Serasi

Email marketing can be very successful for a lot of people. I personally make a great deal of my online earnings from email marketing. The one reason is this.

You are able to build relationships with people and make long lasting friends. When you can do that you can make more sales and you make more money.

First things first, you need to get your list to open your emails. The best way to do that is by offering free good content. If you spam your list with offer after offer then they are not going to trust you.

This is not rocket science, I know that when you start building a list you feel as if you need to sell things to them to make money but people catch on when that’s all your trying to do. If you build a relationship with them and you work with them and you show them things that other people would charge for then now you are making progress. This is where it all starts. making relationships

I will tell you from all the years I have been online I have been around long enough to know how things work.

Here is a practice that you can do starting today with your list.

Make a video, make it about 5-7 minutes long and make it full of useful content. Make it free as well.

Once that goes out wait 3 days and create another one, make this video 7-10 minutes and then send that out for free as well.

Once that is done write a unique report and send that out. Once that is done check your open rate and see if it has gone up, 9 times out of 10 I am sure it has.

After this you are reading to start selling.

As a top level email and autoresponder copywriter, one of the biggest questions I receive is “How long should my follow up emails be?

It’s like this: As well-known online copywriter Michel Fortin once said to me, “”Your emails should be as long as they need to be and not one word longer.”

But what does this mean? Over the years as an autoresponder copywriter I’ve found a 600-700 word length works best for me and my clients. With 600-700 words, you can get a good story in there, have a nice seamless transition, pull in some powerful benefits, and properly position your product as the solution to the wants, needs, desires or problems of your prospect.

If you’re concerned that longer emails might get caught in spam traps, I’ve researched that topic in depth and can find no conclusive evidence that longer emails are more vulnerable to spam filters. I routinely receive emails from big-time marketers that are more than 1000 words and they end up in my inbox, not in my spam folder.

As you write emails consistently you’ll find a length that works for you best. Maybe it will be 300-400 words. Maybe it will be 800 or 1000. But your opt-out and click thru rates will also let you know if your emails are too long or not. If you’re consistent in sending out email regularly you’ll also want to mix it up from time to time, sending shorter or longer emails rather than using the same length all the time.

Another option to consider is to send email that has only a few lines of copy that entices them to click on a link to your blog, which contains the complete text. The advantage to this is that the email is much shorter and you get the SEO benefits from the blog post. The disadvantage is that you add an extra step to the process. The reader has to click on a link just to see what you have to say. Then, after they arrive on the blog, they might get distracted by the ads and/or information in the sidebar. So, in my opinion, full text emails work best.

Here’s a hot top for you: put an audio link at the top of your email that leads to audio where they can listen to your email instead of read it. This will appeal to those in your audience who are auditory types and prefer to consume their information by listening to it. Also, it gives you a chance to build more of a rapport with your readers, especially if you use a friendly tone of voice and don’t read the email word for word in the audio. You can stick loosely to the text but be sure that you talk to them naturally, like you were having a conversation with them.

Sounds like a silly question, but it’s actually very critical to your internet marketing efforts.

Because let’s face it–you get a ton of emails every day. And some are only a few words wide while others are so wide you have to scroll across to read them. Is there a width that works best for marketing purposes?

Yes! And here’s why…

If the line width is too short, the eye has to jump too often. This fatigues the eye, because it’s not used to reading in this manner. So the reader clicks away because it’s too tiring to read the email.

If the email width is too long, however, the eyes get tired as well because they have to read across the entire width of the email-which in some cases goes clear off the space and you have follow with the scroll bar, then bring it all the way to the beginning just like an old carriage style typewriter.

So either way you’re going to lose your readers-not to mention the sale.

I suggest a line width of 55-60 characters. In all my years of writing autoresponder and email copy, this has proven to be the most effective width and the easiest to read.

Most text editors let you preset the width. If your text editor doesn’t do this, here’s a sneaky (and easy) way to do it:

–Bring up your window in your text editor.
–Go to the very top left hand corner and type in “0123456789.” That’s 10 characters.
–Copy that line and paste it back to back with the line you just typed. Now you have 20 characters. Then do it again, and you have 30 characters. Do it again, and you have 40 characters. Do it one more time, and you have 50 characters.
–Now go ahead and type your email. When you reach the end of the 50 character line, you’ll know it’s time to return.

Here’s one more hot top on writing your emails: don’t use fancy fonts. Too often I receive emails with colorful images and backgrounds with lots of emoticons and other distractions.

As a marketer you need to send email that’s fast and easy to consume. Stick with sans serif fonts, which has been proven to be easier to read online, or with the tried and true Times New Roman.

Avoid cartoon-like fonts like Comic Sans. Save the fluff for your personal emails to friends. Bells and whistles only distract from the message. Don’t go there. Stay with black text on a white background.

It’s easy to consume, and that’s what we want.

I’m sure you’ve seen it before - an email newsletter or other email marketing piece that is sent from “Do-Not-Reply@DomainName.com” Well, just because it might be common practice, that doesn’t make it right.

Generally, when marketers use the “Do-Not-Reply@DomainName.com” email address in their from field, they are specifying an email address that does not exist. The problem with sending email from a non-existent address is that, eventually, it will trigger spam filters.

You see, when your readers have a question or a comment, they are going to reply to your email message, no matter what your sending address says. And those messages are going to bounce.

When you send out your email messages, there’s a high probability that at least one of the addresses on your list is going to bounce. Either the mailbox is full, the ISP might be experiencing temporary delays, the email box might have been abandoned… whatever the case, you are going to get a few bounces.

And when those bounces occur, the receiving ISP will attempt to notify you of the problem by sending YOU an email with the error log. The problem is, the email message they send to you is going to bounce, since the email address does not exist. Remember, the ISP will attempt to reach you at “Do-Not-Reply@DomainName.com” since, according to your from field, that’s the address you sent your mail from.

Now, when the ISPs notice that the error logs are bouncing, and they realize you are using a non-existent email address, they will naturally assume you’re a spammer - since that’s a common tactic that spammers use.

But here’s where the real problem comes in. The ISPs approve or disapprove of incoming email (that is, they either deliver the mail or send it to the spam folder) based on IP address and not email address. So, when you later realize that sending mail from “Do-Not-Reply@DomainName.com” is a silly idea and you decide to switch to “Your-Real-Name@DomainName.com” there’s a chance that your mail server IP address has already been blacklisted.

OK, that’s the bad news as far as deliverability goes. But what about on the branding and customer service side?

What is sending email from “Do-Not-Reply@DomainName.com” saying to your email readers? That you can’t be bothered with them? That you’re just “too busy” to hear from your customers? That if they click through a link or place an order or have a customer service question there is no way to get in touch with you?

Personally, when I see a from address of “Do-Not-Reply” I consider it an insult and it throws up a huge mental barrier about doing business with that company. After all, I prefer not to do business with anyone who is totally inaccessible.

Video holds a strong attraction for consumers and if properly adopted in email marketing has the potential to make your business one of the most talked-about and profitable on the web, simply through embracing people’s desires to share and be entertained. For proof that consumers want to watch entertaining marketing videos, you need only take a look at the array of advertisements, viral videos, how-to guides and other video shorts hosted on sites such as YouTube.

The question is: how to spread the word? Starting with your own consumers in an email marketing campaign is the most logical step because:

Two common ways of including video in email are to either embed the video within the body of the message using code or to attach it as a separate file that recipients can download and open at their convenience.

So why aren’t more companies using video and email marketing?

The thought of an email marketing campaign with video that displays and plays the moment it’s opened is a tantalising one. That’s because, to be frank, copy and images alone don’t jump off the screen in the same way video with its visual, audio and textual elements combined does. Some companies have even reported increases in ‘click-through’ rates (leading to more sales conversions) of up to 50% after adopting an ‘email and video’ approach.

However, the reality is most emails with video embedded or sent as file attachments won’t display in email clients and desktop applications. This is usually for one of several reasons:

…and these are just the technical hurdles your email faces; consider for a moment how your audience might react.

Some will be pleased with the video, others will hate it, either because they can’t open the email for the technical reasons stated above or because it upsets the consistency of your previous email marketing campaigns (especially if you don’t indicate the presence of a video in the subject line or in prior emails). If these upsets occur too frequently, subscribers will get fed-up and either unsubscribe or stop opening your messages.

Does this mean video in email marketing is off-limits?

Not entirely: the embedded and attached video tactics mentioned above are just two out of a possible three. What we haven’t mentioned is linking to videos hosted on your site - a safer option that allows your subscribers to view the video at another location without unexpectedly crashing their computers.

By sending an email with a link to the video, they can decide whether to follow the link or not, depending on if they think it is relevant to them and if their connection speed can support it (you could host multiple versions of the video in different sizes to make it as inclusive as possible). This approach keeps the email’s file size down, has greater success with spam filters, provides you with a useful metric i.e. how many people have watched the video - and takes subscribers needs and expectations into consideration.

Tip: To improve the search rankings and number of site impressions you receive, it’s preferable to host videos on your own site instead of external locations like YouTube. That way any links and traffic the video inspires will be directed to your domain, boosting your rankings.

Best practice tips to get people visiting your video

Here are several easy-to-follow tips that will help promote interest in your email marketing campaign and accompanying video:

It’s possible that some of your contacts’ email clients might have images automatically disabled, in which case the image stills will not display. That’s why it’s important for you to have the text link beneath the image as it provides subscribers with an alternative route to the landing page. As an additional tip:

Encouraging recipients to share your video

Making a video is easy - making a video subscribers want to share because it’s entertaining, informative and relevant is more difficult. Decide on the creative elements that will bring the best result for your video and use these final, additional tips on how to get people sharing it:

Follow these simple best-practices and you will see an increase in the number of people opting into your email marketing campaigns: that’s more qualified leads for you to send campaigns to and turn into loyal customers.

Not only will this grow your email marketing list organically, the resulting inbound links and traffic to your site should see it rise higher in the search engine rankings, meaning a sustained increase in the number of sign-ups you see long after the video has been launched. Embrace your subscribers’ desire to be entertained and share with their friends, and create more new sales leads for yourself by combining email marketing with linked video.

Do you want to write subject lines that get attention and ultimately get you sales? I bet you would if you are doing any kind of email marketing. Sadly, the art of writing powerful subject lines is not one that is often discussed about, but it plays probably the biggest role in determining whether your emails get opened and read.

Here is to write them professionally to grab attention:

1. Make It Eye-Grabbing

If you want to capture the attention of your subscribers, you need to stick out like a sore thumb! In a good way, of course. While many marketers are using similar, uninspiring headlines, what you want to do is to create a headline that incites curiosity and taps into their deepest desires and fears.

2. Qualify Your Email

Not everyone who signs up to your list is after the same thing, especially if you are targeting a broad niche market. For example, if your niche market is Internet marketers, many of the people on your list will be at different levels of their business. So one way to target your prospects is by qualifying your email. If you want to target beginners, you can say ‘For New Internet Marketers Only’. Almost all the new marketers on your list will open the email!

3. Don’t Deceive Your Subscribers

Emails that trick subscribers may get attention in the short term, but at the cost of reputation. People don’t like being tricked, and if you make them think they have got an affiliate payment when you are actually promoting a product, you will lose them forever. So don’t deceive your subscribers.

The average person spends more time every day reading his email than he spends doing anything else on the web. As a matter of fact, his email often distracts him from the other tasks he needs to accomplish. With this in mind, it’s safe to say that email marketing is a very powerful tool.

Today I want to share a few best practices you should keep in mind as you develop your email marketing campaign. They’ll help you to get through to your potential clients more effectively.

Make sure your email isn’t spam.
Everyone has some sort of spam protection software included in their email accounts these days. Your job is to learn about spam filters and the things they identify as spam so that you can avoid having your email sent straight to the junk box. For example, using the words “Free” or “Discount” in your subject line might get you flagged.

Personalise your emails.
Address your subscribers as individuals - not as generic groups. A person who feels like he’s being addressed as a single person is more likely to respond to you than someone who feels like he’s a nameless face in a crowd. It’s easy to slip some simple code into your email template so that the names in your address book pull through.

Make it easy to unsubscribe.
As silly as this sounds, making it easy to unsubscribe from an email list is paramount. The easier it is for a person to unsubscribe the less likely they will be to mark your email as spam or file a complaint with a better business bureau. The unsubscribe link should immediately take your subscriber to a page where they can opt out - no questions asked - no additional email confirmations necessary.

Send emails on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Tuesday and Wednesday are notorious for being the best days to send emails if you expect a high response rate. On these days people are already over the last weekend and they’re not yet planning for the next one. They’re open to communication and, in some cases, are looking for something to do.

Be consistent.
Be consistent in both your communication frequency and the look of your newsletter. If you promise to email your clients once per week - do it. No more, no less. People appreciate things that they can grow to expect and are sometimes resistant to change. Don’t change the format of your newsletter or email unless you’re absolutely sure it’s going to be viewed as an upgrade.

In the time it took me to write this post I received 5 emails, 3 of which are email newsletters that I’ve subscribed to. They arrive regularly each week and always offer tons of valuable information. Would I consider your email to be just as valuable?

Good luck setting up your email marketing campaign.

Sean