Make your message irresistible

With the inundation of available products and information on the market today, you will have approximately three seconds — yes, three seconds — to hook a buyer’s interest and keep him or her reading. Fortunately, there are ways to breach this barrier and keep the consumer riveted to your message.

• Passion.
Remember when you were choosing the topic for your product? Personal interest was a key element in that decision-making product. Now that you have a topic you believe in, let that passion show in your autoresponder messages. Mention those aspects of your product you find particularly fascinating and give them your personal endorsement.

• Write casual.
Make your message read the way a conversation in a restaurant would sound. Big words might impress some people, but most of them just want to know what you have to say and they aren’t going to rush to the dictionary in the middle of reading your message to find out what you’re talking about. Use short sentences and keep it straightforward and direct. Don’t be afraid to use contractions instead of the more proper two word phrases. Do, however, make sure your spelling and grammar is correct. You want to seem friendly, not sloppy.

• Be personal.
You are writing a message that will be read by thousands of people, one at a time. Each person who opens your message is an individual, and will be far more at ease if you address them as a person rather than a piece of the collective public. Use the word “you” as often as possible, and limit the use of “I.” You don’t want to tell them why you’re so great. You want them to know how purchasing your product will benefit them, and why they should part with their hard-earned money to hear what you have to say.

• Eliminate extra words.
As previously mentioned, keep your message simple and clear. If you have an “effective web site marketing technique,” don’t say it’s a “wonderfully amazing, mind-blowing web site marketing extravaganza method.” No one wants to try and cut through all the fluff and hype to try and decode your message. It’s also annoying.

• Use decisive language.
Try to use action verbs whenever possible— this means replacing as many instances of “are,” “is,” “was,” and “were” in your message with stronger wording. For example: instead of writing “If your website has been languishing with low sales, this program might be able to help your business grow,” say: “Your web site sales will increase dramatically with this program.” Write your messages with the confidence that your product is worth paying for, and your subscribers will be more comfortable buying.

• Give reasons and incentives.
Don’t be afraid to repeat the benefits of your product throughout your message. Just as repetitive contact is effective in converting prospects to buyers, repetitive reminders of benefits — without bludgeoning people over the head with them — can reinforce everything they stand to gain from a purchase. Also, reveal some of the information in your product within your marketing message without giving everything away, and then state that even more exciting information can be found when you purchase a product.

Driving Traffic into Your Landing Page

Driving traffic into your landing page – it sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, it's not. And no matter how great your landing page is, it wont matter if no one ever reads it. Furthermore, if everyone in the world other than your target audience reads it, it also wont matter. This is why you need to find media through which you can drive targeted visitors to your landing page.

One way in which you can drive traffic to your landing page is through natural search engine optimization. This is the slowest process, but it is also one of the best ways to ensure a continually increasing stream of traffic over time.

Generating natural search engine traffic generally entails getting links to your site. While reciprocal linking was once the best strategy, experts now believe that major search engines are devaluing reciprocal links in favor of one-way links and triangular links (which search engines can't really detect).

Another way in which to get natural search engine traffic is by optimization your website for certain key phrases. You can do this by creating pages that specifically focus on one keyword on your given niche. You can then set the page extension to that keyword and optimize the content at a 1.5% density for that keyword. You will also want to use it in header and title tags.

Now, in addition building natural search engine traffic, you will want to consider using pay per click advertising. You can do this by opening an account with Google Adwords.

As mentioned earlier, successful Google Adwords campaigns do two things: they group keywords into multiple, small, related groups – and they send leads to multiple, tweaked landing pages.

This means you will have to start with some careful keyword research; and you will then have to alter your landing pages to match that research. These are some of the most commonly used tools for driving traffic to a landing page; however, they are not always the most effective.

Now, both of those methods can be effective, but they both usually have rather high barriers to entry and require a lot of work.

Luckily, you do have another option: human connections. And this is where most Internet marketers fail. They don't realize the power of human connections because they are so caught up in the idea of making transactions and collecting massive checks without having to deal with customers and clients.

One quick way to get traffic through human connections is a joint venture. You can enter into a joint venture by compiling a list of possible “partners” -- or people who might be able to assist you in some mutually-beneficial way. This list might include other list owners in your niche, site owners in your niche, and experts.

There's only one important thing you should keep in mind when contacting joint venture partners – and that is to make it as quick, easy, and beneficial for them as possible. If they have no incentive for doing it, they probably wont even reply to you. And if it isn't easy, they'll accept other joint venture offers over yours.

Another way in which you can drive traffic to your landing page is through blog and forum posting; however, it is important that you do not spam, as many businesses do. Instead, actually participate on the forum, provide people with something of value; and, after a while, post your product in your signature – and try to network with people on the forum who work in similar fields.

Your approach to blog posting should be similar. Include a signature file that links back to your landing page, but don't spam. Instead, post useful comments. This is not only more ethical, but it is plainly more effective. Spam gets deleted. Good comments get praised, inducing people to follow your link and check out your products.

Listen to Your List and Reap the Rewards

I know what to sell to them because they tell me what they want. I know when my websites suck or look plain ugly because I ask them. I know what they're interested in buying, the most effective headlines and language to use when typing out ads in relation to my list, who are in effect my target market. So you see, we're promoting not just for profit, but to learn valuable lessons at the same time. Your list provides as much useful data as your advert tracking, no matter how small. This Is your key to developing a successful business that is aimed at your target market, and creating a sales system that works, not just in your eyes, but in the eyes of the people that are most important to you. And that's your customer, the person who at the end of the day is going to make you a whole lot of money if treated right.

So here's the deal. Ask. Don't feel stupid about sending out mails to your list that aren't adverts, or that might seem like random babble to you. To them, not only will they feel closer to you personally, no matter what technique you use, (which in turn will have them reading more often) but it'll give you really important results about you newest product, your website or even an idea that you have for a product that you'd like feedback on before you even start. Use your list in this way.

Promote to learn, not to make a profit, and you'll end up with far more cash at the end of the year than if you just assume, guess or don't bother (Which seems to be many marketers out there). Don't be one of them. Get the knowledge you need to succeed from your customers before they even hand you their money. It works wonders for you, your reputation, your knowledge and your pockets. Ask your list if you're not sure. It's so powerful that it'd be a complete waste if not utilized properly. If you're right, great, go for it. If you're wrong, your list will tell you so, great again. You can fix it and pocket the cash at the same time. I can't think of a fairer deal than that. Keep it in mind. Your list is more than a bunch of names. It's a bunch of opinions, and real important ones at that.

How to Write a Landing Page that Converts

Most people have no (or simply the slightest) idea how to write a landing page that converts. Instead, they slop together elements that they have seen used in other landing pages – but usually do not put them together in the same way the owner of the successful landing page did.

One major problem is copy. And that's fine. Not everyone is going to be an excellent writer – never mind a copywriter. But as someone selling a product or trying to build a list, it is important that you know your strengths and weaknesses – and that you either spend the time to overcome them or hire someone else to do it for you.
With copywriting, for instance, it is important to use a mix of compelling sales points with powerful psychological triggers. Most people who create a sales page miss either one or both of those elements.
For instance, they might concentrate so much on building hype that they don't actually explain what solution they are providing – and for whom they are providing it. If I don't have a specific problem that your product solves, why would I buy it? I wouldn't.

Now, if they fail to sprinkle in psychological triggers, such as “scientifically proven,” “guaranteed,” and “shocking,” no one will feel compelled to continue reading, as the benefits will have a low or average perceived value.

In addition to these two problems, some sales pages lack coherency and direction. The copy looks amateurish and it doesn't slowly grind forward, breaking down the visitor's resistance to the sale – and compelling him or her to buy more and more at each sales point.

Additionally, if there aren't multiple calls to action – another form of psychological trigger – then a potential visitor might never feel compelled enough to pull out his or her credit card on the spot and make the purchase.
In addition to careful copywriting, there are other important things you must take into consideration when writing a landing page that converts. For instance, it is important to build a compelling case for a time-bound offer.

Now, this doesn't mean you have to invent fake deadlines and constantly revise them each week. This is a good way to guarantee your complete loss of credibility in the shortest amount of time possible.
However, when planning your copy, you will want to make sure that you constantly urge the reader to act immediately by inserting a number of “calls to action,” as I've mentioned previously.
You may want to consider using fly-ins or pop-ups to create more urgency – or to make a time-bound offer. Perhaps you can use a countdown to build urgency (i.e., when someone arrives at your landing page, they have five minutes to purchase the product at the lowest price).

If you're creating a squeeze page, you might want to employ slightly different tactics. Rather than building a compelling case with multiple triggers and calls to action over the course of 1000 words, you may want to simply condense that all into a compelling headline and one paragraph of “benefits.”

For a completely free-to-join squeeze page, you more than likely wont have a considerable amount of resistance to joining, unless the visitor:
a) Doesn't see any benefits; and
b) Suspects that you will sell their email address to spammers.

Both of these problems are relatively easy to overcome. In your headline, simply state the exact benefits they will receive for joining – as always, mixing in psychological triggers.
In your first paragraph of copy, give them a compelling reason to join now (i.e., the price might go up, the list might become private, you'll get this amazing report).

Now, to overcome the second problems, simply include a short line under your opt-in form that explains that you will not – under any circumstances – spam them or sell or give away their email address and name.

Building a strong relationship with your readers

The relationship you build with your list is where the real gold is.

Sure, just having a list is better than nothing, but the people making money hand over fist with their list are the people who have built a relationship with them.
How do you do this? Get personal, but not too personal - Make sure it is still interesting to somebody who would subscribe to your list.

For instance, let's say you have a list of golfers because you sell golf products. Tell them about experiences on the golf course, funny, stupid, or educational -stuff they can relate to as they are golfers and have probably done things very similar.

Try to relate to them as best you can. People want to know that there are others out there just like them. When they find out that you are just another person out in the world with the same experiences they are having, it becomes a lot easier for them to trust you.

It's all about getting each subscriber into your life.
This should be a huge focus of your list.

And if you really want to have an incredibly responsive list, then do these three things, in this order:
1) Build a relationship with them.
2) Educate them with quality content.
3) Promote good quality products that you believe in to them.

Doing this is a win-win for everybody.


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Tips To Avoid Ruining Your Chance With Affiliate Marketing

Why do you have far more persons screwing up in internet affiliate marketing in comparison with succeeding inside them? The response lies in they will doing lots of widespread blunders that may be definitely avoided. Among the leading blunders of brand new affiliates can be too little study which market to a target or even these people merely don't know what concentrating on a niche definitely implies.

Key word study can be excellent nevertheless could possibly be incomplete, as although it notifies you information regarding industry in addition to exactly how the idea fights to niche categories, the idea nevertheless does not coloring an entire photo. One wonderful way is always to examine upward best-selling books in addition to publications targeted to the supposed area of interest to be aware of who most of these clients are usually in addition to what answers these people are searching for. Inappropriate area of interest could make you fake internet connections that are certainly the supreme means for company failure in addition to company risk.

As they say 'the cash is the list' so creating a list is usually a vital component of any kind of internet affiliate marketing plan. Carry out just remember to have a very guide get system like a website landing page that gives a free eBook or even any situation that may profit them. To create that list correctly, you'll need the autoresponder to deal with most of these acquaintances instantly.

Whilst creating a list is very important, you will need a while to build the clients list. Many new situations, entrepreneurs who come across such efforts as well cumbersome may just throw in the towel both were developing a checklist or even the business enterprise completely. The actual effective professional who believes the facility of the list can never give up in addition to keep creates the idea.

A different widespread miscalculation brand new affiliate’s make seriously isn't accomplishing ample to come up with targeted traffic. It's not ample that will put upward a few banners or even internet marketer inbound links or even create a few posts. Do not forget that having natural internet search engine may eventual crank out plenty of free site visitors aimed at your website. Adequate targeted traffic could pave method in bringing in a lot of on the internet sales in addition to output concurrently.

Moreover, with efficient internet affiliate marketing tools could possibly be among the finest solutions to produce big quality targeted traffic on your area of interest. An individual should also adhere to a regular marketing and advertising approach in addition to abide by it regularly including PAID ADVERTISING marketing and advertising strategies, URL making, blogging post syndication, website article only to label a few.

 

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100 Ways To Ignite Your Opt-In Subscribers! Part IV

66. The "How To" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers you publish how-to articles. People like to learn how to do things that will improve their lives, reach their goals, solve their problems, avoid failing or avoid pain, etc.

67. The "Top Ten" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers you publish top ten articles. People like to know the top ways to improve their lives. Here are some examples, "The Top 10 Ways To Lose Weight", The Top Ten Ways To Increase Your Traffic", etc.

68. The "Tip Me" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers you publish tip articles. People like to read short, to the point tips that will help them reach their goals. It saves them time reading through a bunch of fluffed up information.

69. The "Recent News" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers you publish news stories. People want to stay up-to-date on the most recent news stories that will affect their lives. You could even publish new press releases that are related to the topic of your list.

70. The "Interview" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers you publish interview articles. People like to hear advice from other people that know about the topic of your list. You could even list some of the upcoming people you will be interviewing.

71. The "Product Review" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers you publish product reviews. Many people like to read product reviews before they buy a new product. You could review a product and have your own affiliate link at the end of the review.

72. The "Web Site Review" 

Technique Tell your potential subscribers you publish web site reviews. Many people like to read web site reviews before they visit a web site. They don't want to waste their time surfing around for what they are looking for.

73. The "Personal Profile" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers you publish personal profiles. Many people like to read personal information about people that deal with the topic of your list. It could be stuff like their favorite music, movies, food, sports team, etc.

74. The "Word Game" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers you publish text games. It could be crossword puzzles, word finds, word scramblers, etc. You could publish them in your e-mail or have them click on a link to your web site to print them out. Another idea would be to make them interactive so they can play them on your web site.

75. The "Samples Of Products" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers you publish excerpts from other info products. Most people like to see samples of other people's information products before they buy. It could be chapters, articles, software demos, etc.

76. The "Checklist" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers you publish helpful checklists. Sometimes people rather have a checklist of information so they can complete one step at a time. It helps them keep track of them accomplishing their final goal.

77. The "Calendar Of Events" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers you publish a calendar of events. Many people like to know about events that are related to the topic of your list. It could seminars, teleseminars, webinars, trade shows, concerts, classes, etc.

78. The "Q And A" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers you publish a question and answer section. Your current subscribers send you their questions and you could answer them in each issue. Your subscribers can actually be in control of what topics they want to know more about.

79. The "First Shot" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers that they will be the first to learn about the new products and services you release. People like to get the first shot at new products and affiliate opportunities.

80. The "Community Gossip" 

Technique Tell your potential subscribers you publish content from your online community. You could allow new subscribers access to your list's online community and tell them they could get published on your list and get some free publicity.

81. The "Transcripts" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers you publish transcripts of live events, classes and seminars. People that can't make or afford to go to live events related to your list topic would really want to read them.

82. The "Questionnaire" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers questions that'll persuade them to subscribe. Most people are raised or programmed to answer questions. They will automatically respond to your questions without realizing it. For example, “Do you want to earn more money?”

83. The "Free Advertising" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers they will get a free ad in your e-zine if they subscribe. Now this could give you way too many ads to publish. A way around this is to link to a web site that has all the free ads listed.

84. The "People Care" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers what their friends or family might say or think as a result of them opting-in. People care about what their friends and family think. For example, you could say: "Imagine how your kids will feel when you can afford the new pool?" 

85. The "Common Sense" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers it is common sense to subscribe. For example, you could say something like: "Everyone knows you have to keep up-to-date with new technology in order to keep making money on the Internet."

86. The "Private Access" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers they will get a free membership into your private web site when they subscribe. You could set up a password protected private web site for your subscribers only. You could keep it updated regularly with new information and free products.

87. The "Product For Ad" Technique 

Tell other e-zine publishers you'll trade them your products for running your e-zine ad. If you don't want to pay for advertising, just barter. If you have a downloadable product, you could keep trading it over and over again without it costing you a lot.

88. The "Viral Article" Technique 

Tell other e-zine publishers they can publish your articles with your resource box. You could contact other related e-zine or list publishers and see if they accept article submissions. Plus there are many article submission directories and submission software available today.

89. The "Opt-In Auction" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers about your e-zine on auction web sites. You could auction off a related item or product and advertise your e-zine on the same page. As you may know, some of the biggest auction sites get millions of hits an ad.

90. The "Listen To Me" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers that you offer an audio version of your e-zine or list. Many people don't like reading all the time. They will be able to listen to it if they want. It will save them time and eye strain.

91. The "Watch Me" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers that you offer a video version of your e-zine or list. Many would rather watch someone tell them the information, like on news shows. They will be able to watch and listen to your information if they want.

92. The "Keyword Clicking" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers about your e-zine or list with pay per click ads. You only pay if they click on your link. You want your advertisement to be displayed under targeted keywords and phrases or on target web sites.

93. The "Free Directory" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers about your e-zine or list by submitting it to free e-zine directories. You want your e-zine description to be as persuasive as possible. You could use many of the tips in this publication to help you with that.

94. The "Customer Reminder" Technique 

Tell your customers about your list or e-zine. You could include your e-zine ad on or with every product you sell. If it's a physical product, you could insert a flyer in the package. If it’s a digital product, you could have the opt- in form linked to your web site or build it into the product.

95. The "Discount An E-mail" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers that you offer coupons or gift certificates to other products and services in every issue. They will want to subscribe and read every issue just to see how much money they can save.

96. The "Offline Myth" Technique 

Tell people about your e-zine or list through offline advertising. It could be radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, CD ROM, videos, audio books, etc. Just because they read offline ads doesn’t mean they don't have a computer or access to the Internet.

97. The "Free Compliment" Technique 

Tell your potential subscribers that anyone who gives you a testimonial for your list or e-zine will get it published with their ad. People will subscribe and give you compliments just to get a free ad. Testimonials can dramatically increase your authority and sales.

98. The "Back You Up" Technique 

Tell a similar list or e-zine owner that you'll host their back issues if they host yours. It will increase your subscribers, traffic and sales. It might be a little extra work and take up a lot of web space but can be well worth it.

99. The "I'll Share" Technique 

Tell a similar list or e-zine owner that you'll share an opt-in form with them. People can opt-in for both your lists at your web site and their web site. You can also join many list building co-ops and co-registration services.

100. The "Publish And Grow" Technique 

Tell a similar list or e-zine owner you will help manage and publish their list in exchange for getting your ad listed in each of their issues. You will be building your list and their list at the same time. It could double your subscription rate.

Conclusion: There's no doubt that the topic of growing your opt-in list can be fascinating. Once you're familiar with these ideas, you'll be ready to take your business to the next level. Don't limit yourself by refusing to learn the details about building your opt-in list. The more you know, the easier it will be to focus on what's important.

100 Ways To Ignite Your Opt-In Subscribers! Part III

36. The "Unsubscribe" Technique

Tell you potential subscribers there is no risk as they can unsubscribe at any time, no questions asked. It will remind them even if they subscribe that they can unsubscribe any time if they don't like your list.

37. The "E-mail Me" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers that you would like to hear from them about how you can improve your e-mailings. You could tell them you regularly survey your existing subscribers for their opinions and what they would like to see from your list.

38. The "Keep It Free" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers you may be charging for your e-zine in the future but if they subscribe now, their subscription will always be free. People will want to subscribe quickly so they can lock in their free subscription.

39. The "I'll Pay You" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers you will pay them to subscribe. You could have a "subscribers only" affiliate program for one of your products. They will feel privileged and know they will have less competition to make commissions.

40. The "Easy Form" Technique

Tell you potential subscribers how easy it is to subscribe. Remind them they only need to type their first name and e-mail address or say all they have to do is send an e-mail to a certain subscription e-mail address.

41. The "Budget It" Technique

Tell potential subscribers about your e-zine in free advertising locations. It could be free classified web sites, forums, blogs, chat room profiles, e- mail discussion lists, list building sites, give away sites, etc. Most of the locations you can just add a signature ad to your post.

42. The "Subscribers-Only" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers they will get access to a free subscriber-only community. It could be a forum, message board, chat room, blog, etc. Your subscribers will feel special and privileged to only have access to it. They will like to communicate with other people that are interested in the same topics.

43. The "Barter Everything" Technique

Tell other e-zine/list publishers or web site owners you'll trade ads with them. It could be classified ads, text links, top sponsor ads, solo ads, banner ads, autoresponder ads, thank you ads, pop up ads, etc.

44. The "I'll Be There" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers you offer 24/7 e-mail support. People want to know you'll always be there for them. Many problems can arise, like people not getting your e-mails, not being able to unsubscribe, questions about your offers, etc.

45. The "My Advice" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers you'll offer free consulting via e-mail if they opt-in. This is similar to customer support but their questions will be more about the topic of your list. You may want to train and hire someone to answer all the questions or set up an e-mail ticket system.

46. The "Snooze You Lose" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers you will be offering a specific free bonus to the next 1000 subscribers. If they want the bonus, they will subscribe. You are also persuading them to subscribe right away with your limited time bonus.

47. The "Famous Guest" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers the names of the guest authors that contribute articles or content to your list. You could even list some of their professional accomplishments and credentials. People may subscribe just to learn more about them and their knowledge.

48. The "Skim It" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers your e-zine or list is easy to skim through and read. You could tell them you have a table of contents, clickable links, that you’ve divided each section up, it's not full of techno jargon, etc.

49. The "Full Of Help" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers that each issue is full of helpful web site links and resources. People want to learn about new web sites, resources, products, information, tools and advice that will help them accomplish their goals.

50. The "Total Them Up" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers how many subscribers you already have. People will see how many subscribers you already have and if you have a lot, they will know your list is good. They will feel they are missing out if they don't opt-in.

51. The "A Long Time" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers how many years you have been publishing your e-zine. If you've been publishing it for a long time, people will assume your opt-in list has high quality information and will be valuable to them.

52. The "Personal Touch"

Technique Show your potential subscribers a picture of yourself on your subscription page and tell them a little about yourself. Pictures will give your list a personal touch that could persuade them to opt-in. You could tell them about all your personal and business accomplishments.

53. The "Gift Subscription" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers they can sign up someone else with a gift subscription when they subscribe. People will like it that you care about other people in their lives. Many people like to give things to people they know and love.

54. The "Work Involved" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers how long it takes you to write or compile each issue. People will see just how much work is involved in publishing your list or e-zine. It will give your list a highly perceived value.

55. The "Goes Both Ways" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers how many pages are in each issue. This can persuade people that a lot of information is more valuable or a small amount of information will save them time. It can go both ways.

56. The "What You Missed" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers the latest issue can be accessed within minutes of subscribing. People like to be rewarded instantly for filling out an opt-in form. They will want to see what they missed when they weren’t subscribed.

57. The "Only Mine" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers they will learn information that's not found anywhere else inside your e-zine. People will realize that they will miss out on valuable information if they don't opt-in to your list.

58. The "Stay Current" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers that your e-zine has the newest, most up-to- date information. People want information that isn’t outdated. They want to stay current on the latest news, trends, strategies, tips, products, etc.

59. The "Why Subscribe?" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers the benefits of subscribing to your list. Depending on your topic, it could be making money, losing weight, increasing sales, reliving pain, stopping addiction, improving relationships, increasing mind power, etc.

60. The "How Often?" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers they can choose how often they want to receive your e-zine or list. You could have an every day version, once a week version, twice a week version and a once a month version. You could combine all or most of the little versions into a bigger version.

61. The "Cold Hard Facts" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers each issue contains cold hard facts and is 100% accurate. People don't want information that is wrong or based solely on opinion. They don’t want to take advice that could turn out making their 35 lives harder.

62. The "Battle Tested" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers that the information in your e-zine content is proven and tested. People like information that has already been used. If it's a fact that your information works, then it should work for them too and they will opt-in.

63. The "Autograph" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers they will get one autographed e-zine issue by mail when they subscribe. If you’re a famous marketer, it may tempt them to subscribe. You could even offer them a print subscription for a fee. 

64. The "Ratio Of Visitors" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers the ratio of people that opt-in to your list. For example, 1 out of 3 visitors subscribe. People want to opt-in to popular lists, especially if the ratio is really high.

65. The "Plenty Of Ways" Technique

Tell your potential subscribers there are plenty of ways to subscribe to your list, like by e-mail, web form or one click. People like to have choice in certain matters. When you give them a choice, they are more likely to choose than walk away without subscribing.

Part I
Part II

100 Ways To Ignite Your Opt-In Subscribers! Part I

If you're seriously interested in learning more about growing your opt-in list, you need to think beyond the basics. This article takes a closer look at things you need to know about list building.
1. The "Specific Date" Technique
Tell your potential subscribers they will get a free bonus for subscribing before a specific date. Tell them the bonus won't be available after that date. You could also say they need to subscribe before midnight or the end of the day.

2. The "So Many Minutes" Technique
Tell your potential subscribers they will get a free bonus for subscribing in so many minutes. You could have a timer running down the time on your opt-in form. If they really like your bonus, they will subscribe before the time runs out.

3. The "Here's Your Lesson" Technique
Tell your potential subscribers they will get a free e-course for subscribing. You could just publish each lesson on a daily autoresponder series. People like to take courses one lesson at a time. You could even include an ad with each lesson.

4. The "E-Report" Technique
Tell your potential subscribers they will get a free e-report for subscribing. You could write up a 5 to 12 page e-report that your subscribers would really be interested in. You could have it ready to download in PDF format
on your "thank you for subscribing" page.

5. The "Tease Me" TechniqueTell your potential subscribers they will get a free sample chapter of an ebook you are selling if they subscribe. People like to get a sneak preview of products before they buy them. Even if they don't buy your e-book, you'll be able to sell them something else in the future.

6. The "Great Deal" Technique
Tell your potential subscribers they will get a coupon or discount to one of your products for subscribing. People love getting a good deal and all they would have to do is opt-in to your list or e-zine.

7. The "JV Discount" Technique
Tell your potential subscribers they will get a coupon or discount for someone else’s product if they subscribe. You could set up a joint venture deal with another information product seller. They would get sales and you will build your list quicker.

8. The "Worth It?" TechniqueTell your potential subscribers how much the free bonus for subscribing is worth. People will feel like they are getting a great bargain for opting-in. You could list the retail price or what other people are selling it for.

9. The "Virus" Technique
Tell your potential subscribers they will get a free e-book for subscribing. You could also include your e-zine ad in the e-book and allow them to give the e-book away or offer resell or master resell rights. It will become a viral marketing tool for your list.

10. The "Swipe Them" Technique
Tell your potential subscribers that they will get the private label rights to the articles or content of your list if they subscribe. People will be able to read and use your list content as they wish. There is a huge demand for private label content these days.

11. The "Republish It" Technique
Tell your potential subscribers that they can reprint or republish the articles or content of your list if they subscribe. People will be able to read and use your list content with your resource box included. You could include your ezine ad under each article they republish.

12. The "Future Goals" TechniqueTell your potential subscribers the goals they will accomplish by subscribing to your e-zine. You could tell them how your information or content will help solve their problems, improve their life or get over their obstacles.

13. The "Future Problems" TechniqueTell your potential subscribers the goals they won't accomplish if they don't subscribe to your e-zine. You could tell them how not reading your information or content could cause future problems or make their life worse.

14. The "Prize Fest" Technique
Tell your potential subscribers what prizes they could win by subscribing to your e-zine. You could tell them that you will randomly select a subscriber every week to get one of your products for free. Also, you could have them complete a certain action to be in the contest.

15. The "Las Vegas" TechniqueTell your potential subscribers how much money they could win by subscribing to your e-zine. You could tell them that you will randomly select a subscriber every week to get a cash prize. You could have many cash prizes, like $100 for 1st place, $50 for 2nd place and $25 for 3rd place.

Part II

Selling and Teaching via Email

People come to the internet for many things including entertainment, discussion, free stuff and diversion.  But one of the most common things that people want is knowledge.  You have a specialized knowledge you can offer to your customers that will not only benefit them but it can be used as a marketing tool to open communications to your customers email inboxes in a far more effective way than any blind email or mass mailing could ever do.

There are several ways to offer training courses online including ebooks or videos.  But what is most effective for the sake of opening a long lasting communication channel to your customers is an email course in which you step by step lay out your specialized knowledge about your field of expertise over a  period of twelve to fifteen installments.

Sometimes this kind of offering is called an autoresponder series because the function of an autoresponder service can be helpful with distribution of the e-course.  An autoresponder is a specialized service or type of software that either automatically responds to events or emails by sending out a response email or it can be used to generate email traffic on a schedule.  So you can use an autoresponder to send the next installment of your email course to those who "subscribe" to it and know that it will go out without fail on the appointed day.

Now probably the biggest challenge of offering an autoresponder email course is how to create the course.  Few of us are writers and while you may have the knowledge, you may have trouble composing that knowledge in the form of a course.  There are a couple of ways to solve this problem…

>  You could hire a ghostwriter to compose the course for you.
>  You could speak the course contents into a tape recorder and then have it transcribed into a written course that could be sent to customers in short email installments.
>  You could even have a friend "interview" you to draw that specialized knowledge out of you.  The interviews could be fairly free form and then you could take the transcriptions of the interviews and organize them by topic into an e-course to offer your customers.

Once you have the contents laid out, don’t publish the course until you look it over to see where in the outlines you can integrate marketing messages.  Many of the products or services you offer as part of your business are directly related to your specialized knowledge.  So by including links to your shopping cart pages or to web pages that can lead customers to purchase decisions, the course is both instructional and useful for promoting your web site and sales as well.

The next step is to get the course into the hands of your users.  The first candidates to become "students" are the active cyber citizens who spend a lot of time on your web site.  So look at the regular posters on your message boards and blogs or citizens of a chat room on your site or contributors to your wiki and open conversations with them about offering a course. 

You can also create multiple ways to allow your customers to subscribe to the course series.  An online sign up is always a good choice because you can harvest their email address there and then open communications to their email and see to it that your business email is added to their favored contacts spam filter list so they do not see the courses disappear into their spam bucket each week.

As the customer enjoys learning from your series, the added benefit of getting them used to an active interaction with you and your web site is put in place.  And the course can be viral to be passed along to friends and family members so it recruits new customers as well. 

 

Unlimited autoresponders for a low monthly fee. 30-day free trial. Autoresponders

Optimizing Holiday Email Marketing

The holiday email marketing season takes the overdrive with the onset of Halloween. Certainly, this isn’t the time to design the marketing program from the scratch. But a small fixes can do the trick to raise the deliverability by a few percent without the need to shift to another completely new program. These fixes won’t take major investment in money or time.

As they say the first impression is the best impression, a very important aspect is to include the brand or company name as the sender and not individual name or email. The “from” line acts as the basis for the readers based on which they recognize and trust the sender. So it is best to use the brand name which is widely used by the readers for recognition. Following it is the subject line. It also plays a major role in the opening of the email. The subject line should not only be irresistible but trustworthy. Many subject line tools are available on the internet which can be of great use. The trick followed by most is to phrase the first twenty eight characters with the most important information. Usually the first twenty eight characters are of high importance to get the message across to the client. Putting the brand name in the from line helps to free up space for the critical information, which is the heart of the message, in the subject line. If the email is send to a mobile, the brand name should be first thing the reader should see. If there is space, special offers will be worth mentioning.  

The email should have a link to the complete information which is posted on the website. The link should redirect the reader to the complete article just by one click. Subscribe and unsubscribe links should be working always and the directions should be displayed promptly. If this isn’t done, it is going against the US email marketers law. The email should also include information about the company’s name, address and other contact information such as telephone, link to web contact page, and email. It is good to have links to other offers and services provided by the company. Effects of the previous offers and customer testimonials can also be included to draw attention.

The email shouldn’t resemble to a print ad which has bright colors within which the information is contained. Although, most of the HTML designers love to design this type of emails, but another fact is that most of the readers would have their block images option activated which will stop the image from downloading and the recipient will not be able to see any part of the message. The email should be broken down into manageable chunks. One large image should be replaced with many smaller images and important information should be placed in a text boxes which will be displayed in spite of the images being displayed or not. Alt tags can also be used to describe the images or the offers contained within it. This information will be displayed if the images do not show up.

Coding and spelling mistakes are a big no-no. If there is, this is a sure sign of a spammer. Miss spelt brand or company name can never be forgiven. It is a good habit to get the entire email proof-read by a professional before sending it to the readers. The links should be check individually to see whether they are working or not. Although it is a tedious task, it will save the readers from getting irritated and from losing sales. Past performances shouldn’t be trusted upon and regular checks must be made constantly.

The most important thing is to keep an eye on the competing company and the offers being offered by them. Try to design a better offer and test it on sample readers before committing to the offer. Like every one will be offering free shipping during the holiday season, so try to think of something which will differentiate you from the rest.

The last point to be considered is that because of the overwhelming flow of emails during the festive season, the subscribers can get irritated and complaints may arise. This can be tackled by throttling the frequency of emails. Delivery logs should be read constantly to handle the problem at the proper time.

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The Biggest Email Brand Killers

One of the biggest mistakes to do is to use email like the electronic version of direct marketing media such as postal mailers, catalogs, radio, television, newspaper inserts and even brochures. A world class brand builder can become a sure fire brand killer in no time if it is treated with ignorance, carelessness, and laziness. The brand killing capability is very much dependent on the email’s relationship with the recipients.   The relationship is more personal because of the intimate relationship between the people and their computer. And because of this intimacy, positive and negative feelings are encourages by the company’s name. No mail is as irritating as junk mail and the penalties for such emails are getting much stiffer. A flood of spam complaints can affect the email program to the extent of shutting it down.  

The email is becoming a personal medium, slowly. The recipient should be made in charge, he should be able to decide from whom he should receive email from, what kind of email he wants to receive and when he can stop receiving those emails. An email program which dose not includes all these conveniences will do severe damage to the company’s or brand’s name.

The first thing to concentrate upon is to remove poor permission practices. If this thing isn’t taken care of, nothing done after that will make up for the loss. In simple words, it is completely wrong to email a commercial message to anyone who hasn’t given the permission to do so. Sometimes, a person is simply signed up for receiving email while registering on the website because of checking boxes in a hurry. Thus, it is important for the registration page to display the privacy policy which says that the registration also includes agreement for receiving emails. And in spite of this, there is a high chance to get large complaints because of the unclear opt-in process. Some companies send emails to a person who has downloaded whitepaper or brochure form the website. It is better for the check box be not checked before hand. The job of checking the box should be left to the visitor. 

In spite of taking these precautions sometimes it happen that the recipient will head straight to the report spam button when they do not want to receive email anymore. This happens when the recipient dose not trust the unsubscribe process. The first reason for the loss of trust is because of not sending the message in the desired format: text or HTML. The readers subscribe intrusting the company and when their email program fails to honor their trust, the company has to pay for this. It is very important to give the reader the option to choose from text or HTML format. Usually technical people prefer only text messages where as the teenagers prefer messages in the HTML format.

The content of the email should exactly meet the requested information. If a subscriber has asked for sales announcements then do not send them company news. Similarly, the frequency of email should also be kept in mind. If request has been made to receive a weekly newsletter, do not send bi-weekly newsletters. An occasional exception such as sales bulletins or news can be used sparingly. Customers complain a lot about the pouring of emails during the holiday season. It is better to focus on the quality rather than quantity. 

It is not a compulsion that the content of the email look like spam and considered as a spam. If the recipients able to recognize the sender or dose not consider him to authentic, the mail directly goes to the spam folder. Three things should be considered to keep away from this problem. The sender or the subject shouldn’t appear vague. The content should be relevant to the brand name and its products. The unsubscribe procedure should be checked regularly. Failed unsubscribe and repeated requests for unsubscribing not only blocks the email program but also kills the brand name. Along with checking this link, it is highly recommended to check other links as well. Clicking on the link should take directly to the landing page and not on home page or a ‘Page Not Found’ page. Also, effort must be made in reducing the number of clicks done to achieve a certain action.

The Reasons You Need Email Deliverability

The problems associated with email deliverability are a significant hindrance to the conduct of internet commerce via email.  That may be as succinct a statement of the obstacles we face when trying to build an online marketing presence as we use as a primary or even a component of your internet marketing plan any form of email marketing.  Even the best designed and written marketing plan that depends on reaching your customers via standard email communications faces the problem of spam filters and other hindrances to email communications resulting in disruptions to your email deliverability.

So before you design an elaborate methodology to battle the email deliverability issue, maybe its best to drop back and look at exactly what you are looking for email marketing to do for you and evaluate whether the investment is worth the outcome. The basic reasons we utilize email marketing are these….

.    To generate enthusiasm for online promotions.
.    To make product announcements and build customer awareness of new products and services.
.    To generate interest in special promotions designed to stimulate sales.
.    To evangelize new customers and build our online marketing program.
.    To maintain open communications with our customers.
.    To solicit feedback from the customer base.
.    To encourage referrals.
.    To repair relationships after service calls or returns and to rebuild customer confidence.
.    For mass mailings to create a new wave of sales and to grow your online market niche.

These are probably just a few of the ways you might use an internet marketing program via email if it ran smoothly.  But if you are facing email deliverability problems, every one of these objectives can be frustrated and you could actually lose customers and see a decline in business simply because the email system is so bogged down with spam and spam filters put in place to battle the problem.

These are all valid reasons for any kind of customer communications.  And under the previous model of how the internet operates only a few years ago, internet citizens looked to email as one of the primary touch points for communications from friends, business associates and online merchants. 

Having established that under the assumption that email is the most efficient method for sustaining contact with existing customers and building new customer relationships, then making an effort to get email deliverability under control makes a lot of sense.  There are two levels of email relationships here to take into account and the effectiveness of a war on the email deliverability problem differs for the two types of customer relationships.

When using emails for relationships with existing customers with whom you enjoy an ongoing relationship of trust, the investment you might make to clear away any email deliverability problems makes a lot of sense.  But you also have resources in an existing trust relationship with a customer that take a lot of the tedium of fighting email deliverability out of the formula. 

An existing customer can add you to their preferred contacts list so the email spam filters will automatically allow your emails to flow through to the customer.  You can ask for feedback on a regular basis to assure deliverability is working and to test that your communications are getting through.  In a relationship of trust with your existing niche, keeping email deliverability active is not as much of a problem.

However when using email to gather new customer contacts particularly through mass mailings, you face an uphill battle to open the doors of email deliverability with dozens if ISPs and to learn up to date email deliverability "tricks of the trade" so your email doesn’t get discarded with hundred of other mass mailings which qualify as spam.  And in that mass mailing solicitation already had a low percentage of return on investment before the email deliverability problem came up, the investment in solving the deliverability problem for mass mailing emails may just not be worth the effort.

Testing Emails Effectively

The big picture, which is missed by many marketers, about email is that apart from being cheap and quick, it gives the ability to find what works and what does not. It is inexpensive and offers more information to the subscriber than direct mail and the turnaround time is decreased from weeks to hours. Yet, very few marketers invest time and efforts to test drive their eNewsletters and emails. Many of them will question whether the effort made is really worth it. If the order button is shifted from the bottom of the page to the top of the page, where it is more visible, the click through rate goes up by fifty percent. With such results, the effort is worth it. With hundreds and millions of dollars involved in email marketing, money cannot be thrown away like that.

The only way to know about offers and topics which work for the audience is by testing. Testing can be carried out on preferences, emotional triggers, reaction towards subject lines, do they like short or long formats, or do they like text or HTML format. Valuable information about the audience can be learned by variable testing.

Basics of the emails can be started with like the simplest portions of the emails can be formatted. Most of the emails aren’t read because of faulty HTML code. Emails should be tested in different types of email applications like Gmail or Outlook. By doing this a drastic change can be observed in the overall response rate. Testing should be kept in control. Sometimes marketers get so overwhelmed that they test the whole email at once. If two completely different versions of the same email are send out to different groups, there will be no clue to what actually worked and what didn’t. Therefore it is necessary to pick a single element to be tested at a time and then observe the response of the audience to that particular variable before testing another variable.

Timing is also important when sending out emails for testing. When sending multiple test emails, the time of sending them out should be considered. It is to be seen whether the emails can be sent at the same time, same season, etc. This also includes the testing on more than one variable at a time. According to researches, Wednesday is the best day for getting responses. Other statistics say that at least thirty to fifty responses are required to make a good decision. Some percent of these responses can be confusing, but nearly ninety percent of them will be accurate. The list of elements can be further divided into smaller list and the individual list can be concentrated upon. 

Testing doesn’t mean just taking the grade. It means that we should get the grades or results and learn from it. If something is wrong in the email, the correction should be sought out. When the email marketing efforts are put to test, the goal of this testing procedure is to test one or more elements or variables, the results must be analyzed and the lesson learned should be put to application. Otherwise, it is a waste of time and money to test. And when the results are ready, the marketer should know how to apply the new found knowledge.

Mistakes Made In Email Opt-In Usability

The reader needs motivation in order to subscribe for emails from a company. This is the very first step towards increasing the email opt-in rate. The website should have display the benefits of subscribing. Simple, nondescript boxes inhabit the homepage which say ‘Subscribe to the company’s newsletter’ and nothing more than that. There is lack of reason why the user should sign up unless they already find the content of the website interesting. It is agreed upon by many that the content should be kept basic. But how basic is the question. Lonely sign up boxes are a big no-no. There should at least be a brief promotional line which gives a specific and concrete benefit that would get the reader motivated to fill the box with his email address and click on the sign up button. The promotional matter should answer questions such as ‘Why should the reader sign up for the newsletter?’, ‘What are the solutions being offered by the newsletter?’, and ‘Is the newsletter focused and specific, concentrating on the needs of the reader?’

The same technique is to be used with the type of words and language being used in the promotional copy or more better, on the complete website. The links should be clear and shouldn’t have any empty, vague or generic matter. The content should be able to solve the problem which the reader is looking forward to be solved. The readers must be offered with back issues and sample to give them a good idea about what they can expect from future newsletters they will be receiving.

After the reader signs up, many of them receive a big nothing. They get big blackness and dead silence. The subscriber wants something to happen in his inbox immediately. Therefore, it is a good idea to send a welcome email right away which can include the latest newsletter or sample of the best newsletters. Try to include some email-special offer. At the end of the message tell them they will be expecting such great offers and newsletter in a short while. The new subscriber should feel that he has joined the club and has already received some benefit. He should feel the signing up process worth the effort. The welcome email also does the job of confirming email, which checks for the validity of the email address.

On one hand there are people who have barely any motivating information on their website and on the other there are people who have too much information on their website. The information is not organized and the users are overwhelmed with innumerable choices. If the company has too many things to offer, it should narrow them down by grouping them into categories. On the basis of these categories, the newsletters too must be sent out. The newsletters should have specific content and any new material posted on the website should be posted in just a link and not more than that.

The last thing which puts off the subscriber is asking too many questions. In the sign-up page they are asked for their email address only. Next they are linked to the preference page, followed by twenty more pages. This is a really blown opportunity. Initially, it is good to keep it sweet and short by asking information like first name, last name, and email address. Then send them a confirmation email where they can click the link for making choices. Marketers should know where to draw the line. A box asking just for the email address is a great way of not getting any subscriptions.

Getting Better Email Open Rates

The success of email campaigns can be gauged by the number of email open rates. The more number of readers read the email, the greater chances of people taking the desired action. But for this, the readers must be motivated into clicking on the link.

The very first thing which any reader will notice is the subject line. It is the most important factor which should resonates with the mind of the readers and should compel them to open and read the email. The subject line should be personalized depending upon the recipient’s interest, and other factors. So creativity needs to involve creating words of motivation. The brand should make its mark so much so that the customers must set up expectations for the brand. Recipients should be anticipating the emails. For this the services or products provided by the company should meet their current needs and interest. The recipients should know what to expect when they are opening the email and they should be made to feel that they will miss something very important if they didn’t open your email.

Apart from the subject line, lot of attraction also lies in the content of the newsletter. The content must be original along with being compelling. If the content of the email can be found elsewhere, the customers may forgot the thought of opening the email and instead going for the one of a kind content. The content should also have valuable information which can be used by the readers. It could concentrate on the free offer, or the big discount.

Another factor which forces the reader to open the email is his relationship with the company. Email readers fall into different categories. They can be irregular purchasers, potential clients, information hungry subscribers or existing clients. The method by which they decided to subscribe and the reason also tells a lot about the customer’s interest. Did they find the website through a search engine or did they sign up when buying products? The subscribers who have sought for information and then signed up for the emails are more likely to open the email, when compared to subscribers who signed up while buying a product because of a pre-checked box meant for signing up which they forget to uncheck. 

A strong personality is must for the success of the email. If the actual CEO or the marketing director is behind the newsletter, the readers get more interest in the email and the email open rates will boom immediately. The email list should be of high quality and should be well-maintained always. Also, efforts must be made in expanding the email list with targeted audiences which are more likely to open the email and take the desired action. Most of the times, long-time list members become inactive. So the list must be segmented based on list age and the inactive customers must be offered interesting incentive to bring them out of the hibernation.

The mailing frequency is also a very critical issue. Too frequently send mails will hamper the growth of email open rates as the recipients will get irritated, so does scarcely send mails as the recipients will not remember who you are. The time of sending also is important. Test different time and days for finding out which time works best for every type of audience. The time of the year should also be considered here. People tend to open emails less frequently in summer which means lower email open rates. Holiday season means good email open rates for commercial emails and lesser email open rates for information oriented emails and newsletters. The number of legitimate opt-in emails being caught in the spam filters is increasing by the day. Although the message is being shown as ‘delivered’, the end recipient won’t be seeing the email at all. Care should be taken to avoid certain words and symbols which are the cause of spam filtration. 

The bottom line is to do every job exceedingly well in order to achieve higher email open rates. For email newsletters, sixty percent email open rates can be achieved and for commercial emails, about forty percent email open rates can be achieved.

Getting More Out of Unsubscribing Option

The unsubscribing link helps the marketers to understand their customers better. This makes them to look for alternatives which would help to retain the customers for a longer time, sometimes even forever. The whole procedure will give an insight about the view of the subscribers, how they picture the company and what are their expectations from the company. Unsubscribing customers force the company to think of a counter-option to restrain the customer from unsubscribing. So, if the whole process is designed well, it actually helps the email program in reaching its goal.

Also, it is considered as a good practice to provide the customer with the opportunity to unsubscribe.

The major reason being that if you do not provide the unsubscribe link, it is more likely that the consumers will report you to their individual ISPs as spammer. The unsubscribe link should be easy to locate and use. Marketers include the unsubscribe instruction in every promotional emails, but they should understand that building customer trust is also very important. The customer should be given the chance to manage their inboxes by giving the unsubscribe option at other critical contact points. The first step towards this is to send the welcome message soon after the customer subscribing in order to confirm the request. Sometimes it may happen that the customer will subscribe unknowingly, especially because of pre-checked boxes on the registration form. In this case it is very important to include the unsubscribe method in the welcome email, otherwise the recipient will be forced to receive unwanted emails which can bother him to the very extend. This increases the risk of clicking the spam button.

Apart from being easily locatable, the unsubscribing method should also be very easy. This discourages the recipient from clicking the spam button or from ignoring the messages. Although one-click URL, which is a one step process, is used by most but a better option is a two step process. Sometimes the recipients do an address change; in this case one step process is the worst option. His interest or needs might even change or he might want to receive mails from you less or more frequently. Here the profile pages will be of help in reduction of unsubscribe and in giving the customers a more fruitful experience. In this method, some links takes the customer directly to the profile page and some ask for passwords to get through. If password is asked for, it is compulsory to add a ‘forgot password’ option. This adds another step to the complete process and increases the chance of the recipient giving up and clicking on the spam button out of frustration. 

The best bet is to use a two step process. The first step takes the recipient to his profile page with the help of a click. The second step helps in confirming the removal request or changes in the individual’s profile. Adding other request removal opportunities works as bonus, such as contacting the customer support if the profile page isn’t working or including web form contact information. Along with this other options for receiving information should be provided to the recipients. It is helpful to give the subscriber a chance to explain the reason for unsubscribing. 

Another good practice is to acknowledge the unsubscribe process. This helps in building trust in the email program as this tells the subscriber that his request was processed, immediately. If the subscriber has intended upon leaving the email program, a graceful goodbye and vote of thanks for their past patronage helps in strengthening the relationship. The medium used to do this can be same as the request removal.

The unsubscribing and subscribing process should be checked minimum once a month. Nearly half the marketers do not test the unsubscribe method once it has been set up and only one in four check the process only after receiving the complain about it being not working.

Different Types of Email Audiences

Marketers usually send only one type of message to a strictly targeted list of recipients. But in reality, the email is seen by ten different types of audiences who read the message in ten different ways. Hence, it is important to create a message design which satisfies the needs of majority type of audience as possible, instead of creating a different message for each type of audience.

Things get even more complicated when audience keep shifting. It can happen that the same recipient reads the message with a different perspective from edition to edition, depending on the time or mood constraints. This problem can be solved by understanding the major email audience. Then the design tactics can be designed and the potential of the email being read by everyone can be maximized. There are eight types of audiences: Identifiers, skimmers, readers, HTML readers, text reader, mobile, desk, and searchers.

Identifiers have only one goal. They check from address and subject line to make decision amongst the other emails which have overcrowded their inboxes. They make recognition and delete the rest of the emails which they do not want to read. For such audience great subject lines and clear branding make the greatest impact. Snippet or the top line of the emails is also displayed in the preview pane, so this text is of all importance as it can help to make the difference between reading and deletion. Usually the business people fall into this category who want to clear the inbox after they arrive to the office before the first meeting or when they are waiting for their flight.

Skimmers go beyond from address and subject line by actually opening the email. But they read the email as fast as possible, noticing only headlines, subheadings and calls to action. Then they make the decision whether to delete the email or read it in detail. When the email is being designed, these copy points should be worked upon in order to deliver the central idea and guide the skimmer towards the click through. Skimmers do not even enable images, if they have been blocked. Thus, strong text content should be designed to deliver the content without much focus on the images.

Readers are a little ahead of skimmers. They read from address, subject line and open the email and read few sentences between the headline and call of action so as to learn more about the email topic. This helps them with the click through hurdle. These audience also turn on the images or click on the web version link.

Every email should have both HTML and text version of the message. Since most of the readers now-a-days are using their portable devises for checking emails, here text version will be of more use than the HTML version with images. HTML design dose takes more time, but few more minutes must be devoted to make the text version attractive. Include URLs with text as short and as clear as possible. Easily readable text messages increases the number of clicks by a great percentage.

Email design is encountering new challenge because of the growth of mobile readers. Some mobile devices show HTML version correctly, while the others show lines and lines of irritating HTML code. Again, matching the right format with the right reader is important here, but hundred percent is impractical. If an interesting message isn’t being displayed properly, mobile readers will save the message to later read it on their laptop or desktop.

Desk readers are the biggest audience for which majority of marketers design emails. This audience is also the one most likely to act on the email. Design strategy used to optimize emails for other audiences will also prove effective for this particular group too. Desk readers can also be skimmers or readers. Therefore, here too, it is important to concentrate on the top line of the email, apart from the subject line.

Searcher audiences start as members of one of the other type of audience. When they see something which they like but cannot deal with it at that time they save it for later. When they have time they want to find the message in a flash. So if the message does not stand out, it will be forgotten about. Again here it is important to design the subject line, top line of email and sender address properly.    

Building Email List Based on Permission

The biggest challenge for email marketers is to build a cost effective list. This is because at least thirty percent of the email addresses change on most lists. Therefore, marketers have to go for a more aggressive approach in order to expand the list and to get more significant investment returns.

Taking permission is the basic key to maintaining a almost constant email list, along with other steps. Permission is certainly not the optional thing. If permission is not taken it means direct landing up as a spam complaint or even greater, breaking the U.S Law for spamming. The sign up form should be featured on every web page. No opportunity should be missed for turning the visitor into a subscriber. Subscription value can be enhanced by adding sample emails, screenshot of an email, testimonials and good copy on the sign up and registration page. To attract more number of subscribers, incentives can be offered upon signing up. The incentives can be as small as white papers and as big as special discounts. Incentives increase the conversion rates to great extent.

Today everything is becoming search engine optimized. Therefore it is the need of the hour to optimize the website in order for the website to land in first hundred search result. The current and archived web pages and newsletters must be optimized for increasing the traffic rate of the website and subscription rate. Search services such as Google AdWords can be made use of, for including subscription link on the landing page and for promotion of the website. Opt-in check boxes must be added on the demo requests, registration forms and white papers. This increases the conversion rates by at least fifty percent.

Very simple method to increase new subscription is by including the ‘Send-to-a-friend’ option. If the current subscribers find an email interesting, there are greater chances that the email be liked by their friends too. And if they like the emails, there is an even greater chance that they will subscribe to receive future emails. Email subscription can also be encouraged by print ads, catalogs, direct mails, radio and television. Employees can be directed to include the ‘Subscribe to the company’s newsletter’ link in their signature lines. The sales employees and customer support can ask customers whether they would like to receive promotional email, in appropriate situations. Sign up forms can be distributed at seminars and public speaking engagements and presentation on newsletters can be given at such locations. Permission can be taken to include opt-in forms in trade show lead generation forms so that booth visitors can subscribe. 

If the postal information of the customers is in the database, post cards can be sent to them which ask them to subscribe to newsletters. Sign-ups can be promoted in transactional and confirmation emails. It is optional to include opt in link on receipts of credit card, product registration cards, invoices and warranty.  The company’s email and newsletters can be promoted in other company’s publications. Sites and industry directories can also be used for promotion.  Product shipping boxes are the next important place to include the opt-in form. Many catalogers and retailers even include promotional offers of non-competing companies. Newsletters which have topical articles can be used for press release, along with information such as how to subscribe and content being offered. This option is useful to smaller companies.