By Bernard J. Williams
You have many possibilities to start a home business online, and email marketing is no doubt a good alternative. With the speed and ease of online communication, e-mail marketing has become a golden opportunity for businesses large and small. If you are serious about your home business, this isn't a trend you can afford to miss out on.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is simply marketing through the use of email. The long version of this definition is that email marketing is the system involved in sending out links to sales letters, websites or newsletters to customers via email. Email marketing generally involves an entire campaign and requires sign up to avoid spam. A double sign up confirmation (sign up on the page, then confirm in an auto responder email) is the best method. Even then, you still need to include a statement at the top of the email reminding the recipient that they signed up for your email. You should also include an unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email.
1-Build a List
This is important because the best email marketing campaign in the world won't do anyone any good if you don't have anyone to send it to. Create a squeeze page that will grab your visitors' interest, pique their curiosity and make them click. Write very persuasive copy to draw in your visitors, offer up a free report, email course or ebook (related to the topic), and build your list. I‘ve been playing this way and I must tell you, the response has been positive indeed, people love freebies! Don't be afraid to use bullet points to get right to the point, and don't forget to put a box and tell them exactly what to do: "enter your name and email address below to get your free 6 day email course", (or free report or ebook...).
2-Write Your Campaign
Once you have their addresses, the next step in email marketing is to write your campaign. You want our email to be conversational, as if you are sitting down and having coffee with the person while you tell them about your offer. Make it friendly and easy, but be persuasive and convince them that your site (or affiliate product) is the very best.
3-Give 'em a Gift
Offer Something along with the First PurchaseOffering a free gift that is related to the product or service you are promoting can really boost your conversion rates! So why don't you offer something along with their first purchase, or something after their third purchase? Both have their advantages. With the former, you'll expose the client to more of your product, and with the later, you are rewarding their repeat business.
4-Don't Rush In
After the first purchase wait a few days or a week or so to send another email telling your customers about another promotion. A few days later send out another email with a special offer or offering them a special rate on a product.
5-Remind Them Special Dates
You can also remind your customers special dates: a week before Valentine's Day, you can ask whether or not your customers remembered to get something for that special someone, and offer them a link to visit a special offer in your site.
Conclusion
When you build a great list and construct your email marketing campaign in such a way that you market your product to a list of 400, 600 or 1,000 prospects, you can wait and watch the orders rolling in! Timing is critical in email marketing, so make sure that you space your emails in such a way that you do not flood your customer's inbox, but don't let them forget you either.
Wednesday, May 2
3 Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid
by Sean Kenaston
Here are three common mistakes to avoid during your email marketing campaign.
Do not try to sell the product in your email
Your number one goal for the email should be to pre-sell (or soft-sell) the product or service you're promoting, even if it's your own. Introduce the product and attempt to generate some curiosity and excitement. Then once you have the reader's interest, send them to the sales page -- the merchant's or your own - for the actual sales pitch.
Focus on creating a positive attitude towards the product, which should result in many more people visiting the sales page. Readers do not want a long sales letter in their email; and if they do in fact click your link, they may be increasingly annoyed to read yet another sales letter with the same information they just saw in the email.
Poorly formatted emails are a major turn-off
Although this may appear to be obvious, it's surprising how often I receive a promotional email that is difficult to read - full of spelling mistakes and poor grammar; if I have trouble getting through the first few sentences, the email will quickly find its way into my Deleted folder.
It doesn't take much effort to use a spell-checker and proof read the email copy before sending it out. If the sender can't take the time to do this, why should I value his or her opinion on a particular product?
Do not use too much hype in your email
Although you may be excited about the product or service and you want to get your readers to feel the same way, you should avoid using too much hype in your email copy, as this will lower your clickthrough rate.
It's ok to display sincere enthusiasm, you don't want your emails to be boring, but take care not to over do it. The email shouldn't sound artificial just because you want your wording to sound more energize.
If you truly believe in the product you're promoting and think it will benefit your readers, you shouldn't have a problem convincing them of this without including useless hype.
About the Author: Sean Kenaston More Details about Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid here. Sean Kenaston is the senior editor of No-Nonsense-Marketing.com; a website that offers the information you need on Internet marketing without all the hype and nonsense.
Here are three common mistakes to avoid during your email marketing campaign.
Do not try to sell the product in your email
Your number one goal for the email should be to pre-sell (or soft-sell) the product or service you're promoting, even if it's your own. Introduce the product and attempt to generate some curiosity and excitement. Then once you have the reader's interest, send them to the sales page -- the merchant's or your own - for the actual sales pitch.
Focus on creating a positive attitude towards the product, which should result in many more people visiting the sales page. Readers do not want a long sales letter in their email; and if they do in fact click your link, they may be increasingly annoyed to read yet another sales letter with the same information they just saw in the email.
Poorly formatted emails are a major turn-off
Although this may appear to be obvious, it's surprising how often I receive a promotional email that is difficult to read - full of spelling mistakes and poor grammar; if I have trouble getting through the first few sentences, the email will quickly find its way into my Deleted folder.
It doesn't take much effort to use a spell-checker and proof read the email copy before sending it out. If the sender can't take the time to do this, why should I value his or her opinion on a particular product?
Do not use too much hype in your email
Although you may be excited about the product or service and you want to get your readers to feel the same way, you should avoid using too much hype in your email copy, as this will lower your clickthrough rate.
It's ok to display sincere enthusiasm, you don't want your emails to be boring, but take care not to over do it. The email shouldn't sound artificial just because you want your wording to sound more energize.
If you truly believe in the product you're promoting and think it will benefit your readers, you shouldn't have a problem convincing them of this without including useless hype.
About the Author: Sean Kenaston More Details about Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid here. Sean Kenaston is the senior editor of No-Nonsense-Marketing.com; a website that offers the information you need on Internet marketing without all the hype and nonsense.
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