http://www.BillEnross.com email Marketing For Small Business Owners – Who hasn’t been the victim of targeted email marketing, where someone has sold your email address and all of a sudden you’re the lucky recipient of junk email. As a small business owner, you certainly don’t want to fall into the same category as these unwanted messages do: that category is Spam!
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The percentage of internet users having a business/personal email account is about 90% Unites States. Internet businesses are very different then traditional businesses, many times you don’t speak or see the customers you only deal with them through the internet. Many types of Internet advertising don’t work as well as they once did.
Your most valuable asset is a list of people who have given you their permission to email them periodically. Using email confirmation is a great way of keeping your list clean, your list will only consist of people who have a real email address and who took the time to the confirm there email. We all put a lot of effort into our internet business. We all have the same hopes and dreams about where our internet business will go. Many people starting out on the Internet believe that their main marketing tool is their website. Many webmaster think that if they have a list of people and they blast a sales letter to all of them they will automatically receive traffic and sales.
If you own an auto responder many have used tricks to get by some spam filters, you can change words around like using f^ree for the word free, since spam filters have been getting smarter they are now blocking most of the tricks. Spam blockers help the email user control the amount of junk they receive to their email boxes, now the email user has the power to decide what they will read and see and what they will not.
When creating your website you should make sure you have away of capturing email addresses, this is important when building your list. Frequently, people opt-in to receive these types of e-mails so you are not spamming people with unwanted mail. By hosting the auto responder on your own website, you have complete control over the program. If your auto responder is remotely hosted, you will not be able to get an auto responder that matched your domain name. A desktop-hosted auto responder is just a program that is run directly on your own workstation or computer. A locally-hosted auto responder is one that is hosted on your own web server. An auto responder that is hosted means that the actual software is kept on someone else’s host and you have the ability to use but not control the software.
The consumer of today is increasingly bombarded by marketing messages from various media channels. When sending your email to people email addresses you will be competing with many other emails, make sure you use a catchy subject to grab the person’s attention. The people, who you are sending your messages to, want your information. email marketing is directing your messages to targeted addresses.
A common practice in today’s e-commerce environment is to use email marketing campaigns to launch advertising initiatives for products and services offered online. Sending out a round of promotional emails, through a 3rd party provider, can be a measurably effective way to get the word out about your company, your products and your services.
A great way to promote your website is to provide a newsletter which revolves around your business and give them a reason to visit your site. Creating a newsletter for visitors adds value to your site and keeps your company in front of your prospects.
David Marc Fishman
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/spam-blockers-block-email-campaigns-124097.html
Leopards don’t change their spots. With laws and accepted standards in regards to unsolicited bulk email marketing, a.k.a. spam, having tightened in recent years, so too has the resolve of spammers to find loopholes to justify their wicked deeds.
The growth and now almost complete global acceptance of confirmed-opt-in standards (sometimes called “double opt in”) for email newsletter subscriptions has been encouraging. It has certainly gone a long way towards distinguishing between legitimated, wanted periodic emails and unwanted spam.
Confirmed-opt-in works like this: An ezine publisher seeking subscribers places a form on a webpage inviting people to submit their email address to subscribe. Of course, there is a risk that malicious submissions could be made, so the confirmed-opt-in subscription mechanism sends a confirmation email to the address provided, requesting that the owner of that email either reply to the email, or click on a specially coded link within that email. As the only person who has access to reading that request for confirmation is the true owner of the email address, a confirmation is solid proof that the subscriber is genuine and not added to the mailing list by some other party.
A confirmed-opt-in also provides the subscriber with the comfort of knowing they are dealing with an honest publisher. In short, if a subscription is NOT via a confirmed-opt-in method, web users are well advised not to provide their email address at all.
Given the now nearly universal acceptance of confirmed-opt-in subscriptions to email periodicals in order to distinguish them from spam, it should not surprise that spammers themselves have turned their attentions to exploiting the otherwise virtuous confirmed-opt-in mechanism into something that appears to legitimise their dirty spam marketing practices.
Welcome to the new and nasty world of “confirmed-opt-in-spam”.
A growing trend in bulk email marketing (some of which is legitimate, some of which is not) has been the use of a “squeeze page”, also known as a “name-squeeze”. While such a marketing mechanism may be completely above-board, honest and spam-free, the worry is the growing trend of misuse of the squeeze page by spammers to create a confirmed-opt-in email list to which to send unsolicited marketing materials.
A squeeze page, of itself, is not an evil tool. Used properly, they can be a very effective and legitimate marketing mechanism. They work as follows:
An email publisher attempts to increase their subscriber base by offering a free gift to new subscribers to their newsletter or ezine. For example, the offer may be for a free PDF ebook, or a downloadable video clip or similar giveaway. The idea is that this extra bit of incentive will encourage more people to subscribe to the email publication. The subscriber receives a confirmation email to which they either reply or click a specially encoded link within the confirmation email. They are then either emailed the free gift or automatically directed to a web page from where they can download it for themselves.
In the hands of a spammer, a deceptively similar strategy is employed:
The spammer offers a free gift in return for your email address. When you provide your email address in anticipation of receiving the free gift, you receive a confirmation email. Again, either a reply or a click on an encoded link confirms that your email address is legitimate and that you are indeed the person requesting the free gift. The free gift is then supplied.
Did you spot the difference between the honest use and the spammer’s technique?
Unlike the honest publisher, the spammer does not tell you that you are subscribing or opting-in to receive a regular newsletter or future marketing emails. The person providing the email address and confirming it is only expecting to receive a single ebook or other free gift, unaware that they are now on someone’s mailing list and about to be bombarded with marketing emails.
Some very well known internet marketing “gurus” use and widely promote the use of this deception and misuse of squeeze pages, thinking that mere confirmed-opt-in or even the ability to subsequently opt-out makes it a legitimate practice. It isn’t. If such a shoddy marketeer sends you follow-up material without prior warning, without your express and knowing consent, that sender is spamming.
Beware of the squeeze page spammer.
Next time you see a free gift being offered online in return for your email address, check for these three things:
# Is there any clear mention that you are subscribing for future emails, or are you just being offered a free gift with no mention of an ongoing email relationship? (If the latter, why do they need to know your email address?)
# Is a detailed privacy policy displayed or clearly linked (not hidden or hard to find) that explains how and why email addresses are collected, whether privacy is assured or if they reserve the right to use it for other purposes, what your rights to removal from their database and future emails may be, and so forth? (A professional privacy policy is a rather lengthy statement for even the simplest of websites. Don’t place too much trust in single-sentence assurances.)
# Never forget the old adage: If the offer sounds too good to be true, then it almost certainly is.
Trevor A Johnson
To enjoy a delicious campaign curry, you need to put ingredients such that the final curry tastes good. You need to take utmost care, not to miss out on any of the ingredients, lest the curry will not taste good.
To start with, let me first tell you about email marketing.
email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of
Communicating commercial or promotional messages to an audience. It is a collection of related ads or offers. email marketing is the practice of sending sales letters or customer newsletters by email. email communications are often more effective than printed direct mail, because a reader can click on a link and go straight to the website the sender wants you to go.
In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. This method of direct marketing is less costly as compared to other media investments like Newspaper ads, TV Ads. email Marketing is more than just sending bulk emails, newsletters, or auto responders, and then keeping your fingers crossed. Rather, effective email marketing campaigns involve a targeted developmental process and intelligent email list management – smart marketing that works for you.
email Marketing campaigns are nothing but, promoting yourself and your products in the market through emails to your existing or potential clients to gain recognition of your product
Let us now know about the ingredients for preparing an email campaign.
Ingredient1:
Campaign: What is a campaign? A campaign contains a collection of one or more ad groups, which have the same budget, schedule, and geo-targeting criteria. Campaigns are typically created to achieve a specific marketing goal. To send email content to a group of email addresses is called an email campaign. An email campaign typically consists of email Content, email Addresses, Subject Line, Test emails, From and Reply To address etc.(e.g. a new product launch campaign, or a campaign that targets customers in a specific geographic location).
An email campaign can be a normal campaign, a split campaign or even a recurring campaign.
Split Campaign: A campaign can be split based on specific criteria like list, content, subject line and other factors.
Recurring Campaign: A campaign which is sent again and again at specific interval set to email address. This could be based on certain criteria’s if required.
Ingredient2:
Opted Format: What types of formats does a email campaign go to the client? The Opted format could be in HTML, Text or AOL formats. The format is opted by user in the Campaign Request Form (CRF).
Ingredient3:
Campaign Calendar: It is a calendar wherein you have the current and the upcoming list of campaigns.
Ingredient4:
Campaign Request Form (CRF): The CRF contains the campaign name, campaign subject line, the campaign number, the client name, his email ID, the opted format, the TAT of the campaign(or the Deployment date. of the final campaign), the test list & the final list it has to be sent & any specific conditions mentioned by the client.
Ingredient5:
Friendly From Address: It is the Friendly Form of from Address (email address) used to send an email, displayed when recipient receives email (eg.Begonia). It is the name displayed before the actual email address while sending an email.
Ingredient6:
Friendly Reply to Address: It is the Friendly Form of from Address (email address) used to receive an email, displayed when recipient replies email (eg.seoindiaonline). It is the name displayed before the actual email address while replying an email.
Note: It is possible that the Friendly from Address and Friendly Reply to Address can be the same.
Ingredient7:
Formal From Address: It is the email address, from where the actual email is originated (e.g. info@begoniainfosys.com).
Ingredient8:
Formal Reply to Address: It is the email address, where the recipients send an email in reply (e.g. info@ebizinternetmarketing.com).
Ingredient9:
Subject Line: It is the Subject of an email displayed in email box, which normally indicates the content of email.
Ingredient10:
Turn Around Time (TAT): The TAT or the deployment date when the campaign has to be sent or deployed to the final email list.
Now, your delicious campaign curry is ready with all the ingredients to be served to the customer. But, it needs to be tested for deliverability.
Deliverability: It is the probability of emails delivered in INBOX of email recipients. This includes the Browser test and the domain test before deploying the campaign.
Now the email campaign is ready for deployment (to be served) to the customer (i.e.) Make the reports that need to be prepared for the client.
The report contains the Scheduled count of emails deployed, the Delivered count of emails(actually delivered), their percentage, the total number of clicks & opens, the Unique Clicks, the Unique Opens, their percentage, The Deliverability percentage, the track opens and track clicks, what is the number of Global Unsubs or Department unsubs, the number of Opt-ins and Opt-Out.
So, take care not to miss out on the key ingredients for preparing a delicious campaign curry.
To enjoy a delicious campaign curry, you need to put ingredients such that the final curry tastes good. You need to take utmost care, not to miss out on any of the ingredients, lest the curry will not taste good
To start with, let me first tell you about email marketing.
email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of
Communicating commercial or promotional messages to an audience. It is a collection of related ads or offers. email marketing is the practice of sending sales letters or customer newsletters by email. email communications are often more effective than printed direct mail, because a reader can click on a link and go straight to the website the sender wants you to go.
In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. This method of direct marketing is less costly as compared to other media investments like Newspaper ads, TV Ads. email Marketing is more than just sending bulk emails, newsletters, or auto responders, and then keeping your fingers crossed. Rather, effective email marketing campaigns involve a targeted developmental process and intelligent email list management – smart marketing that works for you.
email Marketing campaigns are nothing but, promoting yourself and your products in the market through emails to your existing or potential clients to gain recognition of your product.
Let us now know about the ingredients for preparing an email campaign.
Ingredient1:
Campaign: What is a campaign? A campaign contains a collection of one or more ad groups, which have the same budget, schedule, and geo-targeting criteria. Campaigns are typically created to achieve a specific marketing goal. To send email content to a group of email addresses is called an email campaign. An email campaign typically consists of email Content, email Addresses, Subject Line, Test emails, From and Reply To address etc.(e.g. a new product launch campaign, or a campaign that targets customers in a specific geographic location).
An email campaign can be a normal campaign, a split campaign or even a recurring campaign.
Split Campaign: A campaign can be split based on specific criteria like list, content, subject line and other factors.
Recurring Campaign: A campaign which is sent again and again at specific interval set to email address. This could be based on certain criteria’s if required.
Ingredient2:
Opted Format: What types of formats does a email campaign go to the client? The Opted format could be in HTML, Text or AOL formats. The format is opted by user in the Campaign Request Form (CRF).
Ingredient3:
Campaign Calendar: It is a calendar wherein you have the current and the upcoming list of campaigns.
Ingredient4:
Campaign Request Form (CRF): The CRF contains the campaign name, campaign subject line, the campaign number, the client name, his email ID, the opted format, the TAT of the campaign(or the Deployment date. of the final campaign), the test list & the final list it has to be sent & any specific conditions mentioned by the client.
Ingredient5:
Friendly From Address: It is the Friendly Form of from Address (email address) used to send an email, displayed when recipient receives email (eg.Begonia). It is the name displayed before the actual email address while sending an email.
Ingredient6:
Friendly Reply to Address: It is the Friendly Form of from Address (email address) used to receive an email, displayed when recipient replies email (eg.seoindiaonline). It is the name displayed before the actual email address while replying an email.
Note: It is possible that the Friendly from Address and Friendly Reply to Address can be the same.
Ingredient7:
Formal From Address: It is the email address, from where the actual email is originated (e.g. info@begoniainfosys.com).
Ingredient8:
Formal Reply to Address: It is the email address, where the recipients send an email in reply (e.g. info@ebizinternetmarketing.com).
Ingredient9:
Subject Line: It is the Subject of an email displayed in email box, which normally indicates the content of email.
Ingredient10:
Turn Around Time (TAT): The TAT or the deployment date when the campaign has to be sent or deployed to the final email list.
Now, your delicious campaign curry is ready with all the ingredients to be served to the customer. But, it needs to be tested for deliverability
Deliverability: It is the probability of emails delivered in INBOX of email recipients. This includes the Browser test and the domain test before deploying the campaign
Now the email campaign is ready for deployment (to be served) to the customer (i.e.) Make the reports that need to be prepared for the client.
The report contains the Scheduled count of emails deployed, the Delivered count of emails(actually delivered), their percentage, the total number of clicks & opens, the Unique Clicks, the Unique Opens, their percentage, The Deliverability percentage, the track opens and track clicks, what is the number of Global Unsubs or Department unsubs, the number of Opt-ins and Opt-Out.
So, take care not to miss out on the key ingredients for preparing a delicious campaign curry.
Hari Qumar
Marketing your services can be easily done through email. However, you must understand what email marketing is all about and how to make it work for you. The most obvious question many marketers have is how they will possibly find the thousands of email addresses they need to effectively market their product. There are several ways to get lists of email addresses. One is to buy them and the other is to build them. The first option is one you will always want to avoid. Never buy any email addresses to use in your email marketing efforts simply because this is considered spam. People don’t like to receive spam and besides receiving complaints you could also lose your ISP and even be fined. The option of building an email list is the best option for you.
Building a List Building an email list really is easier than you might think. All that is necessary is for you to find ways to collect email addresses with the permission of the owner. There are several ways you might want to go about doing this. First of all, you can have a newsletter subscription box where those interested in your newsletter on a specific topic can register with their email address. You are doing two things here. First, you are receiving the email addresses you so desperately need for your email marketing campaign. The second is that you are collecting email addresses from individuals who have an active interest in your product or service. This is important because emailing people who are already interested in your product will increase your percentage of sales.
Save Money
You have probably looked into various methods of marketing and found that most of them cost a lot of money, especially for a new Internet marketer with a set budget. The process of sending emails to market your product or service is virtually free and all you need to do is invest a little bit of time and effort to create an effective email. Once you have done this you will be ready to hit the send button and wait for orders to begin flowing in.
These are some of the benefits of using email marketing to sell your product or service. Keep in mind while this method is fast and low in cost, it is not a magic bullet that will bring you great riches without any effort on your part. You need to do your part to build your list as well as ensure that you are providing emails that are great at converting sales. With effort and determination you will be able to make as many sales as you desire.
Aaron Goldberg
http://www.articlesbase.com/email-articles/email-marketing-benefits-718506.html
The money is in the list. It is the mantra of each and every Internet Marketer in each and every niche. Whether you market on social network sites, forums, groups, or across the Internet the money is in the list. Without a list you don’t have a ready-made customer group.
Research shows that it takes 4-7 times of contact before people are ready to trust and purchase from you. How can you gain that trust if you can’t follow up with your customer?
You have to develop that list. You must engage people who come to your site and encourage them to leave their name and email address so that you can contact them again and again. The money is in the follow up and you can’t follow up without a list.
Here are 8 simple changes to make to your site that will increase the number and quality of people who willingly leave you their contact information and ask you to follow up!
1.Make the opt-in box to your ezine obvious. You’d be surprised at the number of people who complain about the lack of subscribers to their ezine and yet, when you visit the site the box is no-where to be found. Be sure to make the box obvious both on the page and either in the navigation side bar or in a pop up.
2.Audio and video components are becoming more and more popular. People no longer see this technology as exciting and new but expect it. Audio will help your customer to “see” the opt-in box. Conversion rates for sites with audio report an increase of 30% or more compared to when they didn’t have audio directing the reader to the opt-in. Readers like to be connected to people. Audio makes you more real. Audio gives direction. If your reader doesn’t take the time to read the directions or the benefits to your ezine they will most likely hear it.
3.Headlines are important in everything related to marketing and this is no exception. People skim what they read and the headline to your ezine might be the only thing they read about the ezine. Give them something to remember. Don’t use “Free Newsletter! or worse Sign up for our mailing list.” Boring! Instead list a benefit of your newsletter with some mystery: Finally! Keep the Weight Off For Good! or Insider Secrets to Blast Your Sales Off This Year!
4.A hearty description with powerful adjectives and adverbs will help to convince people that leaving their name and email is not a mistake. You will not spam. You will send content rich high-quality information to them to help them solve their problems. Aim for a description between 15 and 30 words. You can even include the description in your email signature line. Answer the question “What’s” in it for me? Be sure to follow through on the promise!
5.In your opt-in box ask for their First Name and Primary email Address. If you ask for just their name you may get first, last or a combination of both sometimes not in the right order. Since your autoresponder will use this information to personalize your email you want it to be right. is worse than addressing an email to Hi Smith, John! The second part of the puzzle is to ask for their primary email. You may even want to elaborate on that topic since many people have throw-away emails they use in Hotmail or Yahoo. Your ezine may never be seen or worse end up in the junk mail box. Just asking for the primary address often gets you the right information.
6.Be sure to have a “Subscribe Here” or “Send My Subscription” or “Send My Free Information!” button. CHANGE the common “Submit” button. To quote a famous marketer “people do not want to submit; they do want free information!”
7.Do you value your privacy? Have you been hit with too much spam? So have your subscribers. Assure them up front that you do not spam, do not sell their address and will not post it on the billboard along the highway. Don’t make them click a link to read your privacy statement you will lose them right there. If they have to click through to read an entire page about how you will protect their privacy you probably have something to hide or so they’ll think.
8.Do you like receiving more than you asked for? So do your subscribers! Give them a free report or a 5-week ecourse or even a free ebook within the topic of your niche. Give away some of your best stuff. You will catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. Be sure that the information is within your niche though. People who are searching for information on dog health don’t care about how to potty train a ferret.
You now have 8 of the most important and simplest steps you can take to increase the opt-in rate on your website. They won’t do a bit of good unless you implement them. So go now and make a few tweaks and see how well you do!
Jo Han Mok
http://www.articlesbase.com/email-articles/8-simple-steps-to-increase-your-optin-rate-77414.html
The percentage of internet users having a business/personal email account is about 90% Unites States. Internet businesses are very different then traditional businesses, many times you don’t speak or see the customers you only deal with them through the internet. Many types of Internet advertising don’t work as well as they once did.
Your most valuable asset is a list of people who have given you their permission to email them periodically. Using email confirmation is a great way of keeping your list clean, your list will only consist of people who have a real email address and who took the time to the confirm there email. We all put a lot of effort into our internet business. We all have the same hopes and dreams about where our internet business will go. Many people starting out on the Internet believe that their main marketing tool is their website. Many webmaster think that if they have a list of people and they blast a sales letter to all of them they will automatically receive traffic and sales.
If you own an auto responder many have used tricks to get by some spam filters, you can change words around like using f^ree for the word free, since spam filters have been getting smarter they are now blocking most of the tricks. Spam blockers help the email user control the amount of junk they receive to their email boxes, now the email user has the power to decide what they will read and see and what they will not.
When creating your website you should make sure you have away of capturing email addresses, this is important when building your list. Frequently, people opt-in to receive these types of e-mails so you are not spamming people with unwanted mail. By hosting the auto responder on your own website, you have complete control over the program. If your auto responder is remotely hosted, you will not be able to get an auto responder that matched your domain name. A desktop-hosted auto responder is just a program that is run directly on your own workstation or computer. A locally-hosted auto responder is one that is hosted on your own web server. An auto responder that is hosted means that the actual software is kept on someone else’s host and you have the ability to use but not control the software.
The consumer of today is increasingly bombarded by marketing messages from various media channels. When sending your email to people email addresses you will be competing with many other emails, make sure you use a catchy subject to grab the person’s attention. The people, who you are sending your messages to, want your information. email marketing is directing your messages to targeted addresses.
A common practice for businesses is to create email and offline marketing intiatives to keep the business name and advertise products. Sending out a round of promotional emails, through a 3rd party provider, can be a measurably effective way to get the word out about your company, your products and your services.
A great way to promote your website is to provide a newsletter which revolves around your business and give them a reason to visit your site. One great way to keep visitors coming back is to create a newsletter, this way you are always in contact and it keeps your name fresh in their minds.
David Fishman
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/using-email-marketing-as-a-business-strategy-130906.html
emails are replacing regular mails from the post office. Not only because it is cheaper, since you do not need to buy a stamp, it’s also definitely faster. emails can be sent in as fast as five seconds, depending on the server, anywhere in the world.
No doubt emails are being used to distribute news letters, promotional mails, and other stuff. How then would you be able to round up email addresses to send those marketing mails you have? Here is where an opt-in list comes in.
An opt-in list is a directory of email address you can send to those mails to. Though it seems to be easy to find email addresses, if you are talking thousands in numbers, it is going to be hard. Besides, you have to determine the recipient of the email. You wouldn’t want your readers mostly male if you are selling lipsticks, right?
A good opt-in list should include the profile of the email address owner. Here are tips on how to create a comprehensive opt-in list for target market.
Create your website.
Creating a website is made simple nowadays. A lot of programs are milling about assisting regular computer users in making and maintaining websites in a real simple way. Some website creator just needs you to cut and paste, like that of a regular paint program. Several web hosting sites are available too. Some are even free. If you have a site of your own, you can ask visitors to register with you or sign your guest book as they leave.
Set up a promotion or a freebie.
Not all the best things in life are free, as they say. But you can definitely try to give something out for sure. You can see this done all over the web. Free screensavers, free games, free download of programs. And what do they need from you? They just ask for an email address, your name and a little something more about you. Then you can place a check box on the registration form for sending of email. For sure, you can think of something to give out as well.
Write and write some more.
There are some web magazines where in readers can submit their writings for a particular topic. If you had a chance to do so, add a link to your article providing information about what you are trying to promote. Some readers of your article may enjoy your work so much they’d like to contact you, so don’t forget to leave your email address too.
Pose an easy opt-out option.
People who like to join your opt-in list would, along the way may want to opt out of it somehow. People who are wary of joining may not join at all if they see that it would be near impossible to remove their email address from the listing. Show them that it is as easy to opt-out as it is opting in.
Check other’s strategy too.
It would be better if you can find a partner in generating an opt-in list. This way, you can split the expenses and both of you can share the list generated. It will be best to partner with a company that has a business similar to your own line. Both of you can profit more should that be the case.
Use offline ways too.
You can put up a small raffle preferably in a supermarket for a certain item they buy. You can place an email address opt-in part in the raffle entry to add to your list. This way, you’d also know the buying preferences of the participants if you mark the entries systemically.
Creating an opt-in list entails a lot of work and funds. You should outline how much you will spend in creating an opt-in list. People appearing at opt-in lists are sales prospects. They are those interested in a certain product that you may be selling. Obtaining an optimal opt-in list would boost your sales up so these tools are undoubtedly essential.
Ranjitha
http://www.articlesbase.com/email-articles/the-secrets-of-optin-lists-172022.html
Delivering email newsletters and sales messages to opt-in
subscribers and customers is getting more exasperating—and more
expensive—by the day.
Delivery rates for email have gone through the virtual floor.
According to MarketingSherpa, one out of every six people who
asked to be on your mailing list won’t receive your email
newsletter or marketing message because a spam filter blocks it
by mistake.
Why you’re just not getting through to them As
you probably know, the challenge you are facing is primarily
spam filters, electronic and human. And no wonder. Consider
these sobering numbers:
Your emails fail to reach your subscribers for three basic
reasons. Either the email is blocked by the subscriber’s ISP or
enterprise firewall (in which case it never gets delivered), the
email is blocked by the subscriber’s spam filter (in which case
it gets delivered but is never seen) or the email is deleted by
an irritable subscriber with an overzealous delete-key-finger
who does not recognize your “From:” address or mistakes your
email subject line for something unwelcome.
But take heart. There are some tactics you can employ today to
increase your email deliverability scores and reach your
newsletter subscribers and customers with the email messages
they have asked you to wing their way.
1. Hire someone to monitor your mail Your most
expensive option is to retain the services of a third-party
vendor to monitor your email deliverability. For a fee,
ReturnPath.net, PiperSoftware.com, Deliverability.com,
DeliveryMonitor.com and other companies will seed your mailing
list seeded with hundreds of email addresses from a variety of
domains. When your email arrives, these firms record the time,
count the number of emails that escaped the spam filters, and
generate a report that shows deliverability scores for each ISP.
These reports help you notice which ISPs are blocking your
messages or only allowing a few to get through before blocking
the rest. You can take the steps needed to improve
deliverability.
2. Test your email messages for spam before
sending The above companies and a host of smaller
software firms let you run your email message by a spam filter
before sending. They search for “free,” “buy now” and other
words that trigger spam filters. That way, you can see if your
message is likely to be flagged as spam somewhere enroute, and
tweak where needed to improve your score before hitting Send.
Try the free service at www.ezinecheck.com.
3. Make sure your ISP is not on a blacklist
Spammers may have abused the servers of the autoresponder or
listserver service that you use. As a result, the major ISPs may
have blacklisted or blocked emails from these servers. To
discover if you are blacklisted, find the IP address of the
email server and do a spam database lookup at www. DNSstuff.com
or www.OpenRBL.org.
4. Slow down your email send rate Some ISPs set
a threshold for how many emails you can send during one session.
If you exceed this threshold, their software flags you as a
spammer and blocks the remainder of your messages. One way
around this wall is to send your messages in small bursts, say
200 at a time, with a pause of a few minutes between bursts. The
other solution is to host your list on a reputable listserver.
The more popular ones include Constant Contact, AWeber, Topica,
and GotMarketing Campaigner.
5. Send your email when it’s most likely to get
read If you send your message to businesses on a Friday
afternoon, chances are that your recipients won’t check their
email until Monday morning. Your message will be buried way down
the list with a ton of spam ahead of it (assuming the
recipient’s inbox is sorted by date). The most recent messages
will get the attention, and your message will likely get
overlooked or deleted in the rush to start work. The open rate
for email is strongest within the first two days of delivery.
Then it drops off a cliff.
6. Mail on the best days Online marketers have
discovered over the years that B to B emails are read most often
when they arrive on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, around
noon. Mondays are too busy. And Fridays are too close to the
golf course.
7. Use the right email service Choose a
reputable service provider who is respected by the major ISPs.
They will work on your behalf to keep you off blacklists and
deliver your messages on time.
8. Help subscribers change addresses In every
email message, tell your subscribers where they need to go to
change their address or modify their subscription. You’ll reduce
the number of bouncebacks you receive each mailing.
9. Use creative copy tactics to circumvent spam
filters Spam filters block your e-newsletters and
marketing messages in a number of ways, and one of them is
looking for words that are found in most spam. These include
perfectly legitimate words and phrases, such as “free,”
“opportunity,” “multi-level marketing [OK, that one is
debatable],” “compare rates” and “free installation.” Most of
these words you can get around by employing a thesaurus. Instead
of saying “free,” say “complimentary,” or “no charge.” You can
also disguise the word in some way (free becomes free~, or
fr*ee), although you must tell your subscribers what you are
doing beforehand.
10. Get your subscribers to whitelist you When
your subscribers opt-in to your list, immediately tell them to
add your sending email address to their whitelist or “allowed
senders” list so your messages are never blocked by the
subscriber’s spam filters.
11. Use a distinctive, predictable subject line
Include a phrase in every subject line that shows at a glance
who you are and what your message is about. Subscribers get used
to recognizing each message from you. For example, one popular
e-newsletter includes the phrase “DM News-iMarketing News Daily”
in every email subject line.
12. Welcome new subscribers immediately As soon
as someone signs up for your e-newsletter or opts-in to your
list, send them a welcome email. Immediately establish a
connection between their opt-in action and your email that
confirms their membership.
13. Make your email welcome message look like your
sign-up form Help new subscribers to recognize you in
their inboxes by branding your online sign-up page and your
welcome email with the same colors, images and typography.
14. Send from the same domain that signs them
up The domain in your welcome message and subsequent
messages should match the URL of the webpage that subscribers
used to opt-in to your list, otherwise they may not recognize
you as the sender and delete your message by mistake.
15. Use the same From: address Keep your From:
address constant. This helps subscribers who have added your
email address to their whitelist or “allowed senders” list.
Alan Sharpe
http://www.articlesbase.com/direct-mail-articles/improve-email-deliverability-15-tips-for-successful-email-marketing-850.html
Lead Generation Atlanta GA. Get your fresh