Email Marketing Tips

7 Ways to Collect Email Address

Your email campaign starts with a strong list. Without a good list of people who "opt-in" you aren't going to be able to make email marketing work for you.

Here are 7 little-used ways to collect email addresses:

1. Pop-ups

One of the most underused and highly effective ways to capture emails is to create a pop-up window on your web site. This can be a pop-up on entry or exit - they are both effective.

2. Subscriber box

You should prominently provide a email subscriber box on each of your site's web pages. This will significantly increase your sign-ups.

3. Postcard

If your customer list is mainly offline you can send out a postcard and offer an incentive for them to send back their email address.

4. Contests

Contests are a great way to capture opt-in email addresses because most people will have to give you their correct address so they can be informed when they win.

5. Advertise Your Autoresponder Address

Many people will run ads advertising their web site. A smarter way is to run ads or promotions and use an autoresponder email address - this way you will capture all email information from interested prospects. The autoresponder will be set-up to automatically deliver your promotion to people that request it. Learn more about autoresponder

6. Capture Using Simple Forms

Most offline stores and businesses completely miss an opportunity to capture the email addresses of their customers. Any time a customer or prospect phones you, walks in or does business with you is an opportunity to capture their email address.

7. Give Aways (free ebooks, software, etc.)

Give aways or "bribes" are highly effective means of capturing emails. You need to provide people with an incentive to give you their email address. People are becoming more hesitant to hand out their email addresses for fear of rampant spamming - but if your incentive is big enough you'll get lots of emails to build your list.

Tips Creating Winning Emails

Did you know that how you format your e-mail can literally make or break the success of your e-mail campaign? It's true...

If you make mistakes formatting your e-mail to your customers and subscribers, you risk looking unprofessional, destroying your credibility, and having your hard work tossed in the trash without ever being read!

After all, why should readers consider the product recommendation of someone who doesn't even know how to format an e-mail correctly?

Remember that different e-mail programs will display your e-mail differently. Plus, different people will have their personal program set to read their incoming mail in different fonts, different sizes, different widths, etc...

So to ensure that, on average, readers have a similar view of any correspondence you send them, follow these simple formatting tips...

7 Quick Tips For Formatting Your Text E-mail

1) Use a good text editor.

As wonderful as Microsoft Word may be, it is NOT the tool to be using when formatting e-mail copy. To skip the quirky formatting mistakes and avoid the frustrating comedy of errors Word frequently generates in a situation like this, I highly recommend using a good text editor. However, Notepad and Wordpad, which come with Windows and can be found under Programs>Accessories in your Start menu, will do the trick as well.

2) Set your line length to 65 characters.

Have you ever received an e-mail that looked like this?

> You might be wondering how anyone could
>let this
> happen. After all, wouldn't they notice
>that their e-mail has been broken up into numerous different
> lines,
>each a different length?

... I'm sure you've probably received e-mail that looks like this before. It's not only hard to read, it's annoying!

Fortunately, it's a mistake that's easily avoided by setting your line length to 65 characters (or by setting your right indentation to 2.5").

The typical default width your readers' e-mail clients will open to is 65 characters, so by setting your line length to this width, you'll avoid having long lines of text cut off and displayed like in the example above.

3) Use hard carriage returns (i.e. press "Enter") at the end of each line.

Some older e-mail clients don't actually have "word wrap," so to avoid having your e-mail appear as one long line of text that readers will need to use the horizontal scroll bar to read, manually press "enter" at the end of each line (i.e. every 65 characters).

4) Use a fixed-width font.

When formatting your e-mail, do so in a fixed-width font like Courier that uses an equal amount of space to display each character.

For example,

This is Courier.
This is Arial.

As you can see, Courier consistently uses the same amount of space to display each character, while Arial varies in width.

This is important because the majority of e-mail clients use fixed-width fonts as their default (the exception being Eudora, which defaults to Arial).

While an e-mail formatted in a fixed-width font looks good when displayed in a font like Arial, an e-mail formatted in a font like Arial looks terrible displayed in a fixed-width font.

By formatting your e-mail in a fixed-width font, you'll ensure that it looks good no matter what font your reader's e-mail client defaults to.

5) Spell check and proofread everything!

While I'm the first to admit that everyone makes mistakes now and then, there is absolutely no excuse for the blatant errors I see made in many e-mail promotions I receive. Remember that spelling mistakes and poor grammar make you look unprofessional and damage your credibility.

So before clicking "Send," take that extra minute to spell check your work and have a couple of other people read it. You may save yourself some embarrassment... and prevent lost sales!

6) Keep paragraphs 4-5 lines in length -- no longer!

By keeping your paragraphs 4 to 5 lines in length, you ensure that your e-mail is easy to read. The more white space you use, the better. Long, never-ending sentences that run on for 8 lines get very difficult to read, causing readers to become frustrated and delete your e-mail.

7) Test, test, test!

Before sending your e-mail to your entire list, take an extra 15 minutes to test how it looks in a variety of e-mail clients such as:

Eudora -- free versions at http://www.eudora.com/
Outlook -- found at http://www.microsoft.com/
Outlook Express -- found free at http://www.microsoft.com/

As well as in a couple of web-based e-mail clients such as:

Hotmail -- free account at http://www.hotmail.com/
Yahoo! -- free account at http://mail.yahoo.com

By setting up these different "test accounts," you'll give yourself the opportunity you need to fix any problems and guarantee that all of your subscribers receive the same professional looking e-mail.

Final Thoughts:

It won't matter if you've spent a year writing your copy. If the format of your e-mail doesn't make your text easy to read, then you'll be no further ahead.

A professionally formatted e-mail makes you look like a credible business owner who takes what you do very seriously. It invites readers to examine your e-mail... check out your offer... and seriously consider making a purchase based on your recommendations.

Which basically means, professional formatting translates into increased sales! And I think you'll agree, there's nothing wrong with that.

Email Copy Tips

When writing your email copy throw everything you learned in English 101 out the window.

1. Personalize

There's nothing better for a person to see their name. Use personalization in the subject line and inside the body of the email (but don't overdo it so it looks hokey).

2. Write just like you talk

Use plain, easy to understand English. Nobody cares if you can use xenophobia and ostentatious in a sentence. Write almost like you're talking to a buddy over a beer. So that means use contractions. Be friendly and personable in your writing.

3. Put passion into your email

Since you won't have the luxury of seeing your prospect eye-to-eye to gauge their reactions you need to put extra passion into your message. Even if you think you are overdoing it when you write, your letter will end understated when it gets read. Get enthusiastic!

4. Write to one person

Try to think of the ideal prospect as you are writing and make the message just for them. Even if your web site will be read by thousands of people each day -- every person will read it one at a time. Use "you" and "your" liberally. Focus on them, not yourself.

5. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short

Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and simple.
Period.
Sentences (and even paragraphs) can even be one word like that last one. And paragraphs should be no more than 4 or 5 lines. You want your email to look easy to read with a lot of white space. Make it inviting. Long blocks of words are scary. Paragraph breaks do not need to be determined by content.

6. Use plenty of compelling subheads

Subheads should be like mini-headlines. Use them to break up large bodies of text and to bring people back into the body of the letter. A lot of people will scan your email so you need to make you subheads give a complete selling message by themselves. Also, be sure to use different graphic embellishments.

7. Eliminate excess wording

Simplify. Convey your message in a clear and concise manner -- but remember that doesn't mean keep it short. You need to ruthlessly edit your email for flow.

8. Use action verbs whenever possible

If you see too many "as", "is", "was" or "were" replace them. Sentences using action verbs are more powerful. When writing your email you want it clear enough so any 6th grader could understand it. Now you probably think your prospects are a lot smarter than 6th graders but nobody has time anymore to sit down and figure out what you're trying to say -- so keep your writing simple and straightforward.

Spam vs. Bulk E-mail

I know that with all of the conflicting information out there, it can get pretty confusing. What’s considered spam and what’s considered legitimate bulk e-mail? I think it's time we explained...

Spam, also referred to as "UCE" or "Unsolicited Commercial E-mail," basically involves sending e-mail to large lists of people with whom you have no previous relationship. The e-mail addresses may have been "harvested" from AOL or CompuServe forums and member directories, classified ads, public newsgroups, etc…

Bulk e-mail, on the other hand, involves e-mailing your previous customers, newsletter subscribers, opt-in e-mail list, etc… These are individuals who have willingly given you their e-mail addresses.

Does this make sense? Spam involves sending e-mail to people you don’t know – people who have NOT given you permission to contact them. Bulk e-mail involves sending e-mail to people like your customers and subscribers – people who HAVE given you permission to contact them.

Spam will enrage 90% of your e-mail list… you’ll get nasty threats and e-mails… your ISP can cancel your account… and the list goes on! Legitimate bulk e-mail, on the other hand, can make you a LOT of money because it gives you the opportunity to capitalize on existing relationships with people who know and trust you.

2 Mistakes Email Marketing

MISTAKE #1: Purchasing Lists of Millions of E-mail Addresses

You have probably received unsolicited e-mail from people/companies offering to sell you millions of addresses on a CD for $200 (or whatever price). Please heed this warning: DON'T BUY THEM!

They’ll try to sell you on the idea that even if you get a 1% (or less) response rate, you will still make tens of thousands of dollars. And unfortunately, a lot of people get sucked into this marketing "myth" and lose thousands of dollars – even their business – thinking this one technique is going to make them rich.

Let me explain why this won’t work…

They may say that for $199 you can buy 20 million e-mail addresses. They’ll tell you that this is a great deal because even if you only get a 1% response to your offer, you will still make 200,000 sales.

Then they’ll throw some impressive figures at you, telling you that even if you only make $10 profit on each order, this one mailing will earn you an astonishing $2,000,000!

Finally, they’ll conclude their outrageous spiel by saying that even if you really screwed up and received a measly 0.01% response, you would still make $200,000 in profit.

Those are pretty big figures, right? Well, don’t be fooled by the numbers game these companies play. It’s not worth it! They’re lying to you!

FACT: You will be LUCKY if you receive one order for every 100,000 e-mails you send. And that’s assuming you don’t get shut down by your ISP (your Internet Service Provider) within a few hours due to complaints, their mail server being clogged, or any other number of problems that could occur!

These e-mail addresses have usually been collected WITHOUT the permission of the address owners. They've been harvested from newsgroups, classified ads sites, auction sites, etc… So obviously it's ridiculous to think that you're getting "millions of targeted addresses."

Plus, with the complaints that your spam will likely produce, you’ll be lucky if you manage to get out 50,000 e-mails before your Internet access is terminated… and this isn’t even enough to make a single sale!

So let’s do the math one more time:

Let’s say that, by some miracle, you were able to get out 20,000,000 e-mails! (There is no way you could do this without some pretty heavy-duty equipment.) You make 1 sale for every 100,000 e-mails you send… so this means that you’ve generated about 200 sales. For each sale you close, you earn $10 profit. This means that your total profits from this mailing are $2,000.

That doesn’t sound too bad, right?

WRONG! To do a mailing like this, you would need to invest $500 to $1,000 in software, spend $200 on the mailing list, and numerous hundreds of dollars dealing with other problems… like your hostile ISP!

If your time is worth anything – and I’m sure it is – you will have probably LOST money by the time everything is said and done. (Never mind your bruised ego from all of the people who sent you nasty messages.)

I promise you that this just isn’t worth it. I’ve seen too many people do it and get in way over their heads. Why would you knowingly anger tens of thousands of people? It just doesn’t make good business sense!

MISTAKE #2: Using the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) Field To Send E-mail

There are a lot of spammers who use the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) field of their regular e-mail client (like Eudora or Outlook Express) to send their e-mail. They cut and paste their e-mail list into the BCC field so recipients won’t be able to see how many people the e-mail has been sent to.

The general public has caught onto this trick, however, and many people have started filtering out any e-mail received where their e-mail address doesn’t appear in the "To:" or "CC:" field. The message is assumed to be spam and automatically deleted!

This is why, when doing a legitimate bulk mailing, you need to avoid using the BCC field. You don’t want people to delete your newsletter, e-zine, free information, or promotional letter before they’ve even seen it!

Rather than using the BCC field, you should be using a program like Mailloop to personalize and individually send e-mail to your customers and subscribers. This will prevent your readers’ e-mail clients from automatically deleting your message.

Mailloop will also ensure that your readers’ mail servers don’t delete your message! Many mail servers are now set-up to automatically delete e-mail messages that have more than 15 to 20 e-mail addresses in the BCC field (or how many they have chosen to set their limit at).

So it won’t matter if you’re legitimately sending a newsletter to someone who has requested it, without a program like Mailloop that puts each individual e-mail address in the TO: field, many of your e-mails will be deleted before they ever reach your clients and subscribers. If you want your customers and subscribers to receive your e-mail, you need to be aware of these spam filters!

Another problem with using the BCC field to send bulk e-mail is that it is very slow. While it may look like a fast process when you are sending the e-mail using your e-mail client, most of the e-mail addresses will actually be handled very slowly once they reach the server!

In fact, if the server is busy, it can take a day or two before all of your messages really get sent. Worse yet, if the server’s SENDMAIL program crashes in the middle of your mailout, you will lose some of the mailings but never know which ones or how many.

E-mail clients such as Eudora or Outlook Express have not been designed to handle bulk mailings. As a result, many people have a lot of problems with their e-mail client "timing-out" before their mailing is complete.

If the server is busy, Eudora or Outlook Express will "time out" before all of your messages have been sent. This is a problem because the next time you press "send," the mailing will start from the beginning again. You’ll have no way of knowing how many people have already received your message!

This is one of the fastest ways to upset your customers and subscribers – you need to avoid making this critical error. Fortunately, if you use software such as Mailloop , you will not have this problem at all because it has protection mechanisms in place to prevent this – it will simply restart from where it left off.