Effectiveness of Email Marketing – Part II

September 10th, 2010

Creating Email Auto Responders & Offers

When you are ready to write your actual email auto responder, there are a few things to consider.

The first is what is your objective:

Do you want prospects to click on a link within the email?

Do you want to give?

They could be directed to one of your affiliate links where you could attempt to bring in more affiliate income. They could be directed to a product page. They could be directed to an opt-in page. Or they could be directed to a long form sales letter landing page or even your blog.

These calls to action that you are trying to entice from the reader will be embedded in your actual email auto responder or broadcast message. They may be added as a text link, as a direct URL link, as a phone number or as a request for more information via email.

One of the best advantages of an email auto responder as a direct marketing tool is that since it is electronic, all of your links will be live.

When a costumer clicks, he or she is automatically taken where you want them to go. This is extremely advantageous over other direct mail marketing techniques that have an added step in between the potential client reading the piece and the actual action to respond. Once you have decided what your goal is in terms of a call to action, you can determine the actual content of the email auto responder. The content that will work the best for your email will be determined by the type of business you are using it as a marketing tool for, and the type of target audience you are sending it to.

For example, if your business is in financial services, you may decide to build credibility through sending relevant article material in an email auto responder.

If you are trying to sell a product and your goal is to direct the m to your website, you may send a series of emails that are designed to fall in sequence that provide repetitive reasons as to why the client would want to click and consider buying. When considering whether you want to design an email auto responder campaign or a single follow up, always consider your purpose.

Also, you will certainly have a variety of emails that you will utilize as part of your direct marketing campaign. For example, you might have a single email auto responder that you will use to follow up with a direct marketing lead to serve as an introduction. If you offered something written for free, you may use an email auto responder to deliver this information.

If you are working to convert leads into paying clients, you may use an entire series of 10-25 emails that are sent out weekly, bi-weekly or monthly to keep your generated lead list warm.

Now that you understand a bit more, you are ready to produce the actual email auto responders written copy.

Keep on the lookout for the next series in this email marketing training.

Marc Martin is an internet network marketing coach who teaches Networkers the strategies of network marketing’s top earners. If you would like to learn more about the exact system and business that he and other industry leaders use to generate 50-100 leads a day, follow this link [http://www.bestinstantincomeplan.com]

Author: Marc Martin
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Benefits of electric pressure cooker

Don’t Be Afraid of Email Marketing

September 10th, 2010

When it comes to advertising your website, your products or services, one of the most common methods many business owners and even freelancers neglect is Email Marketing. Yes, you heard right, email marketing. Such a scary idea isn’t it?… considering that you’re probably thinking, “Oh no, I’ll be labeled a spammer”!

Well, fear not! I, Mr Freelancer will explain the nitty gritty about email marketing the “proper” way….. of course, as a disclaimer, this “proper” way may be subject to interpretation by critique -artists and bashers of all kinds, but hear me out if you will. It’s a common knowledge that spammers are the scum of the earth and should be locked up for eon’s time, thus, there are several techniques in email marketing that one should adhere to so as not to fall into that category of “scum-of-the-earth”. Some of these techniques I will illustrate down below.

RFCs

One of the biggest things one should do is follow the email RFC 2821 & RFC 2822. These are nothing more than “standard” protocols and procedures an email should follow. Really in a nutshell, these two standards alone are “almost” enough to be your guiding light. However, there’s more….

Domainkeys & SPF

These two concepts are relatively new. Both act like “digital signatures” when sending an email as a means to “authenticate” the sender and help combat spam. Domainkeys were developed by Yahoo! and thus currently deployed by them and Google. It’s a good idea to implement these two if possible, at least I did and wow, I’ve noticed a dramatic increase in mail being delivered to the Inbox. They’re not the easiest things to install with a green light but there are plenty of articles and tutorials in dealing with just that. In fact, here’s a great place to get started.

Proper Email Headers

Although this can be covered under the RFCs, I’d like to mention it here to stress the importance of proper email headers. Having your typical “From“, “To” and “Subject” headers is typically NOT enough; especially if you’re sending email via a script such as PHP. Here’s a few others you should really consider….

  • Sender: the “real” “From” header. This will tell email programs where the email possibly came from. It’s especially needed if you plan on implementing Domainkeys.
  • Reply-To: the address the recipient will reply to. This will be the header used when the recipient clicks on the “reply to” button.
  • Return-Path: Generally used via the email servers. An example would be bounced emails. Bounced emails will use this header if it’s specified.
  • Date: Kind of sounds silly, but yes, it’s a good idea to add this. Typically Comcast servers will flag emails with a caution of “Non RFC compliant” in the header.

Other notible headers would include, Message-ID, X-Mailer & MIME-Version. Ever since I’ve implemented all these headers, including some obscure ones, my email delivery rate has nearly been 100%. In fact, Yahoo! themselves has even whitelisted the emailing services at freelancer Listing because of the fact that Freelancer Listing implements ALL these procedures and more.

Proper DNS Records & Host Name

Having proper DNS records, including an rDNS is quite crucial in th eyes of the big boys such as Yahoo!, Google and ol’ Bill Gates. These are used to “authenticate” the email and from whence it came. *By the way, for those of you who use PHP (or any other server-side script) to send emails, sending as “nobody” will cost you. I hate to say it but email standards are getting tighter and tighter and a message from “nobody” is basically shooting yourself in the foot. I myself am an avid PHPer (no cut-n-paste here), and I’ve learned a looooong time ago to make sure to avoid the “nobody”.

With all those and some common sense…. and a little luck, you can email blast those flyers, brochures and specials to all your clients, customers and prospects without too much fear of being labeled a spammer. Of course, I’m not to blame if you “do” get called a spammer. After all, the “spam button” is all too easy to press these days.

Last but not least, you’ve got to find a reputable and good email marketing service. There are plenty of them out there such as iContact & ConstactContact, but pick and choose wisely since many of them do not follow said protocols and procedures. However, freelancerlisting.net is one of the few (pretty new), that is a bang-for-your-buck! You get a ton of services and resources for FREE and even more for less than $10, all designed for business owners and freelancers! The best feature is their “MyEmail Campaigner“, a powerful email marketing tool that comes with a FREE huge contact list storage system.

Anyhow, enough said. I’m tired and need a shower… not to mention, I’ve gotta go visit the porcelain god and pay homage by offering my goods….. hehehe!

Until next time…… To Your Success!!

Domainkeys: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DomainKeys_Identified_Mail

Author: Drew Bolton
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Canadian crossborder shopping

Enhance Your Email Marketing Response

September 9th, 2010

Most Email Service Providers (ESPs) have tools that make it easy to segment your list and schedule triggered emails based on certain criteria. In addition, email reports generate specific subscribers who performed specific actions (e.g., clicked on a link) and other data very useful in targeting your emails.

Segmenting will help you target your emails and get you far better outcomes. A lot of people hesitate to start because they are busy and think it will take a lot of time and effort. The reality is you can start with some basic segmenting and extend it from there.

Getting Started
Let’s say you are in the wine business and you have a field in your database that delineates general palate preference: “dry,” “sweet,” and “both.” You have another field that delineates wine color preference: “red,” “white,” and “both.”

To target those likely to respond to your message, you would use the filtering feature provided by your ESP to choose those who have “dry” selected in the palate field and “red” selected in the color field. You could also expand your reach by selecting subscribers who have selected “both” in the palate and color fields.

Do not send to those who like only “sweet” or only “white” as they are unlikely to respond well to your message. They key to targeting is to include those likely to be interested and exclude those likely to be indifferent (at best) to your message.

Use Your Reports
Most ESPs provide good reporting on the outcome of your emails: opens, click-through rate (CTR), bounces (both hard and soft), unsubscribes, complaints, and delivery reports. You can get the raw numbers and drill down to get the specific subscribers who performed the specific behavior.

If you find that certain subscribers have clicked on a specific link in your email, you can be reasonably sure they have some interest in what you were offering at the other end of that link. Send them relevant emails.

You can do the same sort of thing for open rates and target based on who opened a specific email. Again, send them relevant emails.

The converse is also true. If you see recipients on your list who rarely open your emails or click on your links, you might need to get their attention again with some fresh approaches.

Always review your reports carefully both to monitor your results and to determine if there are ways you could use the information to more effectively target your emails.

Triggered Emails
Most ESPs have a feature called triggers (autoresponders) that enable you to send emails based on dates or at certain intervals from the time the subscriber joined your list (sometimes called “drip marketing”).

Many email marketers send out promotions ahead of subscribers’ birthdays and anniversaries. This is the very definition of a relevant email: it arrives at the right time with the right message.

With triggers, be careful to avoid sending people too many emails in too short a time, lest your subscribers suffer from email marketing fatigue. This condition is only treatable by ratcheting back your email frequency a bit.

The fact is, without busting your budget or using up all your time, these methods can help you significantly improve response to your email marketing campaigns and build stronger relationships by sending relevant, timely messages. If Henry Ford were an email marketer today, even he would agree.

Neil Anuskiewicz is the Business Development Director for the StreamSend Email Marketing service.

Author: Neil Anuskiewicz
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Low-volume PCB maker

Section I – Email Marketing Training Plan

September 9th, 2010

Implementation of Email Auto responders

One of the most critical things in email marketing is follow up with prospects. As you develop direct marketing methods, you will have a stream of leads that you will need to manage. As in all sales, most potential prospects will not convert on the first contact.

You will need follow up often with your prospects over time until they convert. Also, once you have converted a lead, you will want to continue to market to them over time. It is much easier to make more sales from an existing customer than from a new lead.

Email auto responders have been exceeding in popularity as a direct marketing technique and as a drip marketing technique. This technique uses the power of emails to send to your whole mailing list or to those prospects that you want.

An email auto responder can be sent manually or you can use a company to help you prepare for the distribution of these emails. One of the first step that you will need to do when establishing this marketing technique within your business is to determine the approach that you are going to take.

Email auto responders are usually very salesy in nature, they can be used to send information or informational articles, they can be sent in a long series or they can be used as a way to deliver information to anyone who has requested it.

Each strategy serves a different purpose and you will want to choose the best approach for your given product or service.

A perfect place to begin is to consider your current company sales approach to gain clients:

Are you currently using information, fear tactic? Or more of a traditional sales approach? Are your prospects warm or cold? Do your clients react well to information? Or to a sale pitch?

When you are thinking about the approach, also think about what type of email your ideal prospect would likely open. With email auto responders being constantly used, it is very important that yours be done in a way to cause curiosity from new clients you are sending it to.

It is important to avoid your information from going into the bulk folder where it won’t get seen. Part of this strategy also involves considering the source of your email prospects.

Are they self built (did you generate them yourself, or buy them)? Do you currently have a strong lead generation system and your prospects have requested to receive information? Are you emailing information to prospects that are not interested and are therefore considered cold?

Once you have given some thought to each of these questions, you are ready to start creating your email auto responder look and written content.

This goes for your email marketing campaigns (ie. Solo Ezine marketing) find out what your target audience wants, expecting and also what they are used to receiving. This is done through research. You want to write your emails to really connect with people so they build a bond with you.

Try setting up a free email account with various providers (Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, etc) and send yourself the email BEFORE mailing out to your prospects or an ezine list.

This way you will be able to tell if the message gets trashed| in the bulk bin, what it looks like from your customers point of view and more.

With email marketing, always, always TEST first. Having great emails that actually get through, will take your relationship to the next level and leads to customers. Keep your eye out for more email marketing articles to help you succeed in your business!

Marc Martin is an internet network marketing coach who teaches Networkers the strategies of network marketing’s top earners. If you would like to learn more about the exact system and business that he and other industry leaders use to generate 50-100 leads a day, follow this link [http://www.bestinstantincomeplan.com]

Author: Marc Martin
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Pressure cooker

Opt-in Email Marketing – Perfection is Here

September 9th, 2010

If you are going to run an Email campaign then it is certain that you would like to get success in that endeavour. If getting success is your aim then it is always advised to use opt-in Email marketing which is considered as the best form of Email marketing. Here you send your write-ups in the form of invitations, greetings, latest business happenings, newsletters and in other forms to an opt-in list of online prospects. These prospects have knowledge about your company and products that is why your documented sales pitch becomes more effective.

Through opt-in list your Email campaign becomes more effective. Many Internet marketing companies are providing total solution of Email advertising and they also advise to choose opt-in Email marketing. The company would select the Email list of your target audience and make your reach to them more easy. The company designs your whole campaign and you get developed content, headline and mail copy in an attractive format. It is necessary that the format of your mail is attractive and crisp otherwise your prospects would not notice it. That is why businesses are taking the services of the best online marketing companies for the purpose.

Good results are necessary out of an Email campaign. And if you have chosen opt-in Email marketing, then you can be get sure of good results. The Email solution deliver promotions which are highly relevant to customers’ needs. It reduce chances of your messages being junked and it focuses on one market segment that reduces your marketing cost. You can also get mailing lists from service providers. Such list can provide you many information so that you can create personalized messages for your targeted prospects. Make sure that you get compelling subject lines and targeted messages crafted for your audience.

If you are interested in such effective and result-oriented opt-in Email marketing campaign [http://www.rupizxpress.com/email-marketing/Email-Campaign.php] then you can ask the service provider to upload the result-oriented Email list for you. An online Internet marketing company can also implement the email campaign for you. Further, you can make it more effective by opting for web-based tracking and reporting system. Through it you can measure the ROI of your Email campaigns. Hence, be a perfectionist and choose the campaign for a perfect solution.

Author:

Author is expert in email marketing [http://www.rupizxpress.com/], presently render her services to Rupiz Xpress that helps you in building email marketing campaign, opt in email marketing, custom lead generation, Lead Generation.

Author: Lalita N
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
How Electric Pressure Cookers Work