Guide to Successful Email Marketing

The role of marketing today is constantly changing. We find ourselves under pressure to find new and effective ways of reaching our audience and convincing them to do business with us.

Web page design has changed from static sales brochures to dynamic and interactive business portals through which we can access the markets we serve and the new customers we seek.

Statistics tell us that the average web surfer will rush past our sites faster than you can blink an eye and if we are fortunate enough to have them click on our site we have less than 6 seconds to capture there attention. Even so, they are likely to surf to another site in less than 20 seconds unless they find something of interest to them.

Importantly if it is knowledge/information, they are looking for 71% are prepared to leave their contact information in order to get it.

Email marketing offers you an opportunity to use the web portal to establish a relationship with the visitor via email communications. Typically, our web sites should be setup to provide an Autoresponder email advising the visitor the information they want free can be found on a drop page attached to our web site.

Drop pages are specifically designed to allow visitors to come to the drop-page and perform a function authorised by the web page designer.

Drop-pages cannot be accessed from your web page and to all intents and purposes do not exist. You should however design your drop-page so it can link back to your home page ensuring visitors from your email marketing efforts are constantly being pointed to your web site.

Typically, the email solution should also send a copy of the latest email newsletter to the visitor a week later offering the visitor the option to Opt-in or Opt-out of receiving the regular newsletter.

Newsletters should be designed to provide information the visitor may be constantly on the lookout for and information about your products and services. If you push to heavily, into the area of products and services and fail to continue to provide information of interest to the visitor then they will Opt-out of your email system and you will loose contact with the visitor.

Below are 10 simple rules to assist in the writing of successful email marketing letters.

1. Think Before You Write. This is obviously the very foundation that most of us internet marketers have neglected. For us, words are easy to come by and we have not done our targeting yet. Target it to your customers and compose an email that will always refer back to your web site and services you sell.

2. Target Narrowly and Carefully. Search engine categories have helped me a lot in writing brief but carefully targeted articles. There are even free services that let you create your own email group such as egroups.com, topica.com and listbot.com. Just be careful not to spam or you will end up getting flames in your email box.

3. Keep It Short. Studies have shown that sending a very long email to prospects will let them send it to their wastebaskets. Be brief, highlight your product’s effectiveness in two to three sentences, and provide the URL. Try to discuss one topic per email you send.

4. Offer Free Items If They Continue To Be A Subscriber. Just saying "Thank You for being a subscriber" is worth millions to them. Extend it a little further. Why not add, "Here's your free gift and thank You for referring me to your friends."

5. Offer Free Sample Articles. Tell them straight or lead them to your archives of articles. Therefore, they will know that you are not sending them to buy, buy and buy. You want them to be helped, satisfied and become a referral lead for other buyers.

6. Cross-sell To Your Subscribers. Give them valuable discounts if they buy from you. Obviously, you can convince them to get another free item for a limited time if they buy.

7. Personalise. Email marketing software will allow you to send email address personally to the visitor’s name.

8. Re-read and Re-write. You know what when I have finished a certain article I usually let it linger for a week and then I read it again. I usually ask myself "Is this me writing my heart out? or is it just to make money from this article?"

Giving freely to your visitors will earn you their trusts, which in turn will persuade them to buy from you.

9. Be Honest. Do not overstate your capabilities or misrepresent yourself or your company in any way.

10. Follow-up In A Timely Manner. Of course, having your own database of email addresses you have contacted or have contacted you will benefit you in the long run. Just be patient, this list will grow in time and will generate many sales.

The Opt-In Secret Everyone knows that in order to be successful online you need build a large (quality) list through some type of Opt-In offer.

You see them now on virtually every site you visit on the internet, some type of form, whether from a pop-up window or directly on the site itself, that is asking for your name and email address in exchange for some type of offer (newsletter, e-course, free chapter etc.)

Unfortunately, many web site owners (yes, even the gurus) are not doing everything they can to maximize the number of people who opt-in from their website. In fact, many site’s opt-ins may actually be hurting their sales.

Here are a few tips on what to do and what not to do with your opt-in offer:

You should definitely have a pop-up window with an opt-in form. While you may hate pop-ups, the fact is they work.

Of course, you also need to place your opt-in on your web page. However, where you place it is extremely important. Your opt-in should be on the first fold in the upper left hand corner of EVERY page on your site.

Always give a strong special bonus for people who opt-in. For example, “Sign up for my Email Newsletter and receive a free special report: How to Increase Revenue by 100%”.

DO NOT offer a free chapter of your e-book or even a free e-course. You may actually lose sales this way.

If you give away a free chapter of your e-book you are giving your customer the opportunity to not buy your book! Same is true with offering an e-course.

In both cases, you may actually be providing enough free information so that the customer does not actually have to buy your product. If nothing else, you are putting off the purchase, which only gives the customer more time to not buy your product.

Again, what you want to do is capture your customer’s email address without giving them a reason to put off buying your product.

DO offer something that compliments and is related to the product you are selling.

For example, it is easy to create a newsletter about your niche market. Your can start by offering a monthly newsletter on tips, articles, Q&As, book reviews, web sites reviews etc. related to your niche market.

As you start to feel more comfortable, you can increase your delivery to bi-monthly, and eventually weekly. However, I would stay away from the daily newsletter. A daily newsletter is simply overkill and will decrease the value of the newsletter. Also, daily delivery will make broadcasts of special offers more difficult and less successful.

Many will tell you that it does not matter too much, what your opt-in is, so long as you capture the customer’s name/email. That is utter nonsense.

Basically, the newsletter gives you a chance to drop in on potential customers for as long as they subscribe to your newsletter without ever distracting the customer away from your product.

However, if you are giving away a free chapter of your e-book, or even a 5-day e-course, after the initial follow-up email campaign is over (roughly 1 week), every email you send is simply advertising and your customers will see right through that.

Even if you have an e-mail list that is perfectly cleansed, up-to-date and 100% opt-in, up to one-fifth of your messages may never reach the in-box they are sent to. In these anti-spam days, it is relatively common for ISPs to misidentify marketing e-mails as spam. Here is what you can do to increase your deliverability, keep yourself un-deleted and kick up your ROI.

Make sure your recipients really want to receive your e-mail by using a double-opt-in method of collection. If you create your list the old-fashioned way — by earning it — your customers will stay happy. It cuts spam complaints from subscribers and helps develop a more trusting relationship with ISPs, blacklist companies, and e-mail list hosts

Ask your customers to add your company to their address book to ensure delivery. Give them easy instructions about how to do it, and remind the customers that do not respond. You might even use a coupon or special offer to compel them to add your name to their list.

Provide a one-click unsubscribe process in every message. It is the right thing to do.

Send a message within the first month of receiving the recipient's permission— preferably a friendly offer or special promotion — to generate good will and start laying the foundation for a great relationship. A secondary benefit: a quick turnaround on your first message will keep subscribers from forgetting who you are and deleting your message.

Carefully format your HTML e-mails and avoid hyped-up words and phrases so that you are not mistaken for a dreaded spammer.

Use the same “From” address on all your company's correspondence. This ensures that anyone who has added you to their address book will consistently receive what you are sending.