Thursday, April 16, 2009

6 Reasons Why Email Marketing Can Help Your Business

Email marketing (EM)is defined as the practice of sending sales letters or customer newsletters by email. While some individuals think it can be annoying, many businesses find it a cost effective marketing tool. EM are often more effective than printed direct mail, because a reader can click on a link and go straight to the sender's web site.
Here are a few reasons why EM may be able to help your business.

- First of all email marketing offers you the advantage of reaching thousands of people with the click of one button. EM can be done all over the world anywhere that a person has internet connection. If your business is done in a local market only you can still reach thousands of people in your own back yard for the fraction of what a direct mail campaign would be.

- Email marketing is relatively inexpensive to do. If you build your own mailing list by capturing names and email addresses into an autoresponder your only cost is the cost of the autoresponder itself. This can cost you less that $20 a month to do. This can result in a savings of thousands of dollars a year to get your marketing message in front of people who want to hear it.

- One of the hardest things to do on the internet is build a relationship with people. EM helps you solve this problem by allowing you to keep in touch on a regular basis. Over a period of time the people you are emailing come to recognize and trust you. This can lead to sales of your products when the reader is ready. If they are not ready maybe they will be the next time.

- When you email to your mailing list you are able to personalize each message with your recipients first name and last name. This gives you the advantage of making your messages more personal than sending an email to dear friend.

- By not over mailing your list you can create anticipation for your next message or newsletter if you provide quality content. If you abuse your list your EM campaigns will lose their effectiveness.

- Email marketing works. This is the biggest reason to do it. Not bulk EM where no one knows you, but EM to a targetted list of people who have requested to recieve information from you. This is the effective way to do email marketing.

Any business can benefit from doing email marketing of some kind. Hopefully you will include it in your marketing strategies as well.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleStreet.com/

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Legal aspects and implications of e-mail marketing and related spam laws

Ecommerce can be best described as a marketplace on the internet, which comprises distributing, marketing, buying, selling, and servicing of products or services through electronic systems such as internet or other computer networks. It can be also viewed as an electronic business application targeted at commercial transactions involving electronic funds transfer, e-marketing, supply chain management, online marketing, online transaction processing, automated inventory management, electronic data interchange, and automated data collection systems.

Ecommerce is indeed the most efficient and convenient mode of transactions nowadays, but this business needs strict compliance with laws and related legalities, particularly dealing with marketing, because you are dealing with others' money.

If you in the ecommerce business, then strictly avoid fraudulent promotions, otherwise you could be charged for spamming under the new CAN-SPAM Act, which was signed by President George W. Bush on December 16; the Act is a federal initiative designed to regulate the most harmful and annoying practices of spammers. Violation of the Act can result in the following consequences:
- Revenue losses and damage of reputation
- Major e-mail service providers such as AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo! filtering your messages to block them
- ISP may shut down your e-mail account
- Web host may shut down your web site
- Under the new federal CAN-SPAM Act, you can be fined (up to $2 million) or sentenced to jail (up to five years)

Therefore honestly promote a legitimate business to sell real and valuable products or services.

Operate a legitimate business
Do not use falsifying headers to force your way into peoples' inboxes. Avoid using deceptive subject lines, hijacking other peoples' e-mail accounts or computers to send spam, creating e-mail or IP addresses specifically to send spam, and sending unsolicited e-mail with sexual content and emails to people who have requested to be removed from your list. These are malicious ways of forcing messages into the inboxes of people who don't want them, which are not only annoying but are illegal and unprofitable.

Plan responsible e-mail promotions
Always obtain permission from the target users before sending them emails. A user must never get a mail that he is not expecting. Avoid buying or renting email lists as they do not promise validity and at times you end up paying for the addresses that are invalid. If you buy email lists, find out how those addresses were collected. If people in your purchased list have not agreed to receive email related to promotion or advertisements, you might land into the troubled waters.

Be very careful while choosing a subject line; it should be self-explanatory about the content within the email. Mention the real return address and place a functional 'unsubscribe' link in all the emails. If you have an exhaustive list of emails you will have to seek professional help to install an ASP or any other suitable program to manage 'opt-ins' and 'unsubscribe' requests. You must send commercial or promotional emails/ newsletters through you're your company's official email address.

Finally, stay educated about e-mail marketing and spam laws. Laws and their definitions are changing; therefore obtain regular updates on the related laws.

Author : William
http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Legal-aspects-and-implications-of-e-mail-marketing-and-related-spam-laws/924489

Amazingly simple, but shockingly powerful ways to guarantee your email are being read

Referring to email marketing, it is unlikely to be successful online without some form of marketing via email. You need to know how to make use of your customer list and boost up your business.

You can easily send a mailing in the evening and earn thousand of dollars by the time you wake up in another day through the use of the email marketing.

First, you must develop an attention-grabbing subject line. While it's one thing to send an email out to your 20,000 prospects; it's another thing to get any of them to read it. It will depend how well you can craft the subject line of your email promotion message.

So, how we could do it? You need to be personal in your email. There is something both attention-grabbing and exciting about seeing your name in the subject line of an email. Normally, we just love to see our own names. The truth is, when we see our name in the subject line, we immediately are drawn to it... (e.g. Gilbert, this is the free e-book that I would like you to have, etc). This could easily down using almost every autoresponder system.
By the way, do not make odd claims like Earn $50,000 overnight. If it isn't believable, then reader will simply delete your email without ever reading it.

Personalization will typically means that it is not really SPAM. While some spammers do have access to databases with our names, for the most part their lists are built by harvesting emails.

You should also only send your emails to your target your audience. (e.g. If your audience are interested in reprint rights, you could include title as New reprint rights released today, Sell this new product and keep every penny and etc)

The prospects may receive 500 emails a day, but if they are interested in reprint rights (and they would be, or they wouldn't be on that list) then the particular subject line is going to stand out when you download your emails.
By combining personalization and targeted audience, then you have a very compelling subject line (e.g. Gilbert, reprint rights are available!)

Another key thing to attract the reader to take a look at your message is to use power words. It will trigger our emotions and are strong motivators for reader to read furher.

So what do I mean by Power word?

A power word is a word that appeals to the senses (e.g. Unlimited, guaranteed, step by step, free, new, amazing, exclusive, deadline, first 10, etc). It's been shown in research that we do not buy based on logic, but rather on emotion. Email marketing works on that same principle. It will be powerful if you could combine any of the Power words with a deadline.

The next thing is to use promising which is used to present a desirable result. Your subject line must make some kind of promises. In a split second when the reader views the email subject, it must clearly indicate to them that there is something that awaits them if they read your email. It must be something that the reader does not want to miss out on and it must appeal to the emotions as those they were waiting for the climax of a great movie.
Your email subject line should also create expectation. Reader don't buy products because they want your product... they buy products because they want the result of your product.

Look at the following examples:
1) Setup your own internet business today...
2) Setup your own internet business in a day

Both have a power word and fairly interesting. But which one creates expectation? The second one makes a promise. This is one of the biggest keys in email marketing, and yet is often overlooked.
You will always have better results with a subject line that creates expectation.

If you can apply these three keys, Personal, Powerful and Promising to any form of email marketing you use (e.g. autoresponders, newsletters, joint venture offers), you will be successful.

Author : Sia
http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Amazingly-simple-but-shockingly-powerful-ways-to-guarantee-your-email-are-being-read/915184

Securing A List Is The Most Essential Of Any Internet Marketing!

If this happens to be your first taste of Internet marketing, then you should be equipped to understand the most vital part of any internet marketing commerce.

There is no chance of success in the absence of a list.

Securing a list is the most essential job of any internet marketing person. When there is no list, you are no less important than just any other person out there making an effort to generate a sale of something. People believe that you will only cheat them, making it tough to sell any product at all. People do not know who you are, and if they cannot build trust on you, your money making schemes may well go to waste. For more information login to www.build-huge-list.com. You should not avoid list drawing, and it should be your topmost priority when you even begin your first step into the internet marketing world. If you still have not come up with a list, then you need to accomplish the task now.

Begin with purchasing a domain. The domain should have a name that people can remember easily and that describes your specialty. For instance, if dog toys are your products, then your domain better carry the name 'dog' or even 'dog toys' if possible.

After this, you require an account for web hosting, but do not make compromises to secure the least costly account possible. If you are thoughtful about your internet marketing business, it should enjoy growth and you would need to add more than one domain to your existing account. Hence get an account that has mySQL database functionality. This will come in handy when you want to begin a blog or place an affiliate program. Plan according to your future potential, when you are selecting your hosting account. Also do not undermine reliability. You need that website up and working no less than 99.9% of the time.

The next step is to install an auto-responder service. Deliverability is the chief concern here. Will your email reach its destination? Nowadays, spam filters shed extra emails, so without an auto-responder your attempts at emails marketing will be not competent.

When all this is out of the way, your next task is to create your first squeeze page. But don't get upset. Its is all about adding a few bullet points describing the benefits of your offer, and opt-in form which you get from your auto-responder facility. When this step is finished, you upload the squeeze page and you are set to craft your list. For more details visit to www.build-own-list.com. The success of any internet marketing depends on the responsiveness and size of your list. You need to collect a selection of people who know you and trust you, and who have always been happy to endorse your services and products. When you listen to the message in the steps here, you will have a long list within a very brief time. Just concentrate on how to increase the volume of traffic to your page. In no time you will have not only a growing list but a growing internet business as well.

Author : Harpreettt
http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Securing-A-List-Is-The-Most-Essential-Of-Any-Internet-Marketing-/1180803

Internet Marketing Requires Constant Updating of Skills and Knowledge

Internet marketing is essential to the success of web sites. You can have a professional looking website but what good can it do if internet users are not able to find it when they need your products and services? That is where an internet marketing campaign comes into play.

Your website has to magically appear before buyers when they need products and service.

Internet marketing is similar to designing websites- it does not require much experience to do a good job, just good knowledge and a keen eye for details. It is fundamentally important for a good internet marketer to constantly update himself weekly, if not monthly, of online markets. There are many ways to market your website.

Find A Competent and Reliable Internet Marketer

Justify the costs of hiring an Internet Marketer - First of all, getting an internet marketer is not essential for every website. If your website is a business website or a website which you want to generate revenue from, it is good to seek a competent internet marketer to work on your website. For more details visit to www.ultimate-internet-marketing-tricks.com. The costs spent on your website for internet marketing has to be justified and often, they are justified by having more revenue and traffic to your web site.

Potential customers have to know that there are no guarantees in SEO. Since everything is fundamentally based on search engines, SEO work is at the mercy of major search engines like Google. Many SEO companies tried to secure customers with guarantees that they cannot fulfill, resulting in lawsuits or customers getting burned for hiring their SEO services.

What an Internet Marketer can offer

In short, an Internet Marketer oversees that your website
is built properly for visibility and promoted with the best dollar spent on your internet marketing campaign. It is no good having a website and not appearing in internet searches. Your website has to magically appear before buyers when they need products and services. Internet Marketers deploy search engine optimization techniques to make your website visible and targeted to internet users.

Internet marketing requires research and analysis effort for individual website, followed by optimization of website. For more details go to www.inside-the-minds-of-winner.com. Hundreds of hours may be spent on each website, depending on the size of your targeted market. You are essentially paying for the amount of effort involved, effectiveness of your internet marketer and daily sales tracking of your website.

How to choose Internet Marketer- Internet marketing requires constant updating of skills and knowledge. One crude way to test if your internet marketer is a genuine or fake- Ask your internet marketer about recent events that happened in his field. If he cannot answer that, he must have a genuinely good reason to back himself as a good internet marketer! At times, it is easy to fall prey into the hands of bad internet marketing companies as happened in US and other parts of the world.

It is also important for you to feel comfortable with the amount of money you are spending on getting your site popular before committing yourself to an internet marketing campaign. Internet marketing campaigns typically last a few months and requires monthly tune-ups to your website. Include the costs of an internet marketing campaign when doing your company's advertising budget.

Author : Veer
http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Internet-Marketing-Requires-Constant-Updating-of-Skills-and-Knowledge/1076114