There are many marketers that have either been doing email marketing or getting involved in email marketing, and they all have the same goal. To convert emails to profit. I want to outline some of the key features that make certain clients more successful than others. I do know firsthand that not everyone can have all the items needed on day one to send a successful email campaign, but this should get you a step in the right direction.

Below is a list that is comprised of 3 BASIC components that help someone to create an email blast using an Email Service Provider.

• Double Opt-In Email List
• (HTML/Text) Email Ready to Go
• Basic understanding of Email Technology

The first two are pretty basic. The third bullet is important. Having an understanding of Delivery Rates, Click Through, Opens, Internet Service Providers (ISP’s), White Lists, and Black Lists will help you to evaluate your campaigns success before you send a single mailing. Knowing everything about Email Marketing is a lot to ask, but learning the basic email components can go a long way in helping you achieve results with your campaign.

Justin Lavino is an Account Executive for Net Atlantic. Net Atlantic provides email newsletter hosting, discussion group hosting, and web hosting.

It`s not easy to get people opening emails these days, not with all the spam that still makes it through the spam filter. Your subject lines will have a lot to do with whether or not your emails stand out in the inbox. Here are a few types of subject lines that tend to catch people`s eyes.

Questions: Most people feel obligated to open an email with a question as the subject line.

Outrageous claim: They want to know if you are actually telling the truth, so try making an outrageous claim that you then either prove or disprove.

Shocking: Who doesn`t love a good shocker? Get your readers opening those emails by startling them.

There are plenty of ways to get people to open your emails, but one of the best is to simply have a killer subject line. It definitely takes practice to get that perfect headline, but if you can manage it, you`ll get more opens!

Email Service Providers work hard to get email delivered. There is more to it than just software and flashy GUI’s to make users happy. Servers must be maintained, software must be kept up to date, and reputations must be earned.

The real trick is maintaining a healthy IP reputation. This is by far the most significant reason to use an ESP. ESP’s maintain white lists with major ISP’s like Comcast, Verizon, Yahoo, AOL, etc. Companies like yahoo and hotmail all filter based on the IP range’s reputation and the content in the email. Here’s my visualization of how it works:

Two body guards are standing in front of the CEO’s office. You watch as several employees approach, and are turned away. You approach, and with a simple wave of your ID badge, you are through. This is just like yahoo or hotmail monitoring your IP range. A good IP reputation makes entry easy.

Next, you have to get past the CEO’s executive assistant. At this point, you put on a good show for the executive assistant, show her some fancy brochures and she lets you in. This is usually where content filtering comes into play, so you still have to word your mail correctly or you’ll be sent to SPAM folders.

In the end, the mail to your subscriber base has a better chance of getting delivered if you use an ESP rather than an in house solution. Spend your marketing time right, and don’t end up as SPAM.
Justin Lavino is an Account Executive for Net Atlantic. Net Atlantic provides email newsletter hosting, discussion group hosting, and web hosting.

To start this post, and say “old lists are bad” is just not true. An old list that was created in an opt-in fashion is a good list, but it may have some drawbacks depending on its age. The older your list, and the frequency in which you have mailed to that list, may create havoc after time. Having a list that has sat for a long period of time, might collect a lot of un-subscribes, and hard bounces when you actually mail to that list in the future.

E-mail addresses are like clothes in the sense that people have multiple addresses to suit their needs. You can’t expect an old list to have the most up to date email addresses for your subscribers. Subscribers change their email address frequently depending on a multitude of factors like job hopping, or changing ISP’s. However, with the advent of gmail this is coming to an end.

The true benefit of a newly acquired opt-in list is not just for your own marketing results, but it also helps your ESP. ESP’s gain reputation based on the delivery rates of their clients. Using a fresh opt-in list creates a mutual relationship that you and your ESP share. Good delivery, and click rates.

Justin Lavino is an Account Executive for Net Atlantic. Net Atlantic provides email newsletter hosting, discussion group hosting, and web hosting.

Brick Marketing hit on this subject already, but I want to take a minute to weigh in on the value of organic lists, not only from a marketing point of view, but also from a cost standpoint. Why bring up cost? It’s free to grow lists organically! It also removes the risk in getting scammed from purchasing, or renting a list.

I can’t explain how often I receive the same phone call time again. It starts off with someone on the other end of the phone looking to send a mailing with a list they purchased from Joe Smith in Idaho. He or she says to me that they purchased this list, tried to email to it, and it was junk. Obtaining a bad list that you paid for is a quick way to lose your marketing capital. Buyers beware!

Trust is something that is earned, not something you purchase. By building an organic, opt-in list, you are building trust, not buying data. Growing your email list organically and creating a true opt-in list is essential in making your dollars work for you. See what Brick Marketing wrote about Opt-In techniques back on June 25th.

Justin Lavino is an Account Executive for Net Atlantic. Net Atlantic provides email newsletter hosting, discussion group hosting, and web hosting.