Consider if you will the resources, the time and the financial investment given to attracting new web traffic. Banner advertising, link exchanges, search engine ratings, affiliate schemes and the list goes on. Yet when it comes to retaining a customer’s future business or even a return visit, we simply hope that they will opt-in to a newsletter mailing list and everything will be okay.

Of course the truth of opt-in email marketing is far from okay. For a start, people, especially private individuals, frequently change their email address. For many people, email addresses are a disposable accessory, which should be replaced every few weeks when the Spam starts rolling in. I don’t know about you, but I have enough trouble keeping up with the email changes of my friends and family, let alone a list of a few thousand customers and potential customers.

Typing “email marketing” into Google will return literally thousands of software products and services all promising to make your email campaign more successful and slick. Of course it doesn’t matter how much or how little you expend on your email newsletter, it will still be one subject line of possibly hundreds, all screaming for attention.

 Average email click through rates fell from 5.4% in 1999 to just 1.8% in 2003 (Source eMarketer)

 27% of emails never get opened and of those that are opened only 23% are read thoroughly (Source: J Neilsen)

 Average open rate for B2B emails has fallen by 42% since 2001 (Source eMarketer)

Although such statistics make grim reading, worse is yet to come. Some industry experts are predicting a total collapse of the email infrastructure within the next five years due to the shear volume of traffic. A technology dating back to the 1960’s, email was developed as a means for geeks to communicate with other geeks, about something they had seen in the alt.freakygeek newsgroup. It was never designed to cope with the demands of mass marketing which have been inflicted upon it since the arrival of the WWW. So with that in mind, it is something of a miracle and a credit to the technology of yesteryear that it continues to work at all.

Recent research commissioned by Yahoo revealed that the average British PC has nine “sick days” a year, two more than the average for human workers. Six of these days are lost battling against Spam, while a further three are taken up combating viruses.

The Yahoo findings went on to reveal that nearly half of British computer users find dealing with junk e-mails more stressful than traffic jams and the majority want service providers to act.

But I’m no Spammer, I hear you cry! No, but your legitimate email is going to have to share the same inbox as the volumes of Spam and with only a Subject Line to stand out from the crowd, is it any wonder that email is becoming so ineffective as a marketing tool?

Clearly, alternatives to email marketing need to be developed. One emerging technology being pioneered by three software houses in the UK is that of One-2-Many Broadcasting. Already employed by the BBC, Visa, and many other blue-chip Net companies, One-2-Many Broadcasting offers a far-improved method of communicating with customers than opt-in email marketing or newsletters and already being hailed as the THE next big marketing tool.

One-2-Many Broadcasting involves the customer downloading a small client onto their PC. The customer can filter and influence what information they receive from within the software client. Once installed the website can then communicate directly with that customer by broadcasting information in a wide range of formats, all of which is attractively presented directly onto the customer’s screen. Sounds frighteningly, intrusive doesn’t it? Well, not according to the millions of people who are already receiving information from the latest news through to film clips of the latest movie releases. One London based soccer club, Arsenal, has reported a phenomenal take-up of their One-2-Many Broadcasting Service, with over 100,000 subscribers in the first 12 months of operating.

So will One-2-Many replace email marketing? Who knows, I suspect that over the coming years a variety of marketing alternatives will appear, of which One-2-Many will hold a share of the market. In developing alternatives to email marketing one of the major factors will and is that of price; emails are extremely cheap. Any alternative therefore, if it is to be successful, needs to be competitively priced and rich in unique features.

To date, One-2-Many Broadcasting has been relatively expensive and financially not an option for most small to medium sized businesses. As the concept of One-2-Many marketing is developed, more and different software is likely to emerge, which will in itself introduce competition and hopefully lower prices.

For more information and reading on One-2-Many Broadcasting:

www.skinkers.com

http://www.edesktop.co.uk

[http://www.desknet.co.uk]

To experience One-2-Many Broadcasting:
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70061-1109118,00.html – Sky News Alerts

[http://www.arsenal.com/Userincludes/desktopwenger/InstallDesktopWengerNT.exe] – Arsenal FC

About The Author

Robert Palmer is CEO of deskNET Communications [http://www.desknet.co.uk] and is a leading architect in the development of One-2-Many Broadcasting software.

Author: Robert Palmer
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Digital Camera Information

Email marketing has come a long way in the past twenty years. First it was a great way to communicate without the cost of a postage stamp. It grew into an abused (and abusive) marketing form that filled our inboxes with spam and endless iterations of viral jokes. Now things have settled down and email marketing is back in favor with both the senders and receivers.

Email Marketing Advantages

Email lists are now set up to give businesses permission to advertise. Double opt in email lists verify that the email recipient agrees to receive your email, usually by offering a “freemium” to entice the email owner to opt in. Thereafter, every email contains an unsubscribe link allowing the reader an easy method to opt out of future mailings. In effect, each email that is accepted without unsubscribing is a tacit agreement to continue receiving emails.

Most people visit their email everyday. Even when they don’t open your emails, each email you send has the potential to help with your brand recognition by showing your name in the sent column. Furthermore, each email that is read strengthens the reader’s identification with you and your authority.

You can segment your list and send targeted messages to different lists.

You get to push your message out and put it in front of your customer as opposed to trying to pull the customer to visit your blog or website.

Email marketing has a longer shelf life than social media like Twitter or Facebook because your message sits in someone’s inbox. You will see your emails opened several hours after they were sent as the recipients visit and process their inbox. Contrast this with a Twitter status that rolls off the screen in a matter of minutes.

Email Marketing Disadvantages

People find it easy to ignore email. If they are busy they may skim through the subjects and senders and perform a huge dump of messages they don’t have time to read.

According to recent claims, only 11% of teenagers open email daily. Although there is a possibility that their habits will change as they move into the workforce, still there appears to be a shift away from email towards social media marketing which suggests email marketing may have less influence on the next generation.

Savvy recipients can set up rules in their email so it looks to you like the email was received and ignored when actually it was automatically moved into a folder, perhaps it even went straight to a trash folder.

Some people even use decoy email addresses to get your freemium and never read any of your emails. Sure the email address is real enough when they opt in. They set up a free email account somewhere, use it subscribe and get your email bait, and then never check that inbox for the future emails.

It can be a challenge to offer something of value to the reader on a continuing basis, not to mention the fact that you are competing with every other email in their inbox. At some point readers will begin to feel like they have extracted all the value and your emails have become sales pitches.

Email marketing has cleaned up its act in recent years and regained some credibility. While merely one pillar in a well-rounded internet marketing strategy, the ability to target customers and get their consent to send marketing messages means email marketing will remain strong in the years ahead.

Tammi Kibler is a freelance writer who advises small businesses on their internet marketing strategies. Contact Tammi today for all your content needs. Whether it’s maintaining your blogs, crafting compelling email campaigns, or writing the articles that establish your authority, Tammi has the words you need to communicate your message.

Are you new to the internet? Do you need help launching your website? Click here ==> http://www.websitesetp.biz/about/website-set-up-e-book/ to download your free copy of the e-book “Website Set Up: Your Guide to Launching Your First Website.”

Author: Tammi Kibler
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Digital Camera News

The concept of email marketing, as it is known today is greatly different from the traditional concept of the process. This is because, the present day email marketing campaigns are fully centered around the social media websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace. In this context, it is relevant to mention that email marketing is the most traditional approach to internet marketing, as it existed even before the internet was overtaken by social media websites. The advent of the social media websites, however, changed the entire concept of email marketing.

Before social media era, internet marketers used to receive the email address in bulk from the internet service provider without any idea about whether the receiver of the email will be able to appreciate the new business offer introduced in the email or not. This often resulted in genuine internet marketing emails being marked as spam and discarded. In addition, the content of the email did not bear any signature style and all the emails were sent in bulk, with the content of the email remaining the same. The success rate of such kind of email marketing was considerable in the early days, but the lack of credibility in such kind of email marketing soon reduced the chances of success in haphazard email marketing. The prevalence of spams and fake emails also made the work of genuine internet marketers difficult. The social media era changed all of this.

Social media enabled the internet-marketing manager to pinpoint his target audience. The different communities and groups that people formed on the social networking site enabled the internet marketer to identify the right group of people who will appreciate the business offers. Moreover, the social media meant that the internet marketer had no longer to depend upon the internet service provider to get the email as the email ids could be directly obtained from the social media sites, thus saving on time and money. Since, the email ids gathered from the social media sites are all relevant emails, so there is also a savings on the energy of sending business introduction emails to people who do not care about the business in any way. Social media sites ensured that the right emails reached the right receiver.

Finally, and most importantly, the social media sites allowed a sense of personalization and credibility with the emails. As the names and personal preferences of the receiver of the email are now known from their social network profiles, so the internet-marketing managers can personalize the emails with the intention of grabbing the personal attention of the receiver of the email. The graphics, fonts, colors and themes of the email are now selected according to individual customers to make the emails appear professional and personal at the same time.

In this context, it must also be remembered that the internet marketer, for attributing full credibility to the emails should follow certain golden rules of email marketing. Such golden rules include precise description of the new business idea, the contact details of the sender in the emails and the tone of the email should be a balance of politeness and professionalism. These rules, combined with the personalization of the emails, make email marketing an important internet-marketing instrument for the internet marketer.

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Author: Colin Yang
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Digital Camera Times

Email marketing companies offer online solutions that enable individuals and organizations to take advantage of the power and precision of email marketing by equipping them with a wide range of capabilities – chief among which are:

• Capturing the contact details of visitors to their websites
• Sending out automatic responses every time a visitor signs up
• Delivering personalized messages and newsletters to subscribers
• Tracking and reporting on actions email recipients take in response to the emails they receive

In short, email marketing companies help you build highly targeted lists of subscribers; communicate with your subscribers whenever you want, and continuously improve the responses your email marketing efforts produce.

And while there may be many similarities between the solutions email marketing companies offer – and there are many email marketing companies to choose from (a search on Google for the phrase “email marketing companies” returns 17,500 results) – there are also some distinctive differences that may make one company a better choice for your needs than the others.

Following are 10 of the most important questions to consider when evaluating email marketing companies.

1. How do they handle CAN-SPAM compliance checking?

Because CAN-SPAM compliance is law, email marketing companies that do not offer integrated CAN-SPAM compliance checking should be eliminated from consideration right off the bat.

2. How easy is it to create, manage, and track campaigns?

Unless you or someone on your team has a lot of technical expertise – and free time – you should rule out any companies whose solutions require a lot of either.

3. How many different newsletter templates do they offer?

You are going to want to make sure the companies you’re considering offer a wide range of newsletter templates so that you can find one that matches the look and feel of your brand.

4. Do they offer you the ability to create plain-text alternatives to HTML emails and newsletters?

If you want to increase the percentage of emails that end up in your recipients’ inbox – and stay out of their junk folder – you need to make sure that the companies you’re considering offer you the ability to create plain-text alternatives to HTML emails and newsletters.

5. Do they offer you the ability to schedule email delivery?

If you want to set up “drip” email campaigns, you’re going to want to consider only the companies that offer you the ability to set up scheduled email deliveries.

6. How much visibility into email recipient behavior do they offer?

Key data you should expect companies to report on includes: number of opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, as well as click destinations – ideally by date, time, geography and so forth (the more data options companies offer, the better).

7. How many different options for opt-in forms do they offer and can they handle split-testing?

Because different types of opt-in forms can yield wildly different results, rule out any email marketing companies that do not offer multiple types of opt-in forms, as well as those that do not offer you the ability to split-test your forms to determine which ones will produce the best results.

8. What kind of support do they offer?

While some companies offer only limited support – typically in the form of email or help desk – others offer live support 24/7 via online chat and toll-free phone numbers. If immediate action is important to you, make sure you rule out companies that do not offer around-the-clock live support.

9 What kind of training is available – and how accessible is the training?

No matter how easy-to-use an email marketing solution may be, there will undoubtedly be some functionality that you won’t know how to use. Because of this, you should make sure that the companies you’re considering offer comprehensive training on all aspects of their tools and services (and that make the training available anytime/anywhere).

10. What kinds of subscription packages do they offer?

Email marketing companies typically offer monthly, quarterly and annual subscription packages. If flexibility is important to you, opt for a month-to-month subscription. If best-value is a top consideration, make sure that you can get a discount for a longer-term commitment.

Ultimately, email marketing can be one of the most effective and least expensive marketing efforts you undertake (ROI ratios for successful campaigns are commonly 50:1 or higher). Email marketing companies can help put your email marketing campaigns on the fast-track to success. You simply need to know what you need to know in order to choose the company that’s right for you.

Dawson Barber invites you to learn about “ruthlessly practical” ways to build your business and make money online throughsearch engine optimization, article marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, webinars, and other online marketing activities by visiting him at the Online Marketing Business Builder, where you’ll find loads of useful information, how-to’s, videos, free stuff, and so forth intended to teach you all about building your business and making money online – in a ruthlessly practical way.

You can also get access to a free version of SEO PowerSuite SEO software by clicking on the link.

Author: Dawson Barber
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Hybrid and Electric Cars

All of us hate getting spam emails – whether they are the “sexual” ones or the ones about price reductions or whatever.

Yet legitimate email marketing can be very effective for both you as the person sending out the emails and for the person receiving the emails.

How does this work?

Under the paradigm of legitimate email marketing, you only send emails to people who have said “yes, they are interested in getting your emails.” And on each email they get from you, they are given the option of “unsubscribing” – being taken off your email list.

Step 1: You have an email opt-in box on your website. You ask for a name (a first name is enough) and an email address. Often you offer an “irresistible offer” – a freebie that is of interest to your target market. The person signs up.

Step 2: Now here’s the double email opt-in part: Some people give a fake email or a friend’s email just to get the freebie. (It is irresistible, right?)

Then your automatic email marketing system sends an immediate email to the email address given asking for the person to confirm that he or she did indeed sign up to be on this email list. If the person does not wish to be on the list, he or she does nothing.

If the person does indeed wish to be on the list, he or she clicks the confirmation link (sometimes it requires two separate clicks).

Then if a freebie was offered, as soon as the person confirms his/her email address, the person is given the link to immediately download the freebie.

The implications of this double email opt-in system:

A person has said yes to getting emails from you. You now have the email address of someone who was initially interested in what you have to offer.

You can now use this email address – with good judgment – to send follow-up information and offers.

Each time the person gets an email from you, he or she is automatically given the option of unsubscribing. And, yes, there will be people who will unsubscribe because they just wanted the freebie or they are now getting too many emails from all of cyberspace or whatever.

Do not take these unsubscribes personally. You must look at the unsubscribes as people who would never be interested in buying any products or services from you. These are often the people who collect freebies and nothing more.

Using an email marketing service

Could you do a double email opt-in system yourself? Yes, if you can program all the steps. But here’s the rub:

There are several technical steps that email marketing services do in order to “signal” the spam filters that the emails you send out in a batch are legitimate. I’ve read about these steps – and if you are a tech geek you can probably do each of these steps yourself.

If you’re not a tech geek, your emails will have a harder time getting through spam filters than those from an email marketing service because you won’t be using the “secret handshakes” that let spam filters know you’re okay.

In addition, with an email marketing service there are all kinds of list divisions you can do. For example, you can divide your list by product or service bought, event attended, etc.

In terms of limited time resources, I highly recommend using an email marketing service.

Internet marketing ideas using an automated email marketing system

How can you use email marketing to promote your brand, book or business?

Let’s look at some examples:

1. You’re a local restaurant and on rainy days your business drops off substantially. On a rainy morning you send out an email blast to your customers announcing a rainy day special of a free sandwich that day. Of course, when people come in for their free sandwich, they’ll want to buy something to drink and maybe a bag of potato chips and maybe dessert.

2. You decide to start giving in-person seminars on how to get employees to appropriately use Facebook and other social media on company time. You give a seminar at Company X that goes very well. You send out an email to your list talking about the seminar, including a testimonial from the head of Company X. You include in the email what the usual fee for a company seminar is. And then you offer that anyone on the list who schedules the seminar within a certain time period will get a 10% discount off the seminar fee.

3. You sell a $299 information product from your website. It’s a product that a lot of people could use if they only understood the power of the product. You send weekly emails sharing valuable information that the people on your email list can use now. And at the end of each email you gently remind people about this great product – you’re slowly educating your list about the power of the product. After several weeks of seeing what valuable information you share, several of the people on your list may decide to buy your $299 product because they now trust that you will provide $299 worth of value.

4. One of the most important reasons to use email marketing is to send a follow-up thank you when someone does purchase a service or product from you. And, of course, you may take that opportunity to offer a companion service or product, especially if the person is finding the first product or service very helpful.

Writing emails that do not sound like the spam emails

When you use the internet for email marketing, you must learn to write emails that are NOT perceived as spam because your emails have valuable information in them – information that can be very useful to the people receiving your emails.

This is a skill that can be learned over time by paying close attention to emails you get from other businesses and taking note of what you think works or doesn’t work. You can also hire an outside expert to write the emails for you.

And remember that email marketing can be a very powerful tool in your internet marketing toolkit.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. If you liked this article, get her FREE report “How to Monetize Your Site/Blog Without Ads” – download the report now from http://www.millermosaicllc.com/monetize-your-site

Author: Phyllis Zimbler Miller
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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