Include Something of Value In EVERY Email.

It is really that simple. That first email you send out will be the one most likely to be read . . . but as your subscribers sign up at different times means you don`t know which of your emails will be the first. Therefore, it just makes sense to add something of value to each and every email that goes out.

Not only is this a good way to ensure your first time readers come back, if you include value in all your email content, your subscribers will always read your emails. They want the information you are providing and as long as you are willing to keep giving it, most of them will happily read it!

Just remember, ads are not value. Your review of a product in the ad is. Make sure you give your readers a reason to read your email content.

• Involve your readers. When subscribers go from being passive to being active, they are that much closer to responding to your sales pitch.
• Find out what they want. Then give it to them. How easy is that? People will tell you what they are interested in buying from you . . . all you need to do is provide it.
• Learn what`s not working. You might be surprised if you take a poll to find out what people dislike about your email marketing strategies. This is a good way to find out what you should be changing.
• Build a bond. People will feel that you do care about what they think and want, which will help create a bond between you and your readers, something that can be invaluable down the road.

These are all great reasons to try using a poll in your email marketing campaign. You could find that it increases your sales dramatically, and at the very least, you`ll have a better handle on what is going on with your subscribers.

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.

• Cut out personal info. This probably isn`t necessary and if you are just chatting about your trip to the beach, it can be taken out to shorten your email content.
• Add subheadings. This helps make the email content easier to read. People like to skim, so this will give them the important points.
• Use bullet points. Again, easy for skimming. Also all the information is more concise with bullet points.
• Take one sentence out. By removing a sentence from each paragraph (an unnecessary one) you`ll find that your content is better written, as well as shorter.

Just because your email content is long doesn`t mean people won`t read it. However, you do need to break it up with bullet points, or consider making it shorter. Easy to read is always good when it comes to email content length.

Making an offer in the subject line is often considered spammy and poor taste. BUT, it can work for you if you have an established brand name. Let`s say you see an email from Office Depot offering you a 50% discount in the subject line . . . wouldn`t you want to check it out?

Other poor subject line tricks that can work include the following:

• No call to action. Sometimes the newsworthy headline is worth opening the email for.
• Boring subject line. You`d be surprised at how many dull, but informative subject lines have made it to the top 10 list!
• Too informal. While you might feel that your email should appear to be from a business, sometimes that friend feel is enough to get people to open the email.

Not all rules have to be followed all the time. Try experimenting with your subject lines and find out which ones work best with your particular audience.

In May 2008 the Federal Trade Commission(FTC) released its Statement of Basis and Purpose and Final Discretionary Rule (“final Rule”) on the CAN-SPAM ACT. This statement contains four new rules, and also contains some clarifications and guidance to the text of the original act in the form of the Statement of Basis and Purpose (SBP). You can read the FTC press release, and you can find the full text of the update here. The new rules go into effect on July 7th 2008.

Please visit the following link or more useful information:
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Here`s an interesting case study on using video with your email marketing.

masterIT connected the video to an email marketing campaign. This email video campaign had a 31% open rate and a 22% click through rate — far stronger results than a typical email campaign. Drake used Emma (”a way cool email marketing firm based in Nashville,” he says) to manage the campaign.

Video is far more dynamic than simple text or even audio. It allows the reader to absorb information via more than one sense and this can really be a good way to convey information that just isn`t going to make a lot of sense when written. Some things are better shown than written.

If you want to add extra interest to your email marketing campaigns, consider using links to video content on your website.

Age: If the list rental service is too young, be very wary. Many of the non-legit sites out there are only up for a short period of time before they close and set up under a new name to continue their business.

Complaints: Do a quick search on the list rental company name and find out if there are any complaints online. If it is a scam, you will likely find more names that the service has used before.

Price: Are the prices too good to be true? This is one area where it is worth it to pay a little higher and get quality emails that you can actually use and benefit from.

Finding a legit list rental service may take some time . . . there are a lot of bad ones out there. These three tips will go a long ways toward helping you find a good service and avoiding the bad ones, though. Take the time to research a bit an densure that you are getting the best email list possible.

An email marketing mentor is someone who can teach you what they know, and also give you a sounding board to bounce ideas off of. While your mentor certainly doesn`t have to be someone rich and famous, it never hurts! But for many, simply speaking to someone who has already been through the beginning process can be very helpful.

Finding your way through the maze of email marketing information doesn`t have to be quite so difficult and it can actually be fairly simple if you have someone who can help you out a bit and point out the best information and sources.

Where can you find an email marketing mentor? Try writing someone you respect and asking them a couple of questions. If they seem willing to help out, you can ask them if they would be interested in mentoring you. Not everyone will, some people are really too busy, but it`s always worth asking!

How do you inspire yourself to continue with some great email content? Here are a few ideas:

• Read blogs on your industry. This can help spark an idea. While you shouldn`t copy anything, using someone else`s writing for inspiration is fine.
• Dig through your archives. Go back a year or two and see what you haven`t written about in a while. It might be worth an update in your email content.
• Get away from the computer. Sometimes writing with a pen and paper in the park can inspire new ideas. Also, a stroll through the mall might spark something for your email content, you never know!
• Watch television. Often you can find some good anecdotes on TV or in a movie and these can help make your email content more exciting.
• Read other email content. This can really help. Reading what other email marketers are writing can actually stimulate some great content on your end, too.

Email content isn`t always easy, but it helps if you know how to find some inspiration for those days when nothing is coming to mind.

• 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!

Email Marketing Learning Sources

• Ask other email marketers. Be brave and write an email with some of your pressing questions. Send it to an email marketer that you admire and you might be pleasantly surprised.
• Read email marketing blogs. Blogs like this one are a great source of email marketing information and they are frequently updated, making this a great way to gain knowledge.
• Join a mailing list. While there are plenty of email marketing newsletters around, you can also benefit from signing up for other types of email newsletters and seeing how people are actually putting their methods to work.
• Social network. This might not sound like an area that would help you with learning, but when you are connected through Digg or StumbleUpon, you`ll make friends with similar interests. When they find something interesting on email marketing, you`ll know about it.

There are plenty of places to learn email marketing basics, but don`t forget, even if you`ve been playing the game for a while, it`s possible to learn more. In fact, education should be a part of any email marketer`s success plan, so get out there and start learning!

Spam is spam, no matter how you get it into the inbox and just because you use a special brand name to ensure that it is going to get past the spam filter doesn`t mean you`ll necessarily get more sales. In fact, it could ruin your reputation.

You don`t use techniques like this? Excellent, but that doesn`t mean they can`t be sneaking in anyway. If you sell solo ads and ad space, make sure you check what people are trying to run in your email newsletter. Even if the solo ad has nothing to do with you, this could destroy what people think of you and in email marketing, that could mean losing everything.

Brand name spam is still spam, so keep an eye out for it and be sure not to mislead your readers with this type of headline.

When doing a brainstorm session, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Write everything down. Even if you don`t know if it is a good idea, write it down. Ideas that don`t work out right now could be useful in the future and accepting everything will keep the creative flow going.
• Remember to fuel your brain. Whether on donuts or a veggie tray, make sure that you have food and drink available to help keep you alert as you brainstorm.
• Build on email content ideas later. The initial brainstorming should be just spitting out as many ideas as possible. You can critique and develop the best ones later on in a second brainstorming session.
• Lock yourselves in. Find a quiet location to do your thinking and come up with more email content ideas. A board room can be ideal, but anywhere that you can work without interruptions is fine.

Email content can be difficult to come up with at times, but the fact is that when you have more than one person working on it, you really should make use of the extra brain! Doing a brainstorm session and then assigning ideas is a great way to ensure that your email content is never dull.

The most common reason to divide your opt-in list is to keep the active subscribers on one list. Your tactics for getting people to buy should be quite different between those who have already bought and those who have never answered a call to action in your emails.

Subscribers on your opt-in list who have already bought something from you have proven that they trust you enough to go ahead and pay you money for what you are recommending. This is a big deal and one that should be taken advantage of.

Once someone has bought from you, they are far more likely to buy again, so it is a matter of presenting the right offer. Now, it makes sense that it will take less convincing to get the sales opt-in list to buy than those who have shown little or no interest in buying from you.

Consider it. You could end up earning more by splitting your opt-in lists.

People may open your email for the subject line, but if your email content is lousy, they will think twice before reading another email from you. Many people don`t actually unsubscribe, but they just delete the emails from people they aren`t interested in reading. Don`t let that be you!

Making sure that your email content is quality is key to keeping readers interested. While your subject lines are important and getting through the spam filter is also important, your email content will end up helping the reader decide if your emails are worth reading or not.

Email content matters. Make yours great and you`ll keep them coming back even when your subject lines suck.

3 Shady Email Marketing Tactics

Using the default check box. This is a very common trick, where email marketing experts set up their information request forms to automatically check the opt-in check box. When someone unchecks it, the form resets for any slight error and rechecks the box.

Weird wording. Just because you include a link to unsubscribe in your email doesn`t mean you are good to go. You shouldn`t bury it in a mess of links, use weird wording so no one understands that this is the actual way to unsubscribe, etc.

Tricking readers. This is all too common these days. You are asked to provide your email to access a weekly tips newsletter or something of the sort. Then, rather than receive your tips, you are bombarded with ads several times a day! Definitely a bad idea.

Not only are these email marketing tactics rude, they can also cost you. People who can`t find an easy way to unsubscribe or who haven`t really signed up for your emails will be annoyed and likely to hit the “Report Spam” link instead of trying to opt out.

Over at Kitzer and Bender, there is a reminder of the direct mail marketing rule that can also be applied to email marketing with great success.

The 40/40/20 rule of direct marketing says that the success of an email marketing campaign is based 40 percent on targeting the right audience (your email list), 40 percent on the offer you make, and 20 percent on your creative execution (including copy-writing and design).

This 40/40/20 rule is very useful in email marketing as well and it give a great starting point for how much energy you should be putting into each area. Having the right offer for your target market is a vital part of working with your email list to earn money. The rest should fall right into place without any issues, including the copywriting and promotion of the offer.

Email marketing is an area that can be very profitable, but you do need be sure you aren`t spending too much of your time on the wrong offer.

Rather than require readers to scan down the page several inches to find the next article, you can just have it begin in the next column. While this makes the email content clearer and more easily available to the reader, it also serves another purpose.

When email design incorporates columns into the email, it can be a very good way to draw the reader in. Rather than close the email when he sees the first article, which doesn`t much interest him, the reader will be presented with double the information and this can double your chances of keeping the casual reader interested.

Email design can make the difference between whether or not people are reading your email newsletters and columns make it that much easier to capture their attention.

When writing your email subject lines, keep in mind that people are scanning their inbox and you have to stand out. Very few readers actually sit down and work their way methodically through their emails. No, they are far more likely to reduce email time by simply running their eyes down the page. So, standing out is essential.

Using words that catch people´s attention is vital, but you also want to give an honest idea of what is inside the email newsletter. The trick to doing this is to make an action statement or to ask a question. Questions tend to pop up in email inboxes, but yours will stand out if dyou make it worth while reading.

People want to solve their problems, so by identifying the most common issues faced by your readers and then asking them about it will help draw them in. For example, you might ask your readers, “Sick of Earning by the Hour?” This implies that you have a better option and they will be more likely to click on your email.

Make your subject lines worth reading and interesting and you´ll be surprised at how fast people start to actually read your emails rather than ignore them.