Writing by Brick Marketing on Friday, April 3, 2009 Leave a comment
There are no straight forward answers to anything when it comes to email marketing. Everyone responds differently across all verticals. Sending an email to a lawyer will be different then sending one to a webmaster.The best marketeers and the most successful online business know how to put themselves in the shoes of their email recipients and also their audience.
Putting yourself in the shoes of your email recipients will be vital. Don’t assume anything. Assumptions don’t always lead to anything. You have to follow your analytics information and see whats working. Most people have very busy and long Mondays and if you know your audience might be a bit busier than other industries than sending out an email marketing campaign or newsletter on that day might not be a wise choice. Statistics show that most emails are opening during the day roughly during work time hours. If you are sending B2B newsletters this will be your ideal time. Often times people like to clean out their emails in the morning so getting them in their earlier might make sense. B2C is a bit different because people will make purchases at home at all hours of the night. Take into consideration the demographic your are marketing to if you selling directly to the public. If it is a younger crowd they might read your email late at night. If it is an older person that email screen might not stay open past a certain time in the evening. if you are targeting moms than it might not get a look for a few days so be conscience of what you are sending. If it is a 2 day coupon to a busy demographic there is a good chance it might get opened after the expiration date.
Don’t forget to test and try different days and times and always schedule out your email marketing campaigns for the most effectiveness. Try changing everything from frequency to subject lines every few months and make an analysis of what you find.
Writing by Brick Marketing on Friday, March 20, 2009 Leave a comment
Do you have a business where you do not have a strict email collection policy in place? How do you exactly collect emails? There many ways different ways to collect email addresses. We all know that buying large email lists doesn’t always work and you can quickly have your email distribution accounts shut off if people feel like they are being spammed by you. Email marketing is very effective if approached correctly.
Some people quickly forget that one of the easiest and best ways to collect anything is to simply ask. if you are a service based business and you speak with many prospects over the phone ask them if you can put their email address on your distribution list. They will either say yes or no, its that simple. most potential customers will not yell at you and most will be more than happy. If you conduct your email campaigns the right way and you don’t use spammy type approaches than you should not have any problems with your email recipients reporting you for spam or hitting the spam complaint button. Too many of these and your account could be gone before it even started.
How about your website? Do you have somewhere prominently displayed on your website where website visitors can submit their email address to receive your newsletter? Have it visible for everyone to see right there when they land on your website. Make sure it is in the same location on every page also. This is important so a website visitor does not have to back track to find the page where they can sign up for your newsletter.
Writing by Brick Marketing on Saturday, August 23, 2008 Leave a comment
When you write your articles for email newsletters, are you writing at a level that makes sense, given your target audience? Most people will automatically respond “yes”, but it might need a second look.
If your email newsletters are aimed at teens, it isn`t enough to just write with the latest lingo. You need to know how to talk to teens without talking down to them. Writing for parents? Don`t assume they know the basics, but again, don`t talk down.
Your actual writing should be at a level that everyone will be able to understand, as well. Most experts say aiming for a sixth grade level is ideal for most writing. While you may enjoy using big words, keep in mind that the majority of readers won`t understand what you`re talking about, so provide an explanation or limit your use of extended vocabulary unless you know your readers will get it.
When you write email newsletters that are designed for the readers, you`ll end up with a much higher response rate and happier subscribers.
Writing by Brick Marketing on Thursday, August 14, 2008 Leave a comment
The last thing you want your email newsletter to do is drive subscribers away, but that`s precisely what many people end up doing by making some pretty common mistakes. Here they are, things you DO NOT want to do with your email newsletters!
- Sending email newsletters too often. This is a very common problem. More is less, right? Wrong. Remember that your subscribers are busy people and probably won`t appreciate receiving three or four updates a day from you. Even several times a week is too much for some.
- Using too many solo ads. People signed up to hear from you and if more than 15% or so of your emails are solo ads, they are going to start unsubscribing pretty darn fast.
- Being long winded and personal. If you are talking about yourself for ten pages before you offer a helpful tidbit, there`s no way you`ll be keeping many readers. Only the select few who enjoy that sort of thing will stick around.
Email newsletters need to be run like a business. Look for the best way to capture people`s interest and then hold it. It`s a vital part of running an email newsletter business.
Writing by Brick Marketing on Thursday, August 7, 2008 Leave a comment
Unless you are tracking and testing results, it`s impossible to know if your email newsletters are effective. Many email marketers get into email newsletters without really thinking about this aspect of things and don`t really know whether or not their emails are as effective as they could be.
Some things to look for when judging the effectiveness of your email newsletters:
- Open rates. Are people actually opening your email newsletters? While your sales may be decent with a low number of open emails, imagine what you could do if 80% of your subscribers opened your emails!
- Clickthroughs. Do people click on the links you give, or do they just open and delete? Knowing this will help you develop a better email newsletter.
- Reader response. Are you getting emails from readers? This is a great way to figure out if you are actually reaching human beings on the other side of the email!
Email newsletters need to be tweaked and redesigned on a regular basis to ensure that they are up to date and really reaching people.
Writing by Brick Marketing on Tuesday, August 5, 2008 Comments (2)
If you spend hours working on your email newsletters, writing content and coming up with fascinating tidbits, you`ll be happy to know that shorter email newsletters are rapidly becoming the norm.
People these days are busy. Their attention is being pulled in a hundred different directions and they have dozens, if not hundreds of emails coming into their inbox each day, which means if your email newsletters take more than 5-10 min. to scan and read, you are going to have difficulty keeping their attention.
Many readers will look at the email, realize it`s too long to read in the moment and make a mental note to go ahead and read it later, but later never comes with the hustle bustle of life and work and everything else that needs to be done.
Why not try this little experiment . . . send out a couple of email newsletters that are just one page long. Three paragraphs, tops. See if your readers respond better to this type of shorter email newsletter. If they do, you`ll know it`s a good way to go.
Writing by Brick Marketing on Sunday, August 3, 2008 Leave a comment
You`ll notice, if you have ever unsubscribed from an email newsletter, that many email marketers request details when you leave their list. If you haven`t already implemented this, you`ll definitely want to consider it.
Email newsletters are a great way to reach your target audience, but what if they aren`t fulfilling the need that audience has? You`ll notice that you have plenty of unsubscribes, but unless you ask, there`s no way to tell why they don`t want to read your email newsletters anymore.
There are many reasons people unsubscribe from email newsletters, but knowing just what those reasons are can help you a lot. If people are quitting because the email isn`t what they expected, you might want to consider rewriting the sign up page. If people tell you that the content wasn`t useful, work on that.
Knowing why your subscribers are leaving is a great method of doing market research and you can easily change things to find a better balance and keep more readers.
Writing by Brick Marketing on Thursday, July 31, 2008 Leave a comment
Email newsletters are an excellent method of growing your business, but many people don`t understand exactly how it works. This post will give you the “how” of email newsletters growing your business.
Contact. It is vital to stay in contact with people who visit your business website. Under normal conditions, you wouldn`t be able to do this, even if you knew they were interested. Capturing email addresses allows you to send out an email newsletter that will rekindle the interest already shown.
Reputation. Providing consistently good information to your readers helps cement your position as an expert in your field and you will shortly find that people are recommending your website and business to their friends and contacts.
Trust. Building a connection with your readers will eventually lead to gaining their trust. That will lead to your readers buying from you and is obviously fundamental in growing your business.
Building your business requires a variety of methods. There`s no one thing to magically make your business burst into the stratosphere overnight, but with patience and using a variety of different methods, you can connect with your readers and grow. Email newsletters are a great way to do this.
Writing by Brick Marketing on Sunday, July 20, 2008 Leave a comment
While you may be using a email newsletters to promote your business, a personal touch can go a long way. In fact, many people like to know that there are human beings behind the actual business, so you`ll be boosting your company`s reputation in their eyes.
To really make your email newsletters work for your business, you`ll want to add a little bit of yourself into the mix. A short anecdote or just a line about what you are up to will help you connect to your audience of subscribers. That connection can make a huge difference in how they see you.
Think about it for a moment. Where would you buy if the price was the same? A completely professional shop run by robots or a shop where the salespeople are human beings? Pretty easy choice, right?
Using your email newsletters to promote your business doesn`t mean you should write like a robot. Add a touch of personality and you`ll be amazed at how much better your readers respond.
Writing by Brick Marketing on Sunday, July 13, 2008 Leave a comment
Email newsletters can take up a lot of time. Time that could be spent coming up with new websites, ad campaigns and publicity ideas. So, of course, it is in your best interests, as an email marketer, so speed up the process of getting your email newsletters out. Here are a few suggestions:
- Hire a writer. This can really make all the difference in speed, particularly if you struggle over what to write each time your email newsletter needs to go out.
- Find a good email list program. This is vital. Having a service that can handle the frequent email newsletters that you send and that allows you to queue newsletters will help save you a lot of time.
- Build a template. Having the basic template saves a lot of time when you are writing email newsletters. Just fill in the spaces and hit send.
- Get an email newsletter service. There are services that will provide everything you need to get your email newsletters out quickly and easily, without fuss.
Speeding up your email newsletter production will free your time up for other things . . . like earning more money!
Writing by Brick Marketing on Monday, June 30, 2008 Leave a comment
Email newsletters are essential to increasing your repeat visitors. When you have a website, it´s best to get repeat visitors. The reason for this is that you will need to have your visitors see your pitch an average of 7.2 times before they will take action. Whether that action is buying something or signing up for a free trial, you will need to ensure that your visitors come back. Very few will take the desired action their first trip to your webpage.
If you aim to get people´s email addresses and give them something useful in exchange for it, you can keep them updated on the newest articles and such on your website. You can even include your pitch in various forms at the bottom of the email newsletter and add a link to your landing page each time.
You will notice that the more email newsletters you send out, the higher your response rate is. The more your readers see your message, the higher the probability that they will act on it and head to your website to take action. This is particularly true if you are trying to make a sale. Most people are fairly resistant to making a purchase from someone they don´t know.
With an email newsletter, you will be building up trust and this will pay off in the long run when your readers are confident enough in you to pay attention when you recommend a product.
Writing by Brick Marketing on Friday, June 27, 2008 Leave a comment
It´s quite possible to write a lot of email newsletters and never get a response from a single one. Without having an effective email newsletter, you´ll find that no one really bothers with them. You need to catch readers´ attention and make them want to read it and then act on what they´ve just read. But how do you do this?
Tips for Compelling Email Newsletters
- Use examples. If you are trying to let people know how effective a certain technique is to make them more productive, include a case study. Reading about real people and their experiences is far more riveting than just reciting facts.
- Add statistics. Rather than simply saying “This course increased most people´s ability to speak in public”, try using actual numbers like, “This course mad 98% of students feel confident speaking in public”. Or “The product cut wasted time by an entire hour”. People love to read exactly how much something will help or change them.
- Tell them the benefits. Letting your readers know that the examples included in your email newsletter weren´t people who had a special advantage. Tell them how they can benefit, too, as ordinary human beings.
The trick to writing email newsletters that get your subscribers to act is to include information that draws them in and makes them think, “This could work for me”. That´s when you´ll start getting a good response!
Writing by Brick Marketing on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 Leave a comment
Email newsletters vary from the updates that may be sent out by some email marketers or the sales letters that some consider to be email newsletters. Newsletter by its very definition is supposed to contain information, so if your emails are packed with useful articles, links and reviews, you have yourself an email newsletter, which can be a very powerful tool, indeed.
- Build trust with your subscribers. A regular newsletter allows you to create a bond with your readers and as they get to know you and see you as a source of valid information, they will eventually be more interested in buying from you or on your recommendation.
- Create a reputation. Whether this is good or bad depends on what you write. If you are constantly trying to sell affiliate products that you have never tried, you could easily destroy your reputation, but if you always provide high quality information, it will serve you well.
- Get feedback. You´ll find that email newsletters are great for getting feedback and basically building up a relationship with your subscribers which can benefit you in the long run.
Email newsletters can be a real asset to your online business. If you aren´t currently using an actual newsletter, then it might be time to start doing so.
Writing by Brick Marketing on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Comments (1)
All too often, email marketers turn their email newsletters into sales pages, which tends to turn most readers off. How many email lists have you subscribed to, expecting to find yourself reading useful information only to find that there are just links to products? Even with coupon codes and discounts, people want real information, not just advertisements.
Karen Skidmore says it very well in her latest blog post:
Email newsletters are incredibly powerful marketing tools – but they can also be the quickest way to turn your customers off.
When someone has given their permission to receive further information from you, the last thing they want is to be bombarded by sales messages. An email newsletter by its very wording, is a “news” letter NOT a “sales” letter.
Is your email newsletter a sales letter? If you find that monetization has become more important to you than actual content, it might be time to reevaluate the purpose of your newsletter. If you want to write ads, that´s fine, but be careful not to lead your subscribers on and lure them onto your list with promises of quality information only to pull a bait and switch later, this will only result in a loss of subscribers.
Writing by Brick Marketing on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Leave a comment
Not having an email newsletter is a big mistake, no matter what industry you are in. Without an email contact, you have no way of ensuring that your visitors will come back. If you get their email address, however, you´ll find that while you can´t force them to return, you can certainly keep them up to date on the latest and greatest news and offers in your industry.
The email newsletter is a very valuable tool for any internet marketer. It allows you to stay close to your audience and to remind them on a regular basis why they trust you and why they should check back with you for more information. Maintaining that connection could be the best thing you have ever done for your business.
You may be surprised at how eager your readers are to sign up for an email that will help them stay on top of your changing website. Announcing new products, sales and special offers just for subscribers is always a great way to encourage people to visit the main website again.
Many internet marketers are also aware that although they may spend most of their time working on their website to encourage sales and repeat visits, the average buyer has to return several times before they are ready to actually make a purchase. Email newsletters help make this possible.
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