Archive for the ‘Email Campaign Software’ Category
Infusionsoft is a web-based software program that automates your marketing, sales, and customer management. Combining CRM, email marketing, eCommerce, automatic follow-up, and more, Infusionsoft is the best tool to save you time, significantly increase your revenue, and grow your business fast.
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The “secret sauce” of Infusionsoft lies in the ability to automate nearly every aspect of your business. With this powerful tool in place, you can stay in touch with ALL of your contacts and easily close more sales.
Send Targeted Emails
Wouldn’t you like to send marketing emails your contacts WANT to receive? By combining email marketing with their powerful CRM, Infusionsoft helps you send messages that not only get delivered…they get read!
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Capture Leads Online
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In this article we will give you several tips that can help you
in improving your open and click-thru rates.
1) Open rate
In order to your email campaign be successful the first
necessary thing is that people open and read your email
newsletter. Online publishing is very similar to traditional
publishing. When you buy a daily newspaper, you probably don’t
read everything. You don’t have that much of free time and not
every subject is equally interesting for you. If you are a
sports fan you will read the sport section but you might skip an
article about latest movies . In most cases you will decide what
you are going to read upon subject titles.
Same thing with email newsletters. One of the two most important
factors that influence whether or not your subscriber will open
your email newsletter will be your subject line. In order to
have good open rates and click-thru rates you have to know your
audience. Your message has to be well targeted.
There are several rules you have to follow in order to make
effective subject lines.
Subject lines
Your subject lines should be short and snappy to get attention
of your subscribers. Many people receive dozens of emails every
day and some other people that have web sites and often make
posts on different places like web forums, discussion lists,
publish articles, can get more than 100 emails per day. So your
message will have a very big competition in your subscriber’s
inbox. That’s why your subject line has to grab attention of
your subscriber. This doesn’t mean that you have to use usual
spam techniques. On the contrary. Avoid using words FREE,
GUARANTEED, Make Money Fast, Limited Offer and other
get-rich-quick schemes words. Not just because of your
subscribers. If you use these words it is most likely that your
emails will never even reach them. Their ISP will take care of
that with their spam filters. Also don’t capitalize every letter
and don’t put several times exclamation. You don’t need to
shout, people will “hear” you if you know how to “tell” them
your message.
So your subject line has to be short and snappy, best thing is
that you include one title from your articles in your subject
line. It can be some breaking news or exlusive interview. People
like to read breaking news or exclusive interviews that can’t be
found anywhere else. Also, people often read how-to articles
(for example - How To Choose The Right Email Marketing Software)
or so called “number” articles (for example - 7 Tips For
E-publishers On A Shoestring Budget).
Good thing is that you put your newsletter name in brackets, at
the beginning of your subject line in order to be easily
recognized from other emails in inbox.
Please bear in mind, that your subject line has to be
consistent. What do I mean by that? Of course that you will
change the title in your subject line but you have to find the
best subject form and stick to it. For example:
[NewslettterName] Your Subject Title, Issue #x, Date Don’t
forget, in order to make effective ads and this apply to subject
lines, as well you have to remember 3 words - test, test, test!
You have to experiment with different models and find out which
work best for you. From field
Beside Subject line, From field is another info that your
recipients will see in their inbox. People have to trust you in
order to decide to read your emails. You don’t open your doors
to every person who knocks, don’t you?
If you are well-known person, trusted expert in your industry,
for example some reputable Internet consultant and you are the
only person that is involved in creation and publishing of the
newsletter put your name in From field. If several people are
involved in that process and if it is a corporate newsletter,
use your company name.
Most important thing with From fields is that you don’t
experiment with it. Choose one From field and stick to that. It
is very un-professional that you often change your From field
and beside that, in that case, your open rate will decline.
Useful tip is that you ask your subscribers to make a filter
rule for your email newsletter, based on your email address,
From field or some part of your Subject line. For example, they
can put [YourNewsletterName] in a filter rule for your
newsletter or your From field name so every time they get the
email newsletter that matches that rule it will be moved to a
specially designed folder, for example YourNewsletterName. So
this way your newsletter won’t end in their Bulk folder. That is
also one of the reasons why you should be consistent with your
From field and subject line.
2) Click-Thru Rates
Clicks come once your email newsletter is opened. With good open
rate you have finished only one part of the job. Now, your
newsletter has to be well designed with appropriate content and
concept, and most important, well targeted in order to have a
decent click-thru ratio (CTR). You have to know your audience.
You can increase your CTR if you put your most important
articles and ads at the top of your email newsletters. Don’t
write too long articles. It is better to write articles where
you will list several tips. Also, don’t overload your newsletter
with ads. People want to read useful things and not lots of ads.
Also, you know that a picture is worth more than 1000 words, so
it is good that if you publish a HTML newsletter that you
include photos that will be relevant to your articles and that
are clickable. Click-Thru rates get higher if you give some
value-added services to your subscribers. You have to make a
good relationship with them. Treat them well, write useful
articles, give exclusive discounts to your subscribers and they
will show their appreciation.
Different types of email newsletters have different click-thru
ratio. Click-Thru ratio is important, but it is not the most
important. Just because many people click on your follow-up
article or offer doesn’t mean that they will actually buy your
software or service. In some cases, lower CTR can get you more
sales than some good CTR. Think about that next time you start
your email campaign.
Dejan Bizinger
http://www.articlesbase.com/email-articles/how-to-improve-your-open-rates-and-clickthru-rates-in-your-email-campaigns-1200.html
Over the past few years, research has continued to prove the benefits of e-mail marketing for business: low costs, high conversion rates and detailed tracking are all notable features. But e-mail marketing is becoming much more than just a tool for spammers and e-businesses. Consumers are becoming increasingly savvy on the differences between spam and permission-based emails, and more and more of them are accepting permission-based e-mail marketing as a positive replacement for direct mail.
The best news is that the majority of people who receive permission-based e-mails open, on average, 78% of them.
Jupiter Research reports effective email marketing campaigns can produce nine times the revenues and 18 times the profits of broadcast mailings. But crafting an effective business email is both an art and a science. Here is a list of factors, potential problems and effective solutions to keep in mind:
1. Spam! Spam! Spam! I don’t need any Viagra!
The average consumer receives more than 300 emails a week, 62% of which are spam. No wonder there’s such hostility towards the industry. But spam filters, bulk folders and “report spam” features are helping consumers become more at ease about the perils of spam. While 89% of users cited spam as a major concern in 2003, that number dropped to 85% in 2004, proportionally to an increase in the use of spam-fighting tools.
So as a permission-based business email marketer, what can you do? One tip is to remind your subscribers to add you to their “safe senders” list. The second, and most important, tactic is to make sure your email marketing service provider has a good relationship with ISPs. This will ensure that your email marketing campaigns go into your subscribers’ inboxes, not their junk mail folders. When choosing an email marketing software, make sure the company has strict anti-spam policies and complies with the guidelines of Can-Spam.
2. Images and formatting: Why do my emails look broken?
Broken email campaigns are an increasing concern among email marketers, especially since several companies and web-based email providers now block graphics as a measure to combat spam. In fact, according to ClickZ, 40% of email marketing messages delivered to inboxes are “broken.”
This was actually something that came up during Eliteweb.cc’s beta-testing phases, as we had a client in the Canadian Government whose recipients were mostly using highly secure email programs. The solution we came up has now become one of our key competitive advantages.
What Eliteweb.cc does is it publishes every single email marketing campaign sent to a secure location on the web (a location only original recipients of the email can access, thanks to encrypted technology that automatically authenticates the user). The technology also ensures you can track your users’ behaviors, even if they are reading your email campaign at the secure web location.
3. Personalization and relevant content: In a business e-mail, one size does not fit all.
In a recent study by DoubleClick, email users were 72% more likely to respond to a business e-mail if its content was based on the interests they had specified. That number points out the absolute importance of allowing users to choose their own interest groups and have control over which business e-mails they receive. The most popular interest categories, according to the study, are coupons and household goods.
But your coupon is no good unless the user opens the email. Users in the study said the most compelling reason for them to open a business email is the name in the “from” field. So it’s a good idea to make sure your company name is clearly stated there. Another major factor is the “subject” line. Users cite discount offers and interesting news as the most compelling subject lines, followed by new product announcements and free shipping offers.
4. Click-through and conversion: Show me the money!
So the user has opened your email and read the content. Great. But where’s the sale? There’s good news here. For one, consumers are increasingly likely to make purchases as a direct result of a business email campaign. One-third of users in the DoubleClick study had purchased something by clicking a link on an email. Another 42% clicked on an email link for more information, then purchased the product at a later time. Second, online couponing is booming: 73% of consumers have redeemed an online coupon for an online purchase, and 59% have redeemed an online coupon offline.
In terms of industries, the top performers are travel, hardware/software, electronics, apparel, food, home furnishings, gifts/flowers and sporting goods. All companies sending business emails in those categories said between 71% and 80% of recipients have purchased their products because of an email campaign.
There’s no need to fret if your company doesn’t fit in to one of those industries. The overall landscape for email marketing conversions is looking brighter every day. The average click-to-purchase rate has increased nearly 30% since 2004 and the average orders-per-email-delivered rate has increased more than 18% since last year.
5. Stats tracking: Who are my real consumers?
E-mail marketing is an increasingly popular tool in effective CRM, and it’s about time more businesses recognize that. First off, if your provider’s email services for business do not include detailed, real-time tracking, you’re getting a raw deal. Real-time tracking is now an industry standard, and it’s highly valuable, as it allows you to see the exact moment a user opens your campaign, clicks on your link and makes that purchase. Studying your users can help you improve your communications efforts, so each campaign performs better than the last (several email service providers also let you compare the performance of your campaigns).
But many marketers are still in the dark. According to a recent WebTrends research, only 5% of marketers are very confident in the measurement of their online marketing efforts, while 26% admit they’re “flying blind.” WebTrends says the low confidence comes from a lack of knowledge when it comes to measurement, which means there’s still a lot of work to be done.
In email marketing, a blind shot won’t take you very far. But if you aim properly by following these essential rules of play, you should soon be reaping the same major results as so many online and offline businesses.
Robert Burko
http://www.articlesbase.com/email-articles/tips-for-effective-email-marketing-83868.html
A good email marketing campaign may help you:
- Augment Your Sales Conversion
- Generate replicate Sales
- Up-sell and Cross-sell commodities and Services
- Put on Valuable Feedback from your Visitors
- Drive Web Users to Make Offline purchases
1. Augment Your Sales Conversion
Regardless of how good your commodity or service is, really most visitors to your site won’t convert into sales on their first visit.
Actually, research indicates that it takes the average shopper up to nine visits prior to they’ll make a buying decision. In other words, every effectual sales process needs an element of repetition.
Think about the times when you’ve picked up a new commodity at the supermarket after seeing it advertised on TV a dozen times. Or a time where you’ve visited a novel local restaurant after driving past it each day on your way to work.
That’s repetition in action, but dissimilar a ‘bricks-and-mortar’ retail store, there is no ‘drive-by’ traffic on the Internet. In a lot of cases when someone clicks on the little ‘exit’ button in the top right hand corner of the screen…they’re gone eternally.
On top of that, there are many ways someone can get distracted while visiting your website. For instance, let’s say you run a website selling baby prams.
A mother is surfing through your site and finds a commodity she likes - but prior to she gets a chance to add the item to her shopping basket….,a few distractions occur:
- The calling bell rings
- She closes the web browser by mistake
- She receives an important email
In spite of of the reason - if she leaves the site there’s a 90% chance you’ve lost the sale…except you’ve managed to capture her email address.
If you’ve got her email address, you get a second chance. You may email her with:
- Your weekly newsletter
- Your free report on the topics of your marketing
The bottom line is, capturing an email address gives you a ‘Plan B’ and permits you to follow-up with someone after they’ve left your website.
2. Generate Repeat Sales
Getting novel customers is hard work - it’s also really classy. Actually, it can be up to eight to ten times more expensive to acquire a novel customer than to sell to an existing one. To get new customers, you have to factor in the cost of advertising, educating and selling to them.
Thus, a big chunk of the first sale is simply recouping the costs you’ve outlaid to obtain the customer in the first place.
And while novel sales are great, we can’t emphasize sturdily enough the value of repeat sales. Too frequently, businesses focus only on the initial sale and forget about the lifetime value of a customer.
Keeping in touch with customers on a normal basis via email allows you to generate repeat sales which may be up to four times more profitable than the initial acquire.
A good email marketing campaign will augment the frequency of repeat purchases from your existing customers.
3. Up-sell and Cross-sell Products & Services
“Would you like fries with that?”
McDonalds makes billions of dollars each year from this basic up-sell.
When appropriate, email provides a huge opportunity for you to up-sell and cross-sell your products and services.
For instance, if you run a website that sells tennis gear, someone buying a novel tennis racket may also be interested in tennis balls and other accessories.
By using simple email marketing software, it’s simple to create a series of email messages (known ‘Auto-Responders’) that will automatically follow-up with provides on tennis balls, tennis shoes, tennis clothes and so on.
If you’re selling a service, like dry cleaning, once a customer has made a first purchase you can use email to follow up with related services, like ironing business shirts and stain removal.
This essential technique by itself can easily add an extra 30% to your average order value and is used by almost all major companies online.
4. Gain Valuable Feedback from Your Visitors
Customer feedback is an invaluable tool for any kind of business. This feedback lets you to resolve:
- What products and services to give
- Who to aim
- What the market is willing to disburse
Email in meticulous provides your customers with a distinctive opportunity to give honest feedback. Unlike face-to-face interaction where people may be shy about voicing their true feelings, email lets them to get right to the point.
By using email as a feedback tool you may adapt to what the market wants and enhance your business.
5. Drive Web Users to Make Offline Purchases
Astonishingly, email marketing is often a catalyst for web users to go and make a buy offline. When surveyed, 59% of email users said that they have made a buy offline after getting an email promotion.
Why? At times a user will find something they want online but they require it straight away and can’t afford to wait for delivery. Other times, the product may need to be demonstrated (such as treadmill) and they want to see, touch and feel the item.
If you run a conventional offline business you may use email marketing to drive foot traffic through your door.
AndreaFerdinand
http://www.articlesbase.com/email-articles/peak-5-benefits-of-email-marketing-732971.html
Anyone starting a Multi-Level Marketing business or any type of home business will need a lead company to provide targeted prospects for your business. One thing you need to ask yourself is how they generate the leads. Good companies will generate potential contacts through a range of methods.
Today, lead generating companies use the internet along with telemarketing, ad campaigns, and direct mail campaigns. They will then use a software program to provide you with business opportunity leads that fit your business.
I personally have been in network marketing business for over 10 years and know how deep the shark infested waters of bad lead companies that over promise and under deliver. There are 7 Myths about mlm email leads and the companies that provide these services that you should be aware of and avoid when choosing a lead company.
Myth 1 “We will give you 50 FREE Leads to try out with no obligation”
Many companies will offer you free leads to try out their service. First, the leads that you get are not very good, responsive, and often more than 72 hours old which means the leads are not “hot but “cold”. Secondly, and more importantly, when you sign up to get the free leads, you just became a lead.
Myth 2 “We generate our own leads”
This is false. 90% of lead companies do not generate their own leads but purchase their own. They in turn resell them to you. These leads have been “turned” so to speak anywhere from 5-10 times. Your response rate will be significantly lower because of this important factor.
Myth 3 “Our leads are Targeted Leads to your home business specialty”
One of the ways to “capture” a lead is to put up what we consider a “pop-up” window on a website that might be asking you if you want more information on a “credit card offer”. Then that company turns to any lead company and sells it. Now if you have a home business and looking for people who are interested in starting a home business, you go to Lead Company A and buy some mlm email leads. You will get leads from people who wanted information on credit card offers, not a home business. Is that targeted? What are your chances of converting a sale? Slim to none.
Myth 4 “Our Leads are 24 Hours old or less and “fresh”.
90% of leads sold are over 24 hours old if that fresh. The reason is modern technology, detailed work, time spent to gather the leads captured, and to upload them to you through an excel spreadsheet or other form of communication takes time. Make sure you read all the details about how the company obtained the mlm email lead in the first place.
Myth 5 “Leads were not offered an incentive”.
Lead companies will tell you this so that you don’t think the lead was offered any payment or free gift for filling out a survey. Most lead companies fail to disclose this. Make sure you do the research and ask questions of the company before you purchase the leads.
Myth 6 “Leads are Company Specific”
Many lead companies indicate to consumers that their mlm email leads are company specific. For example a website has a “popup” window if someone is interested in a earning money part time and they turn around and sell you the leads because they are interested in SFI (Six Figure Marketing) a popular home business opportunity on the internet. Does that mean its company specific? No where does it say that person who filled out the form and became a lead they were interested in that specific company.
Myth 7 “Millions of people are looking for a home business”
There are not millions of people looking for a home business. There are thousands everyday but not millions. If a lead company tells you that….they are stretching the truth just a bit.
Now that you know what NOT to look for: Here is a summary of how to be successful with your mlm email lead:
1. The quality of the lead source is only one factor…important but not the only thing to consider. You as a contributor are just as important. You are the determiner of the real success with any lead source. That’s why peoples experiences can vary so much.
2. Success with leads is mostly about numbers, time, & “your” effort. Sufficient numbers, followed consistently over time (minimum of 3-6 months), & applying a disciplined method of follow-up emails will show results with most any lead source and a very good autoresponder. I use GetResponse to follow up with all of my leads. The best leads in the world are no good if you dont have a quality email series or a reliable autoresponder in place or a to follow up.
3. A quality generic lead source is a good thing (must be pre-qualified, 48 hrs old or less, non-shared, & exclusive to warrant quality label). Company specific leads are even a better option. Generating quality leads yourself is the best way. Doing all 3 in unison is the best campaign you can have to be successful. Everything else is a waste.
In conclusion, using the techniques and advice described above, your mlm email lead campaign can bring the fruits of success, with a good follow-up program in place, a reliable autoresponder, personal perseverance, and avoiding the lead companies that offer more “fluff” and “flash” than real, fresh, responsive leads.
Jeff Casmer
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/the-shocking-truth-7-myths-of-mlm-email-leads-22897.html
Many organizations spend huge amount of capital into advertisement to get prospect but they fail to market their Product/Service to them .Email communication is of the most effective ways of cultivating the type of relationship needed to turn your prospects into customers.
First and foremost thing in Email Marketing is to understand the purpose for mailing and provide relevant information to person who has requested it.
When designing your email, always keep in mind the amount of time you can expect your the reader to spend viewing it. Today, everyone needs information but no one has time to read it. They want detailed though precise information. Thus, to make your email campaign success, it is important to follow the given steps:
Tip 1# Make a plan regarding ‘type and frequency’ of email communication you will be sending. For newsletters the right volume could be weekly, biweekly or monthly. You can send promotional mails also in case of special discount or offers.
Tip 2# Add Sign-up to your website. From there you can get subscriptions and can import email ids into your existing mailing list.
Tip 3# Design a good email template. For this, either you can use integrated templates of emailing software or can search on web.
Tip 4# Create quality content for newsletter and try to convey your message clearly. Try to keep the email short with compelling and interesting subject line.
Tip 5# Add sign to every email with your name, company name, email-id and contact number so that it may not look like a spam mail.
Tip 6# Use email marketing software that can easily show you the statistic of click through, open, number of subscription, unsubscription, bounce rate etc.
Tip 7# Continue sending newsletters, message, promotions, announcements consistently.
You can notice the difference after implementing these tips in your email communication. Rather than blasting out a promotion whenever sales are lagging, schedule emailing newsletter. Never forget to give your readers a reason and means to share your email with others. Staying in touch with customers by providing imperative information is the ever best marketing technique.
tripti
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/tips-for-email-marketing-success-735698.html
When looking for a way to market a product or service to a large number of people, it is quite shortsighted to overlook e-mail marketing. As e-mail is easily the fastest and most affordable way to reach a large number of people, it is easy to see how a well structured e-mail marketing campaign can bring in a great deal of new business. For those looking to enter this lucrative marketing area, a marketing service might be just the answer you need.
While it is possible to send mass e-mails from your existing e-mail account or to download software to do so, a service offers a great number of benefits that make the process more convenient. First is the ability to tailor lists by demographic so that each customer does not have to receive every email you send. This is a wise idea, because if you send customers a large number of emails marketing services or deals that do not interest them, they will grow increasingly unlikely to open future emails from you. Marketing services let you know which customers open and click links in each sent message, helping you to determine a customers likes and dislikes and enabling you to tailor your lists more appropriately.
A marketing service can also tell you which email addresses bounce and the reasons behind the rejection. This can help you update lists and stay on top of customer databases. The services are also constantly up to date on the latest spam regulations, making sure that your emails are not flagged or reported as spam and that they are not delivered to spam folders.
With a marketing service, you are given the personal touch of knowing that people are handling your account personally coupled with all the benefits of software and more. Services offer hundreds of templates to help you create the perfect email while only adding text and logos or pictures, as well as the ability to create your own templates to use again and again if you like. You can create your own template or contact a web design professional within the service to create one for you. There are even message builders that can create html code for you so that you do not need to know the programming language to create an effective and stylish email.
In short, an email marketing service is more than someone who copies and pastes your messages before sending. What you get with these services is top quality marketing help and the ability to customize every aspect of every message. You receive the very best service and have a level of customization that no software or program can offer. You are also given the ability to follow every email and learn what works and what doesn’t. With an email marketing service, you have complete control over every email sent with the knowledge that you are being helped by trained professionals whose sole goal is to help you create the most effective marketing campaign possible in a way that is both affordable and user friendly.
Jana Torres
http://www.articlesbase.com/email-articles/the-convenience-of-email-marketing-services-720737.html
Email has revolutionised business communications over recent
years and has rightly earned the label of the Killer Application
of the Internet. The use of email marketing has had a similar
and profound impact for companies looking to promote their
products and services.
It has been especially powerful for small and medium sized
businesses (SMEs). Without the marketing budgets of larger
organisations, SMEs nevertheless have the same requirements for
a cost effective, successful and measurable method of
communicating with their customers. Email marketing offers not
only this but can be used in every element of the marketing
process, from building your brand, driving traffic to your
website or marketing special offers, to providing customer
service or technical support.
But just why does email marketing offer such possibilities to
small business and, indeed, organisations of all sizes? Below
are outlined 8 reasons why email marketing has to sit right at
the top of every SME’s marketing activities checklist.
1. Successful
First and foremost, email marketing produces results! A well
designed campaign using a properly managed mailing list will
give response rates which are much higher than other direct
marketing methods.
While there are many variables that contribute to response
rates, indications are that overall email marketing gains a
response rate about 5 times higher than direct mail. By getting
a much larger percentage of people interested in what you are
offering, immediately you are massively increasing the number of
potential sales. Added to this, the quick response methods allow
a much faster turnaround of questions and objections thus
clearing a way through to closing the sale.
Even though the unacceptable rise in Spam has had a detrimental
effect on the proper commercial use of emails in marketing, the
success levels of well run, targeted and fully compliant
campaigns using full opt-in lists continue to advance in leaps
and bounds. Effectively, whatever your goal, email marketing
delivers in a way that few , if any, direct marketing methods
can match.
2. Targeted
The more targeted your marketing message is, the more likely it
is to be successful. Email marketing provides the means of
customising each message which is sent out, so that the
information, promotion or offer can be individually personalised
and targeted.
Effectively, using targeted HTML emails gives you the
opportunity to quickly and easily tailor the message to directly
respond to each prospect’s own needs and interests. Results
consistently also show that the more you can personalise your
messages, the higher your response and conversion rates will be.
In many respects, a well run email campaign makes the concept of
“one to one marketing” available to all, because of the way that
it is perfectly suited to segmentation and personalisation.
Whereas printed mailers are created, printed and fixed, with
email marketing you remain in control of the process for longer
giving you more flexibility both in the overall approach and
offering.
3. Economic and Cost Effective
Email marketing eliminates the significant time and expense of
full graphic design, printing, postage, handling and so on which
is associated with printing and processing traditional direct
mail campaigns. Yet with graphic html emails, you are able to
create the same imagery and provoke the same responses with the
added benefit of having follow up information instantly
available via your website.
Perhaps just as importantly, with the correct maintenance of an
email list, the cost benefits increase as does the ROI through
the closer relationship established with the recipients. Coupled
with the higher response rates that email marketing attracts,
you therefore get more positive responses, more quickly and at a
lower unit cost! Win - win situation!
4. Trackable
When using email marketing, you can track the results of your
campaign in real time thus providing you with instant feedback
on its success. This allows you to respond to developments as
they happen and to follow up while the campaign is still in
progress.
For each message, you can see whether:
* it was received successfully;
* it was opened and read;
* the recipient used the links in it to reach your site.
There are two immediate benefits of this level of information:
firstly, it puts you in a position to be able to make changes to
a campaign already underway to improve its response rate;
secondly, when sending out follow up messages, you have the
possibility to segment your mail list according to the action
taken on receipt of the initial one. This allows you to respond
immediately to any issues which arise and to complete the
feedback loop quickly and effectively.
Moving forward, you also have a complete record of those
elements and links which worked best for you and those which
require changes to improve their performance. The experiences
taken from the campaign can then be applied to future campaigns
with a high degree of accuracy.
5. Measurable
As the adage goes, “If you can’t measure it, then you can’t
manage it” and measuring the success of your marketing spend is
more important today than ever. To make best use of your budget,
it is essential to keep track of not only the costs but also the
results and the revenue that the campaign specifically
generates. This will allow you to focus your activities with the
most appropriate methods in future.
In addition to tracking the recipients’ reaction to the email,
you can also follow their subsequent path through your website,
with the appropriate software. This allows excellent visibility
as to the success of the landing page and the anticipated route
through to the purchase or sign-up page, according to your
campaign’s objectives.
Together, this information is invaluable when planning future
campaigns or being able to precisely calculate the costs and
sales generated by any email marketing activity that you
undertake. Hopefully, the ROI (Return on Investment) you achieve
will be as good as the campaigns run by companies which have
reported ROI rates 40 times higher than those achieved with
direct mail!
6. Testable
To achieve the best possible response rates, it is common
practice to send any intended piece of marketing material to
sample groups to test its effectiveness before starting the main
campaign. With traditional direct marketing, this process can be
time consuming and costly.
However, with email marketing, this process is fast and
effective with results available almost immediately, thanks to
the instant measuring of the results. Additionally, as there is
no printed material involved, the turnaround for any changes in
layout or wording required as a result can be incorporated into
the main mailing quickly and easily.
7. Immediate
The speed at which business happens is constantly increasing.
Email marketing allows you not only to keep pace with these
changes but stay ahead of them, not only in terms of the speed
of response to the campaign but also the creation of the
campaign itself.
Firstly, the “Call to Action” can be immediate and ideally
handled through the website. When you read a compelling offer in
an email you can respond using the links in the message itself,
usually taking you to a specially created page with additional
information and recommendations. Responding to a direct mail
piece, on the other hand, requires a much more active response,
such as completing and sending off a form or even just picking
up the phone. Just as importantly, the responses start to come
back immediately! On average, 80% of the responses happen within
3 days as opposed to the weeks which is more normal for
traditional direct mail.
Secondly, the creation and distribution of the email campaign is
also much quicker. Carefully constructing, producing and sending
a good html email which is going to bring the top level results,
need only take a matter of days (or indeed hours if you are
working with a supportive partner!) rather than weeks for a
printed mailer.
8. Flexible & Adaptable
Email marketing is adaptable enough to support your business in
many different ways and can help to achieve a variety of
different goals. While email marketing is often considered
stronger when you are looking to maintain customer relationships
rather than forge new ones, it is in fact able to fulfil a
variety of different purposes for your business. Some of these
are:
* Increase the number of visitors to your website
* Attract new clients, leads or registrations
* Build stronger relationships with existing clients
* Provide improved levels of company, product or service
information
* Build brand awareness
These goals can be achieved through the use of emails to
distribute different items, each offering different
opportunities for strengthening the relationship with the
company’s customers. Some of the more common ones include:
* Sales promotions / vouchers
* Account statements
* Company Newsletters
* Press Releases
* Product Announcements
Summary
Email marketing is in itself an excellent method of
communicating and distributing information and an essential part
of an integrated marketing strategy. Like all marketing methods,
it is most influential when used in conjunction with other media
with the result that the sum of the parts being more powerful
than the individual parts themselves.
With the use of RSS feeds and blogs gaining greater acceptance
as corporate communications media, there will undoubtedly
prophets of doom announcing the imminent demise of the use of
email marketing as a tool for the future. The astute marketer
will, however, develop these up and coming channels alongside
their email marketing program and so be ideally placed to offer
our customers the information they require by the method they
prefer.
Mark White
http://www.articlesbase.com/email-articles/email-marketing-8-reasons-why-it-is-ideal-for-small-businesses-3358.html
Email autoresponders are extremely powerful indispensable marketing tools for any business on the Internet whether that business is an “online business” or an offline business with an Internet presence. There is no better marketing tool currently available for consistent controlled communications to your customers, potential customers, and even employees, partners, and suppliers. This article reveals 17 powerful ways to use your autoresponder; the primary focus is for business applications, but autoresponders can also be used for non-business applications as well.
Before we cover the various applications of email autoresponders, let’s cover what an autoresponder is … An autoresponder is a webserver-based software application that sends a pre-written sequence of emails (text or HTML) according to a pre-defined schedule when someone joins (or is added to) your email list.
Application #1 – Sales Messages:
======================================
The most obvious business use for your autoresponder is to provide a sequence of sales messages when a potential customer completes a form on your web page or clicks a link to join via email. The best way to get prospects to join your sales stream is to offer them something of value for signing up (e.g., a free report, newsletter, ebooks, or simply a link to a website).
Application #2 – Training:
======================================
A slightly less obvious application for your autoresponder is to provide a mini-course, or even a massive training course. For example, you can sign up to receive a free mini-course about how to use Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising and even get your PPC ads for 80% to 90% lower cost at www.Autopilot101.com/ads_PPC.htm. Or you can sign up for a free course with 101 lessons on marketing and how to get your web host to pay you.
Application #3 – Steps To Use or Implement:
======================================
The next form of training is a formal procedure on how to use a product or service purchased by your customer. If you sell a course on money-saving techniques, like the MONEY SECRETS Home Study Course for example (www.LifestylePublishing.com/money_secrets.htm), you could use your autoresponder to send them a fast-track course on specific steps to do each day for two weeks. If you sell above-ground swimming pools, you can have them join your autoresponder to get all the installation instructions.
Application #4 – Duplication & Team Communications:
======================================
If you are involved in Multi-Level-Marketing, Network Marketing, or referral marketing, you can “publish” your autoresponder campaigns so your “downline” can easily import your campaign for their recruiting and/or sales efforts.
Application #5 – Banner Advertising:
======================================
Some autoresponder services include free banner advertising services. You can upload your banners (or use the ones they provide), and they will display your banner ads.
Application #6 – Free For All (FFA) Advertising:
======================================
FFA pages allow people to advertise their products and services with one-line ads that are displayed on your FFA page until it scrolls off the bottom of the list due to other ad submissions. The power of an FFA page is you get to send a single email advertisement of your own in exchange for letting your prospect post their ad. This can be a nice free form of advertising for you.
Application #7 – Generating Traffic:
======================================
Some professional autoresponder offer a quality guaranteed traffic service to further market your business. This is usually offered for an extra charge, but you earn a commission on your own ads (which means you are actually getting discount prices). Furthermore, you can advertise your guaranteed traffic website and earn a commission when someone places an order on your website.
Application #8 – Capturing Leads:
======================================
You can also use a sign-up form for your autoresponder on a “squeeze page” to capture leads (i.e., to build your list). This is generally done by presenting a compelling offer if the prospect enters their name and email address. Then upon submitting their information, your form immediately takes the prospect to a web page and sends the first email in your campaign.
Application #9 – Tracking Ads:
======================================
On the Internet, there are lots of services that offer ad-tracking links where you enter the web address for the website you are advertising, and the service gives you an alternate web address. Then by advertising the alternate address (i.e., your ad-tracking address), it will register a “hit” every time someone clicks your ad-tracking link. Then the link automatically and immediately forwards your prospect to the target address. This is a great way to determine which advertising resources deliver and which don’t … thus saving you money when you cancel the ones that don’t produce. But why pay for this service if your autoresponder offers it for free?
Application #10 – Product Delivery:
======================================
You set up your autoresponder to deliver information products … whether offered free or purchased. All you have to do is publish the product on the web, and pass the web address (and the UserID and password if applicable) to your customeryou’re your autoresponder.
Application #11 – Broadcasting:
======================================
Broadcasting is the ability to send an email to everyone on your autoresponder list simultaneously anytime you wish; in other words, the email has not been pre-written or added to your campaign. It’s just an impromptu email sent to your entire list. The next seven techniques all fall under the category of “broadcasting”.
*** ALERTS:
If you want to alert your customers to something unexpected, broadcast it.
*** NEWS:
Notify your customers about a change in your business … for example, new address, new email address, special holiday hours, etc.
*** SPECIAL OFFERS:
If you have a large email list of people who remember and like you and your products, you can announce a special price, a new product, or limited-quantity promotion, and generate a nice influx of cash. Make sure you make a limited-time offer.
*** REMINDERS:
Use your autoresponder broadcaster to remind your subscribers of an upcoming event, sales expiration, or whatever you want them to remember.
*** Keep You In Mind:
On average, most people must see you and your product seven times before they will buy, so use your autoresponder to keep you in the forefront of their mind. Be original; make them look forward to hearing from you again.
*** Publish a Newsletter:
Writing your own newsletter has many benefits. It establishes you as an expert in your niche; it reminds your prospect you exist; it educates your customer; you can add your ads to your newsletter for free, and you can even sell advertising in your newsletter.
*** Conduct Surveys:
Send out surveys to your email list. Find out what your customers want, what they liked and disliked about your products or services, what they wish they could get (leads to new product ideas), reveals where they frequent on the Internet, … The only limit is your creativity. Want to know something from your customers? Use your autoresponder broadcast feature to ask them.
Not all autoresponders offer all of these applications: you need a professional-grade autoresponder to get most of these applications, and there is only one autoresponder I have found that actually offers all of these applications and more.
This particular autoresponder also has the most important characteristic of a small fixed monthly fee … no matter how big your subscriber list gets. In fact, you can have unlimited email campaigns (i.e., email sequences), unlimited emails per campaign, and unlimited subscribers per campaign, and the price stays fixed at $17.95. Plus you can get a 30-day free trial, and with just a little effort, you can even get your autoresponder service free for life within about 60 days (see the article list below). You can learn more about this autoresponder and request a free report at this web address: http://www.trafficwave.net/members/rbstoker/report.html
********************************************
Written By: Dr. Bryan Stoker, webmaster@LifestylePublishing.com
www.Autopilot101.com www.LifestylePublishing.com
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
* How To Determine The Best AutoResponder For Your Business
* The Most Important Features For Selecting Your AutoResponder
* How To Generate A 5-Figure Monthly Income Using Your AutoResponder
All these articles and more are available at www.LifestylePublishing.com/articles-autoresponder/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Recommended “Best AutoResponder” For Most Businesses:
http://www.trafficwave.net/members/rbstoker
Other Good AutoResponders:
GetResponse: http://www.GetResponse.com/index/rbstoker
Aweber: http://www.aweber.com/?291423
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bryan Stoker
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/17-powerful-ways-to-use-a-professionalgrade-email-autoresponder-to-build-your-business-727245.html
. For more details go to www.scripts-to-sell.com If you are among those who see light and online business success thru Automatic Email Responder Software then you have just made the right choice. Automatic Email Responder Software is basically a program designed to send automatic replies to emails of a specific email address. This is an effective promotional tool if you are in to selling products or services online. An Automatic Email Responder Software is your best partner if you want to keep a steady and loyal list of customers or subscribers. It allows you to save time managing your customers and keep them updated on your website’s maneuvers. It works by replying to any e-mail with a pre-written message.
An Automatic Email Responder Software may vary from e-mails that creep through e-mails to scripts that are programmed to run servers. But all Automatic Email Responder Software works the same - they automatically send out email messages when a message is collected. Based on the email that the Automatic Email Responder Software receives, they will send out the correct return message and this can be identified by the script or the email address.
Automatic Email Responder Software: A Great Promotional Tool
Though it is a fact that an Automatic Email Responder Software is great promotional tool, its risk to potential abuses is great. When you submit your website to search engines, classifieds, and directories, never give away your Automatic Email Responder Software. This is because most of this website uses Automatic Email Responder Software themselves. In case their Automatic Email Responder Software happens to send an email to your automatic email responder, they will continuously reply each other and this can be troublesome.
Automatic Email Responder Software is the best alternative to your repetitive daily tasks of responding to customer queries or other related emails. For more details go to www.pure-profit-software.com The Automatic Email Responder Software will perform the actual email replying for you. In short, it is the best marketing tool as it increases the chance of your site to be advertised and known throughout the internet. When you are in to selling services or products online or if you already have your own company and wanted to give it some exposure, you can definitely benefit from Automatic Email Responder Software. To help you out in setting up your own automatic email responder, you can access http://autorespondersetup.weebly.com/ for help.
More Info on Automatic Email Responder Software
If you are an internet marketer, you sure know that using Automatic Email Responder Software is the sure-way to send your business to autopilot and multiply yourself. With this automatic email responder, you simply set up your own preset messages and schedule them for transmission to your desired dates. And above all this, the great thing about Automatic Email Responder Software is that, you don’t even need to handle the system yourself as it can work independently in handling virtually all your email tasks as well as do the following-up task with your customers. For more information and to help you out with your website promotion campaign.
Harish Kumar.
http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/email-responder-software–683445.html