.: Email marketing the easy way
By:Andrei Smith
Category:Home / Internet Marketing / Email
What is email marketing?
Basically, in plain English, email marketing is a targeted mass mailing done via email. The purpose of email marketing could be advertising in order to recruit new clients, introducing a new set of products or services to an existing client base, keeping your clients informed by means of a newsletter, etc. All of the before mentioned activities are very legitimate business efforts, as long as you respect some unwritten rules and as long as the list of emails you use is what is called 'targeted', in other words the names came from a database generated by your marketing division and represents your existing client base, a carefully selected list of potential prospects or a list of people who opted in to receive your messages.
If instead of the above you use a list that you bought (you know, "25 million guaranteed AOL email addresses for only 19.95 - plus shipping"), or are doing it without warning the people on your list, or using other shady methods, then you are considered a spammer and what you are sending is spam, bulk mail, unsolicited email, basically, the main enemy of all things virtue and life in general. Yes folks, it is that easy to be labeled as a spammer, and very hard to get out of it.
Once your message is considered unsolicited, you will immediately be put on zillions of black lists, side by side with those who promise inches and inches of extra extremities and hours and hours of ecstatic pleasures (for only 3 easy payments and some handling fees).
Sound pretty risky, so why bother?
Obviously, opt-in email advertising is far more cost effective than direct marketing via regular mail, door-to-door sales, or telemarketing. Paper, printing, envelopes, and postage can add up quickly. Door to door sales require paying out commissions. Telemarketing results in high long distance bills, often without great results, as people become more and more blood thirsty toward the people on the other end of the so called cold call.
So why not just use my personal email or my company's mail server and some mailing software?
In the early days of email marketing (that is, before the art of penile enlargement was crafted), that's exactly what people did. They would gather all their emails into some primitive version of a spreadsheet, fire up some mail merging program, hook it up to their corporate mail system and voila, thousands of emails were flying away.
Today, the scenario is certainly possible, but let me tell you in a simple set of scenarios what can happen:
One of the many not-for-profit groups that decided to police the internet will intercept that a large number of emails were generated and sent by a server near you (yep, they can do that). In order to protect the civilized world from those who spread spam, viruses and other vermin, they will put you on a list of threats to humanity. Those other nice corporate folks who were your indented recipients, have an IT department that gets constantly yelled at by angry users who get emails with naked people. Well - Mel, their IT guy decides to put up an anti-spam system that links to that not-for-profit's database of known spammers (oh yeah, did I mention you are now a 'known spammer'?) and block your emails. Your emails might actually be blocked so well that your company will have a real trouble communicating via email and your IT folks will all go nuts and/or get fired.
Basically, not so good. Other things that can happen are: you'll have to build some opt-in / opt-out system, in some states there are laws that require that you make it very easy for your audience to unsubscribe, you'll have a hard time formatting your emails in a decent, eye pleasing way, etc.
Lastly, the process of sending thousands of emails and managing lists, subscribing and unsubscribing people is tedious and just plain annoying. The only way to do it is with a maximum degree of automation, or, the better solution - to outsource to a company that does it professionally.
Folks, I am known for promoting the "do it in house" concept, and am not that big on outsourcing. But when it comes to mass mailing... I say stay away from it and let the professionals do what they do.
If you are worried about cost, know that the fee you pay for email marketing services, will still cost less than the continued overhead and expenses of the traditional options, not to mention the great possibilities of reaching a much larger audience, much faster (practically instantly).
What to look for in an email marketing company?
1. Automating Your Subscribe and Unsubscribe Requests
Many email marketing companies will provide you with exact HTML code you need to paste to your site to have a subscription form on your web site. The better services also provide a link at the bottom of each email that enables subscribers to update their information or unsubscribe from a list, automating everything for you.
2. Personalization of Emails
Another powerful feature of many email marketing services is the ability to use mail merge capabilities to personalize each email that you send. The better services allow to have custom fields, additional to the standard first name and last name.
3. Bounceback email handling
Bouncebacks are emails that are sent to email accounts that no longer exist or are full, blocked, etc. Essentially, you'll get a response stating that your message did not make it. All email list management software programs are able to manage subscribe and unsubscribe requests and send out messages, however without integrated bounceback email handling all the non-deliverable emails will be sent back to you, a rather big nuisance if your list is large. Ideally, the email software you use will be able to manage your bouncebacks for you. Whenever a bounceback is received, the software makes a note of the address and if another bounceback is received the email address will be sent to a list of dead addresses.
This remove capability is extremely important since if you continuously send out emails with many bouncebacks you may be blacklisted as a spammer. This is something you really want to avoid at all cost.
4. HTML email
The ability to send out HTML emails has been around for quite some time. Most email marketing companies support the ability to send out messages that include graphics and formatted text. This is surely something you'll want to look for.
However, not all of your users have the ability to view email messages in HTML format. This percentage is usually between 10-20%. Instead of seeing your aesthetically pleasing email they might see a string of meaningless code. Using most email list management programs, these 10-20% of users will open up emails from you and be very inclined to call you a spammer.
To avoid this, look for companies that use multi-part MIME to send out messages. When you send an HTML email in multi-part MIME, users who do not have the ability to view HTML messages will receive the email in the usual text format.
So who should you use?
Do your homework, read reviews, eventually, make use of a trial account and see if it fits your needs. I currently use Intellicontact (Owned by Broadwick Corporation, a company specialized in software that improves communication efficiency for businesses) - check them out at http://www.bsleek.com/emailmarketing - they do everything I told you about in this article, plus more.
Article keywords: email, email marketing, bulk, bulk email, mass, mass mailing, mass email, targeted email, targeted, marketing, email marketing, opt-in, opt in, opt-out, opt out, multi-part, multi part, html email, bounceback
Article Source: http://www.articles32.com
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Andrei co-owns bsleek - www.bsleek.com – a site that specializes in web hosting, design, promotional items, printing, CD presentations, tradeshow displays, corporate identity marketing and more. Andrei has amassed an extensive technical knowledge and experience through his career as the CIO for a major travel management company and through his past careers in military research, data acquisition and aerospace engineering. He also consults for www.trinityinvestigations.com, a New York based PI firm.
.: New Email Articles
1). Hot Subscribers For Your Opt In Email Marketing
Opt in email marketing is one of the most powerful affiliates internet programs promotion strategy. Email is still the easiest way to communicate globally. It is extremely cost-effective, because it is 100 % free. This makes the starting point of the opt in email marketing very promising.
2). Are You Keeping Your Online Business Profitable?
With spamming, email marketing becomes a disgraceful activity in the Internet. But with opt in list, online businesses can continue to boost their businesses through email marketing without having to worry about being accused of spamming
3). Got A Website? Leran How To Build And Manage An Opt List
Building and managing an opt in list is the ideal and simplest option to increase website traffic
4). 5 Benefits Of Making a Hyper Responsive Opt Work
Any business big or small must maximize marketing to get the message across
5). Five Top Methods To Leverage Channels Without Overspending!
Before revealing the secrets of the trades, here are myths and fallacies that need to be cleared before one indulges into building an opt-in list
6). Looking For The Ideal Business Partnership?
Opt in lists are not just ordinary mailing lists. It is the very core of an online business existence and survival
7). Do You Want To Utilize Uhe Secrets Of Opt In Lists?
Acquire an opt-in list now or generate one. Either way, you are reaching to people that can be your one of your treasured customers for a long period time.
.: Top Email Articles
1). Email Miscommunication is Too Easy!
We misinterpret, filter, or change 70% to 90% of what we hear. Communicating messages clearly, and in a format that the receiver will understand, is difficult. It’s easy to miscommunicate. By watching which words you choose, your message will be more clearly communicated.
Cause
Why does all this confusion occur? One of the many reasons is that people suffer from information overload.
2). Selling Yourself with Your Article Promotion
Selling Yourself with Your Article Promotion
3). How to Make a CSV file for your mailing list.
First lets look at WHAT it is, and Why would we want to make one?
CSV means Comma Separated Value, so that means; a ‘value’ that is separated by commas. It is usually made in XL or a txt file.
A ‘value’ is explained, in context below.
CSV files are the most common kind of format used by most software programs for importing data. This means that if we want to put several hundred names and addresses (values) into a “bulk mailing program” we can usually use a CSV file.
4). Navigate More Website Activity Through Email Newsletters To Visitors
When you own a business website, you may find if helpful to have a weekly or monthly newsletter full of useful information about your products. Newsletters can be a great way to navigate more website activity your way. Emailing weekly or monthly newsletters can be the best way to update or remind past visitors of your services or products. Extending special offers in those newsletters can generate more website traffic, purchases of services or products and possible referrals from the visitor’s friends and family.
5). Name Squeeze Pages – What Are They and Why Do You Need Them?
There are many terms that are used in the Internet marketing world. Some are confusing, and some are simple. Some are simple but made to sound confusing. Name squeeze is a relatively new term, but it’s a technique that has been around for quite some time.
6). Email Marketing: Affordable Internet Marketing Technique
Email marketing is labeled as a killer method when it comes to effective low-cost Internet marketing endeavors. This is because it is the most widely-used and has the best reputation in bringing targeted traffic to websites. It is used to stay in touch with your customers or prospective customers, send out invitations, or make special offers.
It's as easy as writing an e-mail that may be in a form of a newsletter or a plain announcement, and sending that to as many targeted recipients as possible.
7). A Good Letter Can Make You a Fortune in Direct Mail
Copyright 2006 Peter Woodhead
This is the seventh article in a series of ten.
Now we go back to Maxwell Sackheim. Sackheim is also well known for originating the "Book-of-the Month" club. So what can you learn from Sackheim's Book-of-the-Month club? More than you think. People are lazy. Getting people to take any sort of action is not easy. That's why much of advertising uses deadlines and limited time offers.