Effective Email Marketing

Foreword By The Editor

This article by John Stewart espouses the value of email marketing. Out of the many alternative marketing strategies available online, email marketing, or bum marketing as it is sometimes known, is still as relevant as ever; and probably will remain so. After all, ‘content’ will always be king of the Internet.

Mike Alexander
For all your content needs go to ClipCopy Content Solutions

A List Of Loyal Readers

Image by MikeSchinkel via Flickr

If you have a capture page, blog site, or website, then you know the importance of email marketing. Effective email marketing gives you the ability to send out newsletters and e-mails that build the confidence of your prospects so that they will be interested in you and buying from you.

Generally, the definition for email marketing is building a list of loyal readers that you can make sales to through e-mail promotions.

If you want your readers to hear from you again and again, good content is essential so that readers feel like you are a valuable asset to them. You need to give them good ideas and information that will help them to progress in their business

Making Email Profitable

What makes email marketing profitable?

1. It’s immediate. You can contact hundreds of people immediately with the same message.

2. It can be tailored to each prospect by categorizing your list. Then you will have the information that is most relevant to each prospect for your email campaigns.

3. It can become infectious. As one person sees the value of the information and products you offer, they will naturally want to share it with each one of their friends and contacts, helping you to become more widely known.

4.  It’s inexpensive. Using e-mail to communicate with your prospects is much cheaper than traditional direct mail campaigns.

Email Etiquette

One thing you need to keep in mind if you don’t want to have problems with your email marketing campaigns. You must use accepted email etiquette.

First, when you have someone ‘opt in’, or subscribe, to your email list, make sure you verify that you have permission to return the contact on a regular basis. Only when you have the permission of the person that you’re marketing to will campaigns work. Without this permission, you will more than likely never get past this prospect’s spam filters.

Also remember that permission loses its power over time. No matter how you get someone’s email address, don’t wait to contact them. You need to send something right away. If you wait weeks or months, or even days, they will probably forget who you are and what you are about. So they might just delete it or maybe even unsubscribe from your list. So be sure to send them a welcome email. Maybe give them something with your most recent blog post, hopefully something of real value right away. Then they will have you fresh in their mind and look forward to your next message.

It is important that you include an unsubscribe link or an opt out link giving them instructions how to be removed from your list. If they opt out, take them off immediately, at least within 10 days. Remember, it’s the law if they unsubscribe, you must remove their name. Otherwise you could be branded as as a spammer. Make sure prospects know what they are signing up for and use an autoresponder service like Get-Response or Aweber. They will help you take care of this issue.

One other thing to remember is that your prospects are people. Don’t just try to sell them something every time you contact them, telling them how urgent it is that they buy now. Give them value. Give them tips and information that they can use, include a funny story or just tell them a little something about yourself. Let them know that you’re a human, and that you want to treat them the same way. And the best way to keep your email out of the spam folder is to never use words like ‘free’, ‘money’ or ‘bonus’, and never write using the CAPS Lock key.

About the Author

Want more network marketing information on Email Marketing? Then visit John Stewart’s site. You can also get a ton of essential marketing tools for your needs.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Effective E-Mail Marketing (ronmedlin.com)
• Email Marketing – What’s Relevant (andreavascellari.com)
• Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid (sendblaster.com)

Tags: blog, business, email lists, email marketing solution, free ezine content ideas, List Management, newsletter articles, opt-in email marketing

Posted in Email Marketing 2 Comments