Now that you've started actively marketing your brand on the Internet, it's time to take a cold, hard look at your campaign
in order to take it to the next level. What has worked so far, and what hasn't? Some basic principles will still apply, and
here are some tips to help you narrow down what will work for you. These are broad strokes rather than specific advice, so
keep that in mind as you decide what steps to take.
Make Sure People Can Read What You're Sending: Nowadays, most professionals check their email more frequently on Blackberrys
and Iphones than computers. That means that your precious graphics could be transformed into hideous empty white spaces. Large
images and photos will also take significantly longer to download, increasing the chance that your addressee will simply ditch
the email rather than wait.
Give Them Something They Recognize: Most people don't bother opening all of their email-they quickly browse over the sender
address and subject line to determine whether they're interested, and make the decision whether to open or not based solely
on those two factors. For that reason, it's crucial to get it right.
Make it Personal: There are some great programs out there that help you manage your email campaigns. Even better, they
allow you to personalize, which means that you can make your clients and customers feel important by calling them by their
name, rather than a generic filler. Any good salesman knows that the personal touch can be the difference between a sale and
someone walking out the door. It's a bit more difficult on the Net, but find a way to make it work and you're golden. Research
shows that including a person's first name in an email increases conversion by up to 10%.
Take Steps to Ensure High Delivery: You'll want to be sure to not use caps excessively in the title; that's a definite
giveaway. Also, try to avoid generic terms in the subject, such as "Make money" and "Free for signing up". Finally, it's crucial
to manage your output effectively. Blasting out 10,000 emails a day will very likely end up in most of them failing to get
through to the email addresses.
Give Something Away: Who doesn't love a freebie? Giving a gift away for signing up for an opt-in list is one of the most
popular (and successful) ways of building a massive email list. It doesn't have to be anything excessive; indeed, it can be
as simple as a one page special report. As long as there's the specter of something for free, you'll find people jumping onto
your lists by the dozen.
Effective email marketing isn't a one step process, and you should be prepared to spend some time learning the ropes. Once
you do, however, you'll quickly reap the benefits, a huge increase in sales being one of them. Apply these tips to your campaign,
and you'll see conversion rise through the roof. Of course, don't hesitate to get creative; the most effective email marketing
is done by those who can think outside of the box.
