Date Archive

DEC'08
22nd

HTML vs. Plain Newsletters

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HTML newsletters have in the last few years observed a huge boost but recently a slight increase in plain (or text) has been noticed. Studies made in 2002 showed that 62 percent of customers opted for text newsletters, while another report contradicted this by saying that 60 percent had a preference for HTML newsletters. But guess which format wins? Whereas some years ago, the answer could have been rather complex, today it comes down to subscriber preference and multipart messaging. HTML of course triumphs due to its eye-catching and attractive nature and usability, though a minute percentage of readers still insist on text.

HTML has gained popularity due to its fancy look which can include photos, graphics and colours and these newsletters can deliver videos, audios and Java applets. They are usually easy to read and include a layout which shows the newsletter’s structure, thus facilitating the navigation process. Publishers expect at least 10-25 % of subscribers to click on links when viewing HTML newsletters, which is not the case when sending plain text newsletters.

According to some readers, HTML email is a useless and unnecessary gimmick that can be put aside. In rural areas and non-developed countries, plain newsletters are preferred since they require less disc space, bandwidth and download time as well. They are unsuitable for subscribers who have slow connections or pay-by-the-minute internet access since they take longer to load. People with non-standard or old web-based email programs, which do not support HTML, will rather have programming codes on their screens. Publishers however consider it as disadvantageous as readers may lose interest when reading text without graphics and moreover, click-through-ratio is very small.

A wise idea would be to use a service which sends both formats of newsletters and detects the best one depending on the type of reader. Nowadays, many email software programs and services make use of ‘sniffing’ and detect if the reader’s email program can read HTML and accordingly delivers a plain text version a HTML version. For subscribers who want plain text newsletters, the version should be made user-friendly, easy to read, tight with fewer words to capture the readers’ minds.

Regardless, the key is to offer subscribers the choice of format when signing-up or provide … Some reliable email technology solutions, such as Oempro, provide multipart messaging to cater for both plain and HTML newsletters readers. Oempro sends the newsletter both HTML and plain text and it’s up to the subscriber’s email client to decide whether to accept the HTML version or present the plain text version. A tip when using HTML would be to keep the file size as small as possible and to always create a text-version for those who prefer or need them using a tool-supporting sniffing technique, or using email technology solutions which provides multipart messaging.

DEC'08
22nd

How To Easily Manage Your Email List

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Oempro helps you in managing your email list easily. Whether you have a large list of customer email addresses or you are just starting off, Oempro offers the tools required to make the most of all your contacts. It allows you to identify maximum amounts for email lists and it provides the complete profile and action history of all your email list members, including messages sent, click-through rates and action tracking.

List management features include the building and the growing of email lists. Your email is one of your most precious assets, but building one is a slow process which might be time-consuming and strenuous. However by abiding by the following tips, you can quickly build your email list and increase your email marketing effectiveness by benefitting from communication with your readers.

When deciding to launch an email-marketing campaign, you must not limit your missives, as you will benefit by staying in touch with a wide variety of members and organizations. These contacts should always be kept informed through permission-based email to boost your business. If you already have an email list Oempro enables you to import it and manage the subscribers’ information.

An easy way to collect email addresses is to include a sign-up tag on your home page and other appropriate pages of your company website. You cannot afford to lose a single site visitor. You cannot miss the opportunity of turning visitors into your customers. Another effective method is to send emails to people which whom you already have a business relationship but you should provide a clear way for them to unsubscribe. Once you have built an email list, your highest priority now is grow the list as a larger number of subscribers imply more potential customers. Hence, a bigger list obviously implies a higher impact on your business.

If you do not have a website, you can still find ways to gather email addresses to grow your list:

Building your list and growing it entail the same steps and are done similarly.

DEC'08
22nd

How Often To Send Your Newsletter

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In today’s high-tech age of communication, email is considered as an ephemeral medium. Email, more precisely your email newsletter, is one of the most powerful tools for your business. The main reason behind is that due to the advent of reliable and proper email marketing tools such as oemPro, it takes little time to create and send personalized emails to your target audience. While unimportant emails can be sent once or twice a year, it is not the case for email newsletters. On the contrary, sending newsletter hardly ever can prove to be disastrous to your company as customers will forget about you and you might lose your readers.

You need to email your subscribers often enough to keep in contact with them and at the same time, notify about your new products and new developments. However, you must be careful not to bother them by sending newsletters too often, as this might compel them to unsubscribe though they like the content. Your newsletter can even be marked as spam if it is sent infrequently. How often you send your newsletter is therefore a major feature to consider to succeed in maintaining relationships with your customers and preventing your business from deteriorating by losing subscribers. Although there is no magic answer to which frequency of launching newsletters is the best, there are various factors which can affect your choice, depending on your capability and your subscribers as well.

The most imperative element is your ability to create and send newsletters. You cannot attempt to send more often than you are able to, else the quality of your newsletter will suffer, thereby leading to a decrease in the number of readers. If you think you are capable of preparing daily newsletters, go for semi-daily newsletters. Similarly, if your potential is to send weekly newsletters, choose to send newsletters every two weeks. If you promise a weekly newsletter, readers will expect a new issue every week. If this promise is not fulfilled, your subscribers’ trust in you as a newsletter publisher and merchant will be influenced. You should therefore cautiously decide on your schedule and once you have opted for one, you must stick to it. If ever you plan to change your frequency, inform your subscribers beforehand.

Generally speaking, a frequent publication schedule, such as a monthly issue or twice a month, is more valuable. The trick is to find the balance for you, where you can send newsletters as often as possible, while concentrating on the quality of the content. However, a less frequent newsletter, is not recommended. The rule of thumb is to test for a perfect frequency which will suit you and your company and simultaneously be appropriate to your target as well.

DEC'08
22nd

Holidays Email Marketing Tips

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Reports have shown that email is the most used medium for online shopping during the holiday season. Email marketing, due to its affordability, effectiveness and straightforwardness, is much exploited to benefit the most from the holiday traffic and spending, hence generating a positive impression about the company as well as a higher revenue. Email marketing supplies the tools to target clients who are ready to spend money over the holidays. This period thus provides a plethora of prospects to boost your business. You should employ an efficient holiday marketing stratagem which solves your customers’ problems and target their interests. Sending holiday email campaigns is an excellent way for you to stay connected with your clients.

Tips to increase sales during holidays, making use of email marketing:

Email Early

Send your campaigns early, before the holiday shopping rush to grab more customers. You should avoid sending emails during the holidays as people do not tend to check their email regularly. A number of emails pile up and the chance that your email is deleted without being read increases. Therefore, emailing before the holidays is more efficient. Include a sense of exigency in your emails, such as limiting the time period, so that your recipients respond and buy quickly.

Email Frequency

If you have a propensity to rise the frequency of your mailing during the holidays, inform your recipients beforehand. Do not increase your email frequency without notification as this might irritate the receivers.

Notify About New Issues Or Updates

You should notify your recipients in case you plan not to publish issues during the holidays. You can also seize the opportunity to invite new people to subscribe to your email or newsletter. If new updates or offers are expected after the holidays, outline them before the holidays to whet your subscribers’ appetite.

Basics Of A Good Email

Holiday Greeting

You should send holiday greetings to all your prospects and customers. The latter will appreciate your thanks and regards.

DEC'08
22nd

Importance of Headers and Footers in Newsletters

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The Header

The header, which is found at the top of your newsletter, is mainly used to build interest and has to be well-designed since it gives an image of the newsletter. It is used as a teaser, which tempts and pushes the reader to continue reading the newsletter and discover its interesting content. It should contain important information about the company, including the company’s name and logo. The content in the header should be relevant to the content of course. All headers should be consistent, and the publication date, issue and mainlines of the content should be clear.

The Footer

The footer is the text which appears below the newsletter’s content and is as much important as the content itself, but many marketers do not make use of it. It is the best place for inserting administrative notices and including CAN-SPAM compliance. It can also be used to advertise your products and services. Since from readers’ point of view, the footer is not considered as being part of the newsletter, you can allow yourself to incorporate other elements, spreading out from subjects related to your business. Though this section of the newsletter is not read at all the time, readers do often scroll down to view more information and the footer’s objective is therefore to ensure that it contains all that a reader might want to learn. Standard information about your business, such as contacts, must always be included, without putting aside your marketing aims, new products and secondary offers. The footer should without doubt comprise of links to your website and your other newsletters.

Some elements which are recommended in the footer are:

Both headers and footers are essential in newsletters. You can define your header and footer of newsletters being sent through Oempro. It provides great flexibility and privilege mechanism which enables you to send personalized newsletters for each administrator.

DEC'08
22nd

Importance of Good Subject Lines

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A lot of work is put into crafting a perfect email, but the subject line, which is one of the most considerable components of an email is treated as an afterthought and has been too often overlooked. Over the last few decades, marketers have been agonizing over creating great emails, and only the last two minutes are spent on the subject line before sending the email. This is wrong. Subject lines should not be considered as a trivial matter and its significance cannot be minimized. Marketers should give as much importance to subject lines as any other constituent of their email efforts.

In a survey made in 2002, 63.3% of respondents cited the “From” line as the most imperative factor which motivates them to open emails. According to the report, 35% of respondents quoted the subject line as being the most vital factor. The subject line is the first impression that readers will have about your email and it is the element which will ensure that your email is delivered and read instead of being tossed. The subject line corresponds to the headline of a news story. The latter entices readers to know the whole story. Similarly, the subject line whets readers’ appetite about getting the complete message. The subject line should therefore be a compelling, and alluring short and precise message which catches the readers’ attention.

Writing good subject lines is a complex task. But what makes a good subject line? There is no universal applicable “silver bullet” subject line. Different types of marketing emails require different subject line approaches. Subject lines should convey who you are. This is done by incorporating your brand into the subject line if the “From” line does not make this clear. Moreover, you should be always consistent in your branding so that recipients get familiar to your emails. If the sender’s identity is unknown to the recipient, the subject line has the task of establishing the trust and comfort which will prevent your email from being marked as spam and deleted without being opened and read.

The typical subject line window can accommodate between 30 and 40 characters but the subject line should be kept short to ensure that the recipient pays attention to it. The benefits should be spelled out in the subject line. The reader should be aware that the content will improve his life. If appropriate, a limited time offer can also be used to draw the reader to open the email immediately. Unless your subject line is a question, punctuation must be eliminated. Furthermore, capital letters should not be used as all caps indicate spam.

The science in email marketing lies in the continual testing and retesting to find more about customers and their needs. If you really want to maximize success and create a great first impression, devote time and attention to the subject line and test and retest to have good results.

DEC'08
22nd

5 Secrets Revealed in the Special Report on Mail List Building

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How the Online Masters of the Universe Grow their Business The secret if you can call it that has been around for the better part of the century. It was known by a select few individuals. It’s been written in books that are now remaindered and discontinued. It’s been repackaged for the current times that we live in. It’s even been in the movies. It’s all about “The List”.

Secret #5

Build Your List One Subscriber at a Time. The online masters don’t buy lists from brokers, they build the lists themselves. Sure it takes longer to build a list. Sure you don’t get that immediate rush of sending out 10,000 emails to “Dear Friend”. When doing this, are you sending out unsolicited emails? You bet. Is this considered SPAM – absolutely. Are you going to get a reasonable response rate – highly unlikely. Do you want a list that responds often or just one time?

You need, no you MUST ask for permission to send people your message. This is where the double opt-in rule takes affect. People must request that you send them mail by clicking on a confirmation link you email to them.

Advantages of Double Opt-in

It reduces the probability of spam complaints. While it does not eliminate them completely, many list managers these days can keep track of date/time of the request, IP address, and referring URL so that you have evidence that the subscriber opted-in. You don’t want people subscribing their friends to the list without their knowledge. The confirmation process will help to ensure that people are only subscribed with their consent.

Cleaner list – people have to use their real email addresses in order to confirm their subscriptions. This also eliminates misspelled addresses or those with typos.

More responsive subscribers. Those who are genuinely interested enough to confirm their subscriptions may also be more inclined to respond to your valuable information and offers.

Disadvantages of Double Opt-in

For some reason, you’re afraid that you may lose subscribers. Some people can’t be bothered to confirm their requests, while others who really want to receive your newsletter may not understand the confirmation process. The bottom line here is you will never know what you lose or gain without doing A/B split testing.

You can pick up subscribers that never intended to subscribe. For instance, let’s say you use a double opt-in process which asks users to confirm their subscriptions by replying to the message. Some people may reply with “no thanks” or something similar in nature – but because they replied, they’re automatically added to the list.

 

Secret #4

It Ain’t Necessarily So

Do you have a product everyone in the known universe wants? Do you have a product that no one can live without? Do you have a product where people will tell their friends and their friends will tell their friends? Well if you answered yes to these questions, I have a song for you.

It “Ain’t Necessarily So” (Bronski Beat). Without listening to the most popular radio station on earth WII-FM, your chances of building a responsive list are next to nil and slim. You might as well take your money and “invest” in a car or any other value losing proposition

To get subscribers, you must deliver on the promise “Free, Perfect, Now”. And yes there is a whole business model that can be built on this statement. But let me summarize, you must make an offer that is FREE with inherent benefits, it must be Perfect for this moment in their lives and you must deliver it NOW.

Here’s a quick example of Free, Perfect, Now model. The business is Debt Consolidation and Reduction. Offer a free guide that is perfect for those who are so far in debt that they have to reach-up to touch bottom and give them the ultimate guide now, so that they can turn their leveraged lives around.

Just remember keep listening to WII-FM (What’s In It-For Me) and you’re well on your way to building a responsive list.

 

Secret #3

Forget This at Your Own Peril!

Suspects > Prospects > Customers > Suspects

Who are the usual suspects? It’s not who you might expect. You’re probably thinking that the usual suspects are people that you know. Really they aren’t.

Suspects are anybody and everybody that you meet. Prospects are suspects that actually ask you for more details, free samples or anything that has to do with the product and service you offer.

Finding suspects is easy. Remember it’s everyone. The misconception is that everyone on a spam list is a prospect. So how do you convert a suspect into a prospect? Well you either are a great copywriter (you can entice a suspect to become a prospect) or your product is so needed that everyone you meet wants it.

There are a whole lot of reasons why suspects never become prospects, but the major reason is that you haven’t built a relationship yet. You’re thinking that your service is so great that everyone would want it. Well I am sorry to say (not really);) , that not everyone wants your service.

That’s why experienced direct mail marketers have “target lists”. They are targeting a group of suspects in the hope they become prospects and eventually customers.

A real world example of a suspect list is when you’re handed a list to cold call. You’ve never talked to the people before and you’re talking to them for the first time, hoping they will request more details from you.

That is Step 1 in building a relationship. Step 2 is of course enticing them with an offer to request something from you like this ebook called “The Greatest Secrets to the Wealth of Ages”. Wouldn’t you want to pass along this ebook to friends and have them pass it along to their friends? (I can hear you say this sound like viral marketing) and you’d be right, it is.

Step 2.5 is to offer your prospect more value. Give away a free training course on “Get Ready for Instant Wealth”. Now you’re building trust. It didn’t cost your prospect a dime, but you gave them something that changes their life.

Now how many small steps does it take to build trust, well that depends on the price of your service. So after creating these small steps you’re preparing your prospect to become a customer. So you might be asking how long does it take, well the real answer is how skilled you are in building trust and in helping other people make their dreams into a day to day reality

And here’s the “Forget this at your own Peril” statement. Once a person becomes a customer, they are immediately put into your next “suspect cycle”. Just because people buy from you once, never guarantees that they will buy from you again. Let me repeat that statement, one time customers are good for quarterly revenue boosts, but repeat customers are good for your business from year to year.

 

Secret #2

Ideas Stolen from Newspapers and Magazine in the Offline World

There are so many useless websites out there; you’ll probably die first before you can count them all. These sites aren’t built to sell anything. They’re built to market to the unwashed masses. You’ve seen them before and throughout your entire life. It’s based on the concept that I don’t know what I have to offer so I better have something for everybody, ’cause you just never know who randomly might become a customer.

If this isn’t a losing proposition, I don’t know what is! The masters of the online universe get it and they charge handsomely for it. It’s called niche marketing. They have one website for one product. That’s the hook. Then once they build a relationship with you, they begin to sell products to you that are not marketed on the web.

It’s not rocket science, but it’s brilliant. They get it and most businesses don’t, that’s why they are the Masters of the Online Universe.

They write “Front Cover” websites, just like the newspapers and magazines. They have attention grabbing headlines, superb first paragraphs and great copy. They push all the buttons required to get the “random suspect” to pony up their email address and subscribe to a newsletter or when they add so much value that the suspect immediately buys from them.

The next time your standing in the grocery store line, take a look at the magazine rack, especially the tabloids. (by the way, the headlines you read are written by the most highly paid copywriters in the industry). Even if you don’t believe the stories, the sole purpose is to get your attention and they do.

As you wait in those long slow lines, take notes and copy down the headlines, after a while, you’ll get it and be able to write your own copy converting headlines. Steal the headlines not the magazines, it’s free research and takes about 5 minutes and you won’t go to jail.

If you really want to learn how to write first paragraphs, then buy the magazines, look for the promise, the hook, the imagery and above all the promise of what is going to be delivered in the rest of the story.

 

Secret #1

Life Long Dating > The Marriage > The Divorce

Look at the stats, there will be more divorces this year then all the leading causes of death put together. Oh and by the way how can there be so many #1 killers … (but I digress, you see it’s all about the attention getting headline).

Divorce rates have surpassed the 50% level, can you imagine losing 50% of your customer base? If you can, it’s time to start courting your customers again. You can never get too comfortable, too lazy and above all too INDIFFERENT.

This idea is a little different then your classic Customer Relationship Model. Essentially all of these types of programs are based upon treating each human being (emphasis on HUMANanity with PERSONality) as pieces of classified data. Gee, I want to be treated as bits in a database, where some market segment wizard defines who I am by demographic, geographic and psychographic gobbledygook.

Most expert marriage counselors say “The #1 reason for divorce is lack or failure to communicate”. Well if you think your customers are married to you think again. They will leave you in a New York minute, for someone else that offers them more then the current relationship does. Thus you have divorce North American Style. And be sure they will be telling all their friends about you too.

Having a list, working the list, communicating (and not just the dictatorial kind) and constantly improving the relationship is the key to success. Isn’t this beginning to sound like “Life Long Dating”. The features you offer only last so long before the glitter is gone. If you’re not consistently helping each other be better, there is no long term partnership and where do you end up?

Divorce Court!

Treat each PERSON in your list as a human being, not as a Human Resource for money. Remember “resources” are disposable and thrown away. Do you want to throw away your current relationship and have to start dating all over again. Just think of the cost and the price you pay.

 

Final Secret

Autopilot Automation

How big do you think the Masters of the Online World are. Do they have 100’s of employees? Do they have large corporate offices with all the trappings and expenses? The answer is NO!

They have one or two employees and they outsource everything else. This keeps them nimble and quick. They can turn on a dime and launch a new venture. They have trusted partners that join them in their ventures.

They own lists combined that number in the millions. Combined they have tens of thousands of websites. But they manage to have all this with only a staff of one or two. Little overhead, little capital investment and little if any bureaucracy. They are the model for a “Free Agent” nation.

And they do this by Autopilot Automation. They think outside the box, they act outside the box. They know the difference between follow-up and follow through. The live the commitment to build a list one subscriber at a time. From list building to product fulfillment it’s all on autopilot and all automated. Can you imagine controlling 100’s of websites and having to manually manage each and everyone of them? I can’t.

And if your time is spent (not invested) just managing, you’re not building. If you’re not building relationships, you’re not communicating. And finally if you’re not communicating, where will you end up?

Divorce Court. We all know the implications of this, don’t we?

Front Cover websites, copywriting, product fulfillment all take time. But these are not the most important activities. The most important activity is ongoing meaningful communications with your list.

I don’t mean the kind that comes from “The Corporation”, you know the ones that tell you how great they are and what PR “BS” they are shovelling today. I mean the communications that help other people help themselves. The kind that offer improvements not impoverishment to their current station in life. The type that gives hope and can deliver on promises. Of course you can promise anything, but if the other party fails to take action, that’s when they broke their side of the promise and will surely fail.

How do you deliver help without killing yourself in the process. You automate everything and then put it on Autopilot. This is going to be the most important and integral part of your business.

Automated Sales and Relationship Building in a Box

What you need is a combined mailing list manager and intelligent autoresponder. It’s not easy finding software that does both very well. The first and foremost reason (and this my suggestion from experiencing many different broken promises from the technology side of the business) is to maintain a prospect list, that will drop prospects into a customer list, which will then drop customers back into another prospect list (for different product streams).

The intelligent autoresponder part of the program will “auto-magically” manage the selling cycle for you. Remember the key difference between a mailing list management program and an autoresponder is list management and message management. Autoresponders manage the message.

You don’t want to manage multiple databases with multiple names with multiple sell sequences. Manually trying to merge information from different databases is cause to just throw up your hands and quit.

From a selling perspective, you want to be able to offer your list, firesales, one-time offers and longer multiple buy streams from you.

Whether you have one website or hundreds, you must automate or die. You will spend so much time managing your business as opposed to building your business that it will affect bottom line revenue.

Automate like just like the Masters of the Online World Do.

DEC'08
22nd

Dealing with your inactive subscribers

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Your emails are being sent to all your subscribers and you are expecting a high open-rate and response rate. When sending, you are targeting a known number of readers according to the size of your emails list. However, within this list, there are inactive subscribers who have not been opening and clicking on your emails for a particular period of time. This decreases your response rate greatly, thereby affecting your business drastically. To be able to deal with your inactive recipients, you should first of all determine them, that is find out who are inactive and then, know the reasons behind their inactivity.

Determining who are active

Choose a period of time wherein you have sent more than ten emails to all recipients. By using your active report, you can determine who are those who have not opened and clicked on any links, by verifying the unique opens.

Knowing why they are inactive

There are different reasons of inactivity:

Dealing with them

After having identified your inactive recipients, your task is to try in bringing them back to you. The strategies that can be implemented are:

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