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.

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!

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.

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.