Email Marketing Is Alive And Well

By Lisa O'Connor
Posted Monday, November 22, 2004

Email marketing is alive and well! If done correctly it will build your business faster than any other marketing method!

Email marketing is the number one way to promote your business online. If you want to succeed with your online business, email marketing is a MUST.

Marketing itself is a never ending task. As long as you're in business, you will have to actively market your product or service. There are advantages to marketing through email;

It is free.

Not only is your message/advertisement delivered instantly, so are customer orders!

Following up with new products/services is free.

Having a fantastic website is great, but it alone won't bring in customers. That's what email marketing will do for you! Without an effective and aggressive marketing plan, no one will even know your great website/product/service exists!

Let's look at some ways to market your product or service through email.

Opt-In List
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"Opt-In" is a list of prospects that have contacted you and have given you permission to email them about your product/service. Prospects contact you requesting more information or to join your ezine/e-newsletter and you add them to your Opt-In list of contacts.

This is the safest way to handle your marketing campaigns.

If you do not have a person's permission to email them with your advertising/marketing campaigns, you are spamming that person.

Spam is unsolicited commercial email. It is email you send to someone who you've had no prior relationship with. This is not the way to handle your marketing campaigns. Most likely the person you have spammed will report you and you risk losing your hosting/ISP etc.

Build your opt-in list instead and market safely.

Ways you can build your opt-in list;

Your current customers.
Your best source of contacts is your current customer list. It is easy to sell to satisfied customers who already know you. Since they are willing to receive your campaigns, your chance of success is greatly increased. Your targeted list will bring you more orders and profit.

Referrals.
Contact your prospects and offer to send information to their friends who may be interested in your product or service.

Joint Venture with a non-competitive, related business. Exchange a split of the profit for an endorsed mailing of your offer to their customer list.

Advertising.
Include your email address in ALL advertising you do!

Website Visitors.
Include a "subscribe to" form for your e-newsletter/ezine onto your website. Don't have a e-newsletter or ezine? Start one! This is a great way to boost your business. You can follow up and sell to your opt-in list over and over and over again!

Autoresponders
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A great way to free up some time and automate your campaign is to use an autoresponder. Setting up an autoresponder means having a system that can make sales 24/7 automatically!

Use your autoresponder as the contact email address your prospects use to receive more information about your product/service. Store this list in a safe place, you will be able to sell to this list over and over again. Make sure the message your prospects receive from your autoresponder is professional, thorough, personable and check your grammar and spelling. Your autoresponder should also be able to send multiple messages at set intervals you determine. It takes a customer 7-12 times of seeing your offer before they decide to buy!

If you are going to use your autoresponder to handle your ezine/e-newsletter, make sure it can handle your subscribe and unsubscribe tasks.

Your autoresponder can stay in contact with your customers informing them of new products/services, follow-up on sales, reminder of your products benefits, etc.

Ezine Advertising
--------------------------

You can find ezines on practically every subject under the sun. Most people subscribe to at least one ezine that they receive by email on a regular basis.

Ezine advertising is a great way to market your product/service. Do a search for ezines relative to what you offer and sign up (the majority of ezine/e-newsletters are free to join!). Some offer free advertising, some offer contests to win free advertising, most offer very reasonable advertising rates. Solo mailings are the most effective form of ezine/e-newsletter advertising. Your ad is sent, alone, to the ezine's entire subscriber base!

You could also find affordable advertising through ezine co-ops. Purchasing advertising through an ezine co-op will place your classified ad in numerous ezines for one price. You'll be added to each ezine's subscriber base. Most ask that you stay subscribed until your ad is run.

Here are some great co-ops to check out; Essential Team
(http://tinyurl.com/1ey2)
EzineAd.Net
(http://tinyurl.com/1ey9EzineAd.Net 2Bucks an Ad)
(http://tinyurl.com/1ezg)
My Wizard Ads
(http://tinyrul.com/1ezh)

Here are two sites where you can earn free advertising; Free Solo Ads
(http://wetrack.it/soloads/af.cgi?531) Free Ezine Advertising
(http://www.ezineadventure.com/default.asp?id=8699)

Signature Tags
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Signature tags are little blurbs at the end of your email messages. They should be about 2-3 lines total length. Make sure they include your website address or business email address. Signature tags are a great way to get in some free advertising. Include them each email you send out! You could also partner with someone who has a product/service relative to yours. Each time they send out an email your signature tag is included and vice versa.

Letterhead
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Make and save an email template (in notepad or similar program) and put your advertisement at the top of each email you send out! Again, keep this short, about 2-3 lines maximum. Each time you send out an email, insert your template first before composing your message. Your ad will be the first thing seen each time your message is read!

Yes, email marketing is alive and well! With aggressive and effective email marketing you should successfully grow your business! Marketing = prospects = customers!

About the Author
Lisa O'Connor is the editor of Womanhood ezine. An ezine in beautiful color dedicated to empowerment, education, enrichment, and support of women from all walks of life. Articles, resources, helpful links, opportunities and much more. Subscribe and receive a free gift! mailto:subscribewomanhood@getresponse.com