month for 73 consecutive months.

The success I had did not come over night, nor did it happen with any magical tool. But it did happen with the use of technology including email. The fact is the technology helped me leverage my time and effort so I could focus my time in talking with primarily interested prospects. About 80% of my marketing efforts were connected to online marketing and email played an important part in my entire marketing strategy.

I continue to use email effectively in my business, not only for marketing but also for follow-up and support. The facts prove email works and email is a work smart tool. This is one of the reasons it is one of the 5 methods categories required in the 5 Point Strategy I use in the marketing of my business.

Why do I succeed at email marketing and others seem to fail? Simple - I take consistent action doing the things that work! The bottom line is that I have learned how to use email and unleash the power of email marketing in building my business.

Following are seven tips to follow, which will help you effectively use email in your marketing. Learn these tips and make sure you apply what you learn.

TIP # 1 - Email is Just a Tool

The method of email marketing consists of many tools and email is just one of many tools you will use. Other tools include, but are not limited to, auto responder follow-up systems, instant messaging, broadcast systems, and web sites.

Use email as a tool for leveraging your time and to supplement your communication with your prospects and downline. Do not forget the fact that network marketing is about building relationships and you can't build relationships unless you talk with people. Regardless of what tools you use in your email marketing campaign, your most important tool in email marketing is the telephone.

TIP # 2 - Understand What It Takes to Get the Results You Want

Type a message, click send, and they join! In the reality, that rarely happens. In fact, over 97% of those marketing online with email are not getting the results they want. Why? The answer is simple, but not easy! They are not adhering to the very basic fundamentals that make email marketing work.

In marketing, there are three critical areas of the marketing mix affecting your results:

1) Your message
2) Your target market
3) Your marketing method

To get the results you want, you must make certain these three areas of your marketing mix are in balance. I one area is out of balance, you will NOT get the results you want.

TIP # 3 - Think Long Term!

Too often we are thinking short term and focus only on the immediate gain. One very important lesson I learned early on is that consistent email marketing and following up with prospects long term makes a big pay off.

I do a lot of market-testing using email and other technological tools. I also use some very basic tools that help me keep a pulse on my actions, ensuring that I am consistently doing what works. To accomplish this task, I track and I recommend you do to.

In my own business, I had done a study about three years after I started using email in my marketing. In this study, the statistics showed I averaged a 12.2%+ conversion rate in the conversion of prospect to new customer/downline.

The real breakthrough for me came from what the study revealed on long-term results. The results in this study proved to me conclusively that the greatest benefits from email marketing efforts come from long-term effort. Here is what my statistics showed and the results are Phenomenal! This study looked at the prospects who entered my email marketing system in the first 70 days of its use. What was discovered was that within 30-45 days of entering the system, 10%+ of the prospects converted from prospect to downline (customer). At the time of this study, of those prospects entering the system in the first 70 days, I also had a long-term conversion rate of 29.72%! The bottom line is, the power is in the follow-up... and email works to supplement your overall marketing efforts. Think long-term!

TIP # 4 - Do NOT Spam!

This is more than a tip, this is a rule you should never break. Spamming is irresponsible and can get you into major trouble. It can also cause a lot of problems. Spamming can ruin your reputation and credibility. Bottom line is do not do it.

With the CAN-SPAM Act, one can also be intimidated as a marketer. This is where you must become a student of email marketing and learn from what we teach you (we invest a ton of money in market-testing and teach what works). You will find, over time you will master the necessary skills to be effective in email marketing. The extra steps you take in learning effective email marketing and how to get results without spamming, the less likely you will be accused of spam. Being responsible in your marketing is essential and is required if you want to be view as credible in the marketplace.

TIP # 5 - Keep It Simple

While the technologies we have today look great and sound like the next best thing since sliced bread, stick to the basics. You do not need all the bells and whistles. You don't need video or even audio. But you do need an effective message focused on your prospect's wants and needs.

Unfortunately, too many marketers do not realize that many people operate with older computer systems. Although you may have the latest technology, keep in mind most of your prospects are not internet savvy and are not working with the latest of technologies.

TIP # 6 - Personalize

People do business with people they know and trust. Personalization in your email marketing will extend a very long way. Use the prospect's name and even relate to things you know about your prospect and their wants or needs. It is critical that you personalize whenever possible.

When sending email using an email broadcast tool, you can mail merge your prospect's information into a canned letter, which will give an appearance of a personal letter. However, be careful not to overdo the personalization.

In addition, remember there is a real person on the other end of your email marketing message. With this in mind, periodically email a personal one-on-one letter to your prospect. Remember, people do business with people they know and trust.

TIP #7 - Communicate to Educate

The people you are marketing to have unique wants and needs. They are often looking for a solution for what they want to accomplish, fix, or avoid. With this in mind, it is critical that you communicate to educate.

While you will always have a call to action and will be marketing to generate new and repeat business, the body of your message should be on education. Just like this article, I wrote it to educate, but with an objective to build your trust and confidence in me. The fact is if you find this information valuable, you will naturally want to learn more and will either email me or look up my web site.

This will work in your own communications with your prospects as well. They are eager to learn and when you communicate to educate in your email messages, you will improve your prospect's perspective of you and what you offer.

Email Marketing and the Cold Call

2007-12-02T08:02:00.000-08:00

Cold call email marketing is becoming less and less effective in both return on investment (ROI) as well as recipient conversion. So why do so many online businesses continue to use leased or purchased lists to market their business.

In some cases the email marketing plans that are developed are used by affiliate revenue sites that are looking to capitalize on their new venture. The net effect is not much different than a telemarketer call during the evening meal - not welcome and completely disruptive.

It is easy to see why some might think that mass coverage email marketing is a good idea. The premise is the more people who receive the email, the more likely client conversions there will be.

While this approach may be touted as one of the best ways to tap into a potentially huge market I'd like to explain why this approach rarely works.

1. Cold calls don't work. Reports continue to surface that indicate whether it is face-to-face or online cold call marketing is highly ineffective. This is why there are fewer and fewer door-to-door salesmen. Gone are the days when a vacuum cleaner salesman would show up at your door and practically insist on showing you how the vacuum works and why it will save you time and money. I think it is very likely that telemarketing has made cold call marketing extremely difficult.

2. Cold call marketing is rarely targeted. Most email lists that can be purchased or rented are not developed to pass along specific details on the buying habits or personal interests of the email addresses listed. There may be a few, but most of the time they are simply addresses that have been gleaned from a variety of sources and are simply sold to those most willing to pay.

3. Spam filters hate cold call marketing. If you are sending material that was not requested by the recipient it is likely the majority of spam filters will catch and detain the majority of cold call email marketing. Because of undesired marketing emails spam filters have adjusted to take note of what types of emails should never be allowed to reach the recipient's inbox. Sometimes an email will slip through, but most of the time they will not.

So, if cold call email marketing isn't a good idea then how can an online business owner work to market their product?

It all starts with strong Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies and traffic building achievements. Work to provide new visitors the opportunity to "opt in" to an email delivery service that will inform them of new details about products and also offer discounts and coupons to those receiving the email.

When you send email to these individuals spam filters may not view it as unwanted email. Recipients may be more likely to read these emails because they are already familiar with your products and/or services.

17 E-mail Deliverability Tips for 2008

2007-11-30T00:58:00.000-08:00

Email deliverability is a headache. We used to worry about the content of an email blast, and avoid spammy words like free or using ALL CAPS. But with the shift in the last few years towards repuation based SPAM filtering, email deliverability tactics have changed drastically. Now, instead of one isolated email getting stuck in the bulk folder, you risk damaging your long term sender reputation if you're not using best practices. Below, I've gathered some tips for ensuring your email makes it successfully to the inbox.

Join Feedback Loops: Feedback loops allow you to see who is marking your email as spam (so you can remove them). Some ISPs, like AOL, provide an easy way to join the feeback loop. For other ISPs, you may need to contact your email service provider to see if they can provide you with this information.

Remove Inactive Subscribers: Inactive subscribers are most likely to mark your email as junk. Sure, nobody wants to willfully shrink the size of their opt in list, but you have to think long term.

Consistent Timing: ISPs love it when you consistently send email on the same day at near the same time. Since spammers don't care, consistency is the mark of a responsible email marketer.

Use Consistent From Information: Be sure to always use the same from name and address. Changing the from email will require your subscribers to add each address to their address book in order to ensure deliverability. In addition, a consistent from name helps readers recognize your brand.

Use Double Opt In: Double opt in is a best practice required by many ISPs in order to be considered for white listing. In addition, it protects your database from misspelled email addresses.

Unsubscribe Link at Top: Why at the top? Because if unhappy subscribers can't find it within a few seconds, they may hit the junk button instead, which damages your rep. Better to lose a subscriber than get a spam complaint.

Static IP Address: If you send marketing emails from your own server, always send from the same IP address. If you use an email service provider, find out if they offer a dedicated IP for an additional charge. If they do, it's worth it. Like shared web hosts, many ESP's group many clients under one IP address. In other words, what another company does with their email marketing can affect your deliverability. It's much easier to manage the reputation of one IP address rather than many.

Reverse DNS: Many ISPs perform a reverse DNS lookup, which checks to make sure the IP you are sending from is authorized to send from your domain.

White List Reminder: Encourage subscribers to add your email address to their address book or white list. Some ISPs look at the number of times you are added to an address book as a sign of trust.

Get Authenticated: Email authentication is confusing as heck. There are a few standards out there that are not necessary competing. The Sender ID Framework uses a simple SPF record with your DNS Zone. Microsoft has a handy Sender ID wizard to help you create this text record for your DNS. In addition to Sender ID, DomainKeys is another popular authentication method. Both methods help to both ensure deliverability and prevent spammers from spoofing with your domain.

Don't Worry about SPAM Words: Don't stress about using the word "free" or occasionally putting all caps in the subject. I find these tactics to be successful and have no affect on delivery.

Remove Bounces: Be sure to remove all hard bounces that come back as undeliverable. Repeatedly sending to an invalid email will send off red flags with most internet service providers.

Reply to Challenge Responses: Occasionally, SPAM filtering software will send back a reply to your email asking you to confirm that you are a real person. Invest the 30 seconds or so it takes to do this for each challenge response you receive. Not only will it ensure that this particular recipient receives your message, but it can improve your sender reputation as well.

Be Relevant: Nothing encourages spam complaints more than sending people stuff they didn't sign up for. If they signed up for a ezine newsletter, and you send them nothing but sales pitches, you're likely to get complaints.

Send In Spurts: Some ISPs have limits as to how many emails you can send to in a given period of time. If you're having trouble sending email to a particular ISP such as Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail, see if your email service provider gives you the ability to stage the email over a longer period of time.

Get Off Black Lists: MxToolBox offers a great tool to check if your email server is blacklisted. If it is, begin the process of contacting each of the the black list service and find out the process for getting your IP removed.

Get On White Lists: Achieving white list status with the major ISPs is no small feat. If you're not up for the challenge, consider uses an email deliverability consulting firm that specializes in this area.

B2b Advertising - Email Correspondence Helpful Script

2007-11-30T00:55:00.000-08:00

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53 Percent of Your Email Subject Lines Are Probably Broken

2007-11-22T02:24:00.000-08:00

Do you realize that 53% of your email subject lines are probably broken? According to a recent study by Pivotal Veracity, that's how many email subject lines don't display as the sender had intended. And, if you are doing your own email marketing, there is a very good chance that your own subject lines are among those that don't display properly.

I'm sure you've seen something similar to this in your in-box:

Subject: {FirstName}, Here%?s Your Daily News^"=?

Suspicious looking subject lines like that are a one-way ticket to the Spam Folder. Unfortunately, many in-house email marketers are guilty of this type of garbled text, and they don't even realize it.

If you originally create your email messages in Microsoft Word and then copy and paste the message into your email client, you might be sending these spamish-looking messages. Without going into a lot of techno mumbo jumbo, the reason is basically because email clients assume text is encoded in ASCII. However, MS Word defaults to non-ASCII characters in several instances. The good news is it's a very easy fix.

Before you type up your email draft in Word, click Tools on the menu bar, then choose the AutoCorrectOptions. Next, choose the AutoFormat tab and make sure the selections under the Replace options are NOT checked. Then click AutoFormat As You Type and, again, make sure the options are not selected.

That fix will help keep non-ASCII characters out of the body of your email message, but the only 100% fool-proof method for creating your subject lines is to type it directly into the email client you will be using to send the message. That's because the subject lines are actually encoded differently than the bodies of the email messages.

Another fool-proof method is to create your draft directly in an ASCII text editor. Most Windows computers come with Notepad pre-installed. TextPad is a relatively inexpensive editor that has a few additional features. And, while I haven't personally used it myself, I have heard good things about WinEdit.

If you like the ease and comfort of using Word, you can always create your original draft in Word, and then paste the test into a plain text editor to remove all the non-ASCII characters, You will then need to paste this new version into your email client. Sure it's an extra step, but you should notice improved delivery rates because of it.

Quick Email Marketing - 2 Super Fast Techniques to Email Marketing

2007-11-22T02:22:00.000-08:00

One of the considered most pragmatic marketing methods that is still being used by numerous businessmen today is the e-mail marketing. Not only that it is very practical but also, it guarantees the users positive return of results. While many still prefer the use the tool due to its simplicity, there are still a few cluster of marketers who find the usage of e-mail marketing obsolete and passé. However, as the re-defined and modified e-mail marketing tool emerged in the online arena, it has regained its stature as still one of the most credible and trusted marketing tool to use. Should you want to experience a new look in e-mail marketing, the following steps are being suggested:

a. The e-mail as the forefront in this tool should be given the proper emphasis. You begin with your e-mail content. Make sure that the e-mail content is a lot bolder, more endearing, pushy, and potentially revolutionizing. The days are gone when the e-mail content is very stereotyped, conventional, and orthodox. So, starting now, when you are engaging into using the e-mail marketing as a tool, be aggressive with your e-mail content.

b. With the evolution of the e-mail marketing, people have become more cautious about the safety of their PC and files. Avoid being branded as a spammer by making yourself aware of the various methods used by the spammer to send out e-mail messages. You should know the indicatory contents that an e-mail is a spam and refrain from using them. Usually, subject lines that bear the words "free, ads, sale, or as seen in Oprah, Earn this much overnight" and a lot more are the triggering words that allow for the filtering program to block the e-mail that is trying to get thru. So, equip yourself with this knowledge or suffer the consequence of writing an e-mail destined to be a spam folder material.

Email Marketing - The Christmas Letter Approach

2007-11-17T05:41:00.001-08:00

Imagine it’s Christmastime. The snow is gathering on the sill or you stare out at a summer sky (depending entirely on your global location). You have put together a Christmas letter that informs readers about what has happened in your life and the many things you are grateful for when you look back over the year.

When your letter is finished, and you’ve had your best friend proof it, you head over to the printers to get a few thousand copies made. You realize it’s a big task, but you begin to address the envelopes. You don’t want to leave anyone out so you open the phone book to the letter “a” and begin.

What kind of response is this individual likely to have when everyone in town gets a Christmas letter? Well, there’s probably gonna be significant scratching of heads, and a lot of round file storage.

While it is not likely there are going to be too many people that send a Christmas letter to everyone in town, somehow the idea seems to make sense to business owners who want to send email marketing to anyone with an email address. Often these businesses will buy or rent a list and send email marketing in a cold call fashion.

Let’s go back to our Christmas letter writer. In the real world they will review their list of family, friends and acquaintances that will likely have an interest in knowing about the family. This list will likely include friends that they haven’t seen in a long time, but they would still like to connect with them. The letter writer wants to send as many letters as are needed, but will cut the list down whenever needed.

This is the best picture of sound email marketing and traffic building strategies. You want to send email marketing to individuals that already have an interest in the products or services you provide. You will get the best response from people who already have an interest. Sure the list will be smaller, but the recipients will be more motivated simply because they are already familiar with you, your product and your business integrity.

It’s OK to start small in email marketing. Like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies you start where you are and watch the results grow over time. This approach leaves fewer people scratching their heads and more people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say.

Top 10 Email Marketing Tips

2007-11-17T05:39:00.000-08:00

Email marketing is tougher than it used to be but it's really just a matter of using "best practices". In today's spam filled In boxes it is getting more and more difficult to avoid the delete key. By offering relevant, useful content and maintaining permission based privacy standards, you can not only keep your customers informed of your latest sales or company news but also build relationships that keep them coming back. All it takes is a little respect and responsibility.

1. DON'T SPAM!

If you use email you know what a pain it is to start your day deleting a bunch of garbage. The only responsible way to run an email campaign these days is use permission based lists. Depending on your site's traffic and how compelling you make the sign-up form, this could take a while but don't risk ruining your brand and your customer relationships.

2. Optimize the Subject Line

Ok, you have their permission but that doesn't mean you're in just yet. You've got one line of about 50 characters between "Open" and "Delete". The subject line should quickly let them know what the email is about. Personalize it if you can. Don't use the same subject line for all of your emails. Experiment and run A/B tests to see what works best. Make it interesting.

3. Send Something Useful

Don't send an email just because it's that time of the month. OK, yes you should (see number 4) but give them something worth opening. Tell them about a new product, teach them how to do something, offer them an exclusive discount. You get the idea. Most people aren't interested in an advertisement in their inbox anymore than they want pop-up ads while they surf. Think about the value from their perspective.

4. Make sure your mails get through

Before you send your actual campaign, send a test mail to as many different email clients as you can(Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, Thunderbird etc.). Send them to different networks as well to check for ISP blocking, blacklisting, and various anti-spam efforts. You should make the required adjustments before you send out a large number of mails and wind up on several blacklists.

5. Use the "Preview Pane"

More and more email clients are using a preview pane so the recipient can see the content before it is opened. This is why you want your most compelling content right up at the top. If you are covering more than one topic, such as a newsletter, this is a great place for a table of contents.

6. Mind your P's and Q's

Use a spell checker, but don't rely on it. Proofread your content for errors, then have someone else do it. Also look for HTML errors, broken links or anything else that might irritate readers or just make you look incompetent.

7. Use graphics sparingly

Once again anything that slows down your message is not useful. You should use your branding and maybe one or two well optimized graphics, but don't use two when one will do. Rely on color and contrast (and of course your well written content) to create interest.

8. Provide a "Call to Action"

What's the point? Make it clear to the reader that you want them to got to your site or download the latest white paper. Make them want to, tell them how to, and don't forget to ask them to.

9. Create a Landing Page

A "Landing Page" is a page within your site designed specifically for the readers of your email. This is where you provide the solutions they came clicking for. If they land on your home page and have to hunt for whatever you offered in the email it will probably end badly for both of you. Make it easy on them.

10. Test, Measure, Test again

Track your results, pay more attention to conversion rates and revenue-per-email than to opens and click-through rates. Test a variety of subject lines. See which ones are not only getting opened but are actually generating revenue. Test different font sizes, different colors, different word totals. Find out what works for your customers, in your industry and make the most of it. Have fun with it.

Email Marketing As An Internet Marketing Tool

2007-11-16T01:54:00.000-08:00

Email marketing is one of the best tools in Internet Marketing. It can be very effective in Internet Marketing. It is a direct marketing format. Emails are sent to the clients and the prospects. These emails carry messages and product and service information for the clients and prospects.

You can use email marketing to send information about your existing and new products and services to the customers. It helps in building a relationship between the marketer and the customers. The relationship building is very essential for any business so as to get repeat customers and more sales. Email marketing can also help in acquiring new customers. You can use it as a representative of your business. It can get you customers. You can add advertisements in the emails to lure buyers to come and buy your products.

There are so many advantages of email marketing. It can be very useful with these benefits.

Fast- It is very fast. When you click send, the email goes to the intended recipient. It is very fast. Whereas other marketing methods takes much more time to send the intended message to the recipients.

Reach more people- Email marketing can reach more people than any other method. Because messages can be sent to thousands of people at a go, so it is very fast. In other methods it is not possible to reach thousands of people at a go.

Low cost - The cost of email marketing is very low. If you want to reach the same amount of people in other marketing method, then you will have to pay a huge sum of money. It costs nothing if you have the system and the email database.

Wide range of targeted customers can be reached in this marketing method. You can reach various targeted groups with your email messages.

Easy to track- Email marketing program is easy to track and find out. In other marketing programs, it is not easy to keep track of the targets reading your emails. But in email marketing, it is very easy to keep track of all the mails and who read your messages etc. Accordingly you can modify your messages or database.

Return on Investment - The return on investment is good and it can be keep tract of. You can see the return on investment. So, this is good for keeping track of your budget and money.

Advanced Tips For Make More Money With Email Marketing

2007-11-14T21:20:00.000-08:00

Productive email marketing can be one of the best avenues to increasing website traffic and consequently sales. Even though some think of it as spam, this is more about honest email marketing, and getting the addresses in an upstanding manner. Here are some advanced tips for getting those addresses.

Don’t Rely on Checkboxes
Lots of people put checkboxes on their websites for people to click so they can give permission for emails to be sent to them. Some companies even check this box in advance, hoping that the consumer will miss that it’s checked and not bother to unsubscribe once they start getting emails. This last practice is not very considerate of clients, but the checkboxes should not be your first email request.

Learn to Use the Squeeze Page
This page is a popup or floating screen that comes between the customer and important pages in your website. If you have offered something for free, your customer will click on that link and the squeeze page should come up. Although they will have the option of refusing to give you the email, many feel obligated to do it because you are giving them something free. This should be your first request for email.

Communicate Regularly
Once you have the addresses, use them. Communicate regularly, and offer them special or advance notice of sales, events, promotions, etc. Make it worth their while to give you the address and you will have more productive email marketing.

One really important thing about email marketing is testing - if you are not testing, you don't know who your profitable demographics are and are not.

Why It is Important to Track Your Email Marketing? Part II

2007-11-14T21:18:00.000-08:00

Tracking email marketing helps you to devise a targeted email marketing strategy. How? Targeted email marketing put the customer's welfare first, thus making it a customer-oriented strategy. Every plan has to be with the customer's advantage without losing the footing of your business. It can only be good in a long term - because you are building a good relationship with them - thus gaining more of their trust and lowering all other negative effects that they might have.

Since you have given every effort to succeed in your business, email tracking should not be left out. It helps you plan your next strategy to keep your business running and intact. Your sales depends on what information bounces back on you and the way you read and treat those. Future plans for your business might not work if one does not listen to feedback.

You don't wait for your subscribers to complain for lousy services. Tracking your email marketing will help you that, because in a way, it gives an assessment if you failed your subscribers or you have them by heart.

In business, strategy is the your best weapon. And to have the best strategy, it is important that you work out properly on the feedback and see what must be seen and address the problems that were left out on your initial steps.

Email marketing has been proven to be one of the most cost-effective and efficient means to advertise online. It doesn't only drive traffic to your site, it also augments your profits and your sale. Knowing how to utilize this is a piece of cake with the numerous ebook and tutorials about it online.

If you are serious in taking your business to the next level, you can use this marketing strategy along with other proven effective tools like SEO, link building, PPC advertising, forum posting, and the like and you will be sure to reap rewards in no time.

Email Marketing - Basics You Should Know

2007-11-12T02:50:00.000-08:00

Email marketing is, as the name suggests, the use of email in marketing communications. Automated email marketing is so popular because, sending email is much cheaper than most other forms of communication, email lets you deliver your message to the people (unlike a website, where the people have to come to your message). Online email marketing has proven very successful for those who do it right. Marketing email is simple to begin, even for people who are not computer savvy. Broadcasting email is labeled as an excellent method when it comes to effective low priced marketing endeavors. Email marketing is not just about writing any email that you will be sending to anybody.

Marketing

In general, though, it's used to refer to: Sending direct promotional emails to try and acquire new customers or persuade existing customers to buy again. Sending emails designed to encourage customer loyalty and enhance the customer relationship. Placing your marketing messages or advertisements in emails sent by other people. Give me an analogy. You can think of these three main forms of email marketing as the electronic equivalent of: Direct mail, Sending people print newsletter, placing advertisements in subscription magazines and newspapers. Email lead marketing is so popular because sending email is much cheaper than most other forms of communication and email lets you deliver your message to the people (unlike a website, where the people have to come to your message) email marketing has proven very successful for those who do it right.

Quite apart from these practical considerations, there is also a strong argument which says that long-term successful email marketing relationships with customers and others can only work anyway if they're permission based. It's important to stress that anyone considering opt-in email marketing must read up on the subject of permission and spam. Online Email marketing can do wonders for your business in terms of profitability. Email marketing is simple to begin, even for people who are not computer savvy. Below are some of the benefits of email marketing: Cost effective: Compared to other marketing strategies, email marketing is one of the most cost effective techniques available.

Email Marketing - Do Safelists Work?

2007-11-12T02:45:00.000-08:00

If you are reading this article then there probably is a good chance that you have just started building your email list or you may be building it for some time. I have been trying different methods of advertising to see which ones work the best.

One of the reasons that I started using safelists is that I finished the ebook Carbon Copy Marketing by Mike Filsaime. In the ebook he tells his amazing story of how he built his business using safelists. He was guy in charge of marketing and advertising for a very big car company. So in a sense he had an advantage compared to most people because he was already good at sales and marketing. He only needed to apply it to the internet medium.

Now what really is interesting is that he did not have time for complicated search engine tactics so he only marketed his business through email advertising namely safelists. He does admit that he got burnt a few times when his account was nearly closed for spamming - this was because he was doing bulk emailing without permission before he discovered safelists.

One of the services he recommends is Ipostads. I registered for this and was really disappointed in the results. It submits to approximately 3000 safelists containing millions of email addresses. Unfortunately very few people actually read the adverts as their email accounts are filled with spam. My recommendation is that you are better off spending your money on a solo ad in a targeted ezine.

Email Marketing Is More Than Just Advertising

2007-11-05T23:36:00.000-08:00

Although people use email marketing as an advertising medium, it should also be used as a way to reach out to your customers; regardless of what kind of business you're in.

Usually, personal or automated customer follow-up messages will instill in your customer a sense of trust and care...since you are checking up on them.

Usually this type of 'digital hospitality' will deter many of your customers from ever requesting a refund on their purchase from you. As long as you 'check up' on your customers using email marketing, you can always recommend other items to them.
Not only does this help KEEP your earnings in your pocket, it helps put MORE money in your pocket...instead of just letting the possibility of extra income 'lie on the table'. If you had the opportunity to make more easy money, wouldn't you take up the opportunity to do so?

Follow up with your customers, and you'll start seeing the endless possibilities open up.

It doesn't matter if you sell on ebay or stormpay, or if you have your own website, or if you have a 'brick and mortar' offline business operation. Follow up with your customers.

The greatest example of follow-up marketing comes from Radio Shack, here in the U.S. Whenever you spend a certain amount in their store, they usually ask you for your name, address, phone number and email address.

Why?

So, they can follow up with you as their customer! Usually, if I go there and make a substantial purchase of more than 20 dollars, they ask me for my info. And later on down the road, I'll receive a circular from them when they have their next big sale.

Sometimes, if something looks good, I'll go in and buy it. The fact is...if they hadn't have followed up with me and mailed me that circular, they would've never gotten any more money out of me, because I wouldn't have known about their sale.

So, since we're in the online world, and you might have an online business...email marketing is the perfect way to do exactly what Radio Shack is doing. You can advertise, you can ask your customers how things are going, or if they need any services that you can provide, etc.

But, not contacting your customer after a sale with email marketing is like having someone lay a wad of cash on your coffee table, and you just look the other way and leave.

Email Marketing As An Internet Marketing Tool

2007-11-05T23:35:00.000-08:00

Email Marketing 101 - 25 Best Practices

2007-11-03T04:35:00.000-07:00

I suppose I can title this article "25 Email Marketing Mistakes I've Made." But rather than focus on the negative, below I've outlined the best practices I've come to adopt over the years. Hope you find something here useful.

Diversify your Content: If your entire email focuses on one product, service, or topic, you risk alienating all but the few people who will be interested. Unless you have segmented your database based on previous behavior, do not send an email on only 1 topic. I consistently find that the click through rate increases in proportion with varied content.

Don't Stress about Spam Words: Many experts will tell you to avoid words like "free" or "sale". In my opinion, ISPs tend to be moving away from content based spam filtering in favor of reputation based filtering. In other words, your sending IP address and from email are more important than whether or not your email contains certain words. Personally, I've used words like "free" in the subject line without any affect on delivery rates.

Make it Readable with Images Disabled: Always take into account the appearance of your email with images disabled. For email clients such as Outlook, this is now the default feature. Even popular web mails like Hotmail now disable images unless the sender is in the address book of the recipient. The best tactic to create readable emails with images block is use an alt description.

Create an Online Version: Always provide an online version of your email for users having trouble viewing images. I've calculated from emails I've sent in the past that around 5% of users will use this feature.

Don't Over or Under Mail: If you send too much, you'll get deleted or marked as SPAM. Oddly enough, if you send once every 3 months you may have the same problem. Keep your brand top of mind for your customers by finding the perfect balance between over and under mailing.

Forward to Friend Feature: Many users automatically do this, but it doesn't hurt to ask. First time potential customers can be very open to company when it is introduced by a friend or colleague.

Subscribe Feature for Forwards: Make it easy for potential new subscribers to subscribe if they receive your email as a forward. Include somewhere in the body a subscribe link.

White List Reminder: If you want your subscribers to add you to their white list or address book, you need to ask. Sure, not everyone will add you. However, those who do are likely the people who care most about receiving your emails and, therefore, you have the most to lose if your emails get flagged as spam.

Unsubscribe at Top: I know what you're thinking, "At the TOP!?" Yes, at the top. Lazy unsubscribers have a tendency to click the SPAM button instead scrolling down to find the unsubscribe link. By placing the link at the top, you might increase your unsubscribe rate, but that's better than an inflated SPAM complaint count.

Single Click Unsubscribe: I generally recommend keeping the unsubscribe as simple as possible. However, you may want to confirm the action if you place your unsubscribe at the top of every email in case users click the link on accident.

Privacy Policy: Always place your privacy policy at the bottom of every email. Assure customers that you obtained their email address in a legitimate fashion, and you will not sell their personal info.

Call to Action: Each section must contain a specific call to action that avoids vague phrases like "click here." You'll be surprised how an effective call to action button or link can improve your click through rate.

Mix Freebies with Products: Too much selling can burn people out. Engage your subscribers with useful, free content. For example, if you sell home theater equipment, send out an article on the explaining the benefits of newer technologies. When you provide additional value to your customers with learning resources, they are sometimes even willing to pay more for your merchandise. In addition, strategies like this keep your brand top of mind.

Find Your "Tuesday": For the eCommerce sites I've worked with, Tuesday morning has always resulted in the best open, click-through, and conversion rates. However, every company is different.

Same Day, Same Time: Be consistent in the time you send your emails for two reasons. First, the ISPs see inconsistency as a possible SPAM flag. Spammers can care less when they send out mass emails. Second, your customers will begin to anticipate your emails at a certain time each week, possibly increasing the likely hood of them opening and clicking through.

Keep the Good Stuff above the Fold: Remember that many email clients will obscure a large portion of your email unless the user scrolls down. Make sure the top 400 pixels are as engaging as possible. I can't tell you how many times I've had to send artwork back to the design department because the top of the email failed to grab your attention.

A/B Test 1 Variable at a Time: It took me far too long to learn this. For years, I would change several factors in each successive email blast, but never could find that perfect mix. If you really want to find out what works, you can only change 1 variable. For example, should the subject line be short or long? Keep the same content and split your list in 2, sending half a longer subject and the other half a shorter one. Do not change any other variables!

600 Pixel Width: Due to the limitations of many email clients, stick with a width somewhere between 500 to 600 pixels wide.

Experiment with Subject Lines: I wish there was a magic principle I can share with you about subject lines. Unfortunately, there isn't. The best we can do is test, test, and test again. Sometimes short subjects are better, sometimes long, sometimes intriguing, sometimes urgent, whatever works best for you. Here's a great article on email subject lines.

Remove Inactive Subscribers: Inactive subscribers are the most likely to get you in trouble by clicking the SPAM button. Consider automatically removing a subscriber that hasn't opened an email in several months.

Proofreading: Always have every email proofread by at least 2 detail oriented people. There's nothing more embarrassing than a typo in an email blast.

Monitor Replies: When you send out thousands of emails, you're bound to get a few replies. Occasionally, you'll get some good feedback from your subscribers. In addition, some people reply with unsubscribe requests.

Don't Rent Lists: Some may disagree on this, but I've never seen anything good come from a rented list. Don't risk your sender reputation with emails from questionable sources. If you want to reach a new audience, consider a joint venture with another firm in a similar but non-competing industry.

Develop your Brand: Remember that your emails will slowly build your brand in the minds of your subscribers. Even if they never click-through and make a purchase, be sure to keep a consistent and accurate corporate image with your email content.

Begin Segmentation & Personalization Now: In a few years, email marketers that don't practice segmentation and personalization will be left in the dust. There are an endless number of ways to segment your email list. Some popular ways are by purchase behavior, geography, or ordering frequency.

Easy Email Marketing Tips For Beginners

2007-11-03T04:34:00.000-07:00

Even though there are plenty of low cost and free marketing techniques, you will have to expend plenty of time to maximize your marketing efforts.

One of the most popular forms of advertising a business is email marketing. Email can be a powerful marketing tool, if you know what you're doing.

No one likes to have spam fill their inbox, and in the United States, spam is illegal, with the Federal Trade Commission going after major spammers. Rather than spamming millions of email addresses, build a list of customers and prospective customers, and market to them.

You can use your email as a marketing tool in a variety of ways. For example, you can create an ezine filled with valuable niche content that your list can actually use. Or, you can send out emails announcing your latest product or service. The key is to make your emails something your list wants and to ensure those emails are not marked as spam.

Email marketing can be somewhat of a challenge because of the prevalence of spam filters in email programs today.

The key to successfully promoting your business with email marketing is to ensure the emails you're sending out will not be flagged as spam. The best and easiest way to ensure you're not sending spam is to enlist the help of a service that scans emails to determine whether or not they will be flagged as spam. To avoid having your email marked as spam, avoid such blacklisted words as 'buy now' and 'free'. But, even if you avoid such words that are considered spam, make sure you use a paid or free service like ezinecheck to ensure your emails are spam free.

In addition, remember that not everyone has high speed internet access. Therefore, if you're sending out HTML emails, your dialup customers may find the email download takes far too long and won't take the time to read your email. So, make sure your list has the choice between receiving HTML and plain text emails.

Email marketing can be extremely affective, but don't overdo it. Only email your list periodically. Once a week, every two weeks, or once a month. If you inundate email inboxes with emails, you're only going to annoy those people on your list.

Additionally, ensure you personalize each email by using the list member's name in the heading, and even in the body, of the email.

Finally, email marketing can be a hugely successful method of promotion, if you send directed emails only to those people who have given you permission to email them. The last thing you want is to establish a reputation as a spammer.

Productive Email Marketing - 5 Effective Techniques to Email Marketing

2007-11-01T01:07:00.001-07:00

Email marketing is a proven strategy to advertise and promote your products. It has been used and tested by successful internet marketers and it can really deliver in terms of content subscription, direct product sales, and increasing sign up for your affiliate program. The following are 5 effective techniques to successful email marketing:

1. Before you begin your email campaign, you must build a sizable amount of email addresses. This means you must first build an email list. There are two ways to do this. First, you can buy email addresses and use it for your marketing drive. Another way is to build a list through a squeeze page.

2. Create a very compelling copy. Your email message should not be too glitzy. A text based ad message is more user friendly than those messages full of graphics and animated objects. Remember, not all internet users subscribe to fast broadband connections. Your target audience may encounter difficulty loading your message.

3. Be sure to link your web site to the message. Sometimes we forget to complete URLs of our web sites. Don't forget the http's and the www's. A dead link is useless and you just wasted your marketing efforts. It's always good to be keen on details.

4. To avoid legal issues concerning CAN-SPAM Act violations, be sure to include an opt-out option in your email messages. Your whole site is at risk of being taken down from the net if you don't take necessary precautions.

5. Don't bombard your list with daily email messages. They might get tired of you and mark your messages as spam. A twice a month newsletter, product updates or special offers is enough. Email marketing could be very beneficial for your online business. This is a very personalized and direct to the consumer marketing approach. Refining your strategy in email marketing can improve your online business' position.

Email Marketing Detractors

2007-11-01T01:06:00.000-07:00

Have you ever received one of those forwarded emails that gives you a nice story or some inspiring pictures and then lays a guilt trip on you if you don’t immediately send that email to a million other people you know, complete with the same guilt ridden message?

If you’re like most computer users you have developed a low tolerance level for this type of email. In fact, if observation is true many of these emails are immediately deleted without even looking at the ‘inspiring’ material within.

For some web users there is a heightened sense of frustration because the sender of this material simply uses these methods to attempt to communicate with the recipient. There are no original words and no questions about the family or job. All the recipient sees is an email that indicates the sender only cared enough to send junk mail.

This mentality is what can make email marketing so hard for online businesses. If it weren’t bad enough that spammers already abuse the system enough now the average email user is sending junk mail to family and friends and honestly believe they are positively connecting with the recipient.

Is it any wonder that those receiving email would almost rather click the delete button on an email they don’t recognize than to open spam?

Some web users have gotten to the point where they will only review emails that are not forwards and from individuals they already know. Junk mail and the potential for viruses make delete our favorite key.

If I might offer a suggestion for those who participate in email marketing; make sure you name your business and the primary purpose of the email in the subject line. You don’t want your recipients to have doubts about what is in the email.

I would also suggest that you remain completely focused on the primary purpose of the email and offer as many quality reasons as possible for your recipient to not only review the email, but also drop by the site.

Email marketing can be a daunting task because there are so many variables that make this type of marketing harder than it really should be. Spammers created some of these problems and others were created by well meaning individuals who substituted junk mail for meaningful and personal emails.

Try to make each email marketing attempt just another attempt at redeeming email marketing as an honest way to reach out to customers and prospects in a cost effective and personally directed way.

How To Make Your Email Marketing Simple

2007-10-30T04:34:00.001-07:00

Email marketing is one of the most effective and least expensive methods of reaching large volumes of customers who are interested in your products or services. You will want your campaign to address each person by name to make it more personal. The customer will provide you with their name and email address but you will need to find the best way to store it and use it. Email marketing software is a great way to compile your data. It can also be used to store the purchasing history of a particular consumer. This is good for narrowing your target market on certai campaigns. What can this software do for you?

It is a wonderful tool for editing text, creating promotions, and writing newsletters. It allows you to add pictures, attachments, backgrounds for colour and appeal, images, and sound. You will be able to use templates for features you intend to use regularly. This is definitely a time saver. Using email marketing software will make your materials appear professional which will make your campaign more successful.

There are many software packages available to choose from ranging in cost from $99 to $499. The one that works best for you will depend on what you are looking for as well as the objectives of your email marketing campaigns. Not allof this marketing software offers the same features. However, there are some basic items you should look for. Choose one that offers 24/7 customer support. Conduct your own research to find out how effective that customer support has been for other consumers. The software will be useless if you aren't able to use it properly. There are bound to be questions and concerns you have and maybe some technical issues. Customer support needs to be that bridge for you when such issues arise.

Every email marketing software will operate differently. The software has to be easy to install and set up or it will never help your business achieve its goals. It is important that it is simple to navigate yet allows you to be creative. You will want to choose the one that offers you the choice of making a template or working from scratch. You also want simple to create email lists, based on various factors. Some software programs offer unlimited size when it comes to your mailing lists. Others set a limit from 2,000 up to 50,000. You will have an idea of the growth you want for your business and can use that to help your decision. Unless you have a great deal of experience with email marketing, choose a software program that comes with a wizard and a tutorial system. These will become your best friends while you are learning the ins and outs of the software. Bounce handling to resend undelivered emails is a wonderful feature to look for as well. It will prevent you from manually having to resend them. It is very important that your software has a quick and efficient way to remove the email address of those who choose to opt out. The law requires you to remove them from your emailing lists within 10 business days.

Email marketing is a very effective way to generate traffic to your website and more sales. Using email marketing software is a very inexpensive and effective way to create campaigns that are professional quality. Take the time to choose the software that offers all of the features you will need to operate your campaigns properly. The internet is a great place to find out the pros and cons of the various email marketing software packages available. Keep in mind that you want to purchase software with excellent customer service.

Common Email Marketing Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

2007-10-30T04:31:00.000-07:00

Email marketing can be very effective for promoting your business. It is a tricky area though and it is easy to make mistakes if you don’t know the right methods to use. This can be frustrating for you as it will cost you money, yet not generate any additional sales. Here are some common email marketing mistakes and pitfalls you need to be aware of. It will make your marketing strategies more effective.

Consumers want to feel like they are a person to your business, not just a statistic. Take the time to address each email personally. It is more expensive, but it is more effective. You will get a much better response then something addressed to ‘Dear (customer name)”. Don’t use dollar signs in your email marketing campaign. It’s a big turn off to consumers, who view it as you only want their money. Don’t use email marketing during the holidays. Customers are inundated with them and yours won’t stand out. Plus the fact that people are too busy and stressed to relax and read email that is not personal or important at this time of year. If you want to market for the holidays then you need to do it early, at least before Thanksgiving.

Consumers don’t have a lot of patience! Your email message needs to jump out at them the moment they open it. Put the most enticing information first with the other details further down. They are more likely to read the entire email message if you get their attention from the start. As each consumer is different, so is their computer set up and the type of program they use.

Don’t assume the email will open up the same in every type of email service. You will need to test it out for each popular email service. Always give the consumer the option of opening the email in either html or plain text. As a rider to this I always recommend that you you either Arial or Helvetica as your font of choice. Practically all computers have those two fonts, and they are easy to read.

Confidentiality is very important to consumers. Make sure your email sign up clearly states that you will not sell their information and that it will be kept confidential and secure. You will be surprised how many people won’t sign up for your email promotions if you don’t offer this bit of information. There are rules and regulations out there regarding what you can and can’t do when it comes to email marketing. Make sure you are familiar with those laws. They vary by country so if you do global marketing make sure you check the regulations for each area you will be sending them to. Failure to do so can lead to huge fines for your business.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you know what your consumers want. If you really want to know what they are after then take the time to ask. Be open to their comments, questions, suggestions, and concerns. Letting them know you are available for such customer service is a great way to earn their loyalty. It is easy to sell something to a consumer but much harder to please them so they will come back again and again.

If you are new to email marketing, you could consider consulting with a professional. It doesn’t have to be expensive, and will make the entire process flow easier for you as well as yield better results. Take the time to research the consultant before using them. Ask for references and talk about what your goals are. If the consultant is not willing to make your goals a priority then don’t work with them. If you are nervous about spending a large amount of your revenue on marketing then you could use a broker consultant. This means you only pay them for the actual positive results the marketing brings you. They will be paid based on the traffic they generate for your site or the amount of new sales resulting from the email marketing. Make sure what ever method you choose is clear to both parties and in writing. Make sure the time frame that they will receive benefits for is clear as well.

You don’t want unhappy subscribers to your email marketing campaigns. The law requires you to offer a link where customers can unsubscribe. While you want to do all you can to keep them reading your emails, it is important to respect their wishes and remove them from the mailing list immediately. They will become very frustrated if they continue to receive them once they have asked to be removed. It can cost you their future business. Email marketing can be effective for your business if you keep these common mistakes from becoming part of your marketing plan.

Productive Email Marketing - Advertise and Market Through Email Effectively

2007-10-29T04:12:00.000-07:00

The email of a person is his own personal space in the world wide web. It is the home of his personality, and he expects to make use of it according to how he sees fit. This is the reason that while some people appreciate mails from online companies (some even sign up and post their email addresses on websites for new offers and deals), others hate advertisements and subscribe all unfamiliar addresses in their spam and junk folders. So for advertisers looking to market their products productively through email, the question exists: how can they make their emails appeal to almost all email users?

Simplicity and Tone – those are the operative words when it comes to drafting an effective marketing email. The first one reminds that users appreciate information without too much bling; just be concise and frank about the offer and users will simply click for more if they are interested. Remember that email host sites sometimes screen email content and if there appears to be too many graphic or details, the advertisement might just end up in the trash bin. So to promote a legitimate offer, be simple and realistic.

The second reminder is the tone: never be too formal or informal in the format or style of writing. If one uses a very serious approach, then the younger generation of users, which compose a great majority of email users, just might not take interest. On the other hand, if an email advertisement is too informal it might seem like a prank and sound too unreal. So take the middle road and write in a familiar and conversational tone – and without a doubt, there’s a greater chance of being noticed.

Essential Rules for Effective Email Marketing

2007-10-29T04:09:00.000-07:00

If you want an email campaign to succeed, you don`t want to offend anyone when sending your messages. Turn off a consumer with your email and you can be sure they`ll tune out your message. Don`t let this happen to you!

A message that earns respect makes sales. That`s why our first topic for discussion is email etiquette. (Later in the course, we`ll talk more about how to write an email sales letter.)

Train yourself to always -- and I mean ALWAYS -- stick to the rules below when crafting your email message.

-- RULE #1 - ALWAYS WRAP YOUR LINES AT 65 CHARACTERS OR LESS

Whenever you write an email, always format the lines so that they`re 65 characters, or less, across. To do this, you may need to do a "hard return" by hitting "Enter" at the end of the line.

Wondering why to limit your lines to just 65 characters? (Good question! It shows you`re thinking.) There are two reasons that "less is more":

-- The first thing to remember is that looking at a computer screen for a long time causes EYE FATIGUE for many readers. The shorter span of characters across the screen makes reading easier and more appealing to the recipient of your email message.

-- The other reason to go short instead of long is this: some email clients AUTOMATICALLY ENFORCE LINE-WRAPPING at 60-65 characters on received messages. If your email is wrapped at 70, the content will arrive all "chopped up." This makes it unattractive...and worse -- unappealing.

-- Tip within a Rule #1: Email clients such as Outlook Express allow you to SET THE LINE-WRAP to any character-width you choose. That means you won`t have to hit Enter each time after typing 65 characters. Makes life easier!

-- Tip within a Rule #2 - You can type 65 asterisks or dashes in a Notepad file to create a template. Then paste your email below it to see if any lines extend too far to the right.

-- RULE # 2 - BE CAREFUL USING ALL CAPS

How many times have you changed the TV channel to avoid listening to a screaming car salesperson? No one likes a screaming salesperson...and no one likes a "screaming" email message, either. Odds are, when someone has over-amped the volume of their message by using too many capital letters (not to mention too many exclamation points and other punctuation) - you`re going to be turned off.

On the Internet, email messages written in all caps are considered yelling. It`s okay to write some sentences and some words in all caps, but don`t go overboard. (As you can see in this message, I`ve tried to use capital letters to help break up sections of the content from time to time)

-- Tip within a Rule: Consumers buy from a source they trust. Emails in all caps are perceived as "shady" or uneducated, and have an appearance that damages the credibility of an offer.

-- RULE #3 - WATCH YOUR Ps & Qs (Spelling and Grammar)

Would you be influenced by an email selling you something that had noticeable spelling and grammar mistakes? Sure you would...and the influence would be negative, not positive! When a consumer reads a sales message that`s filled with errors, they think to themselves, "Good grief, this person doesn`t even take the time to get his emails right. His product is probably the same quality as his emails."

When you`re in business, YOUR IMAGE IS YOUR REPUTATION and your reputation is the reason people buy from you or the guy down the block. It`s essential that you create an image of INTEGRITY, CREDIBILITY, and HONESTY in the mind of your prospects. Sending emails filled with errors doesn`t hurt your professional image...it destroys it. (Ouch!)

That`s it for now, but I`ll be back with more information for you, "I want to be EMPOWERED"

Best Email Marketing - How To Get Started With Email Marketing

2007-10-27T05:33:00.000-07:00

Many people are wondering what the best email marketing strategies are. Here are some tips to get started and become a successful email marketer.

The first step is usually to collect email addresses. This may sound like a no-brainer, but there is no way you can do email marketing without a good email list. All you need to do this is have customers leave their email addresses with you on some form. Sometimes a mailing list for a newsletter is a good source. However you can do it, collect as many email addresses as you can.

The best email marketing teams always create a plan. Figure out what your ultimate goal is and then work towards that. For most companies, it is to build on relationships with existing customers. With the goal then in mind, consider how you can achieve it. Regularly scheduled newsletters, spot promotions and other kinds of communications may do the trick. You will also want to determine your email frequency. Some businesses prefer weekly emails, while others ones like sending them out once a month. Just experiment and find out what works best for you.

Another important aspect of email marketing is building content and format. There is the traditional newsletter style, but some companies like to create something truly their own. Some of the more common content ideas include company announcements, special-offer promotions, key employee profiles, special events, holiday updates and coupon promotions. These are among the best email marketing content and format ideas.