Email Marketing News and Tips

Archive for the ‘Best Practices’ Category

ESPs (Email Service Providers) are becoming more strict on who they allow you to send to.  Email addresses MUST be opted-in.  That means you must have permission from the recipient to receive an email from you.   Below are a few ideas to help build your email marketing list using social media.

1. Start with who you know

Export your lists of people you know and business colleagues who know you from your Linkedin, Outlook, Gmail and Yahoo accounts. Send everyone an email from you personally asking them to join your list. Link off to a hosted version of an opt-in form to collect them.  If you need assistance your email service provider can assist you.

2. Facebook

Almost everyone has a Facebook page.  If you don’t you should.  Send out an email to your fans and friends asking them to join your email list. Direct them to your hosted opt-in form and encourage them to sign up with some sort of incentive. If you have a Facebook Fan page you can put an opt-in form right on the page.

3. Twitter

Tweet to your Twitter list some sort of an offer for joining your opt-in list.  Forward them to your opt-in form using a Boomerang Hot Link to save space.

4. Blogging?

You can easily include an opt-in form on your blog.  Contact your Email Service Provider to learn how.

5. Comment on blogs and discussion boards

Offer helpful comments on blogs or discussions boards that your prospects might visit.  Make sure to include a link to your site where your opt-in form is hosted.

I recently had a customer come to me asking how he could do away with the "click button to display images" prompt. The customer was sending out an email and as you know, most, if not all, email programs these days block images by default. He was looking for a way to bypass this and have the images appear automatically. Specifically, he asked if this could be done via the use of background images. To his dismay, I informed him that background images would also fall victim to this block and in addition, that... Continue reading

As viral videos from places such as YouTube.com or Break.com become more and more important to the Internet and to your customers, a lot of email marketers are probably wondering how they can incorporate video into email marketing campaigns. Let's explore. Constrainted by Old Technologies Unfortunately, email marketing is still constrained by the older HTML technology being used in email readers such as Thunderbird and Outlook. This technology also constrains ISP email software such as Yahoo Mail, Gmail... Continue reading

On average Americans conduct an overwhelming 15.5 billion web searches a month. Studies show that the first results get 40% of clicks. Unfortunately creating a remarkable website isn’t enough to drive traffic to it. Your site has to also rank in search results. This is called Search Engine Optimization or SEO ranking. There is a lot of work required to optimize your site for Google page ranking and you won’t see results overnight. You may decide to hire a professional to assist you. Keywords are... Continue reading

Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned email marketing professional, your company's Internet Reputation is important to your business. Your Internet reputation is built primarily by how you market on the Internet. What exactly is an 'Internet Reputation'? Let's explore. Email Marketing and Your Business Whether you use a third party email marketing company or you do-it-yourself by setting up your own email server, your reputation begins with the first email marketing campaign you send. How is this... Continue reading

You hear the term Spam regularly but do you know what it means and the laws in place to protect us from it? The CAN-SPAM Act is a law passed by Congress and signed by the President in 2003 that requires national standards for sending commercial emails. CAN-SPAM is an acronym (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing). It was prompted by the inundation of spam people started to receive in the 1990s. Any unsolicited email is considered Spam. Fortunately most companies are now... Continue reading

Lifehacker.com recently had an interesting article regarding common email habits and the impression they leave on the reader. The article covers everything from email signatures to overused phrases. For example, when writing an email on a mobile phone, many phones will automatically insert a signature line for you. "Sent from my (insert phone name here)" is a common one. Personally, I saw no need for the reader to know what type of phone I was using, just that I was sending the message via my phone, so I... Continue reading

The one thing to keep in mind when using images in HTML emails is that a lot of mail clients have image blocking turned on by default. For this reason alone, keeping your email layout and content simple should be the underlying foundation for all your email design work. Here are some additional things to remember when dealing with images in your HTML email: Always fill in the appropriate 'alt' text for all your images. The 'alt' text will display in place of the image if it gets blocked by the email... Continue reading

The success of your email marketing list is being able to give your list members what they are looking for. By creating messages, reports and events that are directly related to their needs, you'll be a better marketer and see better results. Since you're a business owner and not a mind reader, it's hard to know exactly what they want unless you ask. That's where surveys come in. Surveys can be used in a variety of different ways to learn more about your list members, plan future products and get ideas to... Continue reading

Subject lines are the lifeblood of your email marketing efforts. Without the right kind of subject line, your email won’t get opened and your message won’t get through. If you’re having trouble getting your list members to open your email, you may need to improve your subject line skills. Follow these three ways to create better subject lines and experience more email marketing success. 1. Be familiar. Even when your email makes it through spam filters, list members are unlikely to open your message if... Continue reading