One of the things that the World Wide Web has done in the lives of the human race is to greatly speed up the process of getting many things done.
For instance instead of sending snail mail and waiting for days to receive a response, we now have email, which is instant and is capable of getting you an instant response. This means that virtually any marketing plan and strategy can be implemented and executed at a much higher speed.
Although in recent times email marketing has run into all sorts of problems, mainly caused by illegal spamming, the facts are that legal and legitimate email marketing is still one of the most effective marketing methods any online entrepreneur can put to use online.
The right way to use email is to send only to opt-in email lists or persons who have opted to receive the mail. What happens is that it all starts with a webmaster carefully harvesting email addresses from persons who visit their web site. Over a period of time they are then able to build up a huge opt-in email list that they can then email offers to and generate substantial sales from. Another valuable use of these email lists is to secure regular repeat visits to the web site.
A good-size email opt-in list can take years to build.
Fortunately there are other very viable options. You can either place an advertisement in an existing email newsletter or you can purchase an existing opt-in email list to mail out your offer to.
Either way the huge advantage that you’ll enjoy is that you will get an instant response to your message and hopefully instant sales, if you have crafted your message and offer properly.
Of course you have to be extremely careful about where you purchase your list for emailing or even which email newsletters you choose to place your advertising message in.
An Opt-In email list means that the email list only has users that have opted to join a specific email list, when you decide to use email marketing for your next campaign I suggest making sure your email list is 100% opt-in.
The SAFE ANNOUNCE email service from Majon.com is the quickest, safest and most cost effective way to distribute your EXCLUSIVE advertisement via email. We distribute your stand-alone email message direct to our double opt-in email databases. Send your email advertisement to reach millions of targeted opt-in permission based email recipients. Increase Website Traffic with Popunder Advertising and Safe announce Opt-in Email. Majon’s Email Advertising and Email Marketing sends your exclusive message to OVER 150,000+ opt-in people. Send your email to 50 million real 100% opt-in email address.
Terry Detty, 42 years old, married, internet guru by experience and writes because he loves to. In addition to writing about internet marketing he does a little bit of link building, and occasionaly will get out for a short walk. He reads a lot and generally likes to have his hands occupied.
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/121982.html
Monday, June 18, 2007
Email Marketing - The Next Level of Advertising
With the Internet being one of the most powerful and prevalent information tools available, you have probably been the recipient of targeted email marketing at some time or another. Or maybe you are a business owner looking to expand by utilizing a business email marketing strategy. Either way, the potential for business promotion and brand promotion can increase with the proper use of strategic Internet marketing solutions. It is the most cost-effective means of advertising products and services and a great way to improve customer outreach.
In the most basic definition, Email marketing is marketing through emails sent to a targeted demographic. This is not the same as spam emails, which are sent to a list of people whose email addresses have been purchased (and sometimes stolen) from another source. It is a direct and inexpensive way to increase your business, track sales and maintain contact with your client base and helps filter out those who are interested and those who are not. Such tracking will ultimately help ensure business analysis accuracy. It is also not something to be intimidated by. Chances are, you are probably already using email for personal correspondence on a regular basis. If so, then you are already quite capable of using an Internet marketing solution.
To start, you will need to start collecting your customers’ email addresses with their permission. This is called permission-based email marketing, and it is an absolute must for businesses using this email marketing campaign. Once your customers have accepted your request to send them information, then you can begin to send them emails. This is not an invasive form of advertising your business, as it is simply a way of building a good rapport with customers by offering them special deals in exchange for sending them information.
So what is the incentive for your customers if they agree to receive information from you? The specifics are up to you as a business owner to determine, but either way, it is a win-win situation for both you and your customers. They will receive information about promotions, special reports, discounts and so forth, while you can contact your potential customers directly instead of waiting for them to come to you. It benefits the customers because you are simply keeping them informed of the latest money-saving opportunities based on their specific needs, and it benefits you by offering them an incentive to utilize your products or services. Additionally, you will have a simple tool for tracking your sales. The key component to increasing sales through email marketing services is by converting visitors to your web site to customers. The percentage of people who visit your site compared to those who buy your products or services is known as a conversion rate. Consistent contact with your customers through the email marketing campaign may aid in increased sales over time.
However, there are a few aspects of email marketing that you should avoid. First of all, never share any of the customers’ information with outside sources. You must respect their privacy and not abuse the trust they put into you and your business when they first agreed to receive information from you. Also, keep the emails short and succinct, especially if you plan to email your customers on a regular basis. Abusing their time can result in loss of patience from your customers and potentially causing numerous customers to unsubscribe to your email campaign. Keep the messages clear and concise for better retention of information.
From a marketing perspective, many business owners will attest that it doesn’t get much easier or effective than permission-based email marketing. It is a low-cost way of promoting your business and services through a high-traffic media outlet: the Internet. What have you got to lose?
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/126403.html
In the most basic definition, Email marketing is marketing through emails sent to a targeted demographic. This is not the same as spam emails, which are sent to a list of people whose email addresses have been purchased (and sometimes stolen) from another source. It is a direct and inexpensive way to increase your business, track sales and maintain contact with your client base and helps filter out those who are interested and those who are not. Such tracking will ultimately help ensure business analysis accuracy. It is also not something to be intimidated by. Chances are, you are probably already using email for personal correspondence on a regular basis. If so, then you are already quite capable of using an Internet marketing solution.
To start, you will need to start collecting your customers’ email addresses with their permission. This is called permission-based email marketing, and it is an absolute must for businesses using this email marketing campaign. Once your customers have accepted your request to send them information, then you can begin to send them emails. This is not an invasive form of advertising your business, as it is simply a way of building a good rapport with customers by offering them special deals in exchange for sending them information.
So what is the incentive for your customers if they agree to receive information from you? The specifics are up to you as a business owner to determine, but either way, it is a win-win situation for both you and your customers. They will receive information about promotions, special reports, discounts and so forth, while you can contact your potential customers directly instead of waiting for them to come to you. It benefits the customers because you are simply keeping them informed of the latest money-saving opportunities based on their specific needs, and it benefits you by offering them an incentive to utilize your products or services. Additionally, you will have a simple tool for tracking your sales. The key component to increasing sales through email marketing services is by converting visitors to your web site to customers. The percentage of people who visit your site compared to those who buy your products or services is known as a conversion rate. Consistent contact with your customers through the email marketing campaign may aid in increased sales over time.
However, there are a few aspects of email marketing that you should avoid. First of all, never share any of the customers’ information with outside sources. You must respect their privacy and not abuse the trust they put into you and your business when they first agreed to receive information from you. Also, keep the emails short and succinct, especially if you plan to email your customers on a regular basis. Abusing their time can result in loss of patience from your customers and potentially causing numerous customers to unsubscribe to your email campaign. Keep the messages clear and concise for better retention of information.
From a marketing perspective, many business owners will attest that it doesn’t get much easier or effective than permission-based email marketing. It is a low-cost way of promoting your business and services through a high-traffic media outlet: the Internet. What have you got to lose?
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/126403.html
Automatic Responder Email Marketing
Once you have successfully established your online business, it's important to begin an email marketing campaign. You will want to have a subscriber form located in a highly visible area of your site. There are many types of email newsletter software on the market, however, an automatic responder will make your email campaign much easier to manage. The job of the automatic responder software is to email your subscribers on a regular basis (usually weekly or monthly.) You prepare newsletters in advance and pre-load them into the automatic responder. Choose your automatic responder wisely. There are free versions on the internet but free usually comes with a price such as ads on all of your emails.
Building Your Subscriber List
Building a large list is the goal for any successful internet marketer. You can build your list by joining ezine directories or offering free products for signing up. Free products are usually in the form of ebooks. You can also utilized what is called a "squeeze page." Squeeze pages work by displaying a newsletter sign-up form to the user before they have access to you web site. Pop-up windows used to be effective but with most people using pop-up blockers, it's a little harder to build a list. There are new types of pop-up windows which can work around pop-up blockers. The windows appears to float across your browser screen containing text along with the sign-up form.
Why Automatic Responders Work
Automatic responders work well for maintaining a relationship with your readers. You'll want to keep your newsletters useful and informative so that you build credibility. Having a good relationship with your subscribers builds trust and this is important when you recommend particular products. Many internet marketers earn a huge portion of their living from their subscriber lists.
As you can see, building a subscriber list is very important for any internet marketer. Automatic responders work great to quickly develop a trusting relationship with your readers.
About the Author
Eartha Haines is an editor for Self Employed Blog and Home Based Business Bliss. Both are web sites which share ideas, services, products, and opportunities that may help others move closer to their dream of working for themselves.
Building Your Subscriber List
Building a large list is the goal for any successful internet marketer. You can build your list by joining ezine directories or offering free products for signing up. Free products are usually in the form of ebooks. You can also utilized what is called a "squeeze page." Squeeze pages work by displaying a newsletter sign-up form to the user before they have access to you web site. Pop-up windows used to be effective but with most people using pop-up blockers, it's a little harder to build a list. There are new types of pop-up windows which can work around pop-up blockers. The windows appears to float across your browser screen containing text along with the sign-up form.
Why Automatic Responders Work
Automatic responders work well for maintaining a relationship with your readers. You'll want to keep your newsletters useful and informative so that you build credibility. Having a good relationship with your subscribers builds trust and this is important when you recommend particular products. Many internet marketers earn a huge portion of their living from their subscriber lists.
As you can see, building a subscriber list is very important for any internet marketer. Automatic responders work great to quickly develop a trusting relationship with your readers.
About the Author
Eartha Haines is an editor for Self Employed Blog and Home Based Business Bliss. Both are web sites which share ideas, services, products, and opportunities that may help others move closer to their dream of working for themselves.
Email Marketing: For getting Your Subscribers To Open Up Your Emails - This Works
How many times have you started to read an e-mail message and stopped because it was too much work?
A long block of copy might work in a book or a magazine article, but on the screen it's difficult to keep your eyes on the right line when there are too many lines.
Copywriters call it a "grey wall" and it is a wall. It's a wall between you and your intended readers, because many people simply won't bother to try.
So how do you breakthrough that wall?
The answer is short paragraphs with blank lines between them.
Break it up, make it easy to scan, and use bullets and sub-heads to draw your readers to the most important points.
This practice is just as important in personal correspondence as it is in copy designed to sell. If you want your message read and understood, break it up into bite size pieces.
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/133284.html
A long block of copy might work in a book or a magazine article, but on the screen it's difficult to keep your eyes on the right line when there are too many lines.
Copywriters call it a "grey wall" and it is a wall. It's a wall between you and your intended readers, because many people simply won't bother to try.
So how do you breakthrough that wall?
The answer is short paragraphs with blank lines between them.
Break it up, make it easy to scan, and use bullets and sub-heads to draw your readers to the most important points.
This practice is just as important in personal correspondence as it is in copy designed to sell. If you want your message read and understood, break it up into bite size pieces.
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/133284.html
7 Ways To Make Money Using Nothing More Than Your List
An opt-in list can be quite crucial to any site or internet based company. Even for a small venture such as a niche profit site an opt-in list can make a world of difference and also add some extra income for your pocket. Rarely would you see an e-commerce site, big or small, that is without an opt-in list.
An opt-in list allows for a company to market their wares and site via an e-mail. With an opt-in list, a site and a subscriber consents to sending and receiving a newsletter from your company. Through this, you can keep your subscribers abreast of what is currently available in your site as well as whatever is coming out.
And because there is mutual consent between the two parties, any mail sent to the list is not considered as spam mail. There is a great number of successfully read promotional materials such as catalogs, newsletters and such that are sent because the subscribers themselves have signed up for them, meaning, they do want to be sent those items.
Building a list is crucial, only a small percentage actually subscribes for an opt-in list. Many people find promotional mails annoying but of you provide a good newsletter or promotional material, you will see your list build up and grow. You can also achieve this by having good content on your site. If people like what they see and read on your site, then they surely would want more. Newsletters would be a way to attract them back to your site. A little teaser or appetizer if you will.
But other than marketing your wares and your services, an opt-in list can also be used to earn extra profit. Not all lists can be used though. It would be good to first build a successful list with a huge number of subscribers. The more subscribers you have, the more money you can get.
Here are seven ways to make money using nothing more than your list.
1) Place advertisements. There are many corporations who will be willing to pay to put their banners and ads on a list with many subscribers. Selling or renting out lists is not a good idea so rather than doing that, many companies would just rather place ads with lists that have a huge subscriber base. Your newsletter could be placed with many ads and each one spells money.
2) Have affiliations with other companies that have at least a semblance or relation to what your site is about. Here other companies will provide links and brief descriptions of what they offer, products and services. With every click made on the link that directs or leads a subscriber from your list to their site, the company will pay you. This P4P or pay for performance.
3) Make deals with other companies by asking for a small percentage of sales done through your list. With every sale done by customers that have come from your list and have gone there because of your newsletter, the other company will pay you a small percentage of your sales. The more people who buys from them, the more earnings you get.
4) You may also get products from other sites on a consignment basis and sell them to your list via your newsletter. Place descriptions, articles and photos of the product in your newsletter. There will be those who will buy from you and when that happens, you can order the product from the other site and sell it to your buyer.
5) Sell e-books or a compilation of your articles on your list. Manuals and how-to articles are in great demand. Many people will be willing to shell out money to gain knowledge about a certain topic and subject. With your existing list trusting your expertise in that area, an e-book could be offered and sold or used as an incentive.
6) Create a network out of your list. Get people to invite more people to view your site and subscribe to your list. The larger your list is, the more people will be able to click on your links and affiliate links as well as make your advertisement rates higher.
7) Subscribers are willing to pay for information if they know that it can be trusted and relied upon. Use your list to get more and more people to subscribe to you as well as browse your site. Lastly, you can use your list to earn money by making them your partners. Your list will be the bloodline of your growth and increase.
This is all about how you can profit with your list and this is true because everyone now are building their list in order to get more future business and promotion through their list of subscribers.
About the Author
Kenny Tan writes about Internet Business and Marketing in his Weblog. You can get more resources in his Free newsletter, articles, updates and get additional information on his website:
http://www.kenny-tan.com/blog
An opt-in list allows for a company to market their wares and site via an e-mail. With an opt-in list, a site and a subscriber consents to sending and receiving a newsletter from your company. Through this, you can keep your subscribers abreast of what is currently available in your site as well as whatever is coming out.
And because there is mutual consent between the two parties, any mail sent to the list is not considered as spam mail. There is a great number of successfully read promotional materials such as catalogs, newsletters and such that are sent because the subscribers themselves have signed up for them, meaning, they do want to be sent those items.
Building a list is crucial, only a small percentage actually subscribes for an opt-in list. Many people find promotional mails annoying but of you provide a good newsletter or promotional material, you will see your list build up and grow. You can also achieve this by having good content on your site. If people like what they see and read on your site, then they surely would want more. Newsletters would be a way to attract them back to your site. A little teaser or appetizer if you will.
But other than marketing your wares and your services, an opt-in list can also be used to earn extra profit. Not all lists can be used though. It would be good to first build a successful list with a huge number of subscribers. The more subscribers you have, the more money you can get.
Here are seven ways to make money using nothing more than your list.
1) Place advertisements. There are many corporations who will be willing to pay to put their banners and ads on a list with many subscribers. Selling or renting out lists is not a good idea so rather than doing that, many companies would just rather place ads with lists that have a huge subscriber base. Your newsletter could be placed with many ads and each one spells money.
2) Have affiliations with other companies that have at least a semblance or relation to what your site is about. Here other companies will provide links and brief descriptions of what they offer, products and services. With every click made on the link that directs or leads a subscriber from your list to their site, the company will pay you. This P4P or pay for performance.
3) Make deals with other companies by asking for a small percentage of sales done through your list. With every sale done by customers that have come from your list and have gone there because of your newsletter, the other company will pay you a small percentage of your sales. The more people who buys from them, the more earnings you get.
4) You may also get products from other sites on a consignment basis and sell them to your list via your newsletter. Place descriptions, articles and photos of the product in your newsletter. There will be those who will buy from you and when that happens, you can order the product from the other site and sell it to your buyer.
5) Sell e-books or a compilation of your articles on your list. Manuals and how-to articles are in great demand. Many people will be willing to shell out money to gain knowledge about a certain topic and subject. With your existing list trusting your expertise in that area, an e-book could be offered and sold or used as an incentive.
6) Create a network out of your list. Get people to invite more people to view your site and subscribe to your list. The larger your list is, the more people will be able to click on your links and affiliate links as well as make your advertisement rates higher.
7) Subscribers are willing to pay for information if they know that it can be trusted and relied upon. Use your list to get more and more people to subscribe to you as well as browse your site. Lastly, you can use your list to earn money by making them your partners. Your list will be the bloodline of your growth and increase.
This is all about how you can profit with your list and this is true because everyone now are building their list in order to get more future business and promotion through their list of subscribers.
About the Author
Kenny Tan writes about Internet Business and Marketing in his Weblog. You can get more resources in his Free newsletter, articles, updates and get additional information on his website:
http://www.kenny-tan.com/blog
Is Email Marketing Dying?
In 2006, 40% of all email sent throughout the world was considered SPAM. This begs the question, "Will my email get to my subscribers?"
Every day it gets harder to determine if an email is legitimate; users find it difficult to distinguish between legitimate emails and spam. Spammers continue to find clever ways to bypass email filters and as a result the filters increasingly block valid emails in a desperate attempt to keep up. Many marketers find filters frequently catch their commercial emails.
The sheer volume of spam people receive has also created other problems. People will often mistake valid commercial emails, from mailing lists they've subscribed to, as spam and thus the email never gets opened. As this trend continues, some experts predict email will no longer be a useful marketing tool.
What can you do to avoid being marked as spam?
The best thing you can do is limit as many factors that may cause your email to be flagged as spam as possible:
- If you're not doing so already, use a double opt-in mailing list. This will ensure subscribers do in fact want to receive emails from you, plus they will recognize your name, which prevents any emails you send from being mistaken as spam.
- Once a subscriber has signed up to the mailing list, display a message on the website that tells them to whitelist your domain or add your email address to their address book to prevent it from being flagged as spam.
- Send your email as plain text. Avoid HTML emails as those tend to get picked up by the filters a lot more than plain text.
- Avoid using various trigger words or phrases that are flagged by filters as being spam. It's not that you can't use them; it's just that you should use them sparingly. The filters will block your email if it contains too many trigger words. You can find a list of typical trigger words to avoid in your email's subject line and body athttp://www.andreaoneill.com/spamtriggers.html.
- Before you send your email out to your entire list of readers, perform a dry run on some free email accounts such as hotmail, yahoo, and gmail. You can play around with the filter settings on each account and see if your email makes it through. Another good idea is to run your email through a content checker that will determine if it is at high risk of being flagged as spam. There are a number of free content checkers available on the Internet, just do a search on Google.
- The most important thing to do is follow the CAN-SPAM laws regarding commercial email. This includes items such as containing an unsubscribe link in every email and including the mailing address of the company or person sending the email. The CAN-SPAM act can be found athttp://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm.
Will people abandon email for another electronic medium?
It's difficult to tell where email marketing will be a year from now. In 2004, Bill Gates predicted there would be an end to all spam by 2006. Well, I don't need to tell you that the exact opposite has occurred - there is more spam today than ever before, and there is no sign it will be letting up any time soon. It will only continue to get harder to find ways around the problem.
The good news is email marketing has already stood its ground. When blogs and podcasts emerged, many believed they would replace email as the dominant marketing media, but it did not happen. Yes, people embraced blogs and podcasts, but they still subscribed to mailing lists as they had before, despite the spam.
Email is still a strong marketing tool and every indication shows that it will remain useful in the years to come. Unless everyone in the world suddenly decides to stop using email, there will always be a way to reach subscribers on the web this way.
About the Author
Sean Kenaston is an Associate Editor at Ratings Hub - the first and only ad and affiliate link free site that provides 100% user-based reviews of various Internet marketing products and services. It's the only place on the Internet offering completely unbiased feedback on products used by every type of marketer, from beginner to guru and everyone in between. Visit http://www.ratingshub.no-nonsense-marketing.com
Every day it gets harder to determine if an email is legitimate; users find it difficult to distinguish between legitimate emails and spam. Spammers continue to find clever ways to bypass email filters and as a result the filters increasingly block valid emails in a desperate attempt to keep up. Many marketers find filters frequently catch their commercial emails.
The sheer volume of spam people receive has also created other problems. People will often mistake valid commercial emails, from mailing lists they've subscribed to, as spam and thus the email never gets opened. As this trend continues, some experts predict email will no longer be a useful marketing tool.
What can you do to avoid being marked as spam?
The best thing you can do is limit as many factors that may cause your email to be flagged as spam as possible:
- If you're not doing so already, use a double opt-in mailing list. This will ensure subscribers do in fact want to receive emails from you, plus they will recognize your name, which prevents any emails you send from being mistaken as spam.
- Once a subscriber has signed up to the mailing list, display a message on the website that tells them to whitelist your domain or add your email address to their address book to prevent it from being flagged as spam.
- Send your email as plain text. Avoid HTML emails as those tend to get picked up by the filters a lot more than plain text.
- Avoid using various trigger words or phrases that are flagged by filters as being spam. It's not that you can't use them; it's just that you should use them sparingly. The filters will block your email if it contains too many trigger words. You can find a list of typical trigger words to avoid in your email's subject line and body athttp://www.andreaoneill.com/spamtriggers.html.
- Before you send your email out to your entire list of readers, perform a dry run on some free email accounts such as hotmail, yahoo, and gmail. You can play around with the filter settings on each account and see if your email makes it through. Another good idea is to run your email through a content checker that will determine if it is at high risk of being flagged as spam. There are a number of free content checkers available on the Internet, just do a search on Google.
- The most important thing to do is follow the CAN-SPAM laws regarding commercial email. This includes items such as containing an unsubscribe link in every email and including the mailing address of the company or person sending the email. The CAN-SPAM act can be found athttp://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm.
Will people abandon email for another electronic medium?
It's difficult to tell where email marketing will be a year from now. In 2004, Bill Gates predicted there would be an end to all spam by 2006. Well, I don't need to tell you that the exact opposite has occurred - there is more spam today than ever before, and there is no sign it will be letting up any time soon. It will only continue to get harder to find ways around the problem.
The good news is email marketing has already stood its ground. When blogs and podcasts emerged, many believed they would replace email as the dominant marketing media, but it did not happen. Yes, people embraced blogs and podcasts, but they still subscribed to mailing lists as they had before, despite the spam.
Email is still a strong marketing tool and every indication shows that it will remain useful in the years to come. Unless everyone in the world suddenly decides to stop using email, there will always be a way to reach subscribers on the web this way.
About the Author
Sean Kenaston is an Associate Editor at Ratings Hub - the first and only ad and affiliate link free site that provides 100% user-based reviews of various Internet marketing products and services. It's the only place on the Internet offering completely unbiased feedback on products used by every type of marketer, from beginner to guru and everyone in between. Visit http://www.ratingshub.no-nonsense-marketing.com
Email Marketing: Seven Reasons To Love It
We're all aware of the negative side of email marketing, thanks to spam. However, the abundance of spam tells us something important about email marketing. It reaches people more effectively than any other marketing tool.
Legitimate marketers know that the benefits don't end there, and in their hands there's no doubt that email marketing get results. This is why US businesses spent £950 million on email marketing in 2006, sending literally billions of commercial emails.
Here's a summary of the benefits of email marketing, and how it can benefit your business too.
1. Popularity of email
Almost every adult in the US sends and receives email - it's by far the most popular activity online. And while most people hate spam, most people welcome legitimate, relevant messages offering something of value.
2. Targeted
A large audience is not enough. The key to successful marketing is targeting - identifying and engaging the people most likely to respond to your promotions. Email marketing can be targeted more effectively than any other marketing.
This is because most people add their email address to email lists, to receive details of special offers and new products, email newsletters (ezines), and so on. Certain types of people join certain types of list. As a result, email lists group together people with something in common - something that identifies them as potential customers (targets) for certain types of goods and services.
These lists - available to buy or use - allow you to target prospect-rich audiences for your own goods and services.
Email is also the most effective way to target the people more likely than any other group to respond - your existing customers. An in-house email list (built with their permission) is one of the most valuable assets a business can have.
3. Affordable and cost-effective
You can reach a highly-targeted audience for just cents per prospect. If you build your own email list or take advantage of free ezine ads, the cost is zero.
The ability to target email marketing so effectively results in great value for your marketing dollar - healthy response rates and fewer marketing dollars wasted on unlikely prospects. This applies equally to small budget campaigns and big spends.
In addition, you can afford to repeat your promotions, proven to significantly boost response rates.
4. Options
Email marketing extends beyond the sales messages we're all familiar with. For instance, most email newsletters (ezines) carry ads. These range from free classifieds in the newsletter to solo ads, sent separately to subscribers from the newsletter.
Many ezines also welcome article submissions - an opportunity to promote your expertise and generate traffic to your site. You can also submit articles to free article directories used as a source of content by many online newsletters.
If you have time, you can start your own email newsletter. Alternatively, you can invite visitors to your site to sign up for brief details of special offers and new products - a less time-consuming option for building an email list.
5. Fast
Email marketing campaigns can be up-and-running in a day, and most people will respond almost immediately. This makes email marketing ideal for seasonal or time-sensitive promotions, and a great alternative to fast but costly pay-per-click promotions.
6. You can get it right
The affordability of email marketing allows even budget-constricted small businesses to test different headlines, prices and so forth before launching a large-scale campaign. As it's also fast, you'll know right away what works and what doesn't.
Email marketing is also an effective, low-cost testing ground for ads that will ultimately appear in more expensive channels. For instance, ezine classified ads are comparable in size and format to pay-per-click ads but far less expensive and often free.
7. Multi-tasking
As well as direct sales, email can be used to accomplish other marketing objectives too. For instance, it's a highly-effective tool for building relationships with existing and potential customers. Regular messages and newsletters generate trust and loyalty that ultimately lead to sales.
Email also promotes brand image and awareness when every message includes a simple statement distinguishing your business from the competition.
You can also use email to gain one-way inbound links. Many online newsletters are web-based with back issues - including your ad with a link to your site - available to view online.
Hopefully this introduction to email marketing inspires you to make the most of email marketing in your own business.
About the Author
Caroline Mackenzie is a successful marketing professional. Her articles focus on small and home business, providing practical advice and ideas for success. She is owner of LucentData.com, a leading source of free and low-cost Resale and Private Label Rights products for online business owners.
Legitimate marketers know that the benefits don't end there, and in their hands there's no doubt that email marketing get results. This is why US businesses spent £950 million on email marketing in 2006, sending literally billions of commercial emails.
Here's a summary of the benefits of email marketing, and how it can benefit your business too.
1. Popularity of email
Almost every adult in the US sends and receives email - it's by far the most popular activity online. And while most people hate spam, most people welcome legitimate, relevant messages offering something of value.
2. Targeted
A large audience is not enough. The key to successful marketing is targeting - identifying and engaging the people most likely to respond to your promotions. Email marketing can be targeted more effectively than any other marketing.
This is because most people add their email address to email lists, to receive details of special offers and new products, email newsletters (ezines), and so on. Certain types of people join certain types of list. As a result, email lists group together people with something in common - something that identifies them as potential customers (targets) for certain types of goods and services.
These lists - available to buy or use - allow you to target prospect-rich audiences for your own goods and services.
Email is also the most effective way to target the people more likely than any other group to respond - your existing customers. An in-house email list (built with their permission) is one of the most valuable assets a business can have.
3. Affordable and cost-effective
You can reach a highly-targeted audience for just cents per prospect. If you build your own email list or take advantage of free ezine ads, the cost is zero.
The ability to target email marketing so effectively results in great value for your marketing dollar - healthy response rates and fewer marketing dollars wasted on unlikely prospects. This applies equally to small budget campaigns and big spends.
In addition, you can afford to repeat your promotions, proven to significantly boost response rates.
4. Options
Email marketing extends beyond the sales messages we're all familiar with. For instance, most email newsletters (ezines) carry ads. These range from free classifieds in the newsletter to solo ads, sent separately to subscribers from the newsletter.
Many ezines also welcome article submissions - an opportunity to promote your expertise and generate traffic to your site. You can also submit articles to free article directories used as a source of content by many online newsletters.
If you have time, you can start your own email newsletter. Alternatively, you can invite visitors to your site to sign up for brief details of special offers and new products - a less time-consuming option for building an email list.
5. Fast
Email marketing campaigns can be up-and-running in a day, and most people will respond almost immediately. This makes email marketing ideal for seasonal or time-sensitive promotions, and a great alternative to fast but costly pay-per-click promotions.
6. You can get it right
The affordability of email marketing allows even budget-constricted small businesses to test different headlines, prices and so forth before launching a large-scale campaign. As it's also fast, you'll know right away what works and what doesn't.
Email marketing is also an effective, low-cost testing ground for ads that will ultimately appear in more expensive channels. For instance, ezine classified ads are comparable in size and format to pay-per-click ads but far less expensive and often free.
7. Multi-tasking
As well as direct sales, email can be used to accomplish other marketing objectives too. For instance, it's a highly-effective tool for building relationships with existing and potential customers. Regular messages and newsletters generate trust and loyalty that ultimately lead to sales.
Email also promotes brand image and awareness when every message includes a simple statement distinguishing your business from the competition.
You can also use email to gain one-way inbound links. Many online newsletters are web-based with back issues - including your ad with a link to your site - available to view online.
Hopefully this introduction to email marketing inspires you to make the most of email marketing in your own business.
About the Author
Caroline Mackenzie is a successful marketing professional. Her articles focus on small and home business, providing practical advice and ideas for success. She is owner of LucentData.com, a leading source of free and low-cost Resale and Private Label Rights products for online business owners.
Email Marketing Ideas
Email marketing involves a great deal more than sales messages. It's multi-faceted and multi-talented. And if you enjoy thinking outside the box, it's a marketing tool you can have fun with, developing your own email marketing ideas.
In the meantime, some of these email marketing ideas might be obvious, some might surprise you:
1. Get higher response rates by using email lists that reach small but very specific groups of people, tailoring messages to their particular concerns, interests and desires.
2. Stay in touch with the people more likely than any other group to buy your goods and services - your existing customers - by capturing their email address (with permission, of course) at the time of sale.
3. Build your own email list of potential customers by starting a free email newsletter (ezine) on a subject closely related to your products and expertise.
4. Promote your email newsletter - and get links to your website - by submitting details of your newsletter to ezine directories.
5. Generate long-term sales and minimise unsubscribe rates by providing a consistently relevant and useful newsletter that builds trust and loyalty.
6. Build an email list of potential customers quickly and easily by adding a sign-up page to your website offering details by email of special offers and new products - simpler and less time-consuming than writing a newsletter.
7. Get inbound links and traffic to your website by submitting articles to article-sharing directories used as a source of content by other email newsletters and websites.
8. Get inbound links as well as sales by advertising in web-based ezines which have back issues - including your ad and a link to your website - available to view online.
9. Save money and increase response rates in more expensive marketing channels by using low-cost email marketing options to test your ads (e.g., ezine classified ads are similar in size and format to Google AdWords.)
10. Expand your email list and generate sales by offering a genuinely useful series of emails (e.g. a "mini-course") to be sent by autoresponder over a period of time, promoting a relevant product or service in each message.
11. Maximise the reach and potential of email promotions by inviting recipients to "forward this message" to friends/colleagues.
12. Build brand image and awareness by including a simple statement about your business and how it differs from the competition in each and every email.
These are just a few ideas for email marketing, designed to show how email marketing can achieve much more than sales.
Email marketing is also highly affordable. In fact, all the above ideas can be put into action for free. So, feel free to make the most of them, and encouraged to develop your own email marketing ideas.
Caroline Mackenzie is a successful marketing professional, online and off. Her articles focus on small and home businesses, providing practical advice and ideas for success. She is also co-owner of LucentData.com, a source of free and low-cost tools for online business owners. You can visit her site at http://www.lucentdata.com
About the Author
Caroline Mackenzie is a successful marketing professional. Her articles focus on small and home business, providing practical advice and ideas for success. She is owner of LucentData.com, a leading source of free and low-cost Resale and Private Label Rights products for online business owners.
In the meantime, some of these email marketing ideas might be obvious, some might surprise you:
1. Get higher response rates by using email lists that reach small but very specific groups of people, tailoring messages to their particular concerns, interests and desires.
2. Stay in touch with the people more likely than any other group to buy your goods and services - your existing customers - by capturing their email address (with permission, of course) at the time of sale.
3. Build your own email list of potential customers by starting a free email newsletter (ezine) on a subject closely related to your products and expertise.
4. Promote your email newsletter - and get links to your website - by submitting details of your newsletter to ezine directories.
5. Generate long-term sales and minimise unsubscribe rates by providing a consistently relevant and useful newsletter that builds trust and loyalty.
6. Build an email list of potential customers quickly and easily by adding a sign-up page to your website offering details by email of special offers and new products - simpler and less time-consuming than writing a newsletter.
7. Get inbound links and traffic to your website by submitting articles to article-sharing directories used as a source of content by other email newsletters and websites.
8. Get inbound links as well as sales by advertising in web-based ezines which have back issues - including your ad and a link to your website - available to view online.
9. Save money and increase response rates in more expensive marketing channels by using low-cost email marketing options to test your ads (e.g., ezine classified ads are similar in size and format to Google AdWords.)
10. Expand your email list and generate sales by offering a genuinely useful series of emails (e.g. a "mini-course") to be sent by autoresponder over a period of time, promoting a relevant product or service in each message.
11. Maximise the reach and potential of email promotions by inviting recipients to "forward this message" to friends/colleagues.
12. Build brand image and awareness by including a simple statement about your business and how it differs from the competition in each and every email.
These are just a few ideas for email marketing, designed to show how email marketing can achieve much more than sales.
Email marketing is also highly affordable. In fact, all the above ideas can be put into action for free. So, feel free to make the most of them, and encouraged to develop your own email marketing ideas.
Caroline Mackenzie is a successful marketing professional, online and off. Her articles focus on small and home businesses, providing practical advice and ideas for success. She is also co-owner of LucentData.com, a source of free and low-cost tools for online business owners. You can visit her site at http://www.lucentdata.com
About the Author
Caroline Mackenzie is a successful marketing professional. Her articles focus on small and home business, providing practical advice and ideas for success. She is owner of LucentData.com, a leading source of free and low-cost Resale and Private Label Rights products for online business owners.
6 Great Internet Marketing Tools for Your Internet Business
They would rather spend their time in trying to bring in a few more customers by doing much simpler things than planning big.
In any case, most of them do not think that drawing up a plan for their internet business will be of any use. The plan need not be elaborate, however. It involves taking just a few simple steps. Proactive internet home business owners focus on understanding what their customers need most by interacting with them and then they gear themselves to fulfill such needs.
They notice changes in the market trends and recreate their internet marketing tools as well as website content periodically. They put emphasis on the core areas of their business that bring the most benefits. A lot many customers come in to buy when they know that they get the best value for their money. Internet business marketing is also about establishing individual contacts with your prospects as well as existing customers.
Email marketing is GREAT internet marketing tool This can best be done through email, which has now become a very important internet marketing tool. Email marketing reach the target audience directly. Internet marketers and their customers or prospective customers get to establish an informal and continuous relationship, which will be good for their business in the long run.
Being inexpensive and fast, email marketing is a good internet marketing tool for promoting their business, especially because they have a wide spread and can reach, at once, a large number of buyers looking for products or services offered online. Best of all, email marketing can be used to encourage customers to give feedback, for improving sales as well as for modifying email marketing strategies.
Other inexpensive internet marketing tools Owners of internet businesses, in general, cannot afford to invest in pricey advertisements in the traditional media. Consequently, they are always on the look out for ad opportunities that cost next to nothing.
They are willing to use more their creativity than their money. No doubt, email marketing offers such an opportunity. Blogs can also be used similarly, provided they reach those people that evince some interest in the goods or services of the internet business concerned.
A well-written press release is another internet marketing tool that can profitably be exploited without expense.
If advertisements are all about catching the attention of the people to promote business, you can get it by spreading information that highlights the line of your internet business by word of mouth. People are ready to listen to you if you talk about how the various aspects of their life will change for the better when they choose to become your customers.
What you say, of course, must be convincing and interesting. Power point presentation of your projects and products to small manageable groups will serve your purpose, although to a limited extent. You can also think to show a catchy video on your page. One picture sells more than thousands words.
Ads using Google AdWords do not need any initial investment, but if they work for you, you will be able to afford the overall expense of the effort, particularly since you are allowed to wait to pay till you receive successful results.
Strategies to promote the internet business may not be totally different from those that work for the big business, except that there will be a shift in the emphasis.
About the Author
Juhani Tontti offers you more useful tools and 3 free ebooks>/a>.
In any case, most of them do not think that drawing up a plan for their internet business will be of any use. The plan need not be elaborate, however. It involves taking just a few simple steps. Proactive internet home business owners focus on understanding what their customers need most by interacting with them and then they gear themselves to fulfill such needs.
They notice changes in the market trends and recreate their internet marketing tools as well as website content periodically. They put emphasis on the core areas of their business that bring the most benefits. A lot many customers come in to buy when they know that they get the best value for their money. Internet business marketing is also about establishing individual contacts with your prospects as well as existing customers.
Email marketing is GREAT internet marketing tool This can best be done through email, which has now become a very important internet marketing tool. Email marketing reach the target audience directly. Internet marketers and their customers or prospective customers get to establish an informal and continuous relationship, which will be good for their business in the long run.
Being inexpensive and fast, email marketing is a good internet marketing tool for promoting their business, especially because they have a wide spread and can reach, at once, a large number of buyers looking for products or services offered online. Best of all, email marketing can be used to encourage customers to give feedback, for improving sales as well as for modifying email marketing strategies.
Other inexpensive internet marketing tools Owners of internet businesses, in general, cannot afford to invest in pricey advertisements in the traditional media. Consequently, they are always on the look out for ad opportunities that cost next to nothing.
They are willing to use more their creativity than their money. No doubt, email marketing offers such an opportunity. Blogs can also be used similarly, provided they reach those people that evince some interest in the goods or services of the internet business concerned.
A well-written press release is another internet marketing tool that can profitably be exploited without expense.
If advertisements are all about catching the attention of the people to promote business, you can get it by spreading information that highlights the line of your internet business by word of mouth. People are ready to listen to you if you talk about how the various aspects of their life will change for the better when they choose to become your customers.
What you say, of course, must be convincing and interesting. Power point presentation of your projects and products to small manageable groups will serve your purpose, although to a limited extent. You can also think to show a catchy video on your page. One picture sells more than thousands words.
Ads using Google AdWords do not need any initial investment, but if they work for you, you will be able to afford the overall expense of the effort, particularly since you are allowed to wait to pay till you receive successful results.
Strategies to promote the internet business may not be totally different from those that work for the big business, except that there will be a shift in the emphasis.
About the Author
Juhani Tontti offers you more useful tools and 3 free ebooks>/a>.
How to Organize Emails
It's somewhat ironic that in the computer age we end up less organized than ever before. The mass of information now accessible via the Internet threatens to overwhelm us. So much of that now comes to us in the form of emails.
I subscribe to several very informative ezines, and get an inbox full of emails each with nuggets of useful information. If any were interesting or contained a useful idea I would just save it in a folder - but weeks later had no idea why I had saved that email! Recalling something I later wanted to re-read, the list of titles in my folders gave no indication of where it may be. Now I organize emails by deleting them! I only save things like receipts, never an email just because it contains "something useful". Most ezines and emails generally are broken down into several short features which are self contained. I copy anything interesting and paste it into a new page in my word processor. I can then give that its own title, which can be long enough to give an indication of what it contains.
Another advantage of doing this is it becomes a more interactive and personalized process. Anything in your word processor you can edit and add to. If you find information about how to motivate yourself; you can chop it up and add how you can use the information to motivate you. There is no point saving information if you never use it!
The same principle can be used when you surf the Internet and come across nuggets of information on a web site. Saving the web site in your favorite folder will cast the idea into a stagnant list. Look at all your favorites - how many have you revisited and can you recall why you saved them? When you copy and paste the article or idea, you can also paste in the web address, so you can always revisit the site if necessary.
Once you get into the swing of organizing emails within a word processor you can start merging and playing around with ideas. You can paste different ideas about say motivation within the same file, and combine them to come up with new ideas or statements that could work for you.
If you visit a public library looking for information, you copy out what you want - you don't take books out a leave them permanently on a bookshelf. Somehow we don't seem to have grasped the same idea with emails and the Internet - even though organizing emails just takes a click of the mouse!
About the Author
Eric Boot likes to be organized, click for hundreds of tips on Getting Organized at home or in the office.
I subscribe to several very informative ezines, and get an inbox full of emails each with nuggets of useful information. If any were interesting or contained a useful idea I would just save it in a folder - but weeks later had no idea why I had saved that email! Recalling something I later wanted to re-read, the list of titles in my folders gave no indication of where it may be. Now I organize emails by deleting them! I only save things like receipts, never an email just because it contains "something useful". Most ezines and emails generally are broken down into several short features which are self contained. I copy anything interesting and paste it into a new page in my word processor. I can then give that its own title, which can be long enough to give an indication of what it contains.
Another advantage of doing this is it becomes a more interactive and personalized process. Anything in your word processor you can edit and add to. If you find information about how to motivate yourself; you can chop it up and add how you can use the information to motivate you. There is no point saving information if you never use it!
The same principle can be used when you surf the Internet and come across nuggets of information on a web site. Saving the web site in your favorite folder will cast the idea into a stagnant list. Look at all your favorites - how many have you revisited and can you recall why you saved them? When you copy and paste the article or idea, you can also paste in the web address, so you can always revisit the site if necessary.
Once you get into the swing of organizing emails within a word processor you can start merging and playing around with ideas. You can paste different ideas about say motivation within the same file, and combine them to come up with new ideas or statements that could work for you.
If you visit a public library looking for information, you copy out what you want - you don't take books out a leave them permanently on a bookshelf. Somehow we don't seem to have grasped the same idea with emails and the Internet - even though organizing emails just takes a click of the mouse!
About the Author
Eric Boot likes to be organized, click for hundreds of tips on Getting Organized at home or in the office.
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