Mastering Email Marketing

Affiliate marketers depend upon having their marketing emails opened, read, and acted upon. Unless those three things happen, the affiliate marketer will pretty much be out of the affiliate marketing business.

If you are formatted your email correctly and it is readable in all email programs, then you just need to be certain that you have done everything possible to encourage the recipients to:

Open the email: The subject line is one of the two determining factors of whether an email is in fact opened or sent unopened and unread to the deleted mail file of the recipient. The first factor is who the email is from. Since the recipient opted into your list, it is fair to assume that they want to get email from you. The second factor is the subject line.

Most autoresponders allow 50 character long subject lines. Only the first 25 or less have any real value. You must use those 25 words to entice the recipient into opening the email to see what you have to say.

Personalize the email in the subject line. Your autoreponder will allow you to do this. "John, you can save money and get a free gift!" is much more effective than just, "You can save money and get a free gift!" So first, personalize your subject line.

The word, "free" has been maligned but do not believe everything you hear. People like free. Everybody likes free....poor people, middle class people and maybe especially rich people.

There are other words that have proven to be effective in subject lines as well. Ease or easy, magic or magical, are some of them. You must use some mystery and some tease in your subject line, in order to get the recipients to open them.

Read the email: Once the recipient has been convinced to open the marketing email from you, the next trick is to get them to read what you have to say. The problem is that most computer users do not in fact READ anything. They SCAN. So it is up to you to get them to actually slow down and really read what you have to say.

The email must be interesting. If you can start with a story....and I'm not talking about a novel...I am talking about a two line story, you can get their attention. "Bill thought of himself as a loser until he tried our product." This is a story.

You must include bullet points in order to make your marketing email easy to read. You do not ever want to include large blocks of text. Short simple bulleted points that list the advantages that your product can provide will make it easy for the recipients to see the important facts as a glance.

Act on the email: Once you have convinced the recipients to open and read your marketing email, the next step is to get them to actually act on your suggestions you have made, (i.e. buy what you are selling).

The first thing you need to do is to make the link for ordering your product or service easy to see. Remember to never word-wrap links. All email programs don't deliver email with word wrapped links. All the recipient will see is the word...the link will not be included.

The second thing to do is to either make the offer for a specific limited time (midnight on Thursday, November 30th) and not just say "limited time" or to limit the offer to a specific number of people (this offer is limited to the first 200 applicants) and not just limited space is available.

Common Mistakes People Make when Writing Promo Emails:
There are at least as many ways to do a promotional email wrong as there are ways to get it right. One of the first mistakes that affiliate marketers make when writing their promo emails is that they...

Lose sight of the objective: The ONLY objective of a marketing email is to sell the product or service that you are promoting to the members of your opt-in list. Every word of the email needs to be directed at realizing that one objective.

See their list as email addresses: An opt-in list is much more than a list of names and email addresses. It is a list of people! Real, live, human people are what make up your opt-in list. You must market your product or service to humans and not email addresses.

Fail to provide themselves with the right tools for the job: If you are painting a room, you need paintbrushes, paint rollers, drop cloths, etc. If you are send promotional emails, you need the right tools for the job, as well.

Use weak and ineffective subject lines: Most auto responders allow you to use up to 50 characters in a subject line. The first 25 of those characters are what stands between the marketer and an email that actually opened and read. (The second 25 should be left on the table.) If marketing emails are deleted without being read, they are totally useless. Writing powerful, attention-getting subject lines that inspire recipients to open your marketing emails is an ability that needs to be developed to a high degree of expertise.

Effective subject lines are short, to the point, have a tease quality and never promise more than what will be delivered in the attached marketing email.

Use all capital letters: The use of all capital letters in any kind of email is the equivalent of shouting or yelling at a person that you are having a real world conversation with. It is rude and completely unproductive. Do not yell at the members of your opt-in list. All capital letters do not draw attention nor convey excitement.

Use a lot of exclamation points: One exclamation point at the end of a sentence means that the sentence is an exclamatory one. Multiple exclamation points at the end of a sentence are another form of yelling and they do not denote added excitement. They are taking up valuable space in your marketing email and maybe even irritating the recipients.

Never use bullet points: It is a known fact that people do not read marketing emails word for word. People scan marketing emails. Marketing emails need to be easy to SCAN. The use of bullet points makes it easy for recipients to easily identify the important information that is contained in the email. You should always use bullet points for the main points that you are making in your marketing email.

Make their emails too long: Marketing emails should be short. They shouldn't have a scroll bar and they should only be 300 to 400 words long. They should never contain large blocks of text. It will not be read.

Fail to use the P.S. line effectively: The P.S. line(s) of a marketing email appear last but they are as important as the first word of a marketing email. The P.S. line needs to be used to hit the most important aspect of the email again or as a tease for an upcoming email.

Email marketing is a critical element for any successful internet marketing. Take time to learn these specific tips and they will pay you back 100 fold!

The Real Deal With Opt-In Email Marketing Techniques

Some strictly defined opt-in email marketing as a marketing strategy wherein messages of marketing campaigns are sent through emails and targets only specific persons who requested the said information in the first place. Opt-in email is often times sent though bulk emailing and comes in the form of mailing list, newsletter or advertising campaigns.

This is very different from spam emails. In opt-in email marketing, permission is sought before marketing materials are sent to a specific email. All emails are solicited unlike in spam emails wherein emails are unsolicited bulk emails. Also, unlike spam emails, opt-in emails are only about the specific information requested.

One does not start sending out emails or materials concerning medicines if the email subscriber only requested monthly newsletters to be sent in his/her email address. You need to respect the decision of the email subscriber because they could choose to block or unsubscribe to an opt-in email marketing strategy.

We can still subdivide into categories opt-in emails. An unconfirmed opt-in email marketing refers to the subscriber that sends out incomplete contact information in its application to receive such materials. The danger from this kind of opt-in emails is that the materials might be considered spam after it is sent to other email addresses due to incomplete information or typo errors in the addresses.

This is different from a confirmed opt-in email wherein the subscriber is sent an email asking to confirm his/her subscription to a list software such as a website. The confirmation email functions in such a way that until the subscriber confirms his application, he will not be included in the mailing list and will not receive the emails he requested.

Double opt-in is another type of media marketing wherein the confirmation process is duplicated. Internet marketers add an additional confirmation process as an added security for subscribers. This is an anti-spammer technique and is oftentimes used to curb the proliferation of unethical practices of other web email marketing technique.

One more type of email marketing is the Opt-out technique. In this case, subscribers are added automatically on a mailing list but are given the option to unsubscribe or be taken out of the list.

With the popularization of email as means of communication, marketing practitioners have thought of ways to maximize the various communications technology which are now at the tips of the fingers of consumers. The solution they come up with is the opt-in email marketing strategies. Using email marketing in the right way is very beneficial for an internet business.

One of the most obvious advantage opt-in marketing brings is a faster and affordable method of advertising and marketing compared to other media communications. You can also receive an almost instantaneously feedback from your email subscribers. You can determine if your marketing strategy is effective and if it is you could start sending out marketing information to a wider audience almost immediately.

There are different formats that you could use for your opt in e-mail marketing strategy. One can use plain HTML, text formats and rich media formats. And because everything is electronic, you'll save time, effort and money from postage or courier services.

By just a click of the mouse things are send through the wire networks. The recipient receives the information almost at an instant and a reply could also be sent at the same speed.

Opt in email marketing is a valid internet marketing strategy that offers convenient, inexpensive and relatively effective marketing campaign. As long as market experts stay within the ethical and acceptable grounds, they can eventually earn a lot from such successful marketing campaigns.

Get Profit From Email Marketing

Email marketing is an important buzzword in e-business today. There are several reasons for this. First, it is a cheap way to get to prospects. Second, it is fast. Promotional messages can be delivered to a number of prospects through email marketing, and delivered fast. Third email marketing is very effective if used well.

Beginning An Email Marketing Campaign

To begin an email marketing campaign, first you need email addresses. Give potential customers the ability to opt-in to email newsletters that you may send. Give them the ability to invite their friends to the email list. You can do this by a simple invite-your-friend link in their email message.

Things To Remember In Email Marketing

Try to gain trust early on in the email marketing process. Make it clear to prospects that you will not sell email addresses to anyone. Also, allow an opt-out option with the email newsletter that you send. Try to gain trust by "talking" to your customer as you would talk to a friend. Only through trust will your customer get ready to buy your product and you make a sale.

Provide Useful Information In Your Email Marketing Campaign

Useful information is the only reason prospects subscribe to your email marketing campaign. So give it to them. If you sell dog products, explain to your prospects how to keep dogs clean and healthy and the benefits of doing so. Be the expert in the topic you are dealing with. Be willing to share useful tips, insights etc. with your prospect that will endear them to your email marketing campaign. This is essential to get profit from email marketing.

Interesting Subject Lines

Keep your subject lines interesting as well as hard hitting. Your subject lines draw readers to the subject at hand. These same subject lines determine whether your mail is treated as spam. Frame your subject lines in a manner that they are interesting as well as give some information on the subject and arouse curiosity. This ensures that the prospects get to the next part of the marketing message that is the email.

Keep It Short And Simple

This is also called the KISS principle. Use intrigue in the email. Just as the email subject line arouses curiosity in the email, the email should be able to sustain the curiosity. The result should be a curious would-be customer who cannot wait to go from the email to the website where you sell your products.

While you get profit from email marketing, use common sense mixed with marketing acumen for the best results. Endear yourself to customers. This can be done through simple authenticity in all dealings with them. "Talk" to your customers like a friend throughout the email-marketing message. Use creativity while delivering the message to the prospect. Email marketing is a godsend for small businesses. Use it wisely to spice up business and get those cash registers ringing.

Top Ten Email Marketing Mistakes Made By Small Businesses

Email marketing isn't complex or new. Yet we see the same mistakes being made over and over by the marketing executives, sales professionals and owners of small businesses.

If done correctly, email marketing is a very effective medium to generate new leads, and build continuous contact with your customers and prospects. It can easily help you yield new sales and meet your targets.

Take care of these top 10 mistakes and you are on your way to new sales!

1. Underestimating current customers list - This is by far the biggest mistake we have seen. Marketers just disregard their current customer list, and leave money on the table. Even worse, most have no systematic way of capturing their customer's email and contact details in a common list.

A consolidated customer email list can be easily used to market new products to existing customers or to get repeat orders if done regularly and consistently. Existing customers have seen your product and service before, and are more likely to buy from you again.

2. No specific target - One big, long message for everyone is no longer smart or effective. Nothing works the fast way. Now the trend is to do personalized, 1 to 1 marketing. If your standard message is for all prospects in all industries, chances are that it does not address anyone needs.

It is best to send several small, targeted emails to focus groups, which you can track to see what works in which industry, and who opened which mail. With this potent arsenal, you can focus your efforts on those chose few to spend your time upon, and generate sales with a much bigger ROI.

3. Using cheap lists - Using 300,000 emails from a $100 CD is bound to fail. These email addresses are mostly defunct, and most are acquired through snooping and email extraction from forums. Most will not be from your target market anyway. Just sending a blatant marketing message is a sure-fire way to get yourself banned from major Internet Service Providers. Anti-spamming laws are catching fast in most countries, so beware of such tactics.

You can either buy a good list of your target group from reputed list brokers, or start compiling your own house list of all past and current prospects, customers, vendors, suppliers, contractors to market to them.

4. No system to measure response - Marketing department just continue to send out messages after messages: There is no check on ROI, no measurement of efforts, and no mechanism to evaluate the response of past messages. No wonder these efforts hardly bring in any results or prospects.

A systematic measurement system is very important. With emails, you can tag each and every link, email account and email sent, so that when it is opened or clicked, you can immediately know who is interested, who is keen to buy, what product, and how eagerly.

With a good measurement, you can call those few that spent time with your message, or on your website, and by knowing their browsing behaviour, you can customise future messages for them. Market something that they have shown interest on, and you are closer to another sale.

5. No clear goal or strategy - Start with the right goal and marketing strategy. Your first goal should be to establish trust and credibility within your target market.

Secondly, get the prospect interested enough in what you are selling, so that they are willing to give you their contact information.

Thirdly, your marketing message should be sent out regularly so that the prospect expects it, waits for it, and it shows that you are consistent, reliable, and trustworthy.

Remember, marketing exists to generate leads, prospects and help sales and delivery teams to close the deals, & not for any other purpose. So focus, and strategize on these lines.

6. Marketing folks don't have time to update anyone about their initiatives - Most of the time, the services folks, the receptionist and other employees of the company are not even aware of what marketing is up to. So when a prospect calls the office to talk about the offer made in the email, neither the receptionist has a clue, nor the employee from the service department. None has seen the email, and have no idea who to refer this prospect to. Here goes another lost sales.

Marketing efforts need to be integrated over the entire organisation, and everyone should understand the need & importance of what's going on.

7. Marketing message is inconsistent - Many marketing firms just send out a message, without making sure that it is consistent with the other company collateral. It is not even properly linked to the company's website, and does not incorporate the complete office address, telephone, fax, contact information. Just giving an email address is not sufficient to build trust and prove that yours is a genuine offer.

8. Boring marketing message or ad copy - A long repetitive message is no way to capture the prospects attention. You can't watch a boring movie even if you paid for the tickets, so who is going to read your unasked for marketing email if you are not even addressing the problem.

Most messages spend countless paragraphs talking about what they offer, their products, services, and me, me, me. There's nothing in the message to catch the reader's attention. You need to talk about the problems faced by your target market, their industry, and their issues. Once you establish a bond by acknowledging that you know about their problems, they will be more amenable to your message, and products.

9. Dropping prospects half way in the engagement process - It is a proven fact that a new prospect will take an average of 5-7 different interactions or more, before they build enough trust on you, your company and your products or services before thinking of buying from you. So if you drop prospects after meeting them once or twice, thinking that they are not qualified or do not seem interested, you are losing sales too quickly.

Continuing to hand hold them and stay in constant contact will help you in the long run, as you will be familiar to the prospect and their needs.. People love to do business with people they know, and not strangers. Email is the most cost-effective way to stay in touch.

10. Not interested in educating the prospect - The marketers are so focused on sales, that they do not spend enough time with their prospects to educate them. Remember that if you service a prospect well, they will most likely convert to a paying customer sooner or later. Have patience. Use email to market to them regularly with information, education, free offers etc. until they build enough trust to buy from you.

Conclusion:

Email marketing has been proven time and again, if done correctly. Big companies like IBM, Amazon, HP are using it effectively, and smaller companies are catching up fast in understanding its marketing reach.

With its lows cost, and effectiveness, email marketing helps to build long term relationships with your target audience. Use it wisely, and ye shall reap its rewards.

To your success with Email Marketing,

Vinai Prakash

You Don't Use Email Marketing? Why Not?

If you are currently participating in other types of Internet marketing and neglecting to utilize email marketing, NOW is the time to seriously consider why you have been avoiding this type of advertising. Email marketing can be and should be a very important part of any Internet marketing campaign. Many business owners will avoid email marketing for fear of being accused of spamming. Internet marketers may not have a clear understanding of what spam is or what it is not so they avoid participation in email marketing campaigns to avoid the potential for being labeled a spammer.

Why are Internet marketers so afraid of being accused of spamming? This is a common fear for a number of reasons. First of all there may be harsh penalties associated with sending spam emails. Recipients of spam have the option of reporting the spam to their Internet service provider who will investigate the validity of the claim. If the originator of the email is determined to be a spammer there can be harsh consequences.

There are also concerns that email marketing will not be well received by potential customers. This is an important concept because Internet users can be overwhelmed with spam each day. Receiving such mass quantities of spam every day can anger some Internet users. Some Internet users are not likely to be receptive to email marketing. Some Marketers fear that these potential customers will see your email marketing as bothersome and stray to competitors.

However, it is important to note that despite the prevalent problem with spam, a certain element of Internet users are very receptive to email marketing and even prefer it. This is especially true in situations where they specifically requested to receive more information from you regarding your products or services. Potential clients are particularly receptive to email marketing which provides something of value such as in depth informational articles or free mini-courses you can write for your clients Offer to provide in depth articles or informative tips or reviews of your products in exchange for your clients email address.

Additionally, items such as e-newsletters and correspondence courses offered via email can be of particular interest to potential customers. E-newsletters are typically longer documents than traditional email marketing pieces and can provide a great deal of additional information to the email recipient. Email correspondence courses may be offered in short segments and typically amount to a significant amount of information which is likely to be greatly appreciated by the email recipients.

One final way to prevent email recipients from viewing your email marketing efforts as spam is to only send the emails to recipients who register with your website and specifically request for you to send them additional information and promotional materials. This opt in formula is ideal because it ensures you are not wasting your email marketing efforts on recipients who are not interested in your products or services. It also ensures the recipients of the email marketing campaign do not view the informative and promotional materials they are receiving as spam. This technique for compiling an email distribution list is quite effective but it is important to remember you should always include information on how recipients can opt out of receiving future emails.

By utilizing one of the many fine autoresponder providers available today for a minimal monthly fee, (some of them are actually free), you can completely automate the entire process of collecting names and distributing your email marketing letters for you.

With all these facts in mind, go ahead and begin building your opt-in mailing list and form a closer more personal repoire with your clients.

Direct Drip Email Marketing Tactic

If you have the products or services that you want to sell on the Internet, you'll want to create a web site where you'll advertise what you are offering and you'll also want to spread a word about your products or services to the world. You can easily and quickly do it via email. Email marketing is certainly one of the most powerful strategies in internet marketing. It's quick, cost effective - you do not have to pay a set price for every email that is sent out - and allows contact people in all parts of the world. So, you can get more purchasers and respectively more revenue for less investment of time and money.

How does one accomplish bulk email marketing campaign?

You can use online bulk emailing services, or you can pay a marketing firm to do your bulk email promotions, or you can use direct email marketing software to distribute your email campaigns sitting at your computer.

Using software can be the most cost-effective method if you have the time to manage your prospects list and accomplish your email campaigns with a constant frequency.

There is wide choice of direct email marketing software packages available on the Internet market. Some are even freeware programs that don't require any investment. Although they don't generally have the value-added features that come with software packages that you purchase; however, if you aren't running a large email marketing campaign, they may suit your needs for accomplishing specific tasks just fine.

What is Drip Email Marketing?

The concept behind drip email marketing consists in sending periodic emails to prospects and clients hoping to bring them to your website and make them purchase products or services. It is an effective method to generate new purchasers from your prospects and keeping relationship with your existing clients.

Drip Email Marketing tactic results from the idea that nobody purchases online products or services instantly. A visitor can come to your web site a few times before he becomes a purchaser. Keeping this in mind, how are you going to stimulate your prospects' interest to your site and keep them informed about your products and services? This is where a drip email marketing campaign is quite to the point.

Imagine that a prospect has just visited your site and left you the email address. It's important to note that you should add a sign-in form to your web site to collect the prospects' email addresses. It's rather useful if your sign-in form asks the subscriber to provide some about additional and not only the email address. I'm not talking about private information. I'm talking about the subscriber's area of interest, hobbies, specific needs, or at least the emails he prefers to receive, text or HTML. All this information will help you segment your prospects and send more relevant email messages to each group.

So, based on the subscribers' preferences, you set up a drip email marketing campaign catered to their specific needs. Each message you send them give more information about their inquiries slightly hinting them at you and your products or services. It is an importunate way to stamp your name in their mind. Remember, you don't sell anything yet. You just give an advice and information about their particular needs and wishes.

For your existing clients, a drip email marketing campaign is similar. You only need to tailor the emails so they are oriented to the client after purchase. Your email drips must contain relevant information that can help the customer with the products or services he purchased. The customer must be sure that you are always there to assist him. When your client believes that you are a faithful and reliable partner, he is ready to purchase again from you.

It may probably sound like you will need more than one tool to accomplish your drip email marketing campaign. But you can find many programs on the Internet that can handle your growing lists of prospective and present clients. Our email management software must be flexible enough to treat each client or prospect according to the routine of your drip email campaign.

The most important thing to remember about drip email marketing is that you must not send meaningless emails. Each message must have an informative content, a real reason to contact your prospects and clients, not just a note saying "Hi!" or "How are you?".

If your drip marketing email cannot keep the client's interest, it will be deleted immediately next time when they read the sender's email address. We all are busy people and won't spend our time for dull messages. If you are trying to build the relationship based on trust and faith, you cannot tolerate that they never open your emails. You can start directly from the subject line. The subject itself must grab people's attention and make them want to read your message. This is the essential concept behind a drip email marketing campaign - to develop a trust and faithful relationship with your customer by sending valuable information. When the rapport of informative and useful emails is established, your clients and prospects will be looking forward for every email from you and they will even recommend your company and your products to others. Isn't it exactly what you want for you business? I'm sure it is.