Category Archives: Email Marketing

Top 10 Email Marketing Mistakes

Email marketing is the most effective form of marketing. It allows you to connect with your target market, build relationships, and achieve a closeness that is unheard of with other marketing methods. Keep these top 10 marketing mistakes to a minimum for more success.

Mistake #1: Using Deceptive Sensationalized Subject Lines

The subject line of your email determines whether readers open it or trash it. In trying to create interest, many marketers mistakenly go overboard and use sensationalized subject lines. These are also known as click-bait titles. When clicked, the email doesn’t deliver the content promised in the title. This leads your audience to mistrust you because they think you “have something up your sleeve” and have tricked them. When they feel this way, they will unsubscribe in droves.
Use subject lines that make readers curious about the details in the email. Keep the subject line short and simple to encourage readers to click and read. Deliver the content you hinted at in the subject line to make subscribers glad that they clicked to read.

Mistake #2: Disregarding Readability Factors

Technology advancements make it easier than ever to send and read email messages. However, because your audience can use a huge variety of devices, browsers, and apps to read email, there are many readability factors you need to consider when creating an email message. Your audience should be able to open and read your email messages regardless of the device or software that is used.
Ensure that readability is not a problem by keeping the format simple and using software that automatically adjusts for the subscriber’s device, browser, and app. Since you will be adding a call to action link, make sure that the link’s destination page is also responsive and can be easily accessed and read.

Mistake #3: Using a No-Reply Email Address

Using a “no-reply” email address discourages interaction with your readers. It can also give them the impression that you don’t care what they think or need. When subscribers feel this way, they are more apt to mark the email as spam or unsubscribe from your list.
Both of these actions can hurt your reputation, limit your click-through rate, and reduce your profits. It can even lead to your domain or IP being blacklisted by the user’s email client if the email is marked as spam. This can have a far-reaching effect on your overall deliverability.
Strongly encourage subscribers to “whitelist” your email address and use your support system to ask questions or make suggestions. Add a prominent support link to the bottom of each email and use the appropriate “reply-to” features in your email system. Make sure you keep the line of communications open. Also, make it easy for readers to adjust their subscription options. It beats the heck out of being marked as spam and blacklisted.

Mistake #4: Not Adding Value

When you have someone’s email address, you have a greater connection with them than you may realize. They have made your emails a priority. Your subscribers give you the gift of accessibility because they feel that you add value to their lives. They want and need to hear from you.
Take this show of trust seriously. Show your appreciation. Make sure every message you send is valuable to them. If it doesn’t add value, don’t send it.
To make your emails more valuable to your readers, focus on your audience’s needs. Provide niche related solutions, suggestions, sources, services, and more.

Mistake #5: Too Much Focus on Selling

Emails that focus on making a sale tend to turn subscribers off. These types of emails often focus on a product or service and have multiple “buy” or “learn more” links in them. Instead of emailing about the product or service, email about the niche related problem your audience faces.

Help readers, who have the specific problem, see that they aren’t alone and helpless. There are things they can do to fix or make things better. In other words, give them hope and then suggest a well-researched solution or information that will enable them to discover other options.

The key is to make your email primarily focused on the people, their feelings, their needs, and the things that are important to them. Benefits of the solution or information you provide should be secondary and details about product features should come last.

Mistake #6: Sending Impersonal Emails

Many things can make an email message seem impersonal. The tone and voice of the message play a large part in how your audience perceives your message. It’s important to talk to your audience in a friendly tone. Your message should sound as if you are emailing a friend. Use “you” instead of “some of you” or other group references.

Begin your messages with a friendly greeting like, “Hi (readers first name). Start your message by saying something semi-personal about yourself that your readers can relate to. This should lead to your reason for emailing. End with a unique “signature closing” and sign your name.

Mistake #7: Not Including a Clear Call to Action

For each email that you send, you should include one call to action. It doesn’t matter if the call to action is for them to buy something, share something, download something, or sign up for something. Give them a clear call to action. Tell them what you want them to do next, which is click the link, and why they should take your suggestion. Keep the number of links to a minimum to 2 or 3. Offer one solution per email. Your audience will get overwhelmed if you give them too many options and they will be unsure of what they should click on.


Mistake #8: Long Email Messages

While long articles are a good idea, long emails aren’t. Each email should cover one main point and contain only 2 or 3 links. If you have a lot to say, send them to a related post or article on your website to share additional information. Remember that most people skim email messages, initially. It’s important to keep your messages short. You don’t want to lose the reader’s attention. Your audience may wait until later to make a decision. This gives them time to read the email more thoroughly.

Mistake #9: Omitting Plain Text URLs

There are several reasons to include plain text links in your emails. In email, include a plain text link as well as a regular link with anchor text. Some email clients and apps don’t handle HTML as well as others. Email filters are less likely to send it to the spam folder when you have a smaller amount of linked text.
Many people prefer to see the full URL as well. It helps them see where the link goes. Providing both an anchored link as well as a plain text link makes your emails valuable no matter which formats your readers prefer to receive.

Mistake #10: Skipping Email Testing

Writing and sending email seems easy. But, like other content, it needs to be planned, written, and edited. It also needs to be formatted and links added. Then, it should be tested, read, and edited again where needed. Most email clients allow you to test by sending the email to one address.
Testing each email before you send it to your list is very important. Look for readability issues but more importantly, check those links. Checking the links and fixing problems, helps to reduce customer frustration and customer service time. It also helps to increase sales and actions. When a link doesn’t work correctly, readers often click away and never go back to purchase or take the action you suggested.

Make it a priority to fix or avoid these top 10 email marketing mistakes. Keep your audience happy and coming back for more of your helpful information and solutions.

How To Get Around Spam Filters PLUS Free Software

As you are growing your buyers list, you will find that email deliverability gets harder and harder. With that in mind, you are going to love this bonus email spam filter checking tool. Simply run your email through this software, to let you know how to analyze your email chances against a spam filter. I also have put together the most common words that get your mail stuck.. Solve your email sending problems today. Continue reading How To Get Around Spam Filters PLUS Free Software

How to Market to Motivated Sellers and Hungry Buyers

Solid communication is very essentially a key to the door of success in all aspects of your life. It’s accepted that in order to reach as many good clients as possible, every business, large or small requires establishing a well thought out marketing plan. There are as many ways for marketing your products. Just to mention the most general categories are Internet/web, radio/TV, print ads (magazines, newspapers, industry journals, etc), and other direct mail (postcards, flyers, etc). There are few specific techniques and methods, which applies to each of these methods, with different “tweaks” that would be employed for each type of business or any product. Still, there are few basic concepts behind marketing, which always apply, regardless of the company type or marketing method. Take a wise look at these established “do’s and don’ts” list. There are perhaps at least a few tips given below that you could incorporate into your business practice immediately to increase your real estate marketing. Continue reading How to Market to Motivated Sellers and Hungry Buyers

Email Marketing – The Basics

E-mail marketing strategies are not really very complicated and can easily be used by just about anyone.

 This form of advertising is being used by hundreds of thousands of companies all over the world. If your small business hasn’t joined the movement then you could be missing out on revenue, customers and brand recognition. Like all things in small business, you have got to start somewhere. Now is the time to begin your company’s e-mail marketing campaign. This report will get you started quickly and easily.  Continue reading Email Marketing – The Basics

AutoResponders – A Must Have To Automate Your Follow

Your one-stop guide to choosing and using email autoresponders to enhance your website!

Setting up and using email autoresponders on your site is an easy way to make repeated contact with your visitors. Studies have shown that more than 60% of a site’s visitors who eventually end up buying a product or service don’t do it on their first visit. Email autoresponders are one way to make your site “sticky” — encouraging your visitors to return and make that purchase!

Continue reading AutoResponders – A Must Have To Automate Your Follow

The CAN-SPAM Act: Requirements for Commercial Emailers

Contacting Your Email List for the First Time

 

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.

The law, which became effective January 1, 2004, covers email whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service, including content on a Web site. A “transactional or relationship message” – email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship – may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, is authorized to enforce the CAN-SPAM Act. CAN-SPAM also gives the Department of Justice (DOJ) the authority to enforce its criminal sanctions. Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law against organizations under their jurisdiction, and companies that provide Internet access may sue violators, as well.

What the Law Requires

Here’s a rundown of the law’s main provisions:

  • It bans false or misleading header information. Your email’s “From,” “To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
  • It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.
  • It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a “menu” of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.

Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor’s email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it’s illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.

 

  • It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.

Penalties

Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising.

Additional fines are provided for commercial emailers who not only violate the rules described above, but also:

  • “harvest” email addresses from Web sites or Web services that have published a notice prohibiting the transfer of email addresses for the purpose of sending email
  • generate email addresses using a “dictionary attack” – combining names, letters, or numbers into multiple permutations
  • use scripts or other automated ways to register for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial email
  • relay emails through a computer or network without permission – for example, by taking advantage of open relays or open proxies without authorization.

The law allows the DOJ to seek criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for commercial emailers who do – or conspire to:

  • use another computer without authorization and send commercial email from or through it
  • use a computer to relay or retransmit multiple commercial email messages to deceive or mislead recipients or an Internet access service about the origin of the message
  • falsify header information in multiple email messages and initiate the transmission of such messages
  • register for multiple email accounts or domain names using information that falsifies the identity of the actual registrant
  • falsely represent themselves as owners of multiple Internet Protocol addresses that are used to send commercial email messages.

Additional Rules

The FTC will issue additional rules under the CAN-SPAM Act involving the required labeling of sexually explicit commercial email and the criteria for determining “the primary purpose” of a commercial email. Look for the rule covering the labeling of sexually explicit material in April 2004; “the primary purpose” rulemaking will be complete by the end of 2004. The Act also instructs the FTC to report to Congress in summer 2004 on a National Do Not E-Mail Registry, and issue reports in the next two years on the labeling of all commercial email, the creation of a “bounty system” to promote enforcement of the law, and the effectiveness and enforcement of the CAN-SPAM Act.

 

 

 

 

April 2004