Internet Business Promotion: Email Marketing Tips and Strategies

Many people are of the opinion that we have reached the end of the road where email marketing is concerned. The reason for this is because of the issues with the delivery, spam filters etc. Certainly, marketing may not be as problem free as it was a few years ago, but it still works great if only you have a proper game plan and some tools.

Here are some strategies that will be helpful in your email marketing. There are various types of email campaigns. My sincere advice would be never to buy leads and send emails. Your ISP may even shut you down if spam is reported.

Strategy of One Shot
There are several FFA sites on the net today that allow ad posters to post their ads for free. In return for this, they will get one email from every FFA owner. The best solution is to own your own FFA page. They may cost around $10 per month. You will be able to email hundreds or even thousands of people in a single day. You are given only one shot, but if your email ad is good and you offer people a free report or something, you can get them to opt-in to your autoresponder and build a decent list.

Autoresponder series
Using an autoresponder series is one great way of setting up an email marketing campaign. But this is possible only if you have a way of leading people to your webpage with the autoresponder opt-in form. You can achieve this by either using the above-mentioned FFA method or by writing articles and submitting to directories. If you have a link in your signature, people will click on that and reach your opt-in page. Once that is done, keep sending them follow up messages selling them your product.

Newsletter, ezine, or course
The most important thing that can be achieved through an email campaign is projecting yourself as an expert. Sending out newsletters or ezines is a great way of showing your expertise and gaining their trust. This helps in several ways. You can promote affiliate programs, your own products or services easily without blatant marketing. People will open your emails because you are providing them with useful information.

Subject lines
Email marketing works essentially by grabbing the attention of the reader with the written words. First thing that the reader will look at is the subject line. This should be attention grabbing. Even if your ad and email are great, if the subject is bad, people are not even going to read the email. The best way to understand what is interesting is by checking the emails you receive everyday. I am sure all of us have seen subjects that are so attractive that we are tempted to open the email.

Email ad
The main matter in the email should be extremely well structured. Start with an introduction, then write about the main product, and then conclude by calling to action. We see many emails where people go on and on endlessly and that irritates us that we don’t want anything to do with that person.

Branding
Creating a ‘brand’ of yourself is of utmost importance. Branding means making people identify you for what you stand for and creating images in their mind. Let me tell you, this is a golden tip, and would help you to concentrate on this. There are several times people pay more for certain products, it’s not only because the product is better than it’s competitors, it’s also because the sellers have created a great image of themselves in people’s minds that suggests trust and interest.

You can achieve this by letting your emails have a lighthearted touch, paying attention to the fonts and graphics. The tone of your email must be very friendly as if you only care about them and can also be humorous, depending on what you are promoting.

Best day and time for email campaign
Surprising but true. The success of your email campaign also depends on the day you send it out. Let me begin with giving you the worst days of the week that you should NOT send out your email campaigns. Saturday and Sunday. Statistics show that on those two days, emails hardly get opened. Back to the main question of when to send. The best day is said to be Tuesday, next comes Wednesday, and may be even Thursday.

Is there a best time too? Sure, there is. It should be either in the early morning or late evening. This is because people check their mails as soon as they get to work. Late evenings may be because people check again before leaving work or after getting back home. Makes sense right? Most people after dinner are either watching American Idol or spending family time together. Computer is not where they want to be.

Spam and Filters
Never ever send unsolicited email to anyone. This is the most important tip of email marketing. Send emails to people who have opted in through your autoresponder and want you to send them information.

Even if you do not have any intention of spamming people and send emails to only those that have opted-in, your emails may not be delivered due to spam filters used by most ISPs. Since these filters do not know if yours is a spam mail or not, they basically check the word you use in the subject line and in your emails. These filters make mistakes with words and brand yours as spam. There are several free sites that will check the email for spam and score it. If the score is below 2 is safest, and between 2 and 5 is borderline and above 5 is considered to be spam.