Welcome to the Email Marketing Journal! Email marketing is one of the oldest forms of online marketing and still plays a very powerful role in the most successful of online businesses. Email marketing still comes with many different strategies that should be implemented when ever targeting an email marketing campaign for any business. This blog has been created so that an aspiring entrepreneur or business looking to start an email marketing campaign can successfully do this on their own.

Below are some of the various email marketing related categories that are filled with information that can help you:

Email Content – Email content is very important. The wrong email content or content with no messaging can cause your subscribers to leave and unsubscribe to your newsletter.

Email Design – You have just a few seconds to hold that email recipients attention so you have to make sure that you have the design to hold their attention and cause them to really interact with your email.

Email Marketing – Email marketing comes in many different shapes and sizes so it is very important to learn and educate yourself on what is available to you. This section outlines some of the different approaches you can take with your email campaign.

Email Marketing Basics – Maybe all you want is the basic marketing information to help your campaign get off the ground. This section will show you some of the very basic efforts that can really make a difference.

Email Newsletters – Email newsletters are a great way to get your information out to people that are subscribed to your list. Through trial and error you will figure out strategy on frequency and topic.

Email Providers – When it comes to time to start sending out your email campaign you will want to find an email provider that is right for you. We have helped you sort through some of the better ones.

FTC Spam Laws – Spam laws have gotten very strict over the years and you will want to abide by all FTC spam laws so that your account does not get shut off.

List Rental – Many people purchase or rent lists for their email campaigns. Come hear some of our thoughts regarding this topic and see if it is right for you.

Open and Click Rates – As part of your email marketing campaign you will most likely be interested in these numbers so that you know what you have to change and tweak down the road.

Opt-In Techniques – Opt-In email marketing is one of the safest ways to build your list. This ensures that you are not spamming anyone with information they might not or be interested in.

Subject Lines – Your subject lines will be very import to the overall success of your emails. The right subject line could drastically increase your email open rate.

If you are a business who really takes their email marketing approach very seriously than you must know that neglecting the mobile device market could impact your business very negatively. Mobile marketing is still very new will take years to find a groove but the sales of mobile devices that stream internet and email are already on the rise. More and more people shopping for cell phones are really looking to be able to get internet and email and this is something that is likely to not slow down at all.

Different things could impact your email newsletters in different ways. If they are complex in code that could trigger many items to not show up on a cell phone. It is difficult to change your whole planned campaign but there are some changes and tweaks you can do in order for mobile viewers to be able to read your newsletter. Image heavy newsletters often times have the most difficulty to be viewed correctly. Newsletters that have more text and less graphics have a better opportunity of being read when someone is on the go. That doesn’t mean that you want your email campaign to sacrifice your companies branding but it is important to keep any eye for what type of graphics you are planning on applying to your email campaigns.

On June 8th – 9th MarketingProfs is holding a business to business forum for business professionals and business owners looking to sharpen and strengthen their internet marketing, SEO and email marketing skills. If you are an email marketing manager or just looking to extend your knowledge on web marketing efforts the MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum 2009 is an ideal conference to further your knowledge. Come hear Sandy Carter from IBM speak on how to effectively integrate social media into any existing marketing program. If you are interested in taking your business to a new level on the web but are not really sure exactly how to do it this conference can pave the way for you to learn on what you have to do and get it done yourself. Located at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel registrants can listen to keynote presentations by internet marketing industry leaders. Listen to speakers like Steven Berlin Johnson and Barry Schwartz.

Each registrant of the MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum 2009 will also be give an all access pass to many MarketingProfs tools to help you get the job done once the conference is over. All registrants will also receive a free premium membership to all of MarketingProfs how-to articles, case studies, research reports and online seminars for a 12 month period. Registrants also have the ability to get some one-on-one time with an online marketing expert in areas of social media, SEO, usability and also email marketing. By introducing many other elements into your email marketing program you could help boost the overall effectiveness of your email efforts. This conference will also have endless amounts of opportunities for personal and business networking. Each break time is meticulously planned to maximize the amount of time you can have to network with other like minded individuals at the conference.

Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel
606 Congress Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02210 USA

Learn More About the MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum 2009 NOW!

I’m sure there are obvious reason why email marketing is important to any growing business but many business and website owners really don’t realize just how powerful a properly though out email marketing campaign really is. With sales cycles growing and increasing your business must constantly be reminding people that you exist. Not only through sites like Twitter but email marketing as well.

Whether you are selling products online or offering a service you must find a way to consistently place yourself and your business in the eyes of your audience. If a website visitor leaves behind their email address it is because they want to hear from you again. Which means simply, send them stuff! sales cycle are not what they used to be. From the time someone first comes to your website or speaks with you until they time they are ready to actually purchase something it is important to keep in contact. If already perform a regularly scheduled email marketing campaign than you are one step ahead of the game. During that potential clients thought process you will repeatedly land in their inbox with a friendly newsletter reminding them that you are still around. Chances are that potential client or customer will search around for other online businesses before they pull the trigger with yours and there is a great deal of room for distraction out there. Email marketing could help you reduce that sales cycle if done right. Even if it is only once per month it is better than not sending your email subscribers anything.

What type of approach do you take with your email marketing? Are your emails promotion driven? Do you just talk about funny things that occur at your company? Every business has a different approach. Over time you will find one that works for you. There is no right or wrong approach to email marketing. There are certainly frowned upon approaches but each company has their own style.

If you are new to email marketing try testing different things to see what works best. It is important to change things up a bit sometimes. Don’t be scared if your email marketing campaign doesn’t actually sell something. If you want your email marketing to truly have a great effect on your business try thinking outside of the box and putting not your typical type of information. I heard of a online diamond retailer recently who had chose to not offer any promotion at all in their email and it lead to more inquiry and sales than if they offered a sale. Not everything you do has to always scream sale. Taking a personal approach has its benefits also. Taking a personal approach lets your audience know that you care about more than just making a sale. Try offering a funny story or a funny video of something that happened at your business. You can even mix it up. Put together a strategy for 6 months mixing in some non promotional type emails with promotional and see how it works out. Try really mixing it up so people are not sure what to expect in your email. Make them guess a little.

Are you curious as to why people don’t sign up to your email newsletter? If you answered yes to this than you have to ask yourself a few things first. How is your subscriber field on your site set up? Is your website built to attract email subscribers?

People are not just going to land on your site and give you their email address. You have to lead them down the path. No matter what you want you offer on your website you want to lead them down the path to what ever effort you want them act on. You should always have an email newsletter sign up form on every page of your site. If one of your main focuses is to get that email than you must make it clear and visible. The worst thing you can do is have an email subscriber field on one page of your site. Most website traffic will not try to find the page. If they are already on a page than they will subscribe only if it is convenient for them. Make it as convenient as possible. Getting that email is very important so that you can stay in touch with that person. If they showed interest by subscribing once than they will want more information from you as you have it. Don’t make the web site visitor hunt for the page to submit their email. If you are launching a new website tell the web designer that you would like an email field located on your website in a prominent location on every page of your new website. If you are launching a service based business this will be extremely important to have so that people don’t have to hunt around and navigate away from a page that might have a service they are interested in hiring you for.

Have you ever taken a step back and asked yourself just how much time and effort you put into your email marketing. Do you just aimlessly send out email campaigns without really knowing what you are sending out. Email marketing is much more effective when you have actually taken the time to think things through and put together a targeted email.

If you collect emails try pulling them apart as to what purchases people have made. If you are a service provider try separating emails as to what service people purchase and try sending out emails catered towards those services. When ever you can drill down and target an email recipient with a specific type of service you are more likely to turn that recipient into a conversion. Email marketing is like anything and it requires tweaks and changes and testing new things. Put together a plan of attack for your email marketing campaign. Even if you only plan on doing a quarterly email take the time to plan out all your content and what you will be putting in your email. If you plan on doing a monthly email or a weekly you should definitely plan out your email content. One way that makes things easier with any email marketing campaign is by using a blog to create content for your newsletter. By writing in a blog every single day you are able to create a great deal of content for yourself which can be then used for content in your email marketing newsletter.

If you have been sending an email campaign regularly for quite some time now and you are starting to see your campaign loose steam there are something you should look at and consider. If you haven’t changed the content of your newsletter or email start with this. Once your email marketing starts to go sour you have to make tweaks and changes to get people to respond again.

Try changing your approach to see if things get better. There is a good chance your content and approach might be getting stale. it might be time to give it an overhaul or just a big change. Maybe it is time to change the design and images to give it a new fresh look. Change is good and should be embraced. if you want your company to grow you will have to continue to make changes and tweaks as you move forward. try adding new calls to action in your email. Get people to want to click on links. Entice them to be curious. You don’t want to send the same type of email over and over. Try playing with different subject lines as well. The subject line is probably more important than the actual email. It is the first thing that your email recipient sees and it will determine whether they want to click on and open your email or hit the delete button. Try as many different things as you can. Be clever but not sneaky. You don’t want to trick someone with your subject line and have them be upset once they open the newsletter because then you can very easily get a spam complaint and too many of those your account runs the risk of getting shut off.

We speak with many potential clients that say they have something they want to announce but are not sure how to. Email marketing newsletters are a great way to let people know about something that is happening at your business. Many businesses collect email addresses at time of purchase and never do anything with them. These emails could be a very valuable resource to generate new business and leads for your business.

If you have been collecting emails and have something new for your business you would like to announce launching a strategic email marketing campaign is a great way to get in front of your audience very quickly. Email newsletters can carry your store or businesses branding message right through your email marketing campaign. If you have a new product or service being introduced to your business launching an email campaign is a quick an easy way to let people know. Most email distribution companies allow for very low cost if you have under 500 emails in your initial list. if you are a smaller business with maybe less than a hundred some even let you set up a free account until you surpass the the 100 email mark.

Email marketing is one component of getting your announcement and word out in front of people. You have to remember that spreading your message online takes many different components working together at the same time. Online PR is another great way to spread the message but all efforts maximize their potential if working together.

When you start gearing up to either launching your email marketing campaign or even just looking at your existing one it is important to analyze everything including the subject line. The first thing your recipient sees is the subject line so it is important to make it catchy. Never try tricking your email recipients.

If you trick your email recipients you can guarantee yourself getting some spam complaints and eventually having your email account shut off by the company that you use. It is perfectly fine to experiment with various subject line. It actually encouraged to experiment with different subject lines in order to find an approach that works best or maybe better than your other approaches. Too much of one thing is never a good thing and that rule applies to your online marketing as well. You want to test and keep things fresh at all times. Email marketing is no exception to this rule. Trying different things will yield different results which could either go both ways but it is important to bring in new directions into your email marketing campaigns. The subject line is your first impression so it is important to get it right. If you always use the same subject line it could eventually be a a boy who cried wolf situation where your recipients just do not respond to your emails like they used.

From the second a recipient opens and email from your business it is like anything else, you have just a few seconds for them to decide whether they want to hit the delete button or keep reading. Does you email have any attention grabbing points to it?

When you read over you email ask yourself if you would enjoy reading your email. If you do not enjoy reading your own email than how is anyone else supposed to? Does your company or brand have a unique message or image? Do you carry that message and image through to your email marketing campaign? Each email is like a new ad, you should have something that pulls that reader in and urges them to keep reading and maybe even persuading a recipient to revisit your website and take a look at your services or products. Personality also gets people talking and chatter is something you want in your industry. Chatter will get people visiting your website and exploring their own curiosity which can develop into some new business. Personality in your emails allows you to connect with your readers. You don’t want your recipients to feel like they are reading an owners manual. You need to get them to feel the story you are trying to tell them. There is nothing wrong with making your email witty, fun and personable. All these efforts

For any growing business online your reputation is sometimes all you have. Online users get more and more savvy by the day and they know how to pin point a bad apple through various online searches. Many users will not make a purchase or sign on a vendor until they have done some searches online to see if any bad or negative press exists. StepRep is a new online product that can help you track your online press and manage it from one location. By using your Google log in StepRep can monitor what your online community is saying about you. What is unique about this product is that it is capable of tracking your social networks as well. If you some ranting about you on Twitter in a not so friendly manner StepRep will help you isolate that and trigger a campaign to fix it. Often times by the time something makes it to you is already too late. it has run it’s course and too many eyeballs have seen it.

If online shoppers find that others have been complaining about your service or product they will most likely head in the other direction. The internet has made it easy for people who might have not had a voice at one time to now have a loud one. Whistle blowing website are everywhere and very easy to use. Most of these sites are very large and powerful and rank very quickly for your name. To stop any negative press from anchoring itself into a search engine result for your name you must be able to counter act it very quickly. StepRep helps with that step. If you let negative information sit for too many months chances are it will require twice as much work to actually move it. Negative press must be fought right away and the only way to do this is to have constant supervision over your business or personal name.

When you get to a point in your business that you start collecting email address making different lists might be a smart idea from the beginning instead of down the road when your list is so large you have a hard time even looking at it. Dividing up your email marketing list in different characteristics will allow you to really target your email marketing campaigns down the road.

There are many ways you can divide up the list.

Inquiries: Anyone that has ever inquired about your services and products in one list can allow you to send special first sign up or product purchase offers to get that person to make a purchase or start up another purchasing conversation.

Products: You could separate your list into purchasing habits and which products people buy. This will allow you to market specific products depending on purchasing habits of your current customers.

Geographically: Depending on what type of products you sell and where if you notice that a certain number of people are buying a specific product in a geographical area you can then market products related to that area that might likely use or enjoy.

These are just a few examples of what you can do with your list in order to maximize your email marketing efforts. If you are a business that collects emails frequently this will be very important to do early in the game.

When it comes to email marketing it is difficult to tell someone or a company exactly what the frequency of email distribution should be. Each business and audience will react differently. It is really up to you to figure out what that perfect frequency is.

The only way to really figure this out is to do as many tests as possible for a certain amount of time. keeping track of all statistics on opens and unsubscribes will be important. You will have to keep track of what time your email goes and and then analyze the data. Your best bet is to put all the info in a spreadsheet and do this for either three or six months to be able to make an accurate decision. After you have decided on a time frame to analyze this information make some small changes to your distribution schedule and then analyze the numbers to see what type of significant changes that occurred from the changes that you had made. This type of testing is very important so that your business is not missing out on any opportunities. Before you do this you will need to figure out if you want to send one or two emails out per day. Once you have made this decision then you can start to perform these tests. You could also as part of your test include increasing from one to two emails per week or the other way around.

Email marketing comes in many different shapes and colors and as a business you should really test as much as possible so you know what works and what doesn’t. By using an email survey periodically you can isolate information you are trying to look for.

Email surveys can allow you to find out information regarding your audience that normally would be difficult to dig up. There is a great deal of information you can find out to help clean up your marketing efforts. Just asking your email recipients will not get them to act. You have to offer something in order to get them to stop what they are doing and respond to your survey request. usually a free give away of some sort like a t-shirt, and iPod or Laptop will work, depending on your budget of course. When an email recipient or customer gives you detailed information on how large their family might be or any personal interests they will expect something in return. People in general will not divulge personal information if the chance of something coming there way doesn’t exist.

Here are some items of information that a survey can reveal:

Industry:This could be a very powerful piece of information. If your product spans across many verticals but you find out one is very top heavy that leaves room to either further target that industry or pick up slack in others.

Company Size: With this information you can target products in email campaigns that could isolate specific attributes of specific company sizes

Specific Marketing Efforts? If you can understand what type of marketing efforts your email recipients are currently executing you can target products and services according to those needs.