Five Common Email Marketing Mistakes

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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 Newsletters Build Customer Relationships

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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.

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

Offer Email Marketing Options for Better Targeting

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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.

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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

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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.

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

A Simple Email Marketing Checklist

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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!

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.

How Many Emails is Too Many?

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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.

Your Inactive Email Subscribers Still Have Value

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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?

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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

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

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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.