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Archive for 2010

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are Approaching

Friday, November 12th, 2010

A record number of online retailers sent promotional email on Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year. However, research shows three new trends:

1. The emergence of Cyber Sunday– In an effort to get a jump on Cyber Monday, when inboxes are extremely crowded, a growing number of retailers began sending their campaigns on November 29th last year – Cyber Sunday — particularly after 5 p.m. EST.

Interestingly, the Sunday before Cyber Monday saw an increase in email, as 45% of retailers sent at least one promotional email last year versus 36% the previous year. That made last November 29th the biggest Sunday ever for retail email marketing.

2. Growing comfort with the term “Cyber Monday.” While the percentage of retailers sending email on Cyber Monday crept up only slightly, the number of retail emails referring to Cyber Monday by name increased 54 percent last year compared to the previous. Retailers are becoming more comfortable with the term and confident consumers recognize the term, thanks to media coverage.

3. More of a buildup to Black Friday. In addition to the large increase in the number of retailers sending promotional emails on the actual Black Friday, retailers promoted Black Friday in their emails more vigorously and much earlier. During the four weeks leading up to November 27th last year, the number of retail emails referencing Black Friday rose 96 percent last year compared to 2008.

The volume of email marketing messages sent on Black Friday and Cyber Monday hit an all-time high last year. However, according to email vendors, message deliverability was an issue for marketers.

According to the Retail Email Blog, which is run by Smith-Harmon, 71% of major online retailers sent at least one promotional email on Cyber Monday, up 1% from the previous year. On Black Friday, 69% of major online retailers sent at least one promo message, which was up from 59% in 2008.

The large volume of email challenged deliverability. Almost one in four email marketing messages were not delivered to recipients’ inboxes on Cyber Monday, meaning that 76% of retail emails made it to the inbox.

Deliverability was at its lowest on Cyber Monday from 8 to 9 am and noon to 1 pm, when the largest volumes of mail were slowing down ISPs.

Another factor in the drop in delivery rate comes from mailing to inactive names, or recipients who have not opened an email in more than six months.

ComScore reported that consumers spent $887 million online on November 30th (Cyber Monday last year), up 5% from 2008′s Cyber Monday and matching the heaviest online spending day on record.

So, consumers are readying themselves for the biggest online shopping day of the year and gaining insight into the latest and greatest deals being offered online.

Here were some 2009 trends of the busiest online shopping day of the year:

1.  More retailers were offering exclusive deals last Cyber Monday than in years past. According to research, 87.1 percent of retailers had a special promotion for Cyber Monday.

2.  Mobile Commerce was predicted to have a major impact on Cyber Monday sales due to the increasing popularity of the smart phones. Mobile Commerce likely influenced consumer decisions since it gave users the ability to comparison shop, place orders, and guaranteed in-store pick-up.

3.  Exclusive online discounts were deeper than years past. Retailers such as offered as much as 50 percent off select merchandise.

4.  Retailers were offering free shipping as an incentive for customer to buy online.

The 2010 Holiday Season is upon us and there is an abundance of predictions based on activity, from previous years.  Here are some for 2010:

1. Social and rich-media campaigns will not get much traction after mid-November.

2. Discount codes will become more prominent in pre-header messages and subject lines.

3. “Share with your network” functionality will be used more strategically.

4. Designing mobile-friendly email is more important than ever.

5. At least 50% of retailers will send an email on Thanksgiving Day and at least 70% will on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Signup for Emercury today and begin benefitting from email marketing today. Refer a retail business before Black Friday and earn double the referral fee.

*Did You Know – Sales tracking firms (who represent 500 major retailers) reported that online sales were up 14% above Cyber Monday 2008.

Posted in Email Marketing Holiday Campaigns | No Comments »

What Is SMTP and How Can I Use It?

Friday, October 15th, 2010

What is SMTP?

It is short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol – a protocol for sending email messages between servers. Most email systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another; the messages can then be retrieved with an email client using either POP or IMAP. In addition, SMTP is generally used to send messages from a mail client to a mail server. This is why you need to specify the POP or IMAP server and the SMTP server when you configure your email application.

It is the easiest and fastest way to get email from one place to another. Once you transmit your mail to the SMTP server, it will be sending it out. If some failures occur, it will be trying again and again. Since the real SMTP server is constantly connected to the Internet, it can try resending its failures at any time. As a result, you do not have to worry about failed recipients. If you send direct, you will have to resend to the temporarily failed recipients several times to make sure all the addresses are covered.

What does this mean as far as my email is concerned?

Let us look at the way this all works. Email is composed and read in an email client. This is the part of the process that is most familiar to you. If you want to read mail you click Check Mail, New Mail, or something similar and new messages show up in your Inbox. To send mail you click Compose or Write and the client gives you a compose window where you write your message. When you are done you click Send and the message gets sent.

The “Client” part of the term email client refers to the fact that this software requires the help of a Server to do its job. The client takes care of making the mail useful to you but the servers are the ones that actually move the mail around. Think of the client as your desk (or wherever you store and compose paper based mail) and the servers as the postal service.

First, your client must locate a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol server to send mail through. This will generally be provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or the host for the domain the email address belongs to. The client knows how to find this server because the server’s name or IP address was entered in the client’s configuration for the sending address.

Passing the message to the SMTP server is roughly equivalent to walking a letter down to the corner post box and dropping it in. As far as you are concerned it is sent.  Similarly, after passing the message to the sending SMTP server, your email client will say something like “Message sent successfully” because at that point its job is done.

One major difference between the mailing a letter and sending an email message is that an email message can have multiple recipients. If you want to send many copies of a letter using snail mail you have to make many copies and address a lot of envelopes. With email you just use one envelope with a lot of addresses.

After the SMTP server accepts the message from your client it works its way through all of the recipients (everyone with a “To:” or a “Cc:” or a “Bcc:”) and tries to deliver the message to each one. This is where the Domain Naming System (DNS) and specifically Mail Exchanger (MX) Records come in. The sending SMTP server has to consult the DNS MX records for each recipient’s domain to find out where to send the message. This is similar to your local post office sorting your letters for delivery to your local post office.

Nearly all SMTP relay servers on the Internet restrict access to their own users. In most cases, SMTP relay servers allow access based on the IP address of the email client. On the other hand, some SMTP relay servers require authentication with a user name and password. No matter how authentication is done, it is easy to use an SMTP relay server as long as permission has been granted.

Did You Know? Many Internet service providers use DNSBLs (DNS-based Blocking Lists) to disallow mail from open relays. Once a mail server is detected or reported that allows third parties to send mail through them, they will be added to one or more such lists, and other email servers using those lists will reject any mail coming from those sites. The relay need not actually be used for sending SPAM to be blacklisted.

Posted in SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol | No Comments »

Social Media is NOT Killing Email Marketing

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

Before the rise of the mass social media networks, communicating with your users or customers was a lot easier. Most of them read email, and they read it frequently. However, now people admittedly spend less time in their inbox and more time on social networks. As a result, many marketers have shifted their focus to social network marketing to the detriment of their email programs.

Internet communication studies have revealed that social networks and Facebook in particular, are replacing email as the most popular way to stay in touch with friends.  96% of respondents regularly use Facebook to connect with friends, followed by text messaging at 93% and email at 91%.However,email is still the primary communications tool for work and office related communications. Email also is where people receive their receipts and confirmations for online purchases. People do go into their inboxes, daily, to transact in non-personal ways. People are still able to receive, and often are receptive to, your email marketing campaigns.

One of the most imperative reasons to continue, (or begin), your email marketing program is because of the increased viability of direct response marketing via email versus via social networks. How users behave in both environments is different. In an email environment the user is participating in a solo activity with no other distractions. He or she can review your email and be directed to clicking links or taking other actions. Users are absorbing and responding to your message. In a social network environment, it is more difficult to generate direct response actions or sales. Social media users become action takers rather than one who reads your message.  Social media users move on to the next opportunity to interact with other social network users, which is time consuming and takes longer to result in action.

A few short years ago people believed MySpace would last forever. Today, MySpace is struggling with revenue and much of its user base has migrated to other social networks. Moving your profile and following from one social network to another is not challenging. As soon as their friends and contacts start to do it, users will do the same. We believe that nobody will ever abandon Facebook or Twitter, but that does not mean another option, using better technology, will not come along. When it does, you will need to build your social network audience from scratch. On the other hand, while people do change email addresses, they do so infrequently and often keep the same email addresses for years. Once you have an email database, you have a more reliable and long term method of contacting users.

There has not been a social network that has proven it can withstand a decade of use, but many email providers have. Do not abandon your email list unless you are willing to take the risk regarding having your social networking strategy impacted negatively by advancing technology. However, the fact that’s users spend less time in their inbox than they used to will impact your email marketing campaigns, so you will need to focus on certain things to make email marketing in the social networking era work.

Inboxes are crowded, and users will want to quickly clear them out. You must send out compelling offers. Make sure you segment your list, study what offers your users respond to, and then send the best offers when using your email campaigns.

Because inboxes are more crowded deleting email without even reading it has become more common. Make sure you spend time and effort on your subject line. You are competing with more email for fewer resources. The subject line is the most important step in the process.

There was a time when people would scan their SPAM or junk folders. This is not the case anymore, so you must make sure your sender reputation is clear and your messages are reaching the inbox.

Social networks are not replacing email, but they are altering the way email should be used. Make sure your email strategy responds accordingly. Send quality, relevant, targeted emails to clean-lists. You will discover that email still works best for R.O.I. purposes.

The first step to getting started with email marketing, whether it is your primary method of customer contact or in combination with a social network strategy, is to choose a superior email marketing manager.

*Did You Know– 64% of decision-makers view emails on mobile devices. By ensuring your newsletter is accessible and readable on mobile devices you will increase your reader base and stand out as a marketer who adapts to changing environments

Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

100 Percent Inbox Delivery – Fact or Fiction?

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

A check list for 100% inbox delivery

Even though a 100% inbox delivery on an email campaign is 100% fictional due mainly to temporary errors and soft bounces, it is possible to secure your email delivery through a few steps.

Here is a checklist, of requirements, which should help you to reach near 100% email deliverability:

1 – Do you have enough dedicated IPs?
Your ID when broadcasting newsletters is usually based on the couple IP/Domain.
Some ISPs and webmails limit either the number of hourly or daily number of emails to be received from an IP. You therefore need to have sufficient IPs according to the volume of emails sent to these ISPs.
Sharing your IPs with other senders might get you into troubles should the other senders send poor campaigns.
It is also necessary to build your own sender reputation always using the same IPs and slowly getting the ISPs’ confidence.

2 – Are your Domain Key/DKIM and SPF correctly configured?
Yahoo! and Hotmail use the Domain Key (or recently DKIM) and SPF to identify sender domains. Having an accurately set ID will help you build up a solid reputation.

3 – Is your reverse DNS working correctly?
Most of the email receiving servers query the reverse DNS to see who is sending, so you need to make sure your reverse DNS is correctly set before email blasting.

4 – Are your email headers correctly set?
There’s a few things to know when email blasting, Gmail for example asks for “precedence=bulk” to be stated in the email header.

5 – Do you use double optin in your newsletter subscription process?
Double optin is the only way to make sure of two things:
a) the user wants to register for your newsletter
b) the real owner of the email went through the proper process of subscribing.

6 – Do you have a simple and efficient unsubscribe process?
With the SPAM complaint button easily accessible, in every email, you need to have a simple unsubscribe process.
The more complicated the unsubscribe process is, the more likely the user will click on the SPAM complaint button.
For the same exact reason you want to take every unsubscribe request into account ASAP, any email received after the user having unsubscribe is a potential complaint to the ISP.

7 – Do you correctly identify complainers and remove them systematically from upcoming email blasts?
Several ISPs provide email senders with feedback loops. These feedback loops are useful to measure the perception users have of your newsletter and of course to stop sending to complainers.

8 – Do you sometimes check for inactive profiles and remove them from your list?
An email that has not reacted (opened) on any email sent to him/her for a long time should probably be removed from your list; it is likely you will never get any benefit from sending to this person. You probably pay a fee to send emails to this user, and you also take the risk of this email being a SPAM trap.

9 – Do you avoid SPAM words, special characters and ALL CAPS in your subject lines?
Part of the email filtering is made on the email content itself. You therefore need to check your email subject line for common SPAM words. It is preferable to avoid special characters such as $, £, % or accents and avoid using too many capital letters.

10 – Is the Image/Text ratio correct in your email?
One of the most common technique Spammers use to bypass content based email filters is to use images instead of plain text. Having only images in the email you blast can make the ISPs suspicious and sometimes lead to false positives – (i.e. legitimate emails being blocked by filters).

11 – Is your HTML code orderly?
One important thing when sending an email to users is to have a clean HTML code. The first reason being all webmails, browsers, and email readers might deal with your bad HTML in different ways, and therefore your email might be displayed incorrectly on several of them.
The second reason is the SPAM filters are likely to block poorly coded emails.

12 – Do you monitor your marketing pressure on your subscribers?
When people subscribe to your newsletter it is recommended you tell them how often you will send emails to them, even if the time of year is special (sales periods, holidays, etc.) you need to make sure you do not over communicate with your subscribers. If you do not you might see an increase in your unsubscribe and complaint rates.

Did you Know? In general, a delivery rate of 80% or more is considered satisfactory; 90% is very good. You will never achieve a 100% delivery rate, as there will always be a few soft bounces (full email boxes) and hard bounces (invalid email addresses) on your list. Keep in mind that this figure does not factor in the emails that are automatically sent to the recipient’s junk folder.

Posted in Inbox Delivery | No Comments »

Emercury Provides High Quality Bulk Email Delivery Services

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Increase in market share helps organizations to grow. The only way to attract more and more customers to buy your products and services is through promotion. Today’s competitive environment makes it essential to have email marketing services for bulk email delivery,to the masses. This will help you to make your product popular among your potential customers.

Communication is important

Your quality products and services will fetch you nothing till they are sold. To sell them you need to inform your prospective customers about them. No one does this task better than our professionals at Emercury.Net. We understand how important it is to communicate the right message at the right time, to the right person. Our professionals are best at bulk email delivery and other email marketing services. We provide services to all types of businesses. So, if you want to establish your brand name in global markets, you can rely on us for your needs.

Customer is the king

If you already have a large customer base and aspire to increase it even further, Emercury.Net is the right place for you. We are experts in bulk email delivery services and have efficient professionals who can handle any number of emails. A constant watch on customer feedback is essential to maintaining good customer relations. Our professionals are skilled enough to manage all your existing customers and convert your potential customers.

Affordable and high quality services

We provide high quality services at the most competitive prices in the market. Apart from normal bulk email delivery services such as software development, tracking mails, and list management, our professionals are ready with many other innovative ideas to create a difference. For instance, we have come up with a new aspect called an email calendar to make a new addition to our existing bulk email marketing services package. So, if you are looking for service providers who aspire to exceed your expectations, Emercury.Net is the best choice for you.

Bulk email marketing is sure to make your business touch great heights. So, do not waste time and get ready to increase your customer base with us.

Posted in Email | No Comments »

How do you improve your email marketing campaigns?

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

How do you improve your email marketing campaigns?

Let us first discuss why most email campaigns fail.

Indistinct offers– The benefits of your offer are not clearly stated to the recipient due to a poorly developed offer or improper formatting of the email. These will appear more like announcements, rather than an email providing something of interest to customers. The recipients will promptly delete such messages.

Feeble offers– This is ordinary. The vendor believes their email campaign is solid; their company recognizable; and they do not need a quality offer to achieve results. This is incorrect.

Advertisers do not understand what their customers want– You need to know your customers are always asking:  “What’s In It for me?” Does your campaign support what your customers actually want? Do you express this to them clearly?

Do not settle for awful email marketing campaign results!

  • You can learn how to get your email marketing campaigns attention.
  • You can discover ways to stand out from the rest.
  • You can find out what top email marketers know that makes all the difference.
  • You can stop wasting 75% of your budget on emails that are never read!

There is a great deal to learn about email marketing, so begin today.

A survey showed that business-to-business (B2B) email campaigns have greater open rates than business-to-consumer (B2C) campaigns. Sometimes the user who receives the text format of your email is not counted in the open rate calculation. This is because as a rule only HTML mails can be tracked down. It is important to note that sometimes the ‘from’ field is unclear. People tend to delete vague mails.

A simple email marketingcampaign can produce significant results quickly. Once you have mastered the basics of targeted email campaigns, it is time to integrate a few advanced techniques to improve email marketing. You must refine your email campaigns based on results. The popularity of content is not the only type of data you can learn from. As we have discussed in the past, look for patterns in the times and days you send your emails. Divide your email list into groups based on a common factor. For example, you could segment your list based on age, gender, or past buying behavior. Do not be afraid to test your groups to see what produces the best results; i.e. send your groups different subject lines to determine which is more popular and which garner the most results.

Determining the purpose of your email marketing tells you what kind of email messaging you should be sending. Email marketing activity is also subject to constant changes in advice, approach, and technology. Given this subjectivity, your campaign can easily lose its direction, its intended purpose lost, thus rendering your time and investment as ineffective. Many email marketing campaigns send out the wrong type of message. Once you decide your email campaign goal, and the elements needed for your message, determine the format your email messages should follow. Here are some email formats which businesses have found successful. However, be sure the positives outweigh the negatives, as far as the structure you are employing.

Email newsletters

The email newsletter involves a little more commitment than an immediate action-driven email message. It needs to be more informative and useful to your readers than a direct marketing email. Email newsletters need to be sent with regular frequency to be effective, and that is where the challenge begins for many companies.

The best advice for any businesses sending email newsletters is to start out slowly. A monthly or even bimonthly email newsletter would not be considered an over-aggressive frequency. Newsletters are not a direct marketing tool. In other words, you risk a high unsubscribe rate if you promised to send email newsletters to customers and started sending email ads instead.

Announcements

Non-profit organizations should be using email to announce almost anything new about their mission.

Service-based organizations usually find the announcement format easier to compose. This approach usually requires a little creativity, but it continually keeps your message and services in the minds of your clients.

Printable email coupons

If you sell clothing, books, or even gift memberships, email coupons can be helpful. They are typically issued either as an online coupon code, which can be used on a website ordering form, or they can be in the form of a printable coupon. Printable coupons can be simple PDF files or they can be web-based, HTML documents composed using minimal design features, for easy printing.

Common elements of a printable coupon include your organization’s logo, specifics of your offer, your phone number, street address, the URL address to your website, and an expiration date.

Surveys

Another format of email campaign is the customer survey, using email to invite supporters to participate in a short survey about their recent experience with your business.

Define your purpose

Define the goals of your email campaigns ahead of time, and develop appropriate email messages that will best help you succeed.

*Did You Know– 71% of the top 360 U.S. companies (as ranked by D&B) offer an email opt-in on their website.

Posted in Email | No Comments »

Tips to Choose Best Bulk Email Marketing Services

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

The competitive economy has made it essential for almost all businesses to opt for email marketing services. It is an effective way to reach millions of prospective clients and customers online. This article talks about certain points that should be kept in mind before choosing a bulk email marketing service provider.

Assess your needs

It is essential to determine in advance the type of services you require. Before you go in for email marketing services, you should be very clear about your promotional needs. Auto-responders, monitoring tools, and shopping carts are some of the services you can choose. You should decide, well in advance, what type of email marketing service is consistent with your promotional requirements.

Background verification

Before you hire bulk email marketing services, do not forget to do a background verification of your chosen service provider. You also can have a look at their past assignments to find out if they are efficient and have talented professionals. Make sure they provide you with an updated list of emails of potential customers in order to increase your market share. Internet is the best way to gather information about various service providers and compare them in order to find the best service provider for your needs.

Other points

It is advisable to enquire about the methods and techniques employed by your chosen email marketing firm. You should pay due attention to their pricing structure. Try to look for reputable companies that offer a short trial period to let you assess the level of their bulk email marketing services. It also is essential to enquire about the steps your email marketing service provider takes to control SPAM. Read the terms and conditions of your service agreement carefully in order to avoid any nasty surprises.

Promoting your products or services via email helps you to spread your business globally. Once you are convinced about the good reputation and efficiency of any email marketing service provider, do not hesitate in spending a little bit more for their services. The long term benefits of email marketing are sure to be enough to cover any extra cost you have incurred for online advertising.

Posted in Building Email Relationships | No Comments »

Improve your email marketing campaigns

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

How do you improve your email marketing campaigns?

Let us first discuss why most email campaigns fail.

Indistinct offers– The benefits of your offer are not clearly stated to the recipient due to a poorly developed offer or improper formatting of the email. These will appear more like announcements, rather than an email providing something of interest to customers. The recipients will promptly delete such messages.

Feeble offers– This is ordinary. The vendor believes their email campaign is solid; their company recognizable; and they do not need a quality offer to achieve results. This is incorrect.

Advertisers do not understand what their customers want– You need to know your customers are always asking:  “What’s In It for me?” Does your campaign support what your customers actually want? Do you express this to them clearly?

Do not settle for awful email marketing campaign results!

  • You can learn how to get your email marketing campaigns attention.
  • You can discover ways to stand out from the rest.
  • You can find out what top email marketers know that makes all the difference.
  • You can stop wasting 75% of your budget on emails that are never read!

There is a great deal to learn about email marketing, so begin today.

A survey showed that business-to-business (B2B) email campaigns have greater open rates than business-to-consumer (B2C) campaigns. Sometimes the user who receives the text format of your email is not counted in the open rate calculation. This is because as a rule only HTML mails can be tracked down. It is important to note that sometimes the ‘from’ field is unclear. People tend to delete vague mails.

A simple email marketing campaign can produce significant results quickly. Once you have mastered the basics of targeted email campaigns, it is time to integrate a few advanced techniques to improve email marketing. You must refine your email campaigns based on results. The popularity of content is not the only type of data you can learn from. As we have discussed in the past, look for patterns in the times and days you send your emails. Divide your email list into groups based on a common factor. For example, you could segment your list based on age, gender, or past buying behavior. Do not be afraid to test your groups to see what produces the best results; i.e. send your groups different subject lines to determine which is more popular and which garner the most results.

Determining the purpose of your email marketing tells you what kind of email messaging you should be sending. Email marketing activity is also subject to constant changes in advice, approach, and technology. Given this subjectivity, your campaign can easily lose its direction, its intended purpose lost, thus rendering your time and investment as ineffective. Many email marketing campaigns send out the wrong type of message. Once you decide your email campaign goal, and the elements needed for your message, determine the format your email messages should follow. Here are some email formats which businesses have found successful. However, be sure the positives outweigh the negatives, as far as the structure you are employing.

Email newsletters

The email newsletter involves a little more commitment than an immediate action-driven email message. It needs to be more informative and useful to your readers than a direct marketing email. Email newsletters need to be sent with regular frequency to be effective, and that is where the challenge begins for many companies.

The best advice for any businesses sending email newsletters is to start out slowly. A monthly or even bimonthly email newsletter would not be considered an over-aggressive frequency. Newsletters are not a direct marketing tool. In other words, you risk a high unsubscribe rate if you promised to send email newsletters to customers and started sending email ads instead.

Announcements

Non-profit organizations should be using email to announce almost anything new about their mission.

Service-based organizations usually find the announcement format easier to compose. This approach usually requires a little creativity, but it continually keeps your message and services in the minds of your clients.

Printable email coupons

If you sell clothing, books, or even gift memberships, email coupons can be helpful. They are typically issued either as an online coupon code, which can be used on a website ordering form, or they can be in the form of a printable coupon. Printable coupons can be simple PDF files or they can be web-based, HTML documents composed using minimal design features, for easy printing.

Common elements of a printable coupon include your organization’s logo, specifics of your offer, your phone number, street address, the URL address to your website, and an expiration date.

Surveys

Another format of email campaign is the customer survey, using email to invite supporters to participate in a short survey about their recent experience with your business.

Define your purpose

Define the goals of your email campaigns ahead of time, and develop appropriate email messages that will best help you succeed.

*Did You Know– 71% of the top 360 U.S. companies (as ranked by D&B) offer an email opt-in on their website.

Posted in Improve email marketing campaigns | No Comments »

You too can have a good email list

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

It is said that building an email list of contacts for your campaigns is one of the most important pieces in the email marketing puzzle.
Creating an email list of contacts does not have to be a burdensome and confusing process.

Here are some tips I researched to assist you, in creating email lists:

1. Offer an incentive to join your email list.
This can be a product coupon, a free sample, an industry whitepaper, or an invitation to an event.
2. Host a contest for subscribers.
Give your subscribers the opportunity to be entered into a drawing, sweepstakes, or other contests.
3. Reward your customers who refer their friends.
You could launch a new email marketing campaign for the “Refer a Friend” program, or simply highlight the program in your existing messages.
4. Make it easy to sign up.
Your customers likely lead hectic lives, so require them to provide as little information as possible to make the process quick and efficient.
5. Reassure your subscribers that their personal information will be kept private and safe.
Respect that promise by not sharing subscribers’ information with any other parties or businesses.
6. Ensure your signup form is prominent on your website.
If you are placing a signup form on your site, be sure it’s easily accessible on the homepage, as well as on other pages of your site.
7. Make sure your subscribers can easily share your messages.
Allow your subscribers to forward your emails to others. You can also provide the ability for your subscribers to share your email content on social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.

If you want to build a list fast, you are going to need discipline.

You must do your homework. If you are going to have a successful business, you need to have extensive knowledge. The only way you are going to make money online is by offering something of value. Everyday people are looking for solutions to a problem. What you need to do is find out what their problems are and then you can provide a solution. List building is an art that should be practiced. Target your market and provide content that delivers.

Make sure your page is converting. If you want to build a list fast, you need a lead capture page that converts your visitors into subscribers at about 30%. So, if you get 1000 visitors to your page, 300 of them should subscribe to your mailing list. Always test and make changes to your pages for the best conversions. The three things you should focus on are the headline, your bullet points, and your call to action. Your headline is probably the most important part of the page. A good headline should compel your visitors to keep reading the page. Your bullet points should be benefit oriented and not include features. People will not opt-into your list for features, but they will do it for benefits. List what they will receive for subscribing to your mailing list.

Submit articles for traffic. The best quality traffic is generated from articles. This is because articles are helpful and informative. So, your traffic is much more targeted and qualified to be on your list.

Here are some additional items to consider:

  • Get Signed Up With An Auto-responder

This is your personal assistant in the online world – a very important list-building tool. This piece of software will automate all of your emails, allowing you personal time and freedom.

  • Provide VALUE

Your goal is to come up with a series of emails that will give your subscribers VALUE; this is a key to your success. They came to you because they’re ready to learn something they don’t already know. You need to become that go-to maven in your niche. The purpose of your email series is for that subscriber to know, like, and trust you.

Understand your subscribers are willing to buy; they just need to know from whom to buy. Build that relationship and become that person they choose.

A good strategy is to fill your auto-responder up with weeks of emails, and they will be sent on your behalf.

An auto-responder service is your bloodline to your business and should be part of every email marketing campaign.

  • Capture Email Addresses

A Squeeze page has one goal in mind, and that is getting contact information from your website visitor.  If you want to know how to make money with an email list, you need a squeeze page.

An effective Squeeze page with boost your list building efforts and grow your email list.

*Did You Know– Studies found that 41% of consumers have changed an email address at least once in the last two years, with 15% of that group changing email addresses two or more times in the last two years. Consumers reported that the leading cause of email address changes were ISP switches.

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Internet Spending, not just a suggestion anymore!

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Spending a portion of your marketing budget on Internet Strategies is no longer a suggestion; it is a necessity.


The rules vary by industry and by market. One cannot simply say your marketing budget should be a specific amount and be confident that it is the magic formula. The Counselors to America’s Small Business (S.C.O.R.E.) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (S.B.A.) define the variable for a proper marketing budget to be between 2% and 10% of sales, noting that for B2C, retail, and pharmaceuticals, these budgets can exceed 20%.

If you are an internet based business then you will be spending more for online marketing. If you are a brick-and-mortar business then you will allocate less for your online marketing. Either way you need to accept the fact that online marketing is the only way to succeed.

So again you ask – What percentage of my marketing budget should I allocate for online marketing? Unfortunately, there is no short answer; it is more about using the resources you have in the most effective manner. The accurate answer to the question is as much as you can once you have proven to yourself that it works, using the conversion tracking you can see how much each sale has cost you and from there you can work out the profit per $100 you spend on advertising and work out your marketing budget from there. Remember, marketing efforts should have a direct impact on revenue. The budget is a proportion of last year’s actual sales, or next year’s forecast sales.

Try this scenario:

The approach will be to think about what you are trying to accomplish and build your budget around that goal. For example, if you are trying to lead the market in a service priced at $2000 month you could spend:

1. 10-15% of Estimated Sales: 2000 x 50 sales per month x 10-15% = $10,000-15,000/month.
2. For the objective grow sales 20%: You could figure that $10,000 = 50 sales and therefore spend $12,000 and expect 60 sales.
3. You could research a competitor and discover that they spend $9000 therefore you could win if you spent $10,000.
4. You could realize that you only had $10,000 to spend and just do that.
5. You could do a ton of research and modeling and come up with $10,000.

Here are some Trends to consider:

Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.)
Websites with relevant content and credible links will continue to rule the search rankings in 2010. As the volume of web content continues to grow, consumers will demand even more relevant and personalized search results. That means search engines will be looking for more relevant and personalized content from publishers and brands.

Make sure you allocate a portion of your budget to testing content, keywords and links that are targeted toward niche audiences. Test keyword and link placement in social media and mobile websites, and refresh the content you dedicate to search engine rankings. Once the search engines have tested these new search targets and revealed some concrete standards, you should be prepared to invest accordingly.

Paid Search
Consumers will use search engines in 2010 as a primary means of finding products and services to fulfill their needs, and they will still be clicking on relevant ads. Search advertising prices will remain reasonable, and average returns will remain comparably high as larger companies with decreased search marketing budgets continue to allocate resources to lower-cost S.E.O. tactics in hopes of attracting visitors at lower prices. You should consider investing in the highly qualified leads that paid search is capable of producing for your business.

Email Marketing
It is not hard to justify an investment in email marketing when the cost of sending emails is so low. The low cost is not the only reason to send email. Most consumers consider email to be their primary form of communication.

Email marketing will become more powerful as email service providers improve social media integration, search engine access to archived emails, auto-responders, and new integrated applications. If you do not already use an email service provider, invest in one in 2010. If you already use an email service, invest in your email list and in producing valuable content to nurture leads and attract repeat customers.

The cost of building a permission-based list is likely to stay the same in 2010 as it was in 2009, but more than one-third of consumers changed at least one of their email addresses in 2009 due to job changes or other economic factors. Spend more time and money in 2010 focused on keeping your email list current.

Social Network Marketing
Social media has one redeeming quality for marketers – tons of visitors. This is enticing if you are a major brand, but profitable interaction will continue to be the exception for small businesses in 2010 rather than the rule. A good test of your social network marketing potential is to survey your current customers to see how many of them consider social networking to be a primary form of communication. You should probably experiment with a Facebook fan page and a Twitter page if you find that a meaningful percentage of your current customers indicate an interest in following your business.

Blogging
If you are writing a blog to help with search engine rankings or to inform existing customers, you should continue to test or invest. However, if you are blogging in an attempt to attract new prospects and convert them to customers, 2010 will be a year that exposes the blogosphere’s vulnerability to the law of averages. Converting prospects into customers depends on driving visitors to content that maximizes conversions, and that means your conversion rate is only as good as the content on your landing page. Instead of blogging to convert your website visitors into customers in 2010, work hard to test and develop great landing page content.

Website Presence
Advertise the location of your website content by placing ads on other high-traffic websites. Driving visitor traffic to your website is not the way to go for 2010. Instead, you need to spend 2010 driving your website content to the visitor traffic.

To take advantage of content in 2010, your website content needs to be nested in as many content aggregation websites as possible. For example, a lot of people search for videos on YouTube. If you have a video on your website and it is not also on YouTube, people on YouTube will not bother searching for your website.

Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing is about marketing to people through their mobile phones and smart-phone devices. Small businesses have not had much of an opportunity to engage consumers on mobile devices, but 2010 has the potential to change that.

Demand is increasing dramatically for mobile applications and mobile web-browsing due to wider adoption of devices like the iPhone. As more people adopt these phones and features in 2010, look for small-business marketing services to start providing lower-cost mobile marketing solutions like text messaging, mobile e-mail marketing, mobile websites, and mobile application development.

Coupons, Discounts, and Savings
This one is not entirely an internet marketing trend, but it is important enough to mention because of the economy. 2009 was another tough year for retailers, and consumers are so accustomed to shopping for deals they might begin to expect the deep discounts currently available to continue. If you are engaged in heavy discounting to attract sales and survive the economic downturn, you will need to spend 2010 slowly weaning your customers off your lower prices, assuming the economy recovers. Changing expectations will not be easy, so try switching discounts for special privileges like loyalty discounts, free upgrades, and other offers.

Internet marketing trends develop quickly, so expect new and exciting trends to emerge in 2010. Stay focused on attracting repeat business, deepening your customer relationships, and solving problems for people.


*Did You Know – Nielsen Ratings say that research shows people are 31% more likely to recall an ad online than on television.

Posted in Internet Spending | No Comments »

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