Kevin Tyler Smith asked:   

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.

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AndreaFerdinand asked:   

Today’s business it is found that email marketing is a productive and cost-effective means of generating sales. The cost of sending a direct mail piece by postal service runs over a dollar whereas the cost of sending email is negligible.

Analysts say getting even one percent response rate from direct mail is rare but an email marketing campaign can easily fetch a five to ten percent response rate. The benefit of email marketing is not confined to increased sales and lead generation. It also significantly helps to create powerful brand awareness and improved customer relationships.

Email marketing is one of the best ways of gaining publicity for your business online. As the number of email users is swelling by the day, more and more businesses are choosing email marketing as their primary advertising campaign.  Email marketing is cheap, fast and more importantly – effective. Email marketing is extremely productive and brings good ROI (Return on Investment) for internet marketers.

If you are planning to start an internet business or if you are already an existing internet business owner, it is beneficial to implement email marketing in your web business promotion strategy. A well planned email marketing campaign can help you boost sales for your on-line as well as off-line business.

Before embarking on your email marketing campaign, it is critically important that you clearly understand the difference between proper email marketing and spam. If you fail to learn the distinction, you may seriously hurt your business.  Spam is very unethical way of internet marketing. Simply stated, it means sending promotional email messages to people who did not solicit that information. If you try to spam, you may be even be banned by your ISP (Internet Service Provider) completely disabling you from sending messages from your email account again.

A much better and healthy method is opt-in email marketing. Contrary to spam it is permission based, which means that people have agreed to receive emails from you. This way of marketing is preferred by many businesses and it brings very good results. Unsolicited email marketing or spamming brings very low response rates. It’s not targeted, which means that email message goes to people who are not interested in your offer.  A majority of people will not even look at your spam email, so it is not possible to obtain good response rates using unsolicited advertising.

One of the most important elements of your email marketing campaign is the content of your promotional message. Learning how to write an effective message or follow up email messages is an essential step of your email marketing campaign. Write your message only to those people whom you consider likely prospects. 

Write your message individually putting his or her name in the message. Do not send out a collective message by addressing ‘dear subscriber’. For all that smart targeting, it’s still hard to get people to open e-mails unless they recognize the sender immediately.

Write interesting headlines as these are immediately get noticed.  Make sure your headline arouses interest of the recipient if you want your message to be opened and read. Give your prospects the option to unsubscribe from your list. If you retain them against their will, you may be accused of spam. So provide removal instructions at the end of your message all the time.

Email marketing is a unique way of developing long-standing relationship with your existing and prospective customers. If you are really serious about your on-line or off-line business, email marketing is a cost-effective way of promoting your products and services.

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The Internet allows email marketers an opportunity like no other. This is the opportunity to reach out to millions of people in a matter of seconds. The response rate on marketing emails is quite high when opt-in email addresses are used. Despite the simplicity of email marketing there are some basics you will need to understand to ensure that you are going about the process in the best way possible.

There are certainly some amazing benefits to email marketing so take your time to understand it. Then, in no time you will be able to reach out to large numbers of people by hitting the send button and literally fill your inbox with orders and your bank account with money. The following are a few of the benefits of email marketing as well as how you should use this method to benefit you.

Fast One of the most amazing aspects of email marketing is that it is fast to send out the emails and then the response to the emails is just as fast. It is quite possible to send out your first marketing email and within minutes have orders in your inbox. There is no other method of marketing your product that is as fast and amazing as email marketing when it is used correctly.

Affordable In general, advertising is expensive. However, when you are using email marketing you will find that you won’t need to spend much money at all. All you really need is a computer, Internet connection, and a little bit of time to write an email to market your products and services. Basically, sending an email is free although you do have to pay for other things to be able to do so.

Testing Marketing emails will need to be tested. That is part of email marketing, or any kind of marketing really. With email marketing you will be able to test various emails much faster simply because the entire process is sped up. Give it a try and you will be able to make marketing decisions quickly and easily thanks to the web!

Responses with direct marketing you may have to wait days, weeks, or even months for the response you are looking for. With email marketing you can have your first response within minutes of sending out an email. That’s amazing and what email marketing is all about. Individuals receive marketing emails and then they make a decision. They will either delete the email without ever reading it, read it and delete it, or read it and make a purchase. Those who make a purchase will forward the email to their friends and family members if they were happy with their purchase. That’s why it’s so important to please your customers!

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Email marketing guidelines and strategies are crucial to make a mark in the business world.

Anyone who thought that sending out mass emails on a regular basis translates to email marketing, needs to think again. Strategies have to be worked out in order to be successful in an email marketing venture.

And we are here to tell you about you some email marketing tips and strategies. In a world of severe spam laws, it can be quite complicated to begin an email marketing venture.

But our email marketing guidelines and strategies will direct and help you set up your business as one of substance.

Email Marketing Tips And Strategies To Start You Off

• Double Opt-In: A customer must be given two chances to verify their subscription to your mailing list. A double-opt in usually works in the following method. The customer gives his email address on your website. He then has to click on a verification link sent in the first email by your company. This is an excellent email marketing tip or tactic.

• Unsubscribe Option: All customers to an email marketing list must be given a choice to unsubscribe at a future point in time. This unsubscribe choice is usually given at the bottom of every email sent by the company.

• Acquiring email addresses: A great way to gather email addresses is to gather them on a high traffic webpage on your website. Adding a subscription link to such a page works marvel. Offering free incentives to visitors to join your mailing list also works. Add to the email marketing package by creating free software, or an e-book or any other related gift to suggest to the customers as soon as they sign up on your email marketing venture.

Another way to accumulate email addresses is to buy an email list. But do take into consideration the following email marketing guidelines and strategies while doing this. First- purchase these lists from distributors who enjoy an esteemed reputation. Second, try and purchase a list that includes customers in the market section that you want to target.

• Format: Your emails must be sent in both HTML and plain text format. This email marketing tips and tactic allows an greater number of people to read your emails.

• Regularity: The trick to email marketing is getting the timing right. Keep in mind to send email newsletters frequently. Once a month on a predetermined date, or once every two weeks is an excellent option. Sending too many mails might irritate the subscriber who then just might unsubscribe. So once you get the timing of your emails right, you stay in the subscriber’s memory and will be able to sell your ideas and products frequently.

Following the above email marketing guidelines and tactics will improve your product value while adding to your business insight. No one wants his business newsletter to be cluttered as spam. Customer reliability has to be won and retained.

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Dabrian Marketing Group asked:

Many organizations are utilizing email marketing as part of their internet marketing strategy.  There are numerous email marketing services provided that support all types of businesses such as: Emma, ConstantContact, Aweber, etc.

In today’s environment, businesses are sending emails to promote products & services, cross-sell additional services, inform customers, and provide discount coupons.  The question is: Are businesses leveraging email marketing to support multi-tactical internet marketing campaigns?

In most cases, businesses are not leveraging email marketing to drive successful campaigns.  Marketers continue to see email marketing as a single tactic that has a limited impact on the goals of their campaigns.  The biggest example of this is the lack of integration between databases, website, and email marketing campaigns.

A local business owner has a limited amount of hours in a day and a limited amount of resources.  However, most of them do not streamline the lead acquisition process to work together.  If the systems were integrated, a similar scenario can be applied to large corporations that employ or utilize 3 different employees to do the job of a single email marketing professional.

Simply put, the website form does populate to the database, and neither of these automatically feed to the email marketing system.  In general, this is a manual process that costs businesses time, resource, and money.

How can effective Email Marketing Help Your Business and Drive Results?

How you ask?  Well, let’s start with efficiency.  The ability to integrate your website with your business’s database, website forms, and email marketing services tools may cost additional money upfront; however, in the long-run you will not need to use manual processes that require more resources.

At DaBrian Marketing Group, we provide businesses will the tools to connect website forms to an email marketing system and eliminate the database itself.  In our client’s case, the email marketing system or email marketing service is the database.

In addition, you can use event or email triggers to confirm opt-in email addresses after receiving a contact submission form.  In less than 30 seconds, you have populated your form into a specific list with the email marketing tool, confirmed an opt-in email, and responded to a prospect with relevant content.

Email triggers can be a useful and impactful tool for customer acquisition & lead generation.  We live in a society of instant gratification so being able to deliver relevant information or set the expectation to receive a response to a question is critical.  This can help to separate your business from the competition.

The ability to reduce the resources used for an email marketing campaign will reduce the campaign cost.  If implemented effectively, email marketing can position your business to be on your customers’ minds and reduce your overall acquisition cost. The bottom-line is Return-on-Investment.

Testing to Drive Results & Revenue?

Once you have become proficient with your automated process, it is time to start testing your email campaigns.  There are a number of different tests you can do with a single email campaign.  These tests include A/B, A/B/C, and multivariate testing of headers, subject lines, layouts, landing pages or calls-to-action.

The more successful your business is at getting customers to open emails, the greater the probability that the customer will respond to your call-to-action. Usually, better open rates and click through rates translate to better ROI.

Conclusion

The truth is that just about every business uses email marketing to communicate with customers.  Unfortunately, not every business takes the time to evaluate opportunities to integrate technologies, test, or measure their results.  These are simple fundamental businesses practices that should be gone.  The ability to establish internal processes and best practices are critical to every business’s success.

The fact that you have an email marketing tool does not mean that what you are communicating is relevant to customers, or even driving results.  It is our recommendation that businesses start to take a holistic approach to all internet marketing strategies & tactics.  Continue to push the envelope for maximum results that will lead to maximum returns.

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Justin Mark asked:

Marketing is base of every business aware among of people. Marketing strategies are based on location, services provided of marketing there. For example in village TV is best medium to aware their business or you may talk to any person in village that’s your business would spread by people of village.

Now, In 21st century, medium of marketing are going change according to interest of people. In some country internet is good medium, then other country TV or news paper are good medium of marketing. Now, days have been changed to electronic medium, business man using cheap and best method of marketing. So lots of methods are coming for marketing for their business like email marketing, SMS marketing, fax broadcasting and PPC program. Each and every have its own advantages and disadvantages there.

Email marketing is most popular method among them all. Just because of cheap, best and good feedback from user. In email marketing bulk of email address to be collected and send email newsletter, containing services, promotions and new business strategies, to all of them in bulk. But email marketing is not be possible by manual sending, so there are lots of email marketing software available with providing tracking report like received email, bounce email addresses list, departure time and tracking about are they read by user or not.

Because of cheap, best and good feedback result, email marketing is good services. In email marketing important thing is good database of email and for different business type. For electronics, there should be other, for entertainment there should be other database so that number of feedback percentage would be increase. For getting email addresses, you may use RSS subscriber method on your website or purchase email addresses under law rules.

But like of excess of every thing, more email marketing can be turned into spamming and in result you would be got punished by government of country. So, while doing email marketing you should also follow law too. In email marketing content of email newsletter should be targeted and length of newsletter should be less, otherwise importance of email newsletter.

In Email marketing, automation of tracking of email is more curious part of this marketing. There is lots free and paid email marketing software available one of them is Ezmail email software. Ezmail product support unlimited email campaign, unlimited subscriber, unlimited data sources, reports about email opening, click through, email bounce and more.

Each software has some advantages and disadvantages, but popularity of software is depended on business type means some time, this would good business but not so profitable for other business. But in Ezmail products, this is compatible about for every type of business there. Other advantages of this product are cheap price and availability over internet.

Email marketing is grown method of marketing. Lots of companies are providing their good services in email marketing, SMS marketing in various regions. IN US, UK and UAE region there are lots of companies, they have good services.

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Dejan Bizinger asked:

Successful online business can’t be led without email marketing. Many people know that it is very important to have a web site but having a web site is only one step in creating successful online presence. You have to stay in touch with your clients and prospects. You need to have a two way communication with your clients and prospects and best way to do this is to have an email newsletter. To send emails to your customer you need the right email marketing software.

Choosing your email marketing software is one of the most important steps you have to take in e-business. What are those necessary steps in choosing email marketing software?

Free or fee-based

The first thing you will have to decide in choosing software for your email campaigns will be whether you want to use free or fee based software. Some people may say: “There is much free software on the Internet. Why would I pay for email marketing software?” This is because some people still don’t have a habit to buy things on the Internet, especially non-tangible items such are software and services. Many people still don’t realize the power of email marketing so they think that can be satisfied with a free service.

One of the most famous contemporary economists, a Nobel Prize winner Mr. Milton Friedman said that there is no such thing like free launch. And there is another statement that says “You get what you pay for”. I usually agree with these two statements. These have been proven on many examples, especially on the Internet.

You can choose to use free software for email marketing but you will be limited for some more advanced options. Some big portals offer free services for creating groups. This is OK, but in this case you will send your email messages without many important features like personalization, email tracking, sending SMS, using CSV files etc. I don’t have to mention that many “free” email marketing software providers will include their ads in your email newsletter. I guess that you don’t want that in your business email communication.

Some other free software like the free version of Group Mail will have limitation on the number of subscribers per one session. In this case you will be able to send your email newsletter to 100 subscribers at once and in paid version to unlimited number of subscribers and create unlimited number of lists.

It is recommended that you use fee-based email marketing software for your business email campaigns. However, you always have to look for a provider who offers a free trial, as well.

Important features

You have to check if your email service provider offers these several important features.

1)Personalization – personalization is one of the most important things that email marketing software has to provide. With good personalization you will have better open rates and click-thru rates. Some more advanced email marketing software like Group Mail paid version offers if-then personalization for users who want to get the maximum personalization.

2)Monitoring – email marketing is popular and useful because results can be measured very effectively. You have to ask your email service provider if their product offers ability for detailed reports for open rates, click-thru rates, deliverability…If their main product doesn’t offer that it is important that they offer additional service that can be easily integrated with their main product.

3)Scalability – one of the main features of modern software is scalability. At this moment you might need software that will be able to send 1,000 emails at once but in 3 years your membership base can be 5,000. Will your software be able to handle that?

4)Creating HTML newsletters – HTML newsletters have better response rates than email newsletters in plain-text format so this is also another thing you have to consider in choosing your email marketing software. Without sending your email newsletter in HTML you won’t be able to do email tracking.

5)Integration with existing applications and databases – your email marketing software has to offer you ability to import data from existing applications and databases like SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, Access, FoxPro and Excel. Also, it is very useful that it can be integrated with popular email clients like MS Outlook.

6)International Character Support – Online businesses have to have a global focus so it is useful that email marketing software provides support for International Characters.

7)Plug-ins and updates – it is very important that the email service provider constantly works on creating useful plug-ins and updates in order to make your work easier and more effective.

8)Technical support -If you are an average Internet user without technical knowledge you will probably want to get support for your software. How good is your email service provider when it comes to technical support?

Desktop email software vs. Hosted ASP

Now when you know do you want free or fee-based software and what to look in your email marketing software you have to decide do you want to have desktop email marketing software or so called Hosted ASP. Both types have limitations and advantages. You have to choose the best option for you.

Desktop email software like Group Mail Plus, one of the leading desktop email marketing software, has several very big advantages. The most important is that details of your subscribers are kept private and secure on your own computer. Dot com crash is not so far behind us. Imagine that you have several thousand clients and use web based service from a company that will later go out of business. You can only imagine how that could affect your business and credibility! With Group Mail Plus you can manage an unlimited number of groups with unlimited number of recipients in each. You will have a larger initial investment than with Hosted ASP which charge a monthly fee, but you will a full control of your email campaigns and after some time of using your software you will repay it.

With Hosted ASP you will usually have a lower initial investment. You don’t have to buy hardware and software. However, price is usually determined by the number of emails you send so you will pay more how your membership base gets bigger so this option will be much more expensive than a desktop email marketing software option in the long run.

You can see that choosing the right email marketing software is very important. You have to bear in mind that the biggest investment is one that it is paid – twice. So, choose your email marketing software wisely

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Teajai Kimsey asked:

In 1867 the Pony Express made its fastest delivery – 7 days and 17 hours. The route: St. Joseph Missouri to Sacramento California. The average speed: 10 miles per hour.

The message was President Lincoln’s Inaugural Address.

The riders were from 11 to 40 years old and all weighed less than 125 lbs. To make this delivery, horses had to be changed every 10 to 15 miles.

By contrast, the US Postal Service delivery now takes at least a day, longer the farther away from the destination, Federal Express can get it there overnight by 10am the next business day.

Chances are many of you will leave this meeting and go back to your office where you will open an email that was sent from across the nation, maybe even around the globe within a matter of minutes. Only a fax machine can compare to the speed of email.

The simple truth is that of the 94 Million American Adults that use the internet every day, the number one reason for going online is to check their email. According to a DoubleClick survey, 81% of internet users go online daily to check email. That’s too big a number to ignore.

Why is email so popular?

Because it’s easy, fast, cheap, direct and it elicits and immediate response. When you add email to your marketing mix you spend less time, money and resources than with traditional marketing vehicles like direct mail or print advertising.

From a marketing standpoint, email was initially primarily used for gaining new customers – often via spam techniques. It has since shifted to promotional and customer relationship marketing.

Consumers expect emails to confirm transactions and shipping, and they are open to the ideas of their email addresses being used to promote ancillary offers.

Customer service is another area of opportunity for email.

According to an October 2004 Doubleclick survey, nearly 8 out of 10 consumers have used email for customer service. A consumer expects a service inquiry response immediately but up to 24 hours is acceptable.

More than that, businesses spend 80% of their marketing budget on gaining new customers but cultivating the current customer base costs less and generates greater revenue. Every email contact with a prospect or customer is a marketing opportunity in that is it a brand building and relationship building tool.

So what is the difference between an effective email marketing campaign and one that is tainted?

The email recipient is the sole decision maker of what constitutes spam. And the recipient pays for the email. Among the top reasons an email is deemed to be spam: Deceptiveness and unknown senders (of course), frequency and irrelevancy (even though permission was granted).

1) You must have some relationship with the recipients. Relationship is a broad term in the eyes of the FCC.

If, for example, you have a list of email addresses belonging to people who are members of the same affiliation or organization as you that can constitute a relationship. If you have a list of email addresses belonging to people who have previously done business with you that constitutes a relationship. If someone has emailed you asking for information about your product or service, that constitutes a relationship.

The ultimate relationship is the opt-in list, people who have specifically requested or “opted” to receive email from you.

When you email these groups, it’s a good idea to make it clear what the affiliation or relationship is to lessen the risk of being considered spam.

Bottom line: relevant, valuable emails sent to people who asked or agreed to get them are the best people to market to via email.

2) Second, you must have an opt-out on each and every email. The best way to handle it is an automated process so you won’t have to deal with finding each address one at a time to remove them from the list. This is one of the reasons why many companies use a broadcast email service to handle email marketing.

Use a Broadcast Service

Another reason to use a broadcast service is that the email sent does not disclose the addresses of the people to which the email was sent. This an important privacy issue.

Many professionals are under the impression that Outlook will hide the addresses to which the email was sent. This is not the case.

Design for the Recipient

When designing an email for marketing the first thing to consider is the recipient, of course.

Different email programs will interpret your message differently. For example, there are web based email programs like Horde and SquirrelMail that will not read images so the email is either garbled or filtered out as spam. (sckansas email handout)

Other email programs offer the option of viewing or not viewing images. So your email may show up with several blank spaces.

The solution is to have 2 versions of the email that are sent in tandem. That way the email program of the recipient can determine which version to display.

Know What Words to Use (Examples 1 / 2 & Triggers)

Another thing to consider is the subject line. Because of the words that trigger spam filters, the subject line as well as the message needs to be free of these words – in fact the word free is often a trigger. The header cannot be misleading either.

The Message

When structuring the message, again you have to remember to stay away from certain words, phrases or dollar signs. Now this part can get to be challenging. This is why you may see legitimate emails with special characters.

Email messages should be concise, to the point and carry a strong call to action. The idea is to get the recipient to interact with your company so give them plenty of opportunities and incentives to do so.

Remember, email is a brand building opportunity so be sure that you reinforce brand messages, encourage communication and interaction through links to the supporting website and reply to email addresses.

Track the Results

Be sure to track performance of your email marketing program. This is yet another reason to use a broadcast email service. Through third party services you have the ability to see how many people opened the email, how many people clicked the various links in the email etc. This also allows you to better target your emails to a specific audience or give more information that the recipients are genuinely interested in.

Like any advertising, email must be done consistently. And, like many marketing strategies, the program must flex to any new challenges or new opportunities. Don’t be afraid to vary the format, timing and offers to find the email that works best for your company. And definitely integrate email marketing along with any other marketing – loyalty programs, print ads etc. “join our email newsletter and get even more discounts, savings etc.”

This article written by Teajai Kimsey, Interenet Marketing Strategist, Ideas That Work. First presented to the Wichita Professional Communicators.

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Don R. Crawley asked:

Legitimate email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your customers and prospects. It’s inexpensive, fast, efficient, and environmentally friendly.

Email marketing allows you to target your customers and prospects by their particular interests, it allows you quickly announce special promotions (either planned promotions or impromptu promotions based on changing conditions).

Email is the perfect way to send a monthly newsletter. Email marketing’s efficiency was underscored in a study by the Direct Marketing Association which found that in 2005 email marketing returned an amazing $57.25 in revenue per dollar spent on it!

How can you get started with email marketing? Start by collecting your customers’ email addresses. Even if you don’t currently do email marketing, gather your customers’ email addresses now so that, when you decide to start communicating with your customers via email, you’ll already have a good list.

Have a sign-up sheet at each of your checkout counters or at your reception desk. Be sure to include a sign-up form on your website. Offer an incentive such as a monthly drawing from the collected email addresses.

Be sure to include a privacy statement on your forms and sign-up sheets such as, “Privacy notice: We don’t share your information with anyone.” (Of course, that means you can’t share that information ever.) Remember, email addresses are free (or very inexpensive) to gather.

Now, the three secrets to making email marketing a winner for your business.

Secret number one: Do only “permission-based” email marketing. In other words, only send email to people who have requested your email messages and make it easy to opt-out of future emails. There is a slimy side to email marketing thanks to spammers.

Obviously, you want to be associated with the reputable side of email marketing. If a customer, a prospect, or a site visitor willingly provides their email address, you’re not spamming. If you get it any other way, you’re spamming.

A commonly used technique for dealing with subscription requests from your website is called a “double-opt-in”. A double-opt-in requires the individual to first request your email marketing, then a confirmation request is sent to their email address.

They must click a link in the confirmation email or otherwise confirm their desire to receive your email before they’re added to your list. The rule is simple: If in doubt, don’t send it out.

Secret number two: Make your email marketing messages compelling for the reader. Keep them short and to-the-point and ensure that the recipient will see the value in whatever you’re saying. Increasingly, people are becoming distrustful of “hypie” messages that sound like they were written by an advertising copy writer.

Make your message real, make it personal, and make it deliver a benefit from the readers’ perspective. If there’s nothing in it for them, they’ll just delete your message or possibly even report it as spam.

Secret number three: Be consistent. Whether you choose to send an email campaign every week, every month, or every quarter, be consistent. One very successful email marketer even includes these words at the top of every email he sends: “Sent the third Tuesday of every month…” Your consistency in your marketing efforts reflects your dependability as a company.

What about the mechanics of email marketing? Many very small businesses just use their regular email accounts. Such a solution can work, but it doesn’t scale well as your email list and business grow. It also requires you to manage your new subscribers and unsubscribe requests.

A better solution is to use a commercial email marketing service. Such companies provide templates to make your messages look professional. They also provide tracking information on how many messages were actually opened and read, automatic opt-out links on your marketing messages, tutorials, assistance in complying with the CAN-SPAM act, and more.

Costs start at about $10 per month and go up from there based on various criteria such as the size of your list and the frequency with which you send messages. Most such companies provide a free trial period so you can get familiar with their service.

Make sure you’re compliant with the CAN-SPAM act. Of course, this is not legal advice (I’m no lawyer!), but compliance means being honest in your subject lines about the content of the message, including an easy opt-out method in every message, and including your complete contact information in every message.

Regardless of how you decide to do your email marketing, now is the time to start gathering email addresses. Email marketing, done properly, is flexible, affordable, efficient, and potentially very profitable for your business.

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Robert Burko asked:

With the right email marketing software, the days of blindly undertaking marketing initiatives without being able to track or monitor your success and easily learn from your experiences are a thing of the past.

Now, email marketing software makes it easy to quantify the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns down to the smallest details. With all this information at the marketer’s fingertips, the big question becomes, “how can it all be used?” This article will address several key ways that the reports from your email marketing software can be used to boost your email marketing results.

1. Your Open Rate Can Identify Problems with Your Email Subject

One of the most important reports that your email marketing software will generate is that of overall email ‘opens’. Your email marketing software may further divide this into unique opens vs. total opens (as some people will open your email multiple times).

This is a vital number because if people are not opening your email marketing campaign, then they obviously can’t see all the great promotions or information that you’ve put inside the message. That is why this is generally the first report you should look at in your email marketing software, since it can often act as an early indicator of a problem with your email name or email subject.

In many email programs that your subscribers may be using (either web-based or on their local computer), all they can see is the ‘from’ name and subject. Then, they have to make a decision about whether or not to open the email. If you have a low open rate, then the first thing you should do is ask yourself whether or not people recognize and are familiar with the ‘from’ name you are using.

Most email marketing software solutions will let you enter any from name you desire. But, if your customers know you as “Toy Central”, but you send out the email from “John Smith”, then that could be part of the reason you have a less than stelar open rate.

The other important piece of the puzzle is your email subject. While creating your email from within your email marketing software, you should be able to specify the subject.

The goal of the subject line is to accurately describe the contents of the email, while at the same time arousing people’s interests so they want to open your message. If you have a boring subject, then that could easily be an explanation for sub-par open rates.

2. Link Click-Through Measurements Can Tell You Where Your Readers Are Looking

Knowing exactly which links are being clicked can be very helpful when planning future email marketing campaigns. Most email marketing software solutions will generate a report that shows you all the hyperlinks in your email message and compare the number of clicks each one receives.

This insight can be useful because it tells you where your contacts are looking and what attracts their attention the most. From this information, you can figure out if your audience is looking at the first featured article in the main section, an article off in a side column, or maybe a quick links section.

Everyone’s target audience is different, but with your email marketing spelling out the answer about which sections generate the most action, you can more effectively plan your future email campaigns.

For example, if you can see that your “Featured Promotion” section containing links to one main product is consistently a leading click generator, then you can put important promotions or messages in that spot.

This is a great way to boost click-throughs using readily available information from your email marketing software. And, since clicks, in many cases, are what you need to generate sales, this is a measurement that should not be overlooked.

3. Past Readership Habits Can Help You Further Segment Your List

Since your email marketing software will generate reports that clearly pinpoint who is interacting with your email marketing campaign (whether it is clicks, opens, forwards, etc), this opens up a world of opportunities for targeted email follow-ups.

The purpose of this section is to figure out who your active contacts are, then spend extra time marketing to them. This generally produces a greater return on investment.

With most email marketing software solutions, you can take a group of people that performed a certain action (such as opening or clicking on your email) and save them as a new targeted segment. This lets you send a specific email marketing campaign to just those individuals who previously took your desired action.

Since you know these people are more highly qualified leads (after all, they already took the first steps owards interacting with you), it can often be more beneficial to spend increased time, attention and marketing budget reaching out to these selected individuals.

This is not to say that you should neglect your overall list altogether, as you definitely want to keep your brand in front of as many eyes as possible. But, if you have a limited budget, using the reports from your email marketing software to further target your mailing list can let you easily hone in on the people who, based on past behaviors, are going to be more receptive to what you are communicating.

With a little bit of effort and attention to detailed reports from your email marketing software, any business owner, manager or marketer can gain great insights and vastly improve future marketing efforts.

Simply being able to identify when something is going wrong, when something is going right, or when something can be improved, can ultimately help you increase your results and lead you towards achieving your goals.

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