Email Marketing seems to be a topic that many Network Marketers want to know more about. They know they need to do Email Marketing to generate leads but don’t always understand exactly what it is and how to set up a campaign.

I’m going to do a three part series on the subject. In part 1 we’ll look at what it is, and discuss some advantages and risks associated with email marketing. Part 2 will cover building your list, and part 3 will look at ways to grow your list.

What is Email Marketing?

In it’s simplest form email marketing is using email to distribute your marketing messages. More importantly though you use it to build your list with the aim to grow your reader loyalty and ultimately make sales. You do this by sending emails that contain valuable information that your readers are looking for. This could include product information, or offers for additional services.

Some advantages of email marketing are:

• It reliably drives sales for many businesses
• It helps build lasting, profitable relationships with your customers
• It increases referrals and word-of-mouth marketing
• It raises conversion rates and average customer value
• Low cost – communicating via email is similar to traditional direct mail except it’s much cheaper.
• Speed – you can get your message out to your list very fast.
• Ease – Once you’ve set up your system it’s very easy to use
• Push – You can send (push) messages out to your list instead of waiting for your readers to visit your site.
• Personalized – You can easily personalize your messages with the recipients name in the text and title.
• Viral – People can easily forward your message to others and in so doing increase your reach
• Tracking – You can easily track what people are doing with your messages
• Testing – You can test what works and what doesn’t. Try different titles, calls to action images etc.

Some Risks Associated with Email Marketing

Email Marketing No’s

]]> http://www.raygreyling.com/2011/09/19/email-marketing-tips-part-1/feed/ 0 http://www.raygreyling.com/2011/03/16/email-autoresponders-and-the-trouble-with-the-best-time-to-send/ http://www.raygreyling.com/2011/03/16/email-autoresponders-and-the-trouble-with-the-best-time-to-send/#comments Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:58:49 +0000 Ray Greyling http://www.raygreyling.com/?p=629

by Justin Premick.

Ever wondered: “what’s the ‘best’ day and time to send an email?”

If so, you’re not alone. It’s one of the most popular questions about email marketing. It has spawned innumerable studies over the years, and we hear it at AWeber almost every day.

There’s just one problem:

The Answer Isn’t The Same For Everyone!

• The best day for you might not be the best day for the next guy.
• The best day changes from month to month and from report to report.
• The best time can be different for subscribers in different parts of the world.
• Not all messages necessarily “work” on the same day or at the same time.

And besides…

It’s Not Really About The Single “Best” Time or Day Anyway, Is It?

If someone told you “9:32 and 14 seconds on Tuesday morning” was the best time, would you try to send every single one of your emails only on Tuesday, and only at 9:32AM?

I doubt it. Besides the fact that your subscribers aren’t spending every waking moment waiting for your next email, after about 2-3 months of sending only on Tuesday, you’d be in a real pickle if you ever wanted to send out a message on say, Thursday. Nobody would expect it.

Optimizing your sending days and times isn’t about finding one “best” time and hammering it to death.

It’s About NOT Sending on Days or Times That Make Absolutely No Sense.

What you want:

• Avoid sending at poor times. Example: maybe you don’t want to send at 10:30 at night, since you know subscribers will get other emails between then and when they check your email. You want to avoid having yours pushed to the “middle of the pack” (making it more likely to get overlooked).
• Avoid sending on low-activity days. Example: why send on the weekend if you run a B2B email marketing campaign and know your subscribers only read and respond during the week?
• Build a little common sense into your message intervals.

This is easy enough for email newsletters – you can easily set a date and time for each issue…

… but what about sequential autoresponders? They just go out “X” number of days apart, right?

What We Need Are “Smarter” Autoresponders

Ideally, your autoresponders could:

• Deliver themselves only during the days and times you want.
• Avoid days and times that don’t work for your subscribers.

That way, they’d automatically deliver themselves during appropriate times on appropriate days – just as you would if you were doing them by hand!

It’s a shame they don’t do that…

Wait. They Don’t Do That… Do They?

More than 850 million spoof emails arrived in consumers’ inboxes this past August mimicking the prominent news media brands CNN and MSNBC and calling into question the integrity and safety of emails from these and other well-known and trusted media organizations.

Spammers and Hackers are are constantly coming up with ways of infiltrating your inbox and infuriating consumers. Many consumers may already be skeptical about emails that claim to be from their bank or request their social security numbers.

Use this email Marketing Campaign Checklist to learn how to protects your subscribers and your image.

Email Marketing Campaign Checklist

Subject Line:

• Personalize the email with the recipients first name
• Subject is short and to the point
• Include a compelling benefit
• The subject line is related to the 1st paragraph.

Email body:

• The email is short
• There are at least two links to your landing page. Early in the email and near the end.
• The offer is presented as a solution
• Urgency has been created (e.g. limited time or quantity)
• Focus on only ONE call to action
• Focus on the reader
• Paragraphs have a maximum of four lines.
• Include a signature with all relevant contact details

Test:

• Send a copy to your account to review the message
• Test all of your links in the message

Delivery Process:

• Send at the time and day the majority of your target market visits your website.

Email has taken the lead over direct mail and other forms of traditional direct marketing, according to a new study.

There’s also good news for email marketers with the CAN-SPAM policy changes.
Read full article at iMedia Connection