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Tag: aspects of email marketing

  • 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.

  • The Write Approach for Email Marketing Content

    Via email

    Aspects of email marketing include sending advertisements via email to a large subscriber (or opt-in) list; publishing and distributing an e-newsletter; and sending informative emails with a soft-sell approach that encourages recipients to make a purchase or visit your website. Whether you opt to utilize one or all of these email marketing techniques, you will be faced with one specific dilemma; and that is writing the content which will appear in these emails. Writing content is critical because these emails may be the first impression a potential customer will get in order to make a determination about your products and services.

    Superior content will provide potential customers with a good first impression which may make them more receptive to the idea of purchasing your products or services; and as such, this article will discuss some of the proven techniques which have been used to ensure that the content you include in your email marketing campaign will reap maximum benefits. Keep in mind that such benefits are not restricted to the purchase of products/services, but could consist of brand recognition, increased “like and trust” for you and your company from your subscribers and maximum credibility among those who like and trust you, as well as the broader market place.

    Content sent to subscribers

    As for content you send to subscribers, the importance of hiring a professional writer to assist you with your email marketing campaign cannot be stressed enough, if you are unable to create such content yourself due to time restraints, lack of confidence or lack of writing skills. As content is one of the most critical elements to the success of your campaign it is important that you approach the subject with the utmost care and seriousness; because although you may be a decent writer, or you may have a staff member who you think can do a good job creating the content for your email marketing, the quality of the work will likely not be of the same quality as a professional can produce.

    On the other hand, if you or your staff member is a professional writer by trade, you can – by all means – proceed to create your own content. Approaching content creation in any less serious or careful manner can be very damaging, especially if your competitors are hiring writers to create their content. Writing content for email campaigns is not the same as writing posts for a personal blog; they are vastly different tasks in the sense that on a personal blog, readers prefer to communicate and subscribe to an individual using his/her own voice; whereas content for email campaigns content for email campaigns directly affect your brand and therefore must be seen by your prospective customers as professionally written, or at least be viewed as favorable and having been written by professionals.

    Content considered effective

    The content you decide to include in your email marketing efforts is largely a matter of personal preference but there are some methods which have traditionally been more successful than others. The type of content which may be effective often includes informative articles, short useful tips, links to relevant websites, advertising for complementary products and even some subtle forms of advertising which are meant to persuade recipients of the email to either make a purchase or visit your website.




    Sending full length insightful articles which are likely to be of interest to the members of an email subscriber list is an excellent idea for your email marketing campaign, as providing such articles is considered a good idea since they will likely contain information which the recipients of your email will appreciate. Additionally, these articles give you the opportunity to include information about your products or services in the copy of the email. This can be a subtle form of advertising when it encourages the recipients to purchase a product or service or visit a website or product page without actually asking the recipient to do so.

    Product reviews

    Short product reviews can also be very helpful – if not of high value – when you include them in your email marketing campaign. These reviews can help to attract a great deal of attention, especially when the reviews focus on the products you offer, and provide favorable reviews for these products. This type of information can either be subjective in nature or can remain objective by having the writer to simply specify certain features of your products and offering other concrete pieces of information as opposed to opinions of those products.

    Advertising is quite often an important part of an email marketing campaign; and such advertising may either be direct or indirect in nature. Direct advertising may include banner ads or other graphical advertisements which encourage website visitors to click through the link and reach either your website or a sponsor’s website. Indirect advertising may apply to content in the copy of featured articles which subtly encourage visitors to make a purchase or visit your website. The indirect marketing in an email marketing campaign is usually supportive of products or services you offer while direct marketing will likely promote products and services offered by sponsors who paid to receive advertising space in the email.

    Please note

    It is important to note here that recipients of marketing emails are usually well aware that these graphics and other inclusions of such emails are part of an advertisement and many of them will choose to click on these links when they have an interest in the products or services being offered. In fact, some recipients may even click on a link or banner to learn more about the quality of a product/service being advertised, or to learn more about the company behind such a product or service before expressingh an interest in making a purchase. So you never know exactly what might motivate (inspire?) a potential customer to take action; but you do know that if your content is deemed to be unprofessional by that potential customer, s/he won’t click on any link/banner for any reason.

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  • Marketing Emails Viewed Through Spam-Colored Glasses

    Essential EM elements

    Email marketing (EM) can be very effective as long as it is not viewed as spam. This is critical because when your emails are viewed or interpreted as spam (viewed through spam-colored glasses) they will not likely be read by recipients and may not even reach those recipients if they are trapped by spam filters installed by some Internet service providers. It is for this reason that business owners must work hard to ensure their email marketing campaign messages are not viewed as spam by either their recipients or the recipients’ Internet service providers. That having been said, we will take a closer look at various aspects of email marketing and, specifically, how business owners can ensure that their emails are not viewed through spam-colored glasses.

    The distribution (or opt-in) list for an email marketing campaign is one of the essential elements which can help to ensure that emails sent by a business owner are not viewed as spam; but before this can be accomplished it is important to understand exactly what spam is, so let’s delve a little deeper into what spam really means. According to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2004, email marketers are required “…to include their physical address in the email as well as an “opt-out” link in every email designed to give consumers the ability to reach the marketer and tell them they no longer want to receive information from them after which the email sender must remove this email address from their data base within 10 business days.”

    Essentially, the law prohibits marketers from sending any email which is unsolicited, and sent for the sole purpose of advertising or promoting a product or service. And yet – in spite of this law and all that it encompasses in the way of prohibitions – Internet users still receive mass quantities of spam on a daily basis; quantities which, for some Internet users, is a huge source of frustration even as other Internet users have become so used to the spam sent to their email address that they barely even notice these emails.

    Neither of these scenarios, however, will bode well for business owners who are using email marketing campaigns to promote their products or services, because Internet users who are angered by spam mail in general, may react harshly and report such emails – legitimate as they may be – to their Internet service providers.

    Comprising the opt-in list

    Furthermore, Internet users who do not even notice spam are likely to either automatically delete emails they previously opted-in for and/or might block the sender’s email address to prevent future emails from getting through to them, because they have reached the point where all emails to their inboxes are viewed through spam-colored glasses.




    So if you are a business owner who intend to initiate add email marketing to your already established business operations, or you’re already engaged in email marketing activities, you may find it helpful to pay special attention to your email distribution list and make sure to only include recipients who had specifically asked for additional information, since such actions will help to keep your emails from being viewed as spam.

    You can take certain specific steps to accomplish these goals, the most important of which might be to invite individuals to subscribe to your opt-in list. In other words, simply ask visitors to your website – especially repeat visitors who seemed to have more than a casual interest in your content – to register with your website and specify whether or not they wish to receive future emails with additional information, advertisements or other helpful and useful tips. This ensures that the recipients of your emails are genuinely interested in your products and services and are not likely to view your emails as spam. Don’t allow your marketing emails to be viewed through spam-colored glasses!

    Another way to ensure that this does not happen is to offer recipients the option of being removed from the distribution list with each email (an option required by CAN-SPAM Act, anyway). This is important even when the recipients specifically asked to receive these emails; but they are entitled to change their opinion at any time. Offering your email recipients the opportunity to remove themselves from a email distribution list whenever they want is worthwhile because it allows recipients to have some control in the situation. This is a stark contrast to spam in which the recipients feel as though they have no control over the situation and, therefore, no way to stop the spam from bombarding their inboxes on a daily basis.

    De-spamming your business emails

    Finally, business owners can help to ensure their email marketing campaign is not viewed as spam by including quality content in the emails they send to recipients of their email distribution list(s). This may include providing feature articles, product reviews or a series of short useful tips which will likely be hold interest to all who receive your emails. These emails may also include a soft sales pitch but such a sales pitch should not be the primary focus of your emails.

    Putting too much attention on the advertising is likely to lead recipients to assume that your email is nothing more than spam. Conversely, providing quality information which is useful to recipients and subtly urging them to perform an action such as making a purchase or investigating the details of a product can make the email seem much more worthwhile, and less like spam.