Direct mail tips

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Get The Sales You Have Been Waiting For

It's no doubt, you desire to acquire the gross sales you have got been waiting for, and worked for so hard. It looks that cyberspace selling is hard, and it's only easy for some "gurus" or other cyberspace selling pro's. These people do cyberspace selling expression like a walking in the park, but when you acquire on it, it looks that the parkland is filled with dangers, traps and bad people.

It makes not have got to be this manner anymore. I have got been feeling the same manner but I decided to take action. A batch of the so called "gurus" and pro's state you to remain away from the very controversial conception of Pb purchasing. I decided to seek it just for the merriment of it. I said if I will free money at least the gurus said 1 thing right.

I decided not to purchase the first thing I see, but to make a small spot of research. I establish something at first but after that very of import research I discovered that it's a scam. After a couple more than things like this Iodine started to believe that indeed all those gurus ware right and this is not the manner to acquire the gross sales I have got been waiting for.

One more and I will halt (did not purchase anything up until this point). I establish something that seemed to offer what I was looking for. It was just correct according to the 4 indispensable things that brands a Pb service not a scam:

1--Never purchase something like "50+ Mil fresh new electronic mails every month". Guarantee SCAM.

2--Never purchase things that promise more then 70,000 a hebdomad or 300,000 Pbs a month. More is not always better, more than agency "useless" when you purchase leads.

3--Make certain that the seller, have a batch of personal information about each and every single lead. This is a high indicant that he, as a provider, may give you takes that have got got a general involvement in your country of business.

4--Make certain that the seller, obtains these Pbs using assorted word forms on different websites, where people not only give out their electronic mail and personal info, they give him permission to sell their electronic mails to 3rd political parties like you or me. This is very of import if you desire to acquire the gross sales you have been waiting for.

As I said, this last service seemed to accede to these rules. I asked a few pro's and they all said leave of absence it. I didn't, I bought the thing. Now I am proud to state that I am getting 50 000 fresh new electronic mails every week. 1 in 10 out of those visit my web page each clip I direct a gross sales letter. I have got a gross sales transition charge per unit of 1 in 600 (and I'm not even selling my ain product). I can't even conceive of how things will be in 5 calendar months when I will have got got 1 factory leads.

This is one of the most rewarding methods I have ever tried since starting selling on the internet. If you seek something like this you will acquire the gross sales you have got been waiting for.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Email Marketing

Internet selling by using electronic mail is really no secret--we've all seen it in our ain electronic mail inboxes. It is a word form of direct selling that usages electronic mails to pass on with possible customers. Electronic Mail selling have been in usage since electronic mail began and have proven to be an easy, effective, and cheap advertisement method. It's so popular that estimations bespeak companies within the United States alone spent $400 million on electronic mail selling in 2006.

Broadly, electronic mail selling could mention to any electronic mail sent to possible customers. However, there are a few things that set certain electronic mails apart as true electronic mail marketing. Emails that are categorized as existent electronic mail selling do 1 of the following:

--Improve and heighten the human relationship between the concern and their clients so that repetition concern is encouraged.

--Attract new customers.

--Convince past clients to make a purchase.

--Include ads for companies other than the one that is sending the email.

There are many advantages to electronic mail marketing. For one thing, it lets concerns to quickly and easily attain a big figure of clients through a mailing list. Sending electronic mail is also much more than economical than sending black and white advertisements, and the consequences of the advertisement can be easily tracked through the usage of the golf course in the email.

Email selling is also an instantaneous word form of advertisement that needn't wait on black and white schedules. An electronic mail advertizement can be sent with just a chink of the mouse, so concerns can respond very quickly to new tendencies and alterations in the market.

One facet of electronic mail selling that is increasing its popularity among both concerns and consumers is that it is environmentally friendly. There's no demand to cut down trees for paper and, therefore, no paper to fill up up the landfills. If a client doesn't desire the advertisement, they chink the cancel button.

Though there are many advantages to using electronic mail marketing, there are also some disadvantages. The greatest and best-known disadvantage is spam. Unfortunately, before Acts like the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 that forbid the usage of spam, many companies sent unsought majority electronic mails to everyone and anyone. As a result, Internet users establish their inboxes flooded with advertisements they didn't want. In response to those Spam emails, Internet users weren't reading any of the electronic mail advertisements they received--even the legitimate ones.

Because of the early usage of spam, companies are still trying to reconstruct the repute of electronic mail marketing. Today, sellers who go against the CAN-SPAM Act are subject to an $11,000 mulct for each individual receiving a Spam email. To help guarantee conformity with this act, many sellers take to utilize specialized software system to assist them follow the law.

There are service suppliers who will assist concerns with setting up their electronic mail selling political campaigns to stay in conformity with laws. These services include electronic mail templets and manage the subscriptions and remotions of people from the mailing list. They also supply their clients with information about the figure of messages that were actually opened and how many people actually clicked on the golf course contained in the messages.

The usage of opt-in listings have greatly helped to cut down spam. Visitors to a website can take to register to have electronic mail messages from the business. This is called "opting-in." These clients can also take themselves from the listing when they no longer wish to have messages from the company. Using an opt-in listing not only assists the client avoid unwanted email, it also assists the company to guarantee they stay in conformity with anti-spam laws.

All in all, electronic mail selling can be an exceeding manner to pull new and repetition clients to a business. However, concerns that take to make an electronic mail selling political campaign must be familiar with the ordinances surrounding the usage of electronic mail for advertisement purposes. The punishments for violating the law are steep, and sending Spam electronic mail will function to estrange more than clients than it will ever attract.

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday, January 27, 2008

E-mail Marketing Page Layout - Divide It Into Thirds

The "Rule of Thirds" depicts the regulations of fine art and designing which also works for an opened e-mail. Basically fanciful lines are drawn dividing the page into one-thirds both horizontally and vertically.

When you put of import elements of your composition where these lines intersect, it is more than pleasing to the eye. In improver to using the intersection points you can set up countries into sets occupying a 3rd or topographic point things along the fanciful lines.

Good topographic points to set things include a 3rd of the manner up, a 3rd of the manner in from the left. You acquire the idea. Using the Rule of Thirds assists bring forth nicely balanced, easy on the oculus copy.

Thus, an opened e-mail is divided into thirds: a top, a center and a underside with the top containing a newspaper headline and salutation, a center containing the organic structure of letter, and a underside or footer containing the phone call to action and signature.

Writing newspaper headlines may be the most of import transcript authorship skill. Most authorship designed to carry sinks or swimmings right out of the gate. Readers do snap determinations based on a speedy scan of the top of the page. More often than not, they'll simply travel on to something else unless your copywriting accomplishments have got been set to utilize crafting an first-class headline. A great newspaper headline can also pass on a full message to its intended audience and it absolutely must entice the reader into your organic structure text.

The gap or Pb paragraph's intent it to give you the basic facts while persuading you to read more. The first sentence in an gap paragraph is called the Pb sentence and it must be written to machination or do the reader desire to read more. Often this agency that the Pb sentence necessitates to be slightly controversial or different to lure the reader to read more. This is often called the "hook".

Your offering's singularity necessitates to perennial through the organic structure of your copy---this is what do the reader take action. The benefits of your offering are placed in the center of the e-mail Oregon the paragraph that follows the lead.These benefits may be best presented as bullets:

- three to five slugs will suffice

- benefits must crisp, clear, and tangible

- they must be written in the reader's language

One more than thing: only one topic per e-mail. Respect the reader's busy agenda and acquire to the point but do it only one point. Customers be given to scan e-mails, and if respective propositions are presented, even the hook will travel unnoticed.

The phone call action (CTA) of your e-mail states the reader what to make and what to anticipate after they make it. It states them what is in it for them? Selling messages that support a merchandise or service purchase should direct the reader to the CTA; this could be a landing page where they can "buy now" or "learn more". When the phone call to action is to direct the reader to acquire the full narrative at the website, you necessitate to state the reader not only what to make but what he can anticipate by doing it.

Labels: , , , ,

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Autoresponders - Are They Harmful To Your Wealth?

It is beyond uncertainty that the ever dependable autoresponder have proven to be an indispensable piece of equipment within the tool chest of sellers and it look as if this is likely to stay the case. Nevertheless admonish demands to be demonstrated when using this powerful tool especially in the Spam witting marketplace topographic point of this twenty-four hours and age.

Autoresponders offering many grades of merchandise picks in assorted forms, the most simple of which can be establish in the cPanel. In this case it really only executes the basic undertaking of answering an incoming email, by sending an automatic tax return communicating which is easy to put up and turns out to be a very utile tool.

Much more than many-sided versions can be establish in what are known as paid 3rd political party autoresponder businesses. These companies present composite systems which transport out many more than trading operations than just simply responding.

For example, they can salvage information to set together wide-ranging mailing lists. In connexion with choose in word forms on websites they supply word form codification software system to let a pick of single or dual choose in enrollment to numerous lists.

Any figure of delayed follow up messages whether to a full listing or to a part of a listing can be sent in either textual matter or hypertext markup language or both. They allow a specific listing to be achieved or activated upon request. These are just some of the many characteristics available right now with any autoresponder company of repute.

Another version of autoresponder come ups in the word form of software system programs, bought outright and then put up on a domain. By using this method you can run a completely owned and controlled autoresponder.

The concluding word form of autoresponder is the sort which is provided by some hosting companies as portion and package of their hosting packages. These are usually full featured autoresponders competent in carrying out the most sophisticated functions.

The most possible danger to your wealth, as mentioned in the statute title of this article is establish in either of the latter two types of autoresponders elaborate above. Without uncertainty you will be aware of the chief jobs which have got got arisen in recent old age owed to Spam issues and you will surely be witting of the fact that just one ailment or expostulation against you is likely to ensue in your cyberspace service supplier or your hosting business relationship cancelled with contiguous consequence owed to the fact that such as hosting companies and ISP's have zero tolerance with respect to Spam complaints. Remember, you are guilty until proved otherwise in the bulk of lawsuits and more than often than not the load of cogent evidence will ultimately lie with you. This stance have to be taken because an expostulation to an individual volition also impact respective other people. How is this so, you may well ask?

The public in general make not cognize that these companies host business relationships on servers. In simple terms, these waiters literally convey up the websites that you browsing for on your laptop computing machine or computer. Each waiter will normally have got many 100s of business relationships and a dedicated information science address. The information science for that waiter will be blocked if a single ailment from any 1 of the business relationships is received, and will close down the waiter thus affecting all connected accounts.

When this haps the company then have to reach the functionary government to convert them that the offending business relationship have been removed to enable the waiter information science to restart operating as before. This is clip consuming and costs money.

Another fact not known to the general populace is that many ISP's volition block electronic mails originating from companies with information science computer addresses which are suspected to be sending out immense amounts of email. This tin be a significant loss to your concern if your autoresponder business relationship is held on one of these information science addresses, as your mail will not be being delivered as you think, but will be simply bouncing.

However the 3rd political party paid autoresponder companies mentioned earlier be solely to provide a dependable and job free environment for your electronic mail lists. The force of these companies are extremely well trained in order to react briskly and professionally to any ailments and acquire them dealt with as soon as possible. They are good at ensuring your electronic mails are sent on clip and they have got the top charge per unit of success at delivery.

So, in the worst lawsuit set of fortune whilst using these services, if a ailment is received and your concern relationship is suspended as a consequence of the complaint, you would only lose your autoresponder business relationship and not your valuable ISP or hosting account.

Consideration should be given to the loss of money incurred by your business by utilizing the incorrect tools. By paying a low monthly amount to the paid autoresponder services you can have got your electronic mails delivered efficiently and also bask the benefits of peace of mind.

Labels: , , , , ,

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

How Email Marketing Can Make You Money

I trust you volition bask and addition at least one thought and/or conception that will aid you. Electronic Mail selling have evolved a batch since its early years as inter-departmental communicating memo's and Hotmail. It have gone from being a manner to remain in touching with friends and family, to being a important concern tool, and a demand for concern at any level. The enlargement of the internet, and the increasing figure of electronic mail understanding people and e-mail's ability to link people from all over the human race instantly have led to electronic mail taking on an exciting new role. Businesses have got got been speedy to acknowledge the possible of Electronic Mail selling and have moved to take advantage of a bringing medium that open ups the human race to them. The range of electronic mail is immense, allowing concerns to instantly direct big data files from one side of the human race to the other, and exchange information faster and more than efficiently.

Email selling supplies enterprisers with a speedy and convenient method of getting in touching with a big client alkali and at the same clip it is unbelievable cost effective. The range is unprecedented in the history of selling and more than people are getting e-mail business relationships every day. Another advantage of selling with electronic mail is that answers and responses can begin being seen almost instantly, allowing concerns to rapidly measure the success or failure of an electronic mail selling campaign.

Email selling covers a very wide range of topics, but in general is used to mention to such as things as opt-in lists, newsletter selling and selling via majority emails. Of these three it is majority e-mail selling which have caused the most controversy, and is the least successful in general. People be given to cancel these electronic mails without reading them as they are unsought and usually have got a difficult sell of a product. In fact, people have got come up to see majority unsought electronic mail as a very fly-by-night pattern and the merchandises are by association (and usually in fact) considered to be of doubtful quality or legality as well. Choose In listings and newsletters however are very effectual ways for concerns to advance their products. In both lawsuits the receivers have got actually requested the information they are receiving, so they are a far more than receptive audience.

Once a seller have acquired an interested potentiality client alkali it goes a very of import undertaking to maintain the listing interested and satisfied. This is most effectively done by providing what the endorser was seeking when they signed up to the listing and showing that you care about their needs. A successful Electronic Mail seller will construct up a human relationship with his endorser and have got them looking forward to each new email. This is a far better policy than difficult merchandising merchandises to your listing until they purchase or unsubscribe. With a successful trust human human relationship a endorser may purchase from you again and again.

It is not an easy undertaking to construct that quality of relationship with your subscriber, but there are a few tips which assist smooth the road. The electronic mail starts with the topic line. This may be the lone thing the reader ever sees. You necessitate a topic line that catches the attending of the reader and do them desire to see what you have got to state in the electronic mail itself. The electronic mail then necessitates to travel on to offer existent value to the subscriber. Dishing out the same old thing that the endorser have seen over and over volition just take to them leaving your electronic mails sitting unread. Quality content is best delivered in a tips and fast ones formatting that supplies easy to implement aid to assist them with their problems. The missive is a concern newsletter, so while a small personality assists separate you from the crowd, you necessitate to keep a grade of formalities to set up yourself as a serious concern rather than a slap-dash person out to do a few speedy dollars.

Finally, you should promote feedback in some word form from your subscribers. It's nice to cognize when you electronic mails are actually being read, and seeing responses come up in tin not only corroborate this, but can supply you with subject substance or thoughts for future mail-outs.

As with everything online, and in selling in general, the style and content of your political campaign is going to differ from marketplace to market, so it's important that you seek many different things and see what works for your business. Thanks for your clip and involvement in our article. I trust you establish some value in this little article on "How Electronic Mail Selling Can Make You Money".

Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

How to Start Your Own Email Newsletter

Starting an ezine (Email Magazine) or electronic mail newsletter is quite easy.

Here are the basic steps:

1. Choose a topic

You can take any subject that you like, although obviously it assists if you take a subject that people will be interested in reading!

You do not necessitate to take selling or making money for your subject - but if you do, you might make better by choosing a more than specific subject (for example, instead of just "making money" how about "making money on eBay" etc.)

One other consideration is choosing your topic: is how you mean to make money from it. For example, if you trust to do money from affiliate programs, you ought to take a subject which binds in with plentifulness of nice affiliate programmes (otherwise you'll have got nil to promote).

2. Kind out the mechanics

While, in theory, you could run an ezine yourself just using your electronic mail program, and manually keeping path of subscribe and unsubscribe requests, you would quickly happen that doing so is likely to be at best incredibly time-consuming, and at worst, totally impractical.

You will therefore necessitate some kind of book or programme to pull off your mailing list. There are many programmes and books available which are specifically designed for running a mailing list. Alternatively, many (but not all) autoresponders are able to not only work as autoresponders, but can also run mailing lists.

3. Promote Your Ezine

Now you've put up your ezine and subscription process, the adjacent measure is to begin getting subscribers.

At minimum, what you should make is at the subscription word form to your web pages.

There is also whole subdivision of our www.ezineblast.com land site dedicated to getting ezine subscribers, so you can read that for ideas.

4. Send Out The First Issue

Once you've put up your ezine and got some subscribers, it's clock to direct out the first edition of your ezine.

Obviously, you'll necessitate to set up the text, but you should also read our formatting tips to guarantee that your ezine shows properly on all your subscribers' computers.

The exact procedure for sending out the newsletter will depend on what program/script you use, so check up on the instruction manual that with that.

For additional thoughts about creating and promoting your ain electronic mail newsletter, I propose you take a expression at The Step-By-Step Usher to Creating and Promoting Your Ezine Type A step-by-step usher to creating & promoting your ain successful ezine!

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Monday, June 25, 2007

Email Marketing - Get That Email Address!

Every successfull e-preneur knows this: "The Money Is In The List!". If you are not capturing your website visitors' email addresses, then you are missing out on one of the best sources for generating revenue!



Most website owners concentrate their marketing efforts on gaining new visitors. This is fine & dandy, but what happens when they leave your site?



Maybe this visitor wasn't ready to buy just yet. Maybe he was just doing some research. Maybe he had to let his daughter use the computer to write a book report. Maybe the toilet upstairs started to overflow and his wife was yelling at him to "Come fix this NOW!".



The point is that you may never know if this visitor is genuinely interested in what you have to offer or not. By building a
mailing list from your website you have the opportunity to contact each potential customer from time to time with your latest offers.



Here are some suggestions to help bring in some traffic and repeating sales with email marketing:



1. Make sure you are giving your customers a way to opt-in to a newsletter that offers discount coupons, etc. Make it
clearly visible on your site to grab the attention of "browsers".



2. Give the customer an incentive to sign up for the newsletter. For example, I offer a free sample PLUS an entry into a
monthly prize drawing for the customers that sign up for the newsletter. The customer must still be on the newsletter
subscription list when I draw the name in order to be eligible to win. HINT - This is a great way to get rid of excess inventory that isn't moving, too!



3. Go to a few freebie/sweepstakes forums and list your offer. You will be AMAZED at the traffic it brings. Don't expect to
get any sales from this....that comes later. Freebie posters will find the freebie and will go to other forums to post it. So
all it takes is a few posts and your offer will be on many forums!



4. Once or twice a month, email your newsletter with coupon codes, special deals, etc. If you have already done the drawing
for the past monthly contest, post the winner's name. This will encourage most customers to continue to receive your newsletter.



I'm not guaranteeing you will reap tons of sales from this technique, but it least it will keep your site in the minds of
your visitors!



Many people are "window shoppers" by nature. They want the best quality goods at the best price they can find. If they found
your site 2 months ago but decided at the time not to purchase, do they still remember your site? Probably not! But sending a
newsletter with special offers may make them decide to give you a try the next time they need your "widget"!



Of course...DO NOT SPAM! Make sure each visitor has agreed to receiving your emails by opting in to your list. And please,
please, don't abuse the privilege this visitor has given you by sending massive amounts of emails! Once or twice a month
should be your maximum. I can't tell you how many newsletters I have subscribed to that send me emails every day! It is
really annoying and you may lose that contact if you do this.



RECOMMENDED SERVICES



Here are some email management services you may want to try. Both have free trials, email templates, list management, and will send your emails from their servers.



Constant Contact



iContact



Remember, the "Money's In the List!"....so start building yours today!

Labels: , , , ,

Monday, May 21, 2007

Avoid e-mail Overload and Still Keep Everyone Informed

Have you ever come back from vacation, or from a business trip of more than a few days, to find an overstuffed e-mailbox containing a blow-by-blow account of everything that happened while you were away? E-mail overload at its worst!

You know the kind of thing I mean: long e-mail threads with contributions from everyone in the department, each copying everyone else and many leading off into side threads and involving even more people. You have to read the whole thing just to know what's going on, and to see whether there's something you need to do.

This is a common problem, and one that comes up often in my consulting and training engagements. So I'm recommending a new way of keeping everyone in the loop --- without deluging them with e-mail.

The answer is a departmental blog. Now don't stop reading --- I know it may seem a bit radical, but bear with me and you'll see how this can be hugely effective in the situation I just described.

Most teams or departments routinely deal with a number of projects or processes.

A Sales team, for example, might have

• three new major accounts they are pursuing

• information for the monthly sales report

• a new sales training program.

A Human Resources group might have

• three new training programs under construction

• several job postings

• some competitive proposals to handle the pension plan.

Customer Relationship people might have

• several promotional programs

• a new software rollout.

Fill in your own details as appropriate.

Everyone in the group needs to be kept up to date on at least some projects. Instead of a chaotic storm of e-mail, the team blog becomes the central repository for all the information on the various topics. Information can be searched and viewed by topic or by date. Let's see how that would work.

The free WordPress blog platform offers something called "categories", which are typically shown as links down the right side of the blog page, while the messages, or "posts", take up most of the space to the left.

Using one of the examples above, my categories might be:

• Presentation Skills Course

• Sales Training Program

• New Employee Orientation Program

• Job Posting: Senior Mailroom Clerk

• Job Posting: Assistant to Marketing Manager

• Pension plan proposals.

Each of these would be a category, shown as a link down the side.

If you reviewed the draft manual for the Presentation Skills course and have some comments on it, you'd want to report your findings to the rest of the group. Using the traditional e-mail method, that might elicit replies from three colleagues, with the potential to multiply into the usual "e-maelstrom".

Using the blog, though, the process becomes not only simpler but more effective. You simply post a short report on what you did and any recommendation you might have, and put it in the Presentation Skills Course category. People can comment on your post, or add their own posts as appropriate. These are also added to the Presentation Skills category.

The result is the whole story to date on this topic, with everyone's posts listed neatly in order and with nothing intervening. Everyone can see at a glance the status of the project and what, if anything, they have to do. The posts will remain on the blog unless and until you remove them, so it can also serve as a permanent record when appropriate.

When you make a post, you send an e-mail to everyone, but it doesn't need any message at all in the body. All you need is a descriptive subject line such as "My recommendation on Presentation Skills course posted today." Those interested in the topic can go and read your post, while those not interested don't need to be drowning in unwanted e-mail.

Now picture yourself coming back from your vacation. You simply go to the blog, click on the category links that are of interest to you and update yourself quickly and easily. Much better than the "e-maelstrom", isn't it?

Don't be put off by the idea of blogging if you haven't worked with it. Blogs are mainstream communication tools now, and this is one use for them that can drastically slash the amount of unwanted e-mail we all receive.

Labels: , , , , , ,

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Email Marketing - How to Organize Your Email Campaign III

When you send out a free gift email, does that email bring people closer or further from buying your $5000 product? When you send out a content email, when you write a letter for your subscribers that teaches them one of your secrets – does that draw people closer to the $5000 product or further away?

So you must know your purpose when creating your email campaign.

I use a number of different types of emails in my email campaigns. I write content emails, I write referral emails, I write free gift emails, and I write responsive emails. All of these emails bring people closer to my goal for my list. They bring each of the people on my list closer to the goal. And if someone drops off my list as a result of one of my emails – they weren't going to buy anyway.

I can tell you that – you see, if you are reading this book, you are probably no beginner, and if you are, you are a smart one. You know that my email campaign is not written because I am some lonely soul who needs to have people to write to. You know that my goal is to make money, and to teach others to do the same thing online. Actually my goal is to teach others to fulfill their destiny online, but most of the time people call that making money – and then they spend the money to fulfill their destiny. But if you are promoting a good cause – awareness of a disease, fundraising for underprivileged people, or the promotion of your faith, my goal is to teach you how to do that better.

Labels: ,

Thursday, May 03, 2007

How To Make Sure That Your Legitimate Marketing Emails Are Not Identified As Spam

If your business relies on email marketing to get your message through to your customers, you might want to pay attention to this. Spam filters lately have increasingly been hurting legitimate businesses by blocking marketing emails. The fact that your customers have confirmed that they want to subscribe to your marketing emails and newsletter does not guarantee that your emails would get through to them. And it is even worse when you don't know that you or your company have been blacklisted.

There are quite a few reasons why you might be blacklisted. The most common one is you are accused of sending unsolicited emails. This could be your subscriber just forgot that some time in the past they subscribed to your newsletters, or this could be people who did this deliberately to hurt your business.

In order to make sure that your emails reach your customers, you have to monitor the emails delivery and check if your emails bounce back. Normally the bounce message will contain the reason why your email is not delivered. Pay attention to these messages as they might indicate that your emails are marked as spam: Access Denied, Message Refused, Client Host Rejected, Sender Address Rejected, Sender Domain Not Found, and similar messages.

When you are accused of spamming, you should remain calm. The first thing you need to do is to prove that you are innocent. And this is where you would thank the confirmed opt-in mechanism. For those of you who don't know what confirmed opt-in is, when a user subscribes to a newsletter, the user will then get an email that basically asks the user to confirm their subscription by clicking at the activation link. Their subscription will become active only when they click on the activation link. How would this benefit you? When the users click at the activation link, you will have a record of the date, time, and IP address of the computer used to confirm. You can then use this as a proof that the users did confirm they wanted to receive emails from you.

Some other basic tips to protect you from being blacklisted:


  • Make sure your emails conform to CAN-SPAM act (search Google if you don't know what CAN-SPAM is).

  • Never send emails to prospects that haven't confirm their subscriptions.

  • Make sure that your unsubscribe link works.

  • Get whitelisted with major email providers (Google, AOL, Yahoo).

Labels: , , , ,

Thursday, April 26, 2007

How to Structure Your Email Campaign to Maximum Effect Part I

An email campaign one of the most effective ways of reaching potential customers, and if you know how to structure your email campaign properly to maximum effect it can be one of the best types of online marketing for your business.

Many businesses never embark on email campaigns because they feel that marketing emails might be considered as a form of spam. However, those for whom an email campaign is an essential part of marketing, have a definite advantage of the former group, and will gain a greater market share for their product.

Before you can even start you must decide on who you are going to send your emails to. Do you have a number of lists? If so, the same email might not be relevant to every list, and you have to decide which of them to target with your current campaign. If you have no list, then it is going to be difficult for your campaign to be effective. You can purchase lists, but many addresses on such lists are old, and in any case are unlikely to be motivated to purchasing your product, irrespective of the fact that your purchased list is purported to consist of people targeted to your type of business.

It is better by far to build your own opt-in list, and if you do not yet have one that should be your first step. It will take time, but is necessary for your success, so put your email campaign on the back burner for now and get that list started.

Labels: , , ,

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Promoting Your Exhibition or Exhibit by Using email Marketing

Email marketing can be a very effective tool for promoting your exhibition or event. The problem these days though is that the benefits of e-marketing are being reduced due to more and more spam. Of thirty billion emails thought to have been sent last year, some statistics suggest that 60% of those emails were spam. The spam situation is so bad now that marketers, who have a genuine message to send out, are finding it harder and harder to get their information across to recipients about upcoming events and exhibitions. So what can we do to try and improve results? Some ideas are detailed below.

Subject Line:

One of the biggest mistakes when marketers send out their information regarding events and exhibitions, is that they include spam like words in the subject line. There are certain words which, if included, will almost definitely result in your email being automatically classified as spam. Words involving education should always be avoided as should words such as 'free'. Also ensure you differentiate your email subject line from the standard messages you receive. Including your company name at or near to the start of the subject line is thought to be very effective because it ensures that the recipient (having signed up to your database) will recognise the sender and be much more likely to open it.

Choose time of day and day of week:

You might be anxious to get news out about your next exhibition or event, but be patient. Plan your emails in advance and you will then have the time to choose the best send time.

From my own experience, try and send the emails in the mornings or lunchtime and avoid times late in the day. Try also to avoid sending just before the weekends because recipients may then end up checking the emails on Monday morning, a time when many weekend spam emails have built up in their email box.

Ensure you track the results using a web stats package:

To really have the best idea of the best time to send and to gather other useful statistics, put some tracking code into the emails and use software to track 1) opens and 2) click throughs. If you are not using your own mailing list then this tracking will be of particular use because it will give you a clear idea of which list broker or publication lists are the most effective. Some list brokers do block the racking but you can certainly ask them to provide statistics.

Provide a html and non html version or the email send:

You may miss potential visitors to your exhibition or event if you do not send a text version of the email. To ensure you capture as many people as possible, provide a text and html version when you send the emails.

Labels: , , , , ,