Category: Online Selling

  • When Email Marketing Yields Unexpectedly Great Results

    The basic concept

    Sometimes the benefits of email marketing are quite different than anticipated. Most Web marketers understand the basic concept of email marketing which is to email promotional materials to a large group of Internet users in an effort to promote interest in particular products or services. This concept is easy for many to understand, but we will attempt to describe and, perhaps, elaborate on a few of the more beneficial aspects of email marketing.

    In the following paragraphs we discuss the basics of email marketing, but we will also explain how – sometimes – email marketing can encompass much more than originally planned. This additional reach can be either a positive or negative influence depending on the quality of original emails and the reactions of subscriber list recipients.

    Simple & cost effective

    Email marketing is a very simple concept which can also be extremely cost effective; but the general idea behind email marketing can be narrowed down to this simple characterization: An email is sent to an email subscription (or distribution) list with the single purpose of creating an interest in the products or services being offered by the originator of that email. In theory this concept could not be simpler but email marketing can get significantly more complicated when being implemented.

    One of the biggest complicating factors is the potential for emails used in a marketing campaign occur when one or more of those emails are misinterpreted as spam, either recipient of such emails or a spam filter provided by the Internet service provider. This potential alone creates a major complication because Web marketers have to make a significant effort to ensure that their messages are not trapped by a spam filter or immediately deleted by the recipients for appearing to be spam.

    After clearing initial hurdle

    Once the misinterpretation hurdle is cleared and email messages get through to recipients, they have a small window of opportunity to make a positive impression on those recipients and influence them to make a purchase or at least visit the business owner’s website. One effective method of getting such a result is to provide quality content while keeping advertising subtle and at a minimum while making sure to feature a clear call to action. These are all factors which have been proven to help get the message across and entice potential customers to make a purchase or at least visit a website to get a closer look at those products and services.

    As previously stated the goal of an email marketing campaign is to subtlely persuade email recipients to either make a purchase or visit a particular website for more detailed information; and when an email recipient performs either of these actions, it is considered a huge success. However, thanks to the power of a forward button, email marketing can actually be much more successful than even the business owner intended.

    Better than word-of-mouth

    One of the great aspects of email marketing becomes evident when email recipients receive an email that they think is worthwhile and are likely to make a purchase, but may also forward the same information on to a friend or family member they believe may also be interested in learning more about the particular product or service. This ability to forward email messages can be compared to satisfied customers in the offline world using word of mouth to tout the quality of products or services they have bought and like.

    However, the ability to forward a worthwhile email message is exponentially more effective than using word of mouth to spread the word; because with just a few clicks of the mouse the original email recipient can forward any message to several of his/her friends simultaneously. This can result in significantly better results than the business owner had originally expected with no additional effort and time being exerted or money being spent.

  • Blend Email With Other Marketing Strategies!

    The concept

    Whether you choose to do your marketing online or offline one thing does not change: The concept that no single marketing strategy will be as effective as utilizing a blend of two or more marketing strategies. This does not mean that it is necessary to implement every known marketing strategy to promote your business; but rather, it implies that it’s worthwhile to market from a few different perspectives in order to help achieve business-related goals.

    In this article we will take a look at the viability, need and practicality of combining email marketing with other types of marketing to create a successful, multi-tiered marketing strategy and in addition, offer a few observations on managing more than one marketing strategy simultaneously in the hopes that they will prove useful to you in your Web marketing efforts.

    The adage

    There is an old adage which states that, “Two heads are better than one,” and this could certainly be applied to a multi-pronged approach to Web marketing; because although you may enjoy a great deal of success with your current email marketing efforts it does not mean you should refuse to try other types of Web marketing strategies such as, website creation, participation in industry-related message boards, placing banner ads on your website(s), orchestrating an affiliate marketing campaign and generating inbound links to .

    It is important to keep in mind that, while the possibility exists that not all of these strategies will be effective for your business, the liklihood that at least one other option which complements your email marketing will help you to achieve your business-related goals. But there is only one way to actually test the blend of marketing types, and that is to test each one in a methodical fashion simililar to the kind of “split testing” that proved to be so effective for many marketers a decade or so ago, and is still utilized by marketers to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing strategies.

    The offline factor

    Alternately you even wish to combine your email marketing campaign with more traditional marketing strategies such as radio ads, television ads and the print media. Let’s face it, just because these types of advertising do not take place the Web does not mean they will be ineffective in helping you generate more business and profits.

    In fact advertising both online and offline can allow you to reach a larger audience to which you can target your advertising. This is especially true in view of the fact that you can reach Web users around the world, but reaching potential customers who do not utilize the Web for purchasing or researching products or services similar to the ones you offer can only be accomplished using offline marketing strategies.

    A powerful statement

    Popular marketing strategies to combine with email marketing include banner ads and message board participation, but these are all online activities and each one individually is fairly simple. However, in combination these simple activities can create a powerful statement, in the sense that when you send out emails offering useful information about your products or services, while simultaneously purchasing banner ad space on with content which may also be of interest to your potential customers, you can earn the respect and pique the interest of potential customers.

    Furthermore, let’s say you add a third marketing strategy like participation in industry-related message boards. When done right this could well be a powerful representation of your business, even if your potential customers are not currently in need of the products and services you offer; because seeing your business name so often will most likely have a branding effect that is credible and positive in their minds. And branding, which is essentially a process during which consumers see a company name so often that they are more likely to select a product from this company when they are in need of an item the company offers, will go a long way in boosting your reputation and customer base.

    The caveat emptor mindset

    Of course you must approach your experiment in blending marketing strategies with a “Caveat Emptor” mindset, because if you are planning to combine multiple forms of advertising, you should be aware that this might involve a degree of difficulty when evaluating the effectiveness of each marketing strategy.

    This difficulty is especially true when the marketing strategies are implemented simultaneously. When using only one type of marketing strategy, you can generally attribute increases in sales or traffic to changes in the marketing strategy. However, when more than one type of marketing strategy is in effect, determining which strategy is producing the most success can be quite difficult.

    Methodical work

    But remember, this experiment must be done in a careful and methodical manner. Meaning that the best way this situation can be handled is by not making changes to more than one marketing strategy at a time. By doing so you will be able to pinpoint which changes produce an increase in sales or traffic. The methodical approach can also help you to determine when changes to your marketing strategy have a detrimental effect on your sales and traffic. However, if you are having difficulty determining which marketing strategy is most effective you can consider asking customers to answer survey questions and provide information as to how they learned about the products or services your business offers.

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  • Traffic Converted to Buyers Equals Money

    Find product. Sell product!

    Note:
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    I recently viewed a video in which the presenter said, “there are two things you need to do in order to make money online. The first is to to promote and sell, and the second is to find an audience…” (a market) to sell that product (in this case product refers also to service) to. With that in mind the product can be your own which you developed and created yourself, or belonging to someone else, in which case you can get authorization from that person/vendor to promote and sell the product as an affiliate and get paid a percentage of the sale in the form of a commission.

    The first part of this equation – finding a product to sell – has been made exceedingly easy over the two decades since the introduction of digital products – created and made available – via the WWW (World Wide Web), so anyone looking for can take his/her pick from among the vast numbers available in the eCommerce marketplace. It is the second part of the equation and all the various aspects of finding an audience, as well as the inherent challenges that must be dealt with in pursuading – friendly, though it may be – that audience to buy a product from you.

    Traffic to your

    Of course it is understood in most marketing circles that the first step in finding an audience is getting exposure for your product, which is another way of saying attracting Internet users, also referred to as traffic to your website or product page

    In order to achieve this most basic of goals many Web marketers advertise their utilizing some of the more popular advertising resources such as Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, and Bing/Yahoo! Ads, while others utilize the more economical methods like Traffic Exchanges, Link Exchanges and Email Marketing Campaigns. A third category of website owner relies on their own SEO techniques and formatting directly on their sites to induce the search engines to place their site on the SERPs (search engine results pages) which they expect would gain the site maximum exposure.

    The conversion principle

    It is important to point out at this juncture that whether a owner succeeds in getting traffic that is costly, economical or free s/he must still convert that traffic into an audience that knows, trusts and likes who s/he is and what s/he represents (reputation and credibility) before that audience will buy a product s/he is promoting and selling. Therefore certain steps must be taken by the website owner in order to achieve this goal.

    This is where the importance of conversion rates comes into play, along with the steps needed to convert visitors into buyers, and the skill with which to adebtly initiate and execute the conversion process. It is only then that a website owne, Web marketer, product owner or any other entity attempting to promote and sell a product that s/he will be successful in doing so.

    The cold, hard cash factor

    In the Ebook, 110 Bite-Sized Tips to Boost Website Conversion Rates, the author states that, “A lot of factors are involved with ensuring that visitors click on, and then actually buy items they see. There are many things you can do to get the most conversion rates possible which means those website views and random clicks actually turn into cold, hard cash (otherwise known as sales).” It is in the manner of this approach that an affiliate marketer or product owner shoud view the traffic that s/he manages to attract to a website or product page.

    It is possible however, that many do not devote enough time and/or attention to this important aspect of selling products, while others simply ignore it altogether. If you are a member of either group today might just be your lucky day, because TPJaveton WebNet is giving away a free Bonus copy of the Ebook, 110 Bite-Sized Tips to Boost Website Conversion Rates, which will be a big help to you in your efforts to convert traffic into buying customers and money in your pockets. Get the Bonus Ebook AND Free Report Here! Good luck with it and Thank you!

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  • Subtlety in Email Marketing: Golden!

    Easily misconstrued

    Consistently, everyday users of the Web receive tons of emails telling them to buy certain products or visit particular websites; and while these emails arrive in the inboxes of unsuspecting Web users each and every day, most of them devote very little attention to such emails. The reason for such inattention is that emails which can be construed as, or simply are, blatant advertisements have often been viewed as spam and will continue to be viewed as spam until email marketers and the businesses that send them clean up their act.

    Let’s face it, most users of the Web have very little tolerance for spam; and for good reason, given that spam has been outlawed (See CAN-SPAM Act), and spammers have therefore developed the most sinister of reputations when compared to any other Web-based entities, except scammers (those who actually set out to engage in outright theft). Reactions to spam tend to range from simply ignoring the emails and having spammy email addresses blocked to reporting those emails to their Internet service providers for further investigation.

    We realize that many Web marketers have difficulty keeping their email marketing subtle, and therefore run the risk of being mistaken for spam; so in this article we will provide what we hope will be some useful information on how email marketing can be kept subtle so as to avoid it being viewed as spam. But more importantly, we want to provide enough thought-provoking points, aspects and norms associated with email marketing to help you formulate some of your own ideas that will ultimately keep you clear of suspicion in your own email marketing efforts.

    High quality content

    One of the most important criteria for ensuring that your email marketing is subtle and therefore not be viewed as spam, is to provide content which can be viewed as valuable or of high quality to subscribers and recipients of your emails. This may include insightful articles, interesting quizzes or other useful facts which members of your target audience are likely to find useful. When email recipients realize an email they received is offering them something worthwhile, such as knowledge or information about a particular niche subject, they are much more likely to spend some time reviewing the email since they will not likely consider it spam.

    In addition to using the creation of this copy to convince recipients that the email is not spam, the marketers and business owners can also take advantage of the copy by providing subtle advertising which may include product references in the articles or links to your website throughout the email.

    Keep ad & link density low

    While providing such links and product references it is important to avoid packing each paragraph with such instances of product references and links, which obviously defeats the purpose. Think in terms of keyword density and the avoidance of packing a website article with keywords to attract search engines, but end up having the reverse effect. Same applies to link density and readers.

    Avoiding language which makes outrageous claims can also help to keep advertising quite subtle, as using superlatives and describing the greatness of specific products will likely be viewed as blatant advertising. When this happens, it is unlikely that website owners, readers and subscribers will believe there is validity in anything contained within the emails because they will deem the entire email to be simply one big advertisement for your products or services.

    Using the third-party technique

    Another way to keep advertising subtle when running an email marketing campaign is to only send your email to those who are likely to be extremely interested in your products and services. This is important because when email recipients receive an email which does not reflect their interests at all, they are not likely to take the email serious and may view the email as a blatant and unwanted advertisement.

    However, when the email is only sent to those who share a common interest, the message seems more personalized, in which case the email recipients are not likely to view every product reference as a blatant advertisement and understand there is sometimes a need to mention products or services.

    Keep in mind that email marketing remains subtle when the content of a message is written as though it is not coming directly from the business owner. In other words, the copy may speak about products and services as though they are being offered by a third party. This technique makes the advertising seem more subtle because it does not appear to be coming directly from the Web marketer or business owner.

    This approach is one of the most effective in the sense that the sender does not give his/her recipients the impression that s/he is selling them something; and you know how people hate to be sold… anything. So it may be a good idea to learn the third-person technique, practice it, and use it in your email marketing campaigns.

    In conclusion…

    Finally I will leave you with the idea that you, the business owner, can help to ensure your email marketing effortsensure your email marketing efforts are not viewed as blatant advertisements (or spam) by keeping references to your own website to an absolute minimum. Most Web users often view links from one website to another strictly as an advertisement, and it is for this reason that most business owners who are marketing via an email campaign may find it worthwhile to keep links to a minimum and carefully weave these links into the most quite benign copy.

    The links should be provided as though they were only included to provide readers and subscribers with an opportunity to learn more about the products and not being included as a way to encourage them to purchase any products. It might also be worthwhile to consider hiring a writer with this type of experience and expertise to ensure that your copy conveys the desired message and has the desired effect on your email subscribers and other such recipients.

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  • Email Marketing Evaluation: A Must!

    A promotional method

    Email marketing can be a very effective promotional method to reach target audiences around the world, despite the fact that in many cases, the marketing efforts of a business owner or promoter may not reach full potential unless s/he invests the necessary time, energy and money into evaluating the email marketing strategy which s/he has put into action.

    It is during such an evaluation that a business owner can determine whether or not email marketing is a method that can enable him/her to reach stated marketing objectives. The same evaluation can be used to determine if email marketing as a strategy is having an adverse affect the business productivity.

    Useful information

    That having been said, there are a few ideas pertaining to the importance of evaluating email marketing that we’d like to discuss in this article, and will also offer what we consider useful information on how to initiate and complete the email marketing evaluation process. To say such a process, done on a regular basis, is important would be an obvious understatement since frequent evaluation of any email marketing strategy is not only important, it is crucial to the success of the business or individual that puts it into effect.

    So it follows that one’s failure to evaluate his/her email marketing strategies can have adverse effects on finances and overall business objectives, including failure to produce results and loss of customers to his/her competitors.

    Avoid shortcuts

    Consider for a moment that an existing email marketing campaign is not effective because it does not reach members of the particular target audience. An evaluation will certainly reveal the reasons for this failure, one of which may very well be that the distribution list to which this campaign is being sent consists of recipients who have little or no interest in the being offered via the emails.

    Business owners who take shortcuts by purchasing large email lists, often find their shortcut did not pay off because the recipients of their marketing emails are simply not interested in any product(s) or service(s) they offer. In this scenario the email marketing is likely to generate very few sales or website visits. However, reevaluating the email distribution list to include recipients who are interested in the products or services being offered will likely result in significantly more sales and website visits.

    Remove ALL semblances of spam!

    Now consider a situation in which your email marketing is being construed as spam by recipients. If you have taken precautions to ensure your emails are reaching members of your target audience, but your emails seem like over the top sales pitches, the members of your email distribution list may view your emails as spam and not take your advertisements seriously. When this happens members of your email distribution list may be more likely to seek out a competitor when they are in need of products or services rather than making a purchase from you.

    In fact, one of the subtle ways you could use to remind yourself that any likeness to spam must be avoided at all costs, is getting in the habit of refer to your list as an “opt-in subscriber” list and not a distribution list. Think of this excercise in these terms:

    You can buy distribution lists. But you must create, build, and nurture subscriber listscreate, build, and nurture subscriber lists by offering interesting (compelling?), useful (valuable?) and free content on your website to attract and encourage visitors who become repeat readers and, ultimately valued subscribers. get the difference?

    Evaluating your email marketing efforts may be formal or informal in nature. If you have specific business goals in mind you might want to consider the path to meet this goal as an indication of whether or not the email marketing is working. If you’re interested in reading more about email marketing take a look at this recently published post – Alternatively, you can evaluate your email marketing efforts by soliciting customer feedback.

    Ask for customer feedback

    Asking customers for their opinions about your email marketing campaign and whether or not they were compelled to make a purchase because of the content, the advertising or some other element is a simple and straightforward way of getting direct and unvarnished answers from your target audience.

    Based on this information you should have a good indication of whether or not the email marketing strategy is effective. If it is not effective you should consider making changes to create more interest in your products or services. The changes you make should reflect any feedback you receive, and ensure you are not making changes that will cause even less interest from the members of your subscriber list.

    Admin’s Bonus Gift 4U:

    If you get a lot of traffic – or a little traffic – to your website, but can’t seem to make any sales, today might just be your lucky day; because TPJaveton WebNet is giving away a free Bonus copy of our Traffic to Buyers Conversion Manual, which we hope will be a big help to you in your efforts to convert traffic into buying customers and money in your pockets. Get the BONUS Manual Plus A Second FREE Report Here! Good luck with it and Thank you!

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  • Subtlety in Email Marketing

    Know the distinctions!

    Typical Web users receive tons of emails encouraging them to purchase certain products or visit specific websites owned or managed by the email senders or merchants with whom they are affiliated; and while these emails arrive in inboxes of unsuspecting web users each day, most of them pay very little attention to such emails. This is because emails which are blatant advertisements are often viewed as spam, and most Web users have very little tolerance for spam; but it is very important to understand the distinction between these two types of communication.

    One distinction is the reaction of recipients, which is to say that reactions to spam tend to range from simply ignoring such emails and having the email addresses blocked from sending future communications, to reporting such emails to their Internet service providers (ISPs) for further investigation. We realize many Web marketers have difficulty keeping their email marketing subtle and, as such, this article will provide some information which we hope will be useful in determining how email marketing can be kept subtle so it is not viewed as spam.

    Criteria for subtlety

    Among the most important criteria for ensuring your email marketing is done in as subtle a manner as possible and not be viewed as spam is to provide something of quality to your recipients. This thing of quality may consist of insightful articles, interesting quizzes or other useful facts which members of the target audience are likely to find useful, if not valuable.

    The simple fact is when email recipients realize that an email they received is offering them something worthwhile such as knowledge or information about a particular niche subject they are much more likely to spend some time reviewing the email and therefore will not likely consider the email to be spam. In addition to using the creation of something qualitative to convince recipients that the email is not spam, business owners can also take advantage of qualitative content to provide subtle advertising which may include product references in the articles or links to his/her website throughout the email.

    Avoid outrageous claims

    Avoiding language which makes outrageous claims can also help to keep advertising quite subtle since the opposite – using certain superlatives and adjectives of greatness with which to describe specific products – is likely to be viewed as blatant advertising. When such language is used, it is highly unlikely that email recipients will believe there is validity in anything contained within the email because they will believe the entire email is simply one big advertisement for the senders’ products or services.

    One method proven to be most effective in keeping advertisements subtle when running email marketing campaigns is to only send your email(s) to those who are likely to be extremely interested in your products and services. This is important because when email recipients receive an email that does not reflect their interests in any manner or form, they are not likely to take the email seriously and may very well view such email(s) as a blatant advertisement or spam.

    Blatant advertisement is taboo

    However, when emails are sent only to those who share a common interest the email seems more personalized and therefore, those email recipients are not likely to view every product reference as a blatant advertisement since they understand there is sometimes a need to mention products or services in emails of high quality content which are sent legitimately.

    Finally email marketing is considered subtle – and remains so – when the content of campaign emails is written as though it is not coming directly from the business owner. In other words, the copy might discuss products and services as though they are being offered by a third party. This method makes the advertising seem more subtle because it does not appear to come directly from the business owner.

    Be minful of perceptions

    Of course, business owners can help to ensure their email marketing efforts are not viewed as blatant advertisements by keeping reference to their own website to an absolute minimum, while being mindful of the fact that most Web users often view links from one website to another strictly as advertisements. For this reason it might be advisable for business owners who are promoting products/services via an email campaign to keep links to a minimum and to carefully weave these links into even the most quite benign copy.

    The links should be provided as though they were only included to provide readers with an opportunity to learn more about certain products/services and not as a way to encourage them to purchase these products/services. It might be worthwhile for business owners to consider hiring a writer with this type of skill and experience to ensure the copy conveys desired message, message formats and message intent which should therefore convey the desired effect to the email recipients.

     

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