Five Common Email Marketing Mistakes

photo by Megan Ann

I've posted several email checklists before but I think it's always important to master the basics first before you move on to advanced techniques for you email marketing campaigns. When you have an opt in email list, you have a valuable asset that should be generating you recurring revenue every time you use it. If you abuse it, then you risk the opt out and won't get another chance to sell to someone who was interested in your product.

1. Using Words in Your Subject Lines that Trigger Spam Filters - Your email marketing message is completely worthless if it never gets there. Keep these words out of your email subject lines for better deliverablity.
2. Using Only Images and Little to No Text - Many users block all images in their emails. Some of them have email programs which do this automatically to every email address that hasn't been whitelisted. Don't assume your email list will have the images turned on or even that they'll turn them on to see what you sent. If you do, they may end up looking at a blank emails and you'll always get lower response rates.
3. Designing an email as if it's a website - This should be a simple email marketing campaign. Sure it needs to reflect your company branding but leave out the flash, javascript and any bells and whistles so that the message gets across and the email is rendered.
4. Adding the Wrong Reply Email - Yes, it happens. Sometimes by accident and sometimes even on purpose because people want to try and avoid spam filters. It's a bad idea.
5. Missing Information - Don't leave out the from name and contact information and especially your links back to your landing page.

Contact Orange Email Marketing for a free consultation about email marketing, bulk email software, email lists and online marketing.

Email Marketing Basics That Always Improve Results

photo by woodleywonderworks

In life, many times the "basics" still work. Saying please and thank you, treating others how you wish to be treated, drink water to be healthy, everything in moderation; so many of these things still apply.

In email marketing, the basics still work also. You need to make your campaigns look better for the boss? Let's go over a few basics that will always improve the results of any campaign.

• Scrub Your List - If you're wasting your time and resources sending to people who have no interest in what you offer, this will save time and increase both response and deliverability. Remove names from your email address list which have bounced three consecutive times.

• Segment Your List - So you've got a nice big list that you own. What if you could break your email list rental down into 6-10 segments which you can now send more customized relevant emails to? Your response rates will go up, guaranteed. You opt-outs will also drop.

• Write Good Subject Lines - Keep them short and sweet and make it clear what is in those email marketing messages. Look over your old campaigns to see what worked before.

• Find the Perfect Frequency - If you send too many emails you're asking for trouble. What is best for you? It depends on your market. Once again, the best thing to do is TEST. It might be once a month, twice a month or once a week. Test the response, track your results and then stick with your schedule.

• Send Emails on the Right Days - What are the right days? We've been seeing good results on Mondays and Tuesdays. Some clients actually see good results on Saturdays. Others on Thursday. Again, test for the best response and then stick to that day.

If you always follow these rules you'll always see the best results. Keep track of your data from your email blast software so you can see what is working and then stick to it. Sure your new campaign may be brilliant and your anxious to send it today, but if your data shows it's better to wait until Monday, then wait, or you're just lowering your success rate.

To learn how you can use OrangeFire Email Marketing Software to manage your email newsletter campaigns, please contact Orange Email Marketing.

Are You Sending Customers to Your Landing Page or to Your Home Page?

photo by derektabq

So you've got your email marketing campaign running. If you're really working hard to drive traffic then you may also have a PPC marketing campaign running as well. This is great! You've just laid down the tracks for an email blast of traffic to arrive at your website.

But where do those tracks lead? What will they find when the get there?

It seems simple. You're sending them to your website of course. The majority of email marketing campaigns are sending their clicks to "MyBussines.com", which seems like a good idea but may not actually be the best place to send them. You've spent all this time segmenting your email list, but then you don't segment your traffic! Why not?

You could be segmenting your traffic to different landing pages. If you're like most businesses, you offer more than one product or service. When your client clicks on a specific offer on your email campaign, they're saying "Yes, I want to learn more about this product or buy it right now".

Now what do you do then? Are you responding with "Let me take you to the front door of my store" or are you saying "Let me take you right to the aisle in my store where you will find exactly what you're looking for". BIG DIFFERENCE!

Can you guess which clickthrough is has a better chance of turning into a sale? That's right, the customer who was taken directly to what he was looking for is more likely to buy. It seems simple, and it is, yet so many marketers get this wrong.

When you send them to the home page of your site, you're probably giving them a whole bunch of options to choose from, a series of doors they have to walk through to get what they're looking for. If you want to make the sale, you have to make it as EASY as possible for your visitor to take the intended action.

Maybe the action isn't to buy, maybe you just want an email signup, maybe your want their contact info so you can do a follow up call. Whatever it is you want them to do, send them right to it! Remove all barriers to the desired action. Don't just count on the fact that they'll find it themselves. Don't make them search for it. Don't think that if you just drop them off on the main page, maybe they'll buy something else too. If you lead them to what they want and fulfill they need they want right now, they WILL come back on their own and buy more, or you'll get a chance to do a follow up later. For right now, GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT!

-----

For more information on email marketing or landing page design, please contact Orange Email Marketing for a free consultation.

Cross Promote With Your Email Newsletter

photo by Patrick Boury

An email newsletter is a great way to cross promote the other products and services your company offers.

Your email newsletter is for the soft sell; to establish and build your customer relationships, to showcase your authority in the marketplace. Your email list of newsletter subscribers are all people who have signed up to learn more about your company and to receive news. All you have to do is give them what they want.

The newsletter is the perfect place to introduce a new product or service to you readers. It doesn't even have to be a new product; you can write about an old product simply by speaking about a new feature, a redesign, a case study, a client success story and countless other ways. This helps you cross promote an older product to a newer customer without having it come off like you're trying hard to make the sale.

Writing up a client success story is a great way to cross promote your services to other clients. It acts as not only a testimonial but also demonstrates how others could also make money or improve ROI by using your service. That's what everybody wants to know anyway, "How will it benefit me?". Just demonstrate how it has benefited others.

Your satisfied customers won't mind giving you permission to write about them if you can offer them a benefit in the deal. If they're really happy customers, sometimes they'll just appreciate helping you out by being a case study. If it takes a little extra, usually the free publicity from knowing their business name will be blasted out to the thousands of monthly readers of your newsletter is incentive enough. Perhaps you could offer a discount on their next order to sweeten the deal. It shouldn't be hard to find a solution that can benefit both your customer and your business at the same time.

To learn how you can use OrangeFire Email Marketing Software to manage your email newsletter campaigns, please contact Orange Email Marketing.

Use Email Newsletters for the "Soft Sell"

photo by Paulo Brabo























A Newsletter is Not for the Hard Sell

If you are looking at your email newsletter as another chance to sell, then you should "dial down the sales pitch" because people have different expectations from newsletters. Your typical email marketing campaign is an appropriate place for your promotions, offers and trying to make a sale.

With the newsletter though, you should be approaching differently, and if you do, you'll see better results AND make the sale. It's a NEWS-letter, not a sales letter.

This should be a place for the "soft cell". Consider it like meeting a person at a cocktail party and they ask you about what you do. They seem interested so you tell them about your business. You have a friendly exchange, tell him a funny or interesting story and you give them your business card before parting.

There will be a chance to do a follow up another time, for now you just want to make a good impression and leave your potential future customer thinking "He was a nice guy. He seemed to really know what he was talking about. I should give him a call and see what he can do for my business."

You don't want to abuse your email list with too many offers, and you don't want to abuse your newsletter subscriber with the hard sell. The newsletter is a way to communicate messages and information without being "overly promotional". You don't need to. By showing them your knowledge, giving them useful free information and maybe even being a little fun and irreverent, you ARE promoting your business.

To learn how you can use OrangeFire Email Marketing Software to manage your email newsletter campaigns, please contact Orange Email Marketing.

Email Newsletters Build Customer Relationships

photo by Wonderlane

If you are not already utilizing email newsletters for your business, you should be. Email newsletters are a great way to build a relationship with your customers. It's a cost effective way to expand your email marketing campaign without appearing like you're trying to do a "hard sell" to your email list subscribers.

Email Newsletters have a higher open rate than your typical email marketing campaign. This is because your email list rental expect something more interesting than a promotional pitch when they get your newsletter. They expect to hear news, stories, tips and other interesting content.

It's a chance to remind them why they signed up for your list and why they wanted to learn more about your company. It's a chance to showcase why you're an industry leader. It's a chance to sell yourself as a leader, as an authority, as a trusted source of information.

Email newsletters are a chance to build a bond with your customers or potential clients. You can build trust and authority. You can get them to WANT to contact you, and to approach you when they're ready to buy or enter the buying process.

-----

To learn how you can use OrangeFire Email Marketing Software to manage your email newsletter campaigns, please contact Orange Email Marketing.

Most Popular Days for Email Marketing Campaigns

I spent a lot of time on email subject lines but I haven't much examined what days and times to send your email messages. I'm often asked "What are the best days to send email marketing messages?". We'll go into detail on that shortly but first lets start by looking at what the largest email marketers are doing for some insight.

chart by eMarketer.com

The most popular day to send email marketing campaigns are Monday and Tuesday. Thursday and Friday are not too far behind. Wednesday is the least popular business day to contact your email list and the weekend sees half as much volume as the first two days of the week.

Weekends are the least popular days to send email marketing campaigns due to the fact that many people won't be checking their email at work and that a large portion of email marketing is business to business.

I'm not saying that these are the best days to send your emails but it's good to see what the competition is doing. We'll examine the issue more in the future. And don't forget that besides sending your email on the right days, you can increase your opens by offering your list more options and keeping your marketing emails relevant.

-----

Contact Us today for information on email marketing solutions, email list rental, pricing, demo or to learn more.

Make Your Email Marketing Go Viral

photo by Stuart Richards

Did you realize that it's possible for your email marketing campaigns to go viral? This means that after you send out your promotion to your email list, the recipients decide to forward that email along to friends on their own email list.

When this happens, you can have thousands of people who aren't even on your list see your email message. It also improves the chance of converting these people into new customers or possibly get them to opt-in to your list. This is because the message or offer has already received a "thumbs up" from one of their friends. The recipient is way more likely to open the email once it's received a seal of approval from someone they trust.

It can grow the scale of your marketing campaign exponentially. And it can grow at no added cost for you. Each of those email forwards isn't costing you a thing.

It's not just about forwarding emails anymore though, your message can go viral in other ways. It can get bookmarked in Delicious, it can get blogged about, it can be reposted on Facebook. There's multiple channels for that viral offer to spread itself on the web.

Why would people share your offer though? Because it's that GOOD. Because it's EXCITING. Because your offer stands out so high above other email marketing messages that people legitimately want to tell their friends. They feel that the people they know on their email lists could benefit from this. They also feel that your trustworthy.

Are your offers this good? Are they worth sharing? Are you trustworthy?

If not, then make a plan for your next campaign so they will be.

For a free email marketing consultation, Contact Orange Email Marketing.

Make Money During Recession with Email Marketing

photo by Noah Coffey

How about a big pile of money? YES! I don't want to sound greedy or materialistic (I'm not) but money is a good thing. It provides security to you and your family. And right now a lot of people are feeling really insecure and bad about it.

That's understandable. But as I wrote about yesterday, let's stop being negative and make money instead.

To make money you need to stop being scared and instead take ACTION. You need to set a goal, make a plan and then take action to make it happen.

You are interested in email marketing. That's why you're here. That's great, because there is money to be made in email marketing. I work with clients who are making money through their email marketing campaigns every day, right now, in the middle of a recession.

Companies are spending even more money on email marketing during the recession. Email marketing is targeted, it's affordable, it's trackable and it shows a measurable return on investment, which is why companies are increasing email marketing budgets.

There's money to be made out there. I have a client who works in the travel industry selling discount park sleep fly packages, which are travel specials that give you long term airport parking, a hotel room for the night and a shuttle bus to the airport for less than the price of just parking your car at the airport alone.

Instead of rushing to the airport in the morning, you simply spend the night in a hotel right next to the airport, park your car in the hotel's secure long term parking lot and then take the free shuttle bus to the airport. No stress, no rush and you save money. Can't beat that. He serves major US airports with Chicago O'Hare park and fly, Boston Logan park and fly, Newark park and fly and many more. He's even adding new destinations because of demand and just signed up Laguardia park and fly hotels up for his service.

The point is, he's making MONEY. Actually, he's making MORE money. In January 2009 he set RECORD sales for his business! That's the travel business; you know, one of those "discretionary" expenses that people supposedly cut back on during tough times.

But that's not the case, at least not for him. He's not hunkering down afraid or scaling back plans. He's expanding his business. He's spending more money on search engine marketing, not less. Just like the businesses that thrived during the great depression, instead of scaling back on marketing like his competition, he's taking advantage of their budget cuts to put his business in front of more people. He actually has less competition than he did six months ago!

And he's making record profits in the middle of a recession! Take that, naysayers!

While your competition goes into panic mode, you could be expanding your market. People are still buying products and services. The STRONG businesses with great products, great service and well thought out business plans are going to survive just fine.

Use email marketing to boost your website traffic. Build relationships with existing customers. Build trust with new customers. Make more money even during a recession!

For a free email marketing consultation and full service email marketing - Contact Orange Email Marketing.

Stop the Negativity and Make Money Instead.

photo by Derrek Farr

Right now a lot of people are feeling very insecure.

That's understandable. These are uncertain times. There's nothing but negativity, negativity, and more negativity about the economy in the news.

But do you know what? The news is ALWAYS about negativity. Sometimes it's about the war, sometimes it's about natural disasters, sometimes it's about a murder in a safe neighborhood much like the one you live in, and sometimes it's about the economy. But the news is ALWAYS about negativity.

I actually stopped watching the nightly news years ago because it never failed to make me feel bad. Then I got caught up watching it again over the last year because of the US presidential election. And I kept watching it after the election was over because I was in the habit. I wanted to stay up on the latest stories - like the economy.

Where did that get me? DEPRESSED. Feeling negative, just like the news wants me too. Tragedy and negativity sells on the TV news, and I DON'T WANT IT ANYMORE. I'm done with it. Enough is enough.

The newspapers are no better. Do you know why the newspapers are so negative? Because they are all FAILING BUSINESSES. They're caught up in the negative mindset. They report it and they live it. Layoffs, falling revenue and pay cuts, that's what the people who work at newspapers deal with. The Chicago Tribune, the NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post, they're all on the verge of bankruptcy? It's NOT A COINCIDENCE that this negativity and uncertainty is reflected in their news.

If you thought you were about to lose your job and your job was to write, what kind of stories do you think you would write? Negative ones! Job losses! Financial melt down! Companies going bankrupt!

This negative attitude just feeds on itself. You've of course heard the expression "You are what you eat". It doesn't stop there though. You are what you READ. You are what you expose yourself to. You are what you think. Negativity just builds more negativity.

Just put a stop to it! Stop watching the news and stop reading the newspaper. Stop voluntarily putting negative thoughts into your head.

Do you want to be a victim or do you want to take charge? Do you want to focus on fear or potential? Take control of what you put in your head. Take control of your thoughts. Take control of the direction of your life.

Do I sound like Dr Phil or something? Sorry but I'm being real here. You've probably seen that show. Some person with a messed up life who makes terrible decisions goes on the show. It's easy for Dr Phil to see what the problem is. It's easy for everyone in the audience to see what's wrong. Everybody watching TV at home is yelling at this idiot.

And they're all right. The person on show needs to take control of their life. They need to stop making decisions that are clearly bad. They need to take responsibility for their actions.

Most of us are the same way. I'm taking charge. I'm done with negativity. I'm going to make money. There's lots of money to be made still out there. Even with job losses, there are literally BILLIONS of dollars spent every single day. Fortunes were made during the great depression. New companies formed and they THRIVED while everyone else was caught up in "how bad things are".

Do you choose to live in Fear or choose to live in Hope?

-----

At Orange Email Marketing, we're seeing increased sales and leads for three consecutive months, even with recession fears. I have a client in the travel industry - Yes, travel, where everyone is supposed to be cutting back, who just made RECORD profits for his business. Not surprisingly, he's real happy. There is money to be made.

Contact Us today for information on email marketing solutions, email list rental, pricing, demo or to learn more.

Sometimes Boring Subject Lines Work

photo by Tal Bright

I spend a lot of time obsessing about email subject lines. That's an easy thing to do when you're constantly working on email marketing campaigns.

The email subject line is so important. It's as big as a factor as the email marketing message, copywriting, offer and followup. It's the difference between a click and a delete.

You know that you should keep your subject line short and clear. Let's look at a few subject lines that have worked well for me:

• Orange Email Marketing Newsletter
• An Invitation from Orange Email Marketing.
• Upcoming Events at Orange Email Marketing

Those subject lines are kind of boring, huh? The thing is though, they worked. They were clear about what the subject of the email was. It was clear who sent them. They weren't vary sales-y.

Here's a few subject lines that didn't yield good results:

• Orange Email Marketing Holiday Sales Event
• Need More Advertising Value From Your Marketing Partner?
• Now Offering Orange Email Marketing Services

They didn't seem all that bad at the time. Results proved otherwise though. They were probably "too sales-y", too "special offer-y". Anything that appears to cross the line of the "hard sell" doesn't always work. People on your email list get a lot special offers in their inbox, it's hard to convince them to click yours.

It could also be a problem with segmentation. Did someone sign up for a newsletter list but then end up on your special offer list?

Wait, do you even have more then one list? If not you need to offer options for better targeting. Create a separate list for those special offers and you will see your click through rate increase, even with your sales-y subject lines when you know that what you list expects to see.

-----
For a free email marketing consultation and full service email marketing - Contact Orange Email Marketing.

Offer Email Marketing Options for Better Targeting

photo by David Johnson

Are you offering prospects on your email marketing list options on what they would like to receive?

As email marketing has evolved, so have the expectations of the email recipients. In the beginning there was always a "one size fits all" mentality to email marketing. You offer a signup form on your site, people sign up. They receive emails regarding products and maybe a newsletter.

But nowadays your business will receive better results by creating multiple opt in email lists. This allows you to better segment your lists into different groups and where they may be in the buying process. You have one list for existing customers. One list for potential customers. You have a list for your email newsletter and a different list for specific products.

By segmenting your list into several lists, you can provide better, more relevant information to the recipients. Your company may offer several services or products but they might only be interested in one. Another person may want your monthly newsletter but not be interested in the weekly special offers.

That's fine. Give them what they want. Let them have control over how many emails they will receive each month. Keep them happy instead of sending them info they're not interested in and risking them deciding to unsubscribe from your list. You can always offer them the option to signup for another list later on.

-

Visit Orange Email Marketing for more information on email marketing campaigns, to view our email marketing software prices, email software demo or signup today.

Checklist of Email Marketing Data

photo by Ed Siasoco

Time for another checklist to improve the results of your email marketing campaigns. So far we did a simple email quality control checklist and a email relevancy checklist.

Now lets look at the email marketing data that you have already. You have your email marketing list. You likely already have data collected from marketing campaigns utilizing this list.

What can you ask yourself about this data to better leverage it for future campaigns?

• Which campaigns have performed best?
• Why did it perform best? Was it your list? Was it your offer? Was it your subject line?
• How can you use this information to test results for future improvement?
• Could you better segment your list by gender, zip code, age, repeat and new customers or other factors?
• How could you follow up to your list based on the actions different recipients took? Could the next message be changed for those who clicked, those who purchased and those who didn't?
• How will you measure the success of your next campaign?
• What is your plan of action after your current campaign?

The questions you ask yourself about the data and results you receive after each marketing campaign will help determine the success of your future campaigns. When your results aren't what you hope for, some people just want to move on to another offer or a different list.

Don't keep doing the same thing every time, always study your results and look to see what you can do better.

----

For information on full service email marketing, please contact Orange Email Marketing for a free consultation.

Keep Your Email Messages Relevant

photo by shoothead

Previously I gave you a simple checklist for your email campaigns to make sure your messages work correctly. That covers very simple way to insure your email list recipients receive and error free professional looking message. Now lets do another list to make sure your messages are relevant.

The people who receive your email marketing messages are going to much happier if they receive something they actually WANT. No surprise there but people still mess this one up. Just recycling a campaign you've already used in print or direct mailing isn't going to cut it. These questions will require more work then spell checking and copying and pasting.

Questions to ask to make sure your email message is relevant:

• What is your business goal for the campaign?
• How will your email marketing campaign compliment your other marketing efforts?
• What aspects of your previous campaigns was successful?
• What aspects of previous campaigns were not successful?
• Can you summarize the value of your message to customers in one sentence?
• Is there a clear Call To Action?
• How will you measure this campaigns success?
• What will you do after the campaign is over to build on your success?

Ask yourself and your team these questions in order to keep your campaigns relevant. Know your goals, know how to measure success and work your campaign into your overall marketing strategy. Consider what came before and what you will do in the future and you will ensure the best results.

-----

Contact Orange Email Marketing for information on pricing for email marketing campaigns.

A Simple Email Marketing Checklist

photo by diskychick

So your email marketing campaign is ready to go? Got a great subject line? Defined your objectives? Spent time creating a well targeted opt in email list?

Wait one minute!

Don't send out your message just yet. It's worth your extra time to make sure your message is ready to go. A simple mistake, a typo, could derail your whole campaign.

Here's an Email Checklist That You'll be Really Angry if You Don't Follow:

• Spell Check! It's built into your programs for a reason. A typo looks unprofessional and could even change the meaning of your message.
• Check EVERY single link in your message. One bad link can destroy it's effectiveness.
  
• Get someone else to proofread it. It's hard to see your own mistakes sometimes, especially if you've been staring at the same message for a long time.
• Check the Landing Page. Your email may be perfect, but what if the form on your hot new landing page isn't?
• Create Alt Tags for all images. If the images are turned off in the users email, you can still transmit crucial information with the Alt Tags.

That may not seem like much but you'll be sorry if you don't do these things. You can destroy a campaign really quick with a stupid mistake if you don't check things over carefully. You would be surprised how often I see broken links on email messages. Take it from me, you don't want that to happen!

Nine Ways to Keep Up With Increased Inbox Competition in 2009

photo by Gaetan Lee

I've talked about how companies are increasing spending on email marketing during the recession and how email marketing is more relevant than ever in 2009, so this will lead us to another point to discuss about email marketing this year.

With so many companies planning on INCREASING their email marketing expenditures because of it's affordable pricing and ROI, that means there is going to be increased COMPETITION as well.

Are your email marketing campaigns ready to face the increased competition? Will your email list messages stand out from all the others in your customers inbox? Let's review a few questions that will help judge the potential of your email campaigns:

1. What do your emails offer that the competition does not?
2. Are you offering short term value, long term value or both?
3. Is everyone in your company on the same page about you email marketing?
4. Are your emails reflective of your brand image?
5. Are your email campaigns well targeted?
6. Are you sending too many emails?
7. Are you offering clear benefits to signing up?
8. When you have and exceptionally good or exceptionally bad campaign, are you taking the time to find out WHY?
9. Do your email marketing campaigns have clear objectives?

Ask yourself these questions, discuss them with your sales team and find ways to improve your campaigns for 2009 so you can stand out from those full email inboxes and keep your customers opening your offers.

Companies Love Email Marketing During Recession

photo by Sharat Ganapati

Even as the economic climate has a lot of people watching their budgets carefully, email marketing remains at the top of many marketers lists as a favorite method of ad spend.

The reason is simple: Email Marketing continues to show a consistent return on investment.

When times are tough and budgets need to get cut, the last thing you want to do is cut spending on marketing campaigns that continue to show a positive return on investment for every dollar spent. It's low cost, targeted and measurable effective. That's not the type of thing anyone needs to be cutting their budget on.

Companies are still seeing results from their in house email lists. Your in-house email lists are interested customers who are interested in what you have to offer and have signed up to learn more and receive the benefits your products and services have to offer.

29% of marketers are planning on increasing their spend on email list rentals. These are email lists put together by outside companies and segmented by demographics so they can be rented to other companies. This reverses a trend of recent years where budgets for rented lists have shrunk. The recession though is causing people to reexamine list rentals and to realize that used correctly they still generate a good ROI and can boost your sales in tough times.

Contact Orange Email Marketing for a free consultation about our email list rentals, bulk email broadcasting and email marketing software.

Explode Open Rates with "Front Loaded" Subject Lines

photo by Scott Robinson

So far in my posts about email marketing subject lines, we've talked about the importance of keeping your subject lines short, words that can trigger spam filters and being clear about the contents of an email. I'm going to return to the matter of subject line length and talk about how to maximize the short amount of space you have.

Testing shows that shorter email marketing subject lines have better open rates. Keep it short and simple. This gets your point across quickly and a short subject line has less of a chance of getting cut off in the recipients email program.

One of the main reasons this works is because then you can trim the fat from your subject down to the basic essentials. The person on your email lists can tell right away who it's from and whether or not it's worth opening.

To sweeten the deal, "Front Load" your email messages with the "trigger words" that are most likely to get that point across and get the open. Let them know what the benefit to opening your email will be, and let them know within the first three words. You can see how I applied that same theory to this email marketing blog post, with "Explode Open Rates". That's something that all email marketers want, right?

Get that point across QUICK! Let them know there's a BENEFIT they will receive for opening your email.

For more information and a free consultation, contact Orange Email Marketing, a full service email marketing company.

If You Want Them to Open It, Tell Them What's Inside

photo by Chelsea Oaks

So you want the people on you email marketing lists to open your email? Tell them what's inside!

Sounds easy right? Well it should be yes but lots of people manage to botch this by not being clear in the subject line. Let's take a look at a few poorly written subject lines that just don't make things clear.

"You have to have one!" - One what?
"Extremely important announcement" - Sure it is! Sounds spammy.
"This is so Easy" - What is so easy?
"Top Secret Just for You" - What's this about again?
"Special CD ROM Offer" - Ooooo, I feel special.
"We have the answer" - Did I even ask you a question?
"You asked for more..." - Did I? Did I really? What was it I asked about again?

These just don't make it clear why I should open them. They have answers to questions that I didn't ask. They have less chance of being opened.

How about "Introducing the new Product X"
"Important Product Announcement from Email Marketing Blowout"
"Product X makes cleanup so easy"
"Exclusive Information for Email Blowout Subscribers"
"Free CD ROM for Product X Customers"
"Answers to common questions about the new Product X"
"You asked for more information about Email Marketing Lists"

These do make the subject lines a little longer but they provide information. They give you an idea what's inside. They help inform who it's from and why you may be interested.

Just be clear. No trickery needed. No sales pitch necessary. If you're sending your monthly newsletter than say "Email Blowout Monthly Newsletter" so people no what they're getting.

It is simple after all.

----

Visit Orange Email Marketing for more email marketing solutions.

Words to Keep Out of Your Email Subject Lines

photo by Danny Hope

We've talked about how you should keep your email subject lines short, now lets talk about some words that you should KEEP OUT of your email subject lines. We'll spend a lot of time talking about how to get people to open you emails (All about the SUBJECT and FROM) but you also have to worry about your emails getting there in the first place.

You don't want your emails to get marked as spam, filtered out, and never make it into the inbox. Email marketing has been abused so much that many spam filters have designated certain words as "too spammy".

You may have a great opt in email list of people who want your emails, but if you use the following words in your email subject lines, they will trigger spam filters and never get there.

Words that will trigger spam filters if used in the subject line

$$$
100% free
cash bonus
ad
apply now
Earn $
earn extra cash
explode your business
double your income
eliminate debt
extra income
f r e e
You're a Winner!
fast cash
financial freedom
financially independent
free gift
free info
free membership
free offer
home based
homebased business
income from home
increase sales
increase your sales
incredible deal
info you requested
information you requested
internet market
limited time offer
make $
opportunity
serious cash
web traffic
weight loss
online marketing

Some of these sound like spam - I'm looking at you, "You're a Winner!" but others you might not realize could send you email to the spam folder.

This list is by no means complete. Spam filters have lists that continually grow over time as those spammers try new words to slip by and eventually get caught. I also didn't include the really obvious ones: "Viagra", "Cialis", "penis" and "increase your length". There's really no good reason to us these and if you were planning on using these, well... you're already a spammer anyway :-)

-----

Contact Orange Email Marketing for a free consultation about email marketing, bulk email software, email lists and online marketing.

Email Marketing Subject Lines - Keep it Short and Sweet

photo by Angie Schwendemann

Email Subject Lines! I could talk a lot about their importance in email marketing because they're the most important part of your campaigns. Your email message and offer is extremely important but many recipients will never make it that far if you don't have a good email subject line. Today we'll discuss the optimum length of your subject line.

In the general sense, shorter subject lines are associated with better open rates for your email marketing campaigns. This is a widely excepted general rule and with some testing, you will see the shorter subject lines will usually beat longer subject lines.

Too long of a subject line is worthless because it will end up cut off and unseen by the recipient. The display length will vary depending on the email program being used but you will be limited to somewhere between 45 - 75 characters.

Take advantage of that limited space. Your message has got to be short and sweet, convey the intended message and most importantly, entice that buy email list recipient to open it.

-----

For full service email marketing solutions, contact Orange Email Marketing for a free consultation.

How Many Emails is Too Many?

photo by Gaetan Lee

You've got your targeted email list. You've got permission. You've got content that you're sure you list is going to love, and lots of it. How many marketing emails should you send? How frequently should you send them?

There's no simple answer. A lot of you decision will be based upon your target audience and their buying cycle. This will differ for every business and you should know your customers best.

You certainly need to send more than one message. In direct mailing and advertising, three impressions is considered optimal for generating a response. The goal is to get them to think of you enough so that when it's time to make a purchase they'll think of your company.

The key to having your email marketing messages is that every one of them needs to offer value and usefulness to the recipient. The more sales-y and pressure filled language in the email and the more likely it will be perceived as unwanted. Your audience might be responsive to a strong sales message though. Most don't want the hard sell. Again, it's best to know your customer and what they want.

So what's the optimal number of emails to send a month? It's all up to you. Or better yet, you could leave it to your customers and offer them personalized frequency options, (daily, weekly, monthly, as needed basis). Tailor it right to your audience and you'll get the best results.

Contact Orange Email Marketing for full service email marketing, email marketing software and internet marketing consulting.

Define Your Email Objectives

photo by WoodleyWonderworks

So let's talk about defining your Email Marketing Objectives. What do you want to achieve from your email marketing campaign?

You probably want to make more money. You want to build your business. Those are general "wants" but what we want to define are the objectives. Your objectives should be easy to understand and also to measure.

Breakdown of the Most Common Email Marketing Objectives:

Market Research - You can collect data, demographics and the needs of your customers by conducting research through your email marketing lists. You could test the market potential of a new product before you've invested a lot of resources in it.

Brand Awareness - Trying to get people to pay attention to your company, build new relationships or offering your previous contacts something new.

Prospecting - Just like in traditional outside sales, your trying to reach and entice new customers and start the sales process with them.

Cross-Selling and Up-Selling - Existing clients that you may be able to offer additional products and services to.

Customer Management - You've already made the sale now you want to maintain and build a relationship.

Customer Retention - Keep them as a happy, satisfied customer. Maintain their loyalty and offer special rewards to keep them coming back.

Sales Promotions - Limited time special offers for your lists. A special price to entice them to buy now.

You will notice that many of these are interconnected. They also go beyond just a simple promotion. We're talking about using email marketing as a long term strategy, not a one time thing to make the sale. Your email lists can keep providing you value again and again.

Contact Orange Email Marketing for a free email marketing consultation.

Your Inactive Email Subscribers Still Have Value

photo by cabezadeturco

When any business sends out their email marketing messages, there's usually one specific goal in mind: Make a sale. I know from the clients I consult with, that everyone is obsessed with their click-throughs. That's understandable, as that's the easiest way to quickly judge a campaign. Email marketing click throughs are important but just because you did not make an immediate sale does not always mean the email campaign was unsuccessful.

A leading marketing research company MarketingSherpa decided to find out why some of their email list subscribers were not opening their emails. They did it the old fashioned way, by picking up the phone and calling up subscribers to ask "Why aren't you opeing are emails?".

You might expect to hear a lot of different reasons but the most common one they heard was:

"I like your email. Don't stop sending it. I may not always have time to read it, but I want it."

Surprising? It turns out that almost 40% of the names subscribed through their email list builder were actually "delayed response viewers" meaning they DID open their marketing emails but not on the first day, often waiting up to 30 days to open their emails.

That made me think, I do the same thing as well. I'm signed up to all kinds of marketing news and marketing "guru" lists. I get tons of emails every day. I simply CAN'T read them all because I'm too busy working. But I don't delete them all. When I get the chance, I often scroll through, look at the sender names and subject lines and click on the best ones. I value these emails, even if I can't read them when they first come in.

Just because someone didn't click through on the first day, doesn't mean they're a loss. As long as that person is still subscribed, you can assume they still want your emails. Make sure you're writing good subject lines, make sure you're including content that they would want, and you can still get that sale!

Contact Orange Email Marketing for full service email marketing.

Does Signing Up to Your Email List Offer Real Value?

photo by Saquan Stimpson

So what do I get if I sign up for your email list?

Ask yourself that, put yourself in the place of a visitor to your website. Using myself as an example, why should I sign up for your email list? So I can be bombarded by frequent email messages? No thanks. So I can sign up because I interested in one product but then get the hard sell on other services that I have no interest in? So my email inbox, which is so full that each day several messages go unread can have even MORE messages in it? NO THANKS!

Not that I'm not interested. I am visiting your site after all. I may really like your company and it's products. But if you want me to give you my email, what's in it for me?

Approach your email signup form or newsletter signup with that question in mind. People will gladly opt-in for your email marketing campaign if they think there a real benefit for it.

Here are a few enticements you can make that will increase your opt in email rates:

Give something immediately with signup - Give the person something as soon as they signup. Not just an email or a newsletter. Give them special coupon. A credit to their account. A gift sent to their home. Something to download such as a report, mp3, a video. There are really limitless possibilities but the point is GIVE THEM SOMETHING and make it INSTANT GRATIFICATION. No only will they be more likely to opt in but they've received value from you already and their first impression of you is favorable.

Tell them you won't share your address - So simple to overlook but this one increases signups EVERY time. In fact it's the most requested offer people want to hear. Chances are that your list is more valuable to your company than anyone else, so why sell it? Keep it to yourself and build a customer relationship and more sales. Let them know you don't sell your list and they won't start getting emails from every one of your affiliates and business partners.

Special Prices for Subscribers - People love getting a deal, and they love knowing they're getting a better deal then everyone else. Signup for your newsletter and take 5% off of every order.

Customize Email Frequency - Let them decide if they want weekly or monthly emails.

Sneak Previews of New Products or Early Ordering - Again, this is offering them something the "regular" customers don't get. Let your subscribers buy the product a month before everyone else can and they'll love you.


There are many more possibilities. The point is, they're giving you something, so you need to give them something if you want that email. From there it's only a matter of time before you make that sale.

Contact Orange Email Marketing for more Email Marketing Services

Too Many Emails Will Lose You Customers

Photo by Ricardo Liberato

You know I'm a big advocate of email marketing. I talk about it here every day. I make money with it and so do many of the clients I perform email marketing consulting with. So how do I feel about he email marketing messages that end up in my personal inbox?

The answer to that question will lead us to today's lesson: Don't send TOO MANY email messages.

Yes, there is definitely such a thing as too many email messages. Of course, this should be obvious, because you, much like myself, are deleting emails out of your inbox every day without ever reading them. Yet somehow, many of the email marketing campaigns run by some of the largest and most successful companies in the world fail to realize this.

Here's an example. I ordered a product online from a well known clothing retailer that you can find in major cities across the country. When I placed my order I was signed into their email list, which I had absolutely no problem with. I really like their products and check into their site when there are specials, because when not on sale their clothes are a little expensive for me. But when they send me an email, there's always a link to the "SALE" section of the site, which offers online only discounts. This sale link is another great thing to add to your email messages by the way. Promote your main offer, but include a couple other links of interest.

But the point is this: I am voluntarily opted into their email list. I really like this store. I really like their products. I WANT to receive messages from them. So what's the problem.

The problem is this: Over the course of the month of December, I began to receive DAILY emails from them. Every single day there would be a new email. Now, who really needs to receive a marketing email from store, even one that you like every single day? Maybe some people do, but I do not.

So I opted out. I withdrew myself from the email list of a company who's products I enjoy and who I had even wanted to receive emails from. But they abused my permission. They didn't have something valuable to offer in each message, they were just pestering me. This isn't what I wanted, and research shows it's not what most people want. The average customer is fine with one email a week. Five a week though is TOO MUCH.

Learn the lesson: If you abuse your opt in email lists, you're going to just anger the very people who you're trying to sell to. You're going to get people like me, who love your products and want to receive your emails, to say "Forget it!" and opt out. You're emails are going to get marked as spam, which will hurt the deliverability of all your marketing emails. You're going to lose customers and you're going to lose money.

SO DON'T ABUSE YOUR EMAIL LISTS!!!!

Contact Orange Spot Email Marketing for Email Marketing Software Pricing

Holiday Email Marketing Soars

photo by Martin Howard

Yesterday I wrote about how during a recession email marketing is more important than ever due to it's affordability and accountability. Today I can provide you data showing that the country's biggest retailers agree with me.

According to the Retail Email Index, email marketing volume for the nation's biggest retailers was up big time over the 2008 holiday season. Email messages sent out by the top 100 U.S. retailers was up 45% over 2007. Marketing messages in 2007 were up 42% over 2006. As you can see, email marketing usage continues to grow year by year.

Although volume was up, so were the number of emails that were blocked or had other deliverability issues. This just drives home the fact that you need to have a quality opt in email list that is receptive to your messages. You may want to segment your list even further to insure you don't lose subscribers. Just because someone opted in for one of your lists, doesn't mean they wanted to receive every email your company sends out. Create separate email lists so that your customers stay happy. A few unwanted emails and you could lose that contact for good.

Contact Orange Email Marketing for information on email list rental today.

Why Email Marketing is More Relevant Than Ever in 2009

Photo by Peter Kaminski

Is Email Marketing in your advertising mix for 2009? Are you thinking email is sooooooo been done, nobody reads it anymore? If so, it's time to adjust your thinking, because email marketing usage continues to grow, even as other marketing budgets shrink.

Why is that? It's not because it's a fad, email is well established now and not just the "next big thing" like Twitter is now and Second Life two years ago. Email marketing has been used and abused for so long it just seems like old hat to some people.

Everyone else though, is still using it. Many, many people and companies are using email marketing to make big money. Others are using it for promotion, branding, list building, advertising and lead acquisition..... which in the long run will make you more money.

At the start of 2009, as advertising budgets are shrinking, many companies are INCREASING their email marketing budget. Why is that? Because email marketing is cheap, highly traceable and accountable for every dime that is spent. When you compare the price of a TV ad to the price of email marketing, it's not even close. You can reach tens of thousands of customers instantly with email, and you will know exactly how many of them viewed it, visited your site and spent money. No other media spend can give you that kind of certainty.

If you have been ignoring or underutilizing your email marketing efforts, it's time to look at this medium again. Find Custom Email Marketing Solutions with Orange Email Marketing.