Email Marketing Strategies & Tips

Email marketing refers to marketing to a list of opt-in email subscribers. This is a very powerful form of online marketing.

Creating effective email marketing campaigns requires capturing subscribers and sending email that is appropriate for what your subscribers want to know about.

First off, let's start with how to capture email leads

Capturing Email Leads

Your website is missing out on lots of potential sales if you are not capturing opt-in email marketing leads for your business

Opt-in Email leads are those people most interested in what you have to offer.  One of your marketing goals should be to capture as many of them as possible.  By gathering interested names and email addresses you can consistently deliver informative, useful information related to your products or services. In addition it's the perfect strategy for bringing them back to your website time and time again.  

Got new information to your site? send an email. Offering a sale?  Send an email.  Got some handy tips, tricks or strategies? send and email.  It's a very powerful tool.

Fact:  It takes an average of 7 notifications before a visitor buys.  You can't notify someone of your products if you can't keep continuous contact with them. That's why email marketing is so powerful.

You can best capture targeted email leads by providing an opt-in form that allows them to sign-up.  To effectively do this you will want to offer something of value in return, a newsletter, a free ebook, a mini-course, topic tips, etc.   Here are a few options for getting leads:

• Write an article.  In the article resource box instead of directing your readers to your home page, direct the reader to your newsletter page or email course page where they can sign up for your opt-in, whatever that might be.  Each time you write an article you'll see more and more sign ups.
• Use forums to build your list. Many forums will allow you to add your website address to your signature line. But a few words of advice. Join the forum with intention of helping others.  Simply making an entry that says, "nice post" with your signature and website address is spamming the forum and that's not benefiting your or anyone else. 
• Be sincere with comments, go with the attitude of making a useful contribution.   Forums are best used when you can make personal contacts, develop networking and actually show others what you're really all about.  Also be sure to read all forum rules & policies before signing up.  
• I do not recommend buying names and email addresses.  These lists can leave you vulnerable to sending email to people that can hurt your business.  With most purchased email safelists you're not sure how reliable the lists are, most of the time the lists are outdated leaving you with names and addresses that are useless or worse yet will accuse you of spamming.  
• If you have a website, simply post a web form that requires a viewer to sign up for a free product or service.  This can be your free weekly newsletter or perhaps a free ebook.  I recommend double-opt in which requires the person opting in to confirm their sign-up by going to their email address and confirming their request.  In order to do this you will need an email autoresponder. Companies like Aweber offer excellent products to help you achieve a smooth running email opt-in campaign.

Once you have an email list, you can notify them of newly added website content, new products, topic information, seminars, contests or whatever it is you want to make an announcement about.  The point is, you want to keep people coming back to your site.

Here's an ebook resource for finding free ebooks that you can give away.

Writing Your emails

Sending out an Email to a permission based email list is one of the fastest and easiest ways to promote products but it takes a bit of skill.  My first emails were pretty funny, I had no idea how to market effectively and present my case in a compelling manner.

Let's take a really simple example (and this is really simplified)  of how an email promotion might look:

Let's analyze this:

Note the difference between benefits vs. features.  I like to leave the features per se up to the merchant to expand on.  I sometimes put them in my promotions but I like to focus more on the benefits. 

For example, let's say I promote a running shoe with added cushioning and arch support and lightweight mesh. The arch support, cushioning and lightweight mesh are the features, the benefits are added comfort, longer running time and lightweight for added energy.

Endorsement letters work because of credibility.  Your viewers and email subscribers feel they know you, so they want to hear what you think about a product.  Did you like it, what didn't you like, etc. People want to hear your personal experience.

It only makes sense that someone would rather hear your opinion than some long drawn out sales letter.

One of the most important things to remember is to point out to your reader what's in it for THEM, not how great it was for YOU.   Talk about your experience with the product but keep the direction focused on your reader, not on yourself.  Also, just saying the product is great and that you  liked it is not enough. Be specific about the benefits.

For example, instead of beginning an email with:

"I've just discovered a new product,"  instead say  "If you are looking for an easy way to do XYZ, then here's something new I just ran across."

Notice the first statement says "I've discovered", the second says "if you are looking for".  See the difference?

Tips on formatting your emails:

- Don't hype. People get turned off quickly by hype,  plus you'll lose your effectiveness. Exclamation points should only be used to make an outstanding, exceptional point and only use one, not a bunch of them like this!!!!!!!

- Use CAPITAL LETTERS SPARINGLY. USING A LOT OF CAPS LIKE THIS IS A BIT LIKE SHOUTING AND IT'S ALSO HARD TO READ.  Using a few caps goes a long way so use them sparingly.

- Keep your emails to 58 characters per line.  If your line is too long some email readers will put line breaks in the middle of the sentences which makes the email hard to read.

Email MarketingTools and Software

Aweber Review
Best Autoresponder service hands down. Aweber is without a doubt, my favorite autoresponder service, and a consistent favorite of many other marketers and business owners as well.  I've renewed my service every year for the past three years because I haven't found a better tool than Aweber, ever!

Instant Niche Emails
Create follow-up emails with the click of your mouse.  This little piece of software will create 52 follow up marketing emails for any niche you could think of, saving you weeks of writing!

More Email Marketing Tips

Build Your Opt-in lists - How to Pull in as Much Profit As Your Wallet Will Hold with Opt-in Lists

Email Promos Exposed - Free online videos that will walk you through the exact process of creating an email that almost forces your readers to buy whatever you're selling.