You know by now that email content requires a lot of work to keep it useful and interesting, but what about your list welcome message? The majority of email marketers simply use a standard welcome message, something cobbled together at the last minute or even the default autoresponder message.

This simply won´t cut it. If someone was interested enough in what you had to say that they actually gave you their email address, why wouldn´t you be kind enough to send them a well-crafted welcome? It could cement your credibility in the subscriber´s eyes and offers just one more chance to make that vital connection with your readers.

Here´s what should be included in your welcome email content:

• A thank you is a good idea. Thank the person for subscribing.

• Let them know that they have been added to your mailing list because they asked to be.

• Include no-spam requirements somewhere in your email content, let the reader know how to unsubscribe if so desired.

• Let them know how often they can expect to hear from you.

• Tell them how you are going to help them (improve their website, save money, etc.).

All of this should be written as if a real person were talking to them, so try not to make it too dry! That welcome message is just as important as all your other email content. Treat it as something important and you´ll have loyal visitors for life.

Our inboxes are overflowing with emails every day and you have to give someone a pretty good reason to add your email newsletter to their roster. Here are some opt-in techniques that do just that.

Offer something of value. You know that freebies help draw more subscribers, but did you know that this opt-in technique won´t work unless you offer something that has perceived value? If you offer a free report that is free elsewhere online, why would they sign up with you? However, if you are giving away an ebook that you normally sell for $29.99, that´s value.

Use Tell a Friend. You can find Tell a Friend scripts all over the internet. Use one. Having a trusted friend recommend your newsletter is the best opt-in technique out there. People listen to their friends.

Give them a good reason. If you have an upcoming event or giveaway happening, let people know that they will get an extra discount or receive special behind-the-scene info ahead of time by signing up for your newsletter. They have a good reason to read your email newsletter, to find out when the giveaway starts.

These opt-in techniques are designed to make sure that your email list is one subscribers want to be on. If they are getting something of value just for signing up and then receiving high quality email content along the way, you will find that your opt-in numbers grow.

It takes a lot of work to keep up a constant stream of good quality email content. After a few weeks or months of running your email newsletter, you will find that your brain gets tired and the ideas stop flowing as freely. However, there is a fairly easy solution to this problem.

A content folder will solve all your problems.

It can be a real life paper or plastic folder, or you can use a virtual folder on your computer. The idea is to have one place to stash all your email content ideas. In fact, you may want a real life file folder to store newspaper clippings and interesting articles you find in magazines that could be later turned into relevant email content.

In your virtual folder, save webpages, emails and anything else you come across that you feel could inspire an email. But don´t stop there . . . include your idea, too. You might want to open a Word document and type down titles for email content articles.

Later, when your brain is dead and you simply must summon some interesting email content, you will have somewhere to turn. Your content folder will be waiting, packed with ideas that may need just a little research or some polishing.

Do you answer when someone asks you a question? I know I do. We are automatically programmed to respond when someone asks something and that makes questions very useful as subject lines. Here are a few things to consider when creating queries as subject lines.

Length. The question doesn´t have to be a long one, in fact, short is better. The amount of space you have to write your subject line is not a lot, so keep it between 3-5 words.

Subject. Your question should be related to what is inside your email. The subject line offers a peek inside and helps the reader decide whether he will delete or read your newsletter.

Familiarity. Being friendly will open far more doors than a very formal question. If you are normally very strict and upright about how you right, then stick to that format, but in general familiar greetings are more effective.

Problems. Ask if your reader has a problem. This implies that you are going to give them the solution inside the email and prompts them to open it.

Asking a question in your subject line is far more effective than many plainer subject lines. People like to answer questions and they hope the answer to their problems is inside your email. After that, it´s up to you to sell them on the solution.

Do your email newsletters contain a clear call to action? If not, your readers might enjoy the articles and design, but when they finish reading . . . nothing happens. You need to make sure that you are telling your subscribers exactly what to do. Many email marketers just getting started miss this step, but it is is one of the most important email marketing basics that you will learn.

Let´s break the call to action down into steps:

Step One: Ask a question. This is a very common method of beginning the process. Something like “Do you want to earn $500 in one day, like I did?” will catch the reader´s attention and have them answering mentally.

Step Two: Tell them how to get what they want. In the previous step, we asked if they wanted to earn more money, so now you tell them how. “Click here and sign up for your free e-course on how to earn $500 a day.” Nice and clear. The directions are very easy to follow and chances are your reader will click through.

As far as email marketing basics go, this should be fairly easy to get. To make your call to action super clear, make sure that you don´t have a lot of ads around it. Too many inexperienced email marketers load the end of their email newsletters with a dozen or more links and the reader is left confused and wondering where to click. Keep it simple, give them one direction to go in and they´ll take it.

I recently became involved with a relatively new magazine, Search Marketing Standard. It is currently the only print magazine dedicated to search marketing, something that greatly benefits anyone involved in internet marketing, whether via email or websites.

Search Marketing Standard makes an effort to be simple and easy to read and understand. In every one of the quarterly editions, you´ll find plenty of information on search marketing, plus interviews with the most knowledgeable experts in the field, reviews of top search engine marketing techniques and tools as well as the latest news.

This publication isn´t just for American marketers, it ships world-wide, for just slightly more than within the U.S. and covers themes that apply to every marketer. With articles and reviews that are relevant, no matter where you live, it´s a good read for anyone, anywhere.

The magazine covers a wide variety of topics, making it a useful resource to everyone in internet marketing. Topics include the following:

• Blogging

• Social Media

• Link Building

• Pay Per Click

• and many other topics.

Search Marketing Standard is definitely a must-have resource if you want to excel in marketing.

Did you know that email marketing actually outperforms other marketing techniques? A recent study at JPD shows that email marketing is the best way to go if you are promoting a product or service:

today email is outperforming the competition by a wide margin:

• Direct mail - expected response rates from purchased lists remain in the 1 - 2% range.

• Telemarketing - outbound campaigns suffer from increasing difficulty in reaching target audiences. Most cost-effective call centers are inbound and integrated with other online programs.

• Web Banner ads - the average click-through rate (CTR) has dropped below 1%.

• Email - house lists routinely produce responses in the 10 - 20% range and are generating responses as high as 40%, while high-quality rented opt-in lists are producing responses that average around 5%.

Amazing, isn´t it? It´s interesting to note that opt in lists you build yourself are up to 35% more effective than rented lists in the email marketing industry. If you have more than one method of marketing going on, that´s fine, but anyone who is working with telemarketing, banners, or direct mail might want to consider making the switch . . . immediately!

Email marketing is possibly more effective because of its extreme accessibility. We can scan dozens of emails in a couple of minutes, while paper mail requires opening, sorting through several sheets and trying to figure out the important parts. Everyone knows why telemarketing fails and banner ads are simply boring and blend into the background for anyone who has been online for any amount of time. However, if you have a great subject line that gets people to open your email, you are in. And as you can see, email marketing is here to stay.

List rental is one of those things that could either be very good or very bad. If you rent the wrong list from the wrong person, you could end up with a lot of trouble and spam reports on your hands. However, if you rent from the right list rental service . . . you could end up with a lot more loyal subscribers and possibly some future clients.

The trick to finding a list rental service you can trust is to do your research. Don´t just jump on the lowest price you see. It really does pay to check out list rental companies before you start handing out money, not doing so could lose you your credibility and reputation.

Asking other internet marketers which list rental company they recommend can be an excellent way to find a reliable company. If you have friends who are in internet marketing, let them know you are scouting out new list rental services and ask for their opinion on the ones you´ve found. After all, word of mouth is usually far more reliable than flashing red letters on a sales page.

If you find a list rental site that looks promising, do a search for it on Google. There will usually be some good and a little bad about every company, someone is always dissatisfied, but if the goods outnumber the bads, it might be worthwhile. You can also contact people via forums and ask about the credibility of certain list rental services. This is where community comes in handy.

A quick check with the Better Business Bureau is not amiss, either. This won´t tell you if a company is legit, but it will tell you if they have had any complaints filed against them.

Take the time to do a little research on your list rental services and you won´t be sorry. It´s the best way to make sure that you are getting the best company possible and won´t be slammed with hundreds of spam charges later on.

Having a regular email newsletter schedule is important if you want people to trust you and open your emails. Besides offering top quality, useful content in your email newsletter, it´s important to let your readers know that you are very reliable.

The most important part of an email newsletter schedule is consistency. You can write once a week, twice a day or three times a month . . . as long as you always do that. Sending out random email newsletters isn´t a good method to boost your open and click rates. By having a schedule and sticking to it, people will come to anticipate when your email newsletter is going to arrive and look forward to reading it.

Many email marketers wonder what the ideal email frequency is. It really depends on your preferences and your niche. Is there a lot of news in your niche? Then you might want to send out an email newsletter on a daily basis with a roundup of the news. A less popular topic might do well with a weekly email newsletter.

You do need to take care when setting up an email newsletter schedule, though. If the emails are too far apart, there is a danger that people won´t remember who you are and will just click the delete button. It´s generally a good idea to send out email newsletters more often than once a month. However, very frequent emails can also annoy a subscriber so much that they will unsubscribe! Make sure you let people know ahead of time if you will be sending out daily email newsletters, so they know what they are getting into.

Having an email newsletter schedule also makes things easier for you. You´ll have self-imposed deadlines to help you get things done more efficiently and your readers will be happier with the set schedule of emails, rather than random notes here and there.

The last thing you want is for subscribers to open your email, but delete it before it finishes loading. The reason this happens is often because the email takes too long to load, often due to images. You can correct this problem by using smaller, made-for-email images.

Keeping the email design simple is also a good way to make sure that load times don´t get out of hand. There´s no need to have flashy images all over the place. Often one or two well-placed photos or logos are all that is needed to enhance your text.

Going with a very simple border is often better than using image heavy ones that are so popular with less professional email designs. You can also speed load times by not using a watermark or background image. While this may look cool, if it slows your load time down too much, no one will even see it!

Keeping your email design simple, with few images and easy to read text is the best way to avoid losing readers who were willing to open your email. They´ll be happy to stick around if you respect their time and offer quick loading email design.

That first email that you send new subscribers is really what will determine your future open and click rates. If they don´t open the first email, chances are slim you will ever manage to get them to read your email newsletter.

Open and click rates are fickle, but you can greatly improve your odds by making sure that any subscriber is drawn to open your first email, paving the way to further reading. How do you do this? With a great subject line and a warm welcome that includes a special something.

Even if you gave your subscriber something for taking the trouble to give you their email address, an extra freebie in the first email is bound to catch their attention. You can mention it in the subject line, too, and make sure that your open and click rates go up. Something as simple as “Thanks for joining us, here´s a little something for you” will trigger the reader´s curiosity.

Try it. People love to get a surprise bonus and if you make it worth their while . . . you can bet they´ll be reading your next email, greatly improving your open and click rates in general.

Over the generations, we´ve seen a lot of different sales methods, but email marketing is better than the rest for several reasons. Door to door sales, television ads, direct mail . . . they are all different methods of reaching the same people, so why use email marketing?

1. Email marketing is cheap. When you compare the cost of sending an email out to 10,000 people, as opposed to sending out a flyer to that same number, email marketing wins hands down.

2. Email marketing reaches more people. While television may still be the absolute best medium for reaching millions, traditional methods like door to door sales are very limited in how many people will be exposed to the product. Email is easily read by thousands of people within minutes.

3. Email marketing is targeted. Sure, television ads may appear in billions of homes around the world, but how many people are going to act on those? Your emails are going out to people who have actually indicated interest in receiving more information about your products. This makes it extremely efficient and effective.

Email marketing is still relatively new to the world and is constantly evolving, but it is still the most cost effective, efficient method of delivering sales information to potential customers.

Want people to trust you enough to buy your product or service? Then you need email content that gives them confidence in you and helps build a trusting relationship between you and your subscribers.

Studies have shown that long sales copy sells better, and the same goes for email content. If you want people to trust you, you can´t just toss out a one liner, “Buy my product and make me rich.” No one is going to buy based on that . . . they know nothing about you, nothing about the product. By giving them more information, you begin to build a relationship.

People are so used to others trying to take advantage of them, scam them and grabbing their money that the majority of your readers will be rather skeptical of your motives. If you can prove that you are genuinely interested in giving them high quality email content, you´ll find that they let their guard down after a while and become more receptive to sales talk. That´s why long sales letters work.

Are you using email content that builds trust?

Email content can be tricky if you are sending out text emails. What if you have something more visual to say? There is a very easy way to address this problem. Add some downloads to your email content.

Email content with attachments will usually get tagged by the spam filter if you aren´t on the whitelist, but if you add a link to a download page, it´s very easy to offer subscribers more quality. A PDF document, images, or graph charts can all be offered for downloads and you can simply link to them.

Adding downloads will give your email content more kick and make it far more interesting than plain text. Let your subscribers know that the concept you are trying to explain is easier to visualize if they just download the chart. The great thing about offering email content downloads rather than simply sending people to a webpage is that your document will be on their computer, ready to advertise your site every time they open it. If you are offering something of real value, it will most likely stay on their hard drive, to be looked at every so often, reminding them of your business.

Giveaways are one of the best opt-in techniques for getting a huge number of subscribers quickly. They are usually very simple to enter, if you have ever signed up for a giveaway or an email marketing newsletter, you probably receive invitations to become a part of the next opt-in giveaway all the time.

In order to get the best quality traffic from a giveaway, you will want to offer something for free that relates to your niche. For example, if you have a wedding planning site, you will want to offer something to do with weddings. Perhaps an ebook on wedding planning or a guide to online wedding dress discounts.

There is another opt-in technique to get better traffic. Offer something new. If you have a PLR or resell rights book to give away, chances are you will be wasting a lot of potential traffic, since people will have already seen these everywhere else. If you don´t have the time or inclination to write your own ebook or software, consider hiring someone.

By including your website URL or sign up form URL in the freebie and offering giveaway or resell rights to the ebook or software, you can cause your free item to go viral, spreading around the internet like wildfire. And anyone who finds it interested or useful, will follow the links back to you to sign up for your newsletter. This is a great opt-in technique for making the most of the giveaway traffic.

Giveaways can be a very useful opt-in technique if you use them correctly. Offer something new and make sure it is branded and easy to use. That´s it, you can really get a lot of new subscribers with this method.