Email Marketing Blog

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

Rising unemployment, a stock market in free-fall, foreclosures at an all-time high, and the bail-out of financial institutions across the country, have wreacked havoc on the pocketbooks of many people.

Yet, the cost of taking the plunge and starting an online business is ridiculously low:

• Domain name: $10 or less
• Web Hosting: Website Wizard, which is perfect for non-coders, starts at only $9.95 a month
• List Building / Email: GetResponse provides the perfect solution for building an opt-in list, keeping in touch, and earning money.
• Marketing Forums: The ABlakeForum and Warrior Forum are two places to go to learn how you can monetize your web presence, create products, build affiliate sites, write copy, and so much more! Read the posts already there and post with specific questions you have… most people are more than willing to help. Cost: Free!

For less than $23 a month – the cost of a pizza or a couple of lattes – you have all the tools you need to begin building an online business. And, in many countries, these expenses are tax deductible! (Check with your tax professional, of course!)

It is not necessary to splurge on every new product launched. Search for “tutorials”, visit forums, and you are likely to learn everything you need to get started. Any additional expenses can be covered by the profits of your business, not by digging a hole in an endless quest for the latest magic pill!

The bones of a real business for less than $23 a month. Now that’s worth our thanks!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

MediaPost recently published six trends that you can’t afford to ignore.  Knowing how to adapt to these trends will ensure that your readers continue to grow and respond to your email marketing efforts.

1. Subscribers want to feel in control.

Your subscribers want to digest your material on their terms, not yours. How many of the following do you incorporate in your email marketing?

• Do you force your web visitors to opt in before accessing your web site content?
• Can your customers choose the format and frequency of your messages?
• Is it easy for your readers to comment on your mailings?
• Are opt-out instructions quick and easy?

2. Don’t Ignore Other Communication Channels.

My kids are both in college and primarily communicate with their friends via text messaging on their cell phone. Social networking channels, like Facebook and Twitter, are another method. They don’t access email on a daily basis, like I do.

Smart marketers will brainstorm how to best utilize a dual-pronged approach in communicating with their readers. Your customers may prefer you to text message them for time-sensitive announcements like a 24–hour sale, while continuing to use email for other communications.

3. Most of your subscribers are prospects, not customers. 

MediaPost states that “In the B-to-B world, 70% of your leads are long-term opportunities”. Given those statistics, email marketing is one of the best ways to increase your ROI, because it allows you to nurture those prospects until they become customers. You have plenty of opportunity to provide additional information, case studies, and testimonials which eventually convert many to the customer side of your ledger.

No other vehicle can provide this ongoing – forever or until they opt out! – marketing at almost no cost.

4. Up to 50% of your email list is inactive.

In addition to your list churn (bounces and unsubscribes), 25–50% of your list have received your email, but haven’t opened it, read it, or clicked on your links.

Review your email marketing process and parameters for areas of improvement. Do you have a Welcome program that spells out what your new reader/customer can expect and how to change their preferences? Do you make bonuses available only to your email readers? What types of interactivity have you built into your email that carries on to other forms of marketing, such as your blog or social networking sites?

5. Subscribers are accessing emails differently.

Your readers are not limited to accessing your messages through their computer desktop. These days, many are receiving your information through mobile devices like the iPhone or Blackberry, as well. Keep this in mind when designing your messages and test them in various email clients, including mobile devices.

6. Viral marketing is still alive and well.

For years, businesses have encouraged their subscribers to “forward to a friend”. While that continues to prove profitable, don’t ignore social networks, like MySpace, Facebook, Linkedin and Digg.

You’ll notice how many blogs gather these links together, to make it easy for their readers to use in recommending an article. You should do the same in your email, as well as letting your readers know how it works. (You’d be surprised at how many fans would like to pass your information along, but don’t know how to do it!)

One thing that hasn’t changed: Content is still King. Your subscribers will forgive some things, but poor content is not one of them.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

When economic times are tough, many business owners perform across-the-board promotion cuts, rather than taking a laser approach to determine ROI on individual techniques.

If you are the decision maker, or need to influence that person, the chart below should be of interest. These statistics come from Marketing Sherpa’s “Email Marketing Benchmark Guide”.

Those companies who embrace email as an investment tend to be the ones reaping the rewards from their email marketing efforts. They have higher click, open and conversion rates, probably based on their higher use of metrics to track conversion throughout the email marketing process.

In a down economy, many business owners look to increase, rather than reduce, their email marketing efforts. Be sure your testing methods are in place, email relevant content, and provide uncompromised value to existing customers, as well as those you wish to add to your customer base.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

There is an interesting article at City News regarding what scientists discovered about how spammers make a profit.

It seems that everyone complains about spam - from business opportunities to the latest prescription drug – that clogs our email in-boxes. So, if everyone is deleting these messages, why are we still getting spam?

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and UC, San Diego, decided to find out.

It turns out that only one response was needed for every 12.5 MILLION (!) spam emails sent, in order for spammers to make a profit.

With those odds, you might think that spam is here to say. But you may be surprised! 

Read the whole Spamalytics report here.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

Have you ever tried to reply to an email message you’ve received….only to be hit with the dreaded noreply@emailaddress.com?

In actuality, often people DO read emails sent to this address.  But some don’t.

Which means you are sending your readers on a wild goose chase trying to locate a way to contact you.  At the least, it will frustrate your subscriber.  At the most, you may lose sales. 

What if I emailed to ask if you could accept a different payment method? To see if it could be delivered to a P.O. Box? To ask about it’s operation or your guarantee?

If your email sends people to a sales page with no email address evident, they WILL attempt to contact you through the address from which you emailed them.  Don’t make it difficult for them to do so. Add a questions@emailaddress.com or one addressed to a specific person within your company and make sure they know it will be delivered, read, and they will receive a reply within 24–48 hours.

Your job as a business person is to solve problems…not create them!