The golden question: is email marketing still effective? Are droves of prospective customers (both opt-in and solicited) reading your emails at a high rate and at high speeds? Well, this depends on what type of email you send. First, take a look at where email marketing is headed. It is a billion dollar a year industry, with about 65% companies of all types using 5-10% of their budget on email campaigns. Marketing with email is expected to yield more than 7 billion dollars this year. Companies are looking into buying ad space on widely circulated newsletters with tons of subscribers and email list vendors are earning big business. Lets look at the response rate of Marketing with email – the ultimate way to judge effectiveness!

Sadly enough, tons of unsolicited spam emails go unread. Through statistics, we’ve discovered that 5 to 15 percent of all e-mails are answered. Like the click through rates of banner advertisements at popular websites, spam emails are discarded like yesterday’s trash. A quick browse at the subject line ¨Free Viagra¨ and people are quick to press the delete button. Advertising is a very tricky medium – if your email campaign is not specifically targeted or if it does not employ creative and original strategies that lure customers, there will be a dead-end.

That said, unsolicited email (generic and commercial in nature) is usually not received by anyone. The likelihood of a person clicking on unsolicited mail is extremely low. In addition to the fact customers might not be interested in your offers in the first place, the margin for success is small!

If you have a relationship with the customer beforehand, email marketing can exceed boundaries. In order for email campaigns to work effectively, it must be solicited in the form of opt-in lists and permission. Adding a checkbox to your online store that says something along the lines of ¨send me periodic updates about your incoming shipments¨ for a customer to tick off fares better off in the marketing with email game. If you have customer permission to send them updates and newsletters with additional information, it will be well received!

Marketing with email is most effective with two-way communication. Unsolicited spam mail is considered a one-way message because it is chock full of advertisements that ask customers to visit websites and purchase products. It takes up their time without receiving any sort of compensation. Email marketing campaigns through opt-in lists are different – they are tailored towards the customer’s interest and garner higher response rates. Your email list is paramount as well. Back up your campaign by purchasing a list from a list vendor who offers email addresses that are willing to receive your advertisement. Each email address usually costs between 20 and 40 cents.

Newsletters and promotions combined together make for explosive campaigns. A well written, HTML formatted newsletter can boost traffic and generate sales. Promotions can initiate customers to buy a product that they are interested in. You see, the secret to an effective promotionb is the interaction between the customer and the business.

Notice the trend: unsolicited email appearing out of no where flooding your Inbox will not generate the same response as a newsletter an opt-in list member subscribed to. By exercising business/customer relations and gauging your customer’s needs, your email marketing will become more fruitful and lead to the dollars.

How do we determine whether an email marketing campaign is effective?

The bread & butter of a campaign is its’ ability to be opened and read. Unlike print material, email provides tracking tools to gauge visitor statistics and click through rates. A true email campaign will strive to seek as much customer data as possible. Add a response form to your emails or invite newsletter subscribers to join an online message board. Droves of customers registering to your online community can highlight your emails ability to attract. Add links to your newsletter and observe its click through rate with tracking software.

The savvy email marketer will investigate trends and tricks for time tested email campaigns. For instance, HTML format emails are more visually pleasing than plain text emails – run a campaign using both formats and see which gets the most click rates! Will offering discount couples for opt-in list subscribers do the trick? If you own an online store, run a promotion where subscribers can receive a code via email to use for discount purchases on your site! For example, a site selling pheromones, is currently offering 20% off anything on their product list for newsletter readers only. Not only does this encourage customers to purchase off your site, but also you’ll know who your loyal customers are.

Another way to determine whether your email campaign is off the charts or not is to compare what you’ve received from a special campaign with the amount of money you’ve spent. Is your discount sunglasses newsletter generating $100 a month off click throughs and on-the-spot purchases versus spending $12 on paying a freelance writer for article writing and $3 on target email addresses? If so, your email campaign is paying off! Are members of your opt-in list clicking more on Discount Coupons for All Purchases¨ than the title ¨The History of Sunglasses?¨ Discount coupons lead to big purchases, so try to launch promotional opportunities more often! A successful email campaign is measured by its personal interaction with customers. If customers are not responding well to your emails, try other strategies. Read and respond to consumer needs using trial & error and use tracking tools after every mailing to see how well you do.

This is a traffic building and basic internet marketing principal that any serious internet marketing professional or beginner must know.

This has changed the way many approach their businesses on the internet.

If you really want to succeed in any business, you must know and understand the basics of Marketing.

Here it is – Always give your TARGETTED market precisely what they are looking for.

It is crucial to understand that if you have a product and you start prospecting and sharing it with everyone and anyone, you might as well not do anything at all.

The internet market is too large that by hoping to hit any tom, dick and harry you will get a sale is the most futile and amateur approach!

The key secret to success is to give your prospects precisely what they are looking for. Know exactly what your prospects want, where they are and target them furiously.

To give and to add value and improve other people’s lives by giving them what they

want. This basic principle will help to boost your sales significantly.

Your Step By Step Guide To Traffic Generation

In internet marketing a key area you need to focus on and allocate a major portion of your time to, is building killer and targeted traffic to your website.

The more traffic you generate, the more money in your hands.

Here are key basic methods that once implemented will have traffic swarming to your website.

The following are 4 key basic traffic building methods that must be done everyday.

Implementing these four steps religiously will help you get your website thousands of hits every single month. This will generate some serious passive income for you.

Article Marketing:

Write articles and submit them to article directories. Try to submit at least 2 articles per day.

The articles should be written in simple clear language and should be free of spelling and grammatical errors.

The content of the article should be relevant and up to date. Reliable, interesting and informative content will prompt visitors to read and also recommend your site to other interested parties.

Articles that are well written and submitted to article directories will boost your incoming links and your site will get higher rankings on the search engine results page.

Email Marketing:

Here in lies the key to monetizing your website.

All internet marketers will agree that email marketing is the absolute best way to generate sales.

Email marketing is basically collecting emails of prospects and then keeping in touch and building a rapport with them.

However email marketing requires time to build your list and also to create a bond and rapport with your customers.

Building relationships with potential customers and maintaining good relationships with existing buyers is going to keep you in business for a long time.

The idea is that once the trust is build, you can start marketing products to them and they will bite.

However email marketing will require a small maintenance fee. If you are financially challenged, this can be postponed until you see some income.

At some point this is a must do as the potential is by far the largest and it will explode your income.

Social Networking:

Social Networking is the buzz word at the moment and it can provide massive FREE traffic to your website.

Creating an attractive profile on social networking websites will attract more visitors to your site and give you the opportunity to advertise your products.

Sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter are great places to build your network.

However always be sure to know your market and target them furiously.

Forum Marketing:

Sign up on the most relevant forums and post answers to the members queries.

Forums are also a powerful tool in determining what the market wants. For example if you are an expert in relationships; you can target relationship forums and study what sorts of questions are most popularly asked.

If you can give answers to these problems, you are already guaranteed a sale and a very loyal following.

However you should always give the impression of being an expert in the field and for that you need to be well aware of all the recent developments in your chosen niche.

With all these methods always remember to be consistent and do it every single day. Remember to always include a link to your website in these methods. 

If you follow these methods, you will be generating a very nice income. 

Good luck and take care.

If you have the products or services that you want to sell on the Internet, you’ll want to create a web site where you’ll advertise what you are offering and you’ll also want to spread a word about your products or services to the world. You can easily and quickly do it via email. Email marketing is certainly one of the most powerful strategies in internet marketing. It’s quick, cost effective – you do not have to pay a set price for every email that is sent out – and allows contact people in all parts of the world. So, you can get more purchasers and respectively more revenue for less investment of time and money.

How does one accomplish bulk email marketing campaign?

You can use online bulk emailing services, or you can pay a marketing firm to do your bulk email promotions, or you can use direct email marketing software to distribute your email campaigns sitting at your computer.

Using software can be the most cost-effective method if you have the time to manage your prospects list and accomplish your email campaigns with a constant frequency.

There is wide choice of direct email marketing software packages available on the Internet market. Some are even freeware programs that don’t require any investment. Although they don’t generally have the value-added features that come with software packages that you purchase; however, if you aren’t running a large email marketing campaign, they may suit your needs for accomplishing specific tasks just fine.

What is Drip Email Marketing?

The concept behind drip email marketing consists in sending periodic emails to prospects and clients hoping to bring them to your website and make them purchase products or services. It is an effective method to generate new purchasers from your prospects and keeping relationship with your existing clients.
Drip Email Marketing tactic results from the idea that nobody purchases online products or services instantly. A visitor can come to your web site a few times before he becomes a purchaser. Keeping this in mind, how are you going to stimulate your prospects’ interest to your site and keep them informed about your products and services? This is where a drip email marketing campaign is quite to the point.

Imagine that a prospect has just visited your site and left you the email address. It’s important to note that you should add a sign-in form to your web site to collect the prospects’ email addresses. It’s rather useful if your sign-in form asks the subscriber to provide some about additional and not only the email address. I’m not talking about private information. I’m talking about the subscriber’s area of interest, hobbies, specific needs, or at least the emails he prefers to receive, text or HTML. All this information will help you segment your prospects and send more relevant email messages to each group.

So, based on the subscribers’ preferences, you set up a drip email marketing campaign catered to their specific needs. Each message you send them give more information about their inquiries slightly hinting them at you and your products or services. It is an importunate way to stamp your name in their mind. Remember, you don’t sell anything yet. You just give an advice and information about their particular needs and wishes.

For your existing clients, a drip email marketing campaign is similar. You only need to tailor the emails so they are oriented to the client after purchase. Your email drips must contain relevant information that can help the customer with the products or services he purchased. The customer must be sure that you are always there to assist him. When your client believes that you are a faithful and reliable partner, he is ready to purchase again from you.

It may probably sound like you will need more than one tool to accomplish your drip email marketing campaign. But you can find many programs on the Internet that can handle your growing lists of prospective and present clients. Our email management software must be flexible enough to treat each client or prospect according to the routine of your drip email campaign.

The most important thing to remember about drip email marketing is that you must not send meaningless emails. Each message must have an informative content, a real reason to contact your prospects and clients, not just a note saying “Hi!” or “How are you?”.

If your drip marketing email cannot keep the client’s interest, it will be deleted immediately next time when they read the sender’s email address. We all are busy people and won’t spend our time for dull messages. If you are trying to build the relationship based on trust and faith, you cannot tolerate that they never open your emails. You can start directly from the subject line. The subject itself must grab people’s attention and make them want to read your message. This is the essential concept behind a drip email marketing campaign – to develop a trust and faithful relationship with your customer by sending valuable information. When the rapport of informative and useful emails is established, your clients and prospects will be looking forward for every email from you and they will even recommend your company and your products to others. Isn’t it exactly what you want for you business? I’m sure it is.