One message mess up your entire email marketing list? How could that be?

Today was the day, the day that I decided to filter my email messages even further. I have (like many people) become overwhelmed (again) with too many emails!

Today I was sad, I got a message from someone who I like a lot and have been “friends” with on the internet for a while. He generally sends out great info but has obviously changed something in his business model to include sending out more affiliate marketing messages. Look back on his recent “stuff” I see that he is no longer sending good info, but is mostly pushing out the crap that a million other marketers are sending.

So what did I do?

• Unsubscribe, nope, there was some good stuff in all that crap still.
• Send him a scathing email with lots of caps and exclamation points to show my displeasure and make him feel bad? Nope, this America and he has the right to conduct his business however he sees fit.
• Blast him on the social media for selling out? Nope, I see too much of that (and get a little bit from haters too).

Effectively what I did was send him to the seventh level of my email hell, I told Google to skip the inbox with his messages and put them into the IM Marketing People…a list of people who send me interesting things, free content during launches and whose messages I take a peek at “when I have time”.

So think about this, he went from a trusted source of information to someone who will never see the light of day again. While I will see his info on Facebook (when they think it is important to me, but that is a post for another day), he will not have the ability to contact me directly anymore.

So What Should You Send In Your Email Marketing Newsletter? (and how often?)

These are big questions in my marketing world right now! I am sending more emails than I did in the past BUT have targeted my list so that people only get what they want (social media, small biz marketing, realtor related stuff, etc.) This allows me to send messages that will make a difference to the people who read them, without annoying the other people on my list. (I use Office Auto Pilot for my email database because it is VERY robust and the guys there are really helpful setting it up, something like iContact or Infusionsoft would also work in this manner – yes Virginia, that is an affilate link).

What I figured out is that good information sent with honorable intent is a good thing and should be fine. I based this on the fact that I send my “peeps” (real friends in the real world) stuff that helps them and I was doing a disservice to my community by not sharing great tidbits with them too! If you would like to join my marketing community – sign up for great marketing info!

That having been said, what constitutes acceptable levels of selling and what rate should it be coming out?

Here are some examples of the email newsletters I read, how often they come out and why they have stayed out of gmail folders:

• One marketer sends me a message every day with (1) something relevant that happened and which I should know about – yesterday he sent that Yahoo Site Explorer got shut down, I am devastated but not about to shoot the messenger and (2) two affiliate links to products he is pushing for profit. Because he has a huge staff of researchers who work on the good bits, I am happy to get his info and just overlook, for the most part, the affiliate links. I DO buy HIS stuff because I like how he presents.
• One marketer who spends a TON of time on his email newsletter each month. I always find something great in there and take the time to read pretty regularly. I have even posted on my social media about why you should join it, a bonus to him as there is nothing in it for me!
• About 20 people who send sporadic emails with great content and who I like “personally” though I have never met them. I KNOW that I am going to get a marketing message from time to time, but there is ALWAYS something good to go along with it!

So should be terrified to send email newsletters? Nope! Just make sure you are proud of the information that you are pushing out there and make a conscious decision of how you are going to present yourself. BELIEVE ME, big time marketers have made BA-GILLIONS sending spammy messages, and you can too, just do you really want to? Most of my readers are true small biz owners who are in it for the long haul and who do not want to burn their lists.

Moral of the story, send out more email newsletters, make them great, KNOW that people will unsubscribe but that you are doing good!

Related posts:

1. Email Marketing – Hiding your list
2. Email Newsletter Marketing Topics and Ideas
3. Burning Your List – Mobile, Email, Twitter or Facebook

Small business marketing is all about getting prospective customers to notice you. I KNOW, you think that small business marketing is about getting them to BUY from you, but first they have to know you exist!

The easiest way to get people to notice you is to show up everywhere they go, from in person, to their mailbox, online at social media and in their email inbox. This process of being everywhere is officially called layering and should be part of a planned structured marketing campaign.

LL Bean is stalking me. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the LL Bean gang! They have American made clothes (I am from the rust belt near Pittsburgh so this has always mattered to me). Their clothing is unbelievably high quality and they have a no questions asked return policy. Seriously, you can wear your shoes, clothes or coats for YEARS and if something goes wrong, they will make it right, no questions asked.

Years ago I got on their mailing list and they have continued to send me catalogs, even though I have not ordered in quite some time. Sort of nice, but did not compel me to buy.

Social Media Marketing

So today I opened my Facebook and they had posted a message about extreme weather clips on the LL Bean Facebook page. Not a picture of their product with a link (although they have them too!), a video from the weather channel about terrible cold weather.

Small Business Marketing Tip – So NOW I am thinking about cold weather in conjuction with LL Bean! They have snuggly warm coats and slippers in case it snows like that here.

Email Marketing

After cruising the Social Media and noticing the LL Bean clip (I didn’t watch the video but got the gist and the association stuck). I popped open my inbox to delete messages (I mean read my email…hehehe). What showed up there? An email from LL Bean!

Now I am in marketing so I tend to notice when things happen like this, but I am also human and the urge to buy something from LL Bean is getting greater and greater!

Direct Mail Marketing

So, as most of you know I am an internetty kind of gal. I get leads from the internet, teach internet marketing classes and have every whiz-bangy kind of appliance needed to access the internet at my disposal.

That having been said, I rarely BUY things on the internet. I go to stores and look at catalogs (doh, I just happen to have an LL Bean catalog handy!). Sending me a catalog will definitely make this layering marketing work better for the Bean!

How To Do Layering For Small Business Marketing

So you are a small business owner or entrepreneur and you are thinking to your self (in a really snarky tone, I can hear you) that you do not have the millions of dollar advertising budget that LL Bean has! That figuring out all that technology is going to take time and money you don’t have.

Here are some easy ways for small business owners to capitalize on what we have seen here today!

• Direct mail marketing – There are two ways to do direct mail marketing on a shoestring. Print dinky postcards on colored paper, 4 to a sheet or buy them from Vistaprint for pennies on the dollar. I checked yesterday and the cost for a postcard stamp is 29 cents so the cost to do a 100 piece mailing should be less than 50 bucks total. I am getting ready to send a 100 piece dinky postcard mailing this week and will let you know what the response rate is!
• Email marketing – if you are not using an online database like Constant Contact or Office Auto Pilot (the one I use) yet, start today. Figure it out and start building a list! Send them informative emails. I KNOW, you are all clamoring about what to send, send something that is related to your business!
• Pick up the phone – Call them to see if they got what you sent! Your mailing made this a much warmer call.
• Social Media Marketing – Post something about this on your social media like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or LinkedIn. Be careful not to be too salesy, just something good and interesting for them to enjoy that is related to your business.

With my coaching clients, I recommend that we have “theme months” where we pick a theme and market to that using multiple sales channels. I can’t stress enough that you should pick a theme for this month RIGHT NOW, set up some of these layered sales outlets and get started bringing in more prospects and sales!

– — –

If you would like to find out more about my Small Business Marketing coaching programs today, give me a call 727-415-9165.

Related posts:

1. Airports, Snow Boots and Your Small Business Marketing Message
2. Small Business Marketing – How To Get More Traffic
3. What is database marketing? Solving small business marketing problems!

Lots of my customers ask how to send free video email. Because my peeps know they can email me anything marketing related to review, I have been getting a glut of “should I buy this video email program?” questions. The ones that are the current MLM (multi level marketing) darlings are quite pricey, with setup fees up to 500 bucks and hefty monthly payments.

So what if I told you there is a FREE VIDEO EMAIL?

Well, I was teaching my 100 Free Marketing Ideas class the other day and did a whole bit about how to use video email for sales and the attendees were astounded that there was a way to send video emails for free using a safe, reliable service! Eyejot.com – a free video email service! aff link

What Is Video Email?

So, one of my favorite friends and clients, Brian P. Forrester of the Mortgage Communication Spot, does video email better than anyone I have seen. He has compiled a list of Realtors who have an interest in changes in the banking industry and when something happens, he sends a translation email of what those changes actually mean in English! He also uses them to promote his events (as you will see at the end of this email).

How To Send Video Email That Works

So, as with any “new” technology, video email has some great applications and the ability to be used as a spamming machine. Make sure you are using your video email for good, not evil!

• Follow up to an interview or sales call – image if your salesman from yesterday “remembered” just one more thing to tell you and sent a little video email over with a message that he or she would be calling later in the day to see if you have any questions. I guarantee that you would probably get a pretty warm reception from that prospect!
• Keep in touch with past clients – one of my bestys is an Irish Realtor and don’t you know she sends out a video email to her entire database for every St. Patricks Day. Why stop at that? I would do something every couple of months at a minimum! Note – unless you are going to have VERY entertaining video emails, if you send out a happy Valentines, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Groundhog, the effectiveness will drop off dramatically.
• The video DOES NOT need to be embedded in the email to be effective. I know of people who pay exorbitant rates for video email because they believe having it play from inside the email client matters. Technology rarely matters! I check out Brian’s messages because I know, like and trust him, and am not bothered by the fact that it does not automatically play when I open it!
• Branding and the ability to post on a blog or website – one thing I DO like about Brian’s emails is that they are branded with his information. As the “premium” cost for the branding upgrade is between $29.95 and $99.95 A YEAR, this is a great price point for being able to snazzy them up a bit AND I like the fact that you can try it for free first to make sure you will actually use the service!
• It doesn’t have to be perfect! Seriously, none of us like to see ourselves on camera and if you wait for a perfect moment, take, hair day, you will never send anything. Just jump in and do some!

Seriously, if you are willing to learn how to send free video email, you will SO set yourself apart from the crowd!

Small Business Marketing

Looking for more great FREE marketing ideas? Check out our best ideas for free marketing. From online to off, blogging, email, social media and more!

Today, much of marketing is free (or almost free), knowing what and how to use them is key to being successful!

Get 100 Free Marketing Ideas!

Related posts:

1. Eyejot – a free email marketing tool!
2. Email Marketing – Good Email Subject Lines and Super Duds
3. When Should You Send Email Newsletters, Blog Posts and Postcards

Small business marketing has MANY shiney objects to chase and it may seem like the latest and greatest new gizmo is the most important. Today we are we are going to talk about what may seem a little antiquated (smile) email marketing and some common email marketing mistakes!

I see A LOT of mistakes out there with small business owners who are using email incorrectly or who have not even thought about how or why to set up their email marketing in the correct manner. This post is going to go over common mistakes and what to do to fix them. Sorry to my friends who, as always, know that they are loved and who will be my goats for anything that makes me crazy!

Common Email Marketing Mistakes

Not having a professional email address

If you are still putting a gmail, aol, road runner, comcast or other free or obviously system emails on your business cards or handouts, people notice and assume that you are not professional (at the very least they will assume that you are WAY behind technology-wise, which in this day and age is not cute or funny, it is a red flag to potential customers!)

Using your company email address

While I understand there are some situations that you need to use a corporate email address, this is a SMALL BUSINESS BLOG. Most of us do not work for IBM or Lucent, we have a little more flexibility with our personal branding. So, why SHOULDN’T you use your company email?

One of my friends, who shall remained unnamed, Brian P, has changed his email address no less than 4 times since I have known him. It started with BrianP(at)homebank.com and went to BrianP(at)countrywide.com and then BrianP(at)tricountyfl.com and finally today, BrianP(at)VanDyke.com. The worst part of it is, he had a website about mortgage banking and could have used BrianP(at)mortgagecommunicationspot.com the WHOLE TIME!

I will tell you, most people are not hiring the company you work for, they are hiring YOU and Brian has to have lost some people who would have worked with him again but they are two or three email addresses back and don’t know how to get a hold of him.

Not Having An Email Marketing List

This is a biggie. I talk to many people who network often who have said they have stacks and stacks of business cards on their desk and have not put them in a list yet. Arggg. This means that all that networking is for naught. You HAVE to follow up with an email newsletter or some other followup method you are missing the boat.

If you are not using a service like Constant Contact or Aweber, you CAN email easily by just having an excel spreadsheet with First Name, Last Name and Email. You can then cut and paste the addresses into most email clients and send your message (NO MORE THAN 50 at a time so it is kerfuffly BUT it WILL work). The nice thing about doing it this way is that when you ARE ready to do your real email newsletter, you will already have your list ready!

Free Resources From Past Posts

Email Newsletters – Email Marketing – Good Email Subject Lines and Super Duds
Email Marketing – Email Newsletter Marketing Topics and Ideas

Marketing Artfully University Resources

NEW – Setting Up Your Email Addresses Effectively
How should you grow your contact list
Secret Email Marketing Strategies

find out more about small business marketing help at MAU! The cost is low, there are over 82 posts with videos and there is a small one time fee to join!

Related posts:

1. Small Business Logo Design Mistakes
2. Email Marketing – Good Email Subject Lines and Super Duds
3. Eyejot – a free email marketing tool!

Email subject lines seem to be the one topic everyone is interested in, and rightly so! You can write the best email, newsletter or online communication ever, but if no one opens it because it does not have a good subject line, the time was wasted!

If you want to know more about my obsession with email subject lines, check out my previous post, Email Marketing, Writing Great Subject Lines.

I receive about 600 emails a day during the week and about 400 a day on the weekends. I spend A LOT of time deleting emails without having ever looked at their content. One of the best things that happened to me recently was that Gmail set up a priority inbox so I can usually see Clients, Friends and Families at a glance. I assume other email programs have this same kind of feature.

So what effect does sorting have on your email open rates? When you are laboring over your newsletter, auto-responder or followup emails, it is easy to anticipate that the person at the other end will be happy to open it! I think that is EXACTLY wrong, I think they are looking for a reason to be able to skip it and hit the delete key. A strong, compelling subject line makes it impossible for them to hit delete without at least taking a peek!

One More Thing To Consider – The First Line

There is one more thing to consider when you are crafting your emails – the first line of text. Most email programs allow the user to see at least part of that first line. If you have a strong subject line and a compelling first line – BAM, you are sure of an open!

Good Email Subject Lines

• Alert. All-Inclusive Beach Escapes w/Air from $549* – If I was in the mood to get away, this would get me to look. I have to say that I am in conflict about the “Alert.” but have to feel that it did help catch my eye as a human being!
• Save 63% on Our New Personalized Products & Get 10 Free! – From entertainment direct, a great discount and free stuff, okay!
• Mind bending Facebook stats, and a dirty little secret – OF COURSE the emails from Perry Marshall have great subject lines, he is a master!
• Apple’s Market Cap in 1997 was 2.2 Billion today it’s….. - Really big numbers are interesting and there is a cliffhanger!
• Can I Send You Tons of New Prospects for Your Business? – New Media PR Expert, Rebekah Welch, sent this one! Just tempting enough without being come-onny.

Sorta-Kinda Good Email Subject Lines

• Pissed Off? – Not so sure that this would have drawn me but the start of the email (which I see about a half a line of in Gmail) was compelling! “Gurus, bad actors and even lap dancers all trying to sell you the…
• Homes.com Newsletter: Optimize your social media strategy – Did they really have to take up some of the subject line with their URL?
• Please Join Us – Tampa Exadata & Exalogic Seminar – May 25 – Does have the Date and the name of Oracles product in it so that people in the know would recognize it, BUT what is it to me? Their email list is not great if I, a lowely marketer, are getting hard core programming information.
• [HubSpot] New Webinar: Science of Analytics – Not sure about this new trend of putting your company name in the subject line – the sender is HubSpot anyways. This webinar is free, I would for sure have put that in the title (may use “complimentary” to help avoid some of the spam filters).

Super Duds

• “NEW – Viral Facebook™ Traffic-Getting Software!!” from Gabor and NEW – Viral Facebook™ Traffic-Getting Software!!” from Pat – notice anything strange about these two emails? It is the same damn thing!!! If you are going to spam people with affiliate links, at least take two seconds to change the subject line a little! This is also a problem with Avon ladies and the Scentsy gals, because they use the automated systems within their company, I get multiple copies of the same email. Now, you would think that would compel me to open at least one of them BUT it just annoys me so I don’t open any of them. Delete, delete, delete.
• Tara, From the Desk of Stephen Pierce – Are you kidding me? Unless this guy is my lawyer or accountant, this is a total non-starter. I SO do not care about Stephen’s desk or what is on it!
• Auction – REALLY?!?!?! Date, time, location, land, antiques? Honestly, would it take 15 seconds to write a little bit more to tell me why I should open it?
• Activate your Tipmeet widget (first line – We are happy to announce our new widget feature for personal websites.) – I did not request this AND it is totally self serving.
• Re: Notification Of Payment Received – I HATE this little “trick” of putting “Re:” like he is responding to something I sent to him. If you learned any email marketing “tricks” from so-called gurus and you are a real business, forget them now and start acting like a grownup. These guys BURN through email lists and don’t care if you come or go. Your clients will not think these “tricks” are cute and will ask to be removed from your lists!
• Tara, Big News on May 8, 2011! – Big news about what? It may be big news for them but I am busy and this is not tempting.
• Get Your Gift Card Today! – this was a teaser to visit a webinar, for which, they would give me a gift card. My time is worth more than they can give me on a gift card so I would rather have great content and no gift card! PLUS I don’t know what I am getting a gift card for.
• Charlie Sheen said what??? – are you kidding me? This was a webinar notification for making money online. Are these guys brain-dead or what. The “cute” thing is really not effective with me!

So there you have it! Another round of email marketing, the bad, ugly and good email subject lines. If you have some that ABSOLUTELY rocked the open rate, please feel free to post as a comment!!! Tara

Related posts:

1. Email Marketing Writing Great Subject Lines
2. Small Business Marketing – Common Email Marketing Mistakes
3. Realtor Marketing | Real Estate Email Newsletters

Email newsletter marketing topics and ideas are the two biggest factors in newsletters sitting on hard drives rather than getting sent. Month after month you have to come up with new newsletter topics, where can you get fresh ideas?

I gave a talk the other day about Email Newsletters and had some topics that I could recommend but thought that I would pop online and get some additional ideas. Imagine my surprise when there were so few great lists of newsletter topics available. Here are my top email newsletter topics and ideas – please feel free to add additional items in the comments!

EMAIL NEWSLETTER MARKETING TOPICS AND IDEAS TO GENERATE SALES

• Coupons Or Sales On Your Products – This is a direct sales tactic that you can use from time to time. If you are truly having a “Year End Sale” or “10% Off Everything Sale” this can be effective for driving immediate revenue. Two drawbacks come to mind, no one wants to get a daily or weekly email about your sales and if you continually send sales out, no one will pay retail for anything, knowing they can just wait a couple of days and get it at a discount.
• Upcoming Events – If you charge for events, sending information about upcoming events can help drive sales and get butts in seats. Make sure you have a link to your sales page where you can accept payment.
• Product Reviews - Reviewing your product against other similar products is a great way to rank for your keyword AND theirs. If you are using this tactic, make sure you are fair and tell the goods and the bads about your product and the competition so that you do not run afoul of the FTC.
• Affiliate Links – You can sign up to be an affiliate and sell many different types of products. The nice thing about this is that someone else takes care of sales and fulfillment.

USEFUL EMAIL NEWSLETTER MARKETING TOPICS AND IDEAS

• Tips & Tricks – These kinds of email are fun and informative. Usually I send something practical and right to the point, rather than giving long descriptions.
• Top 10 Lists – Perfect for generating ideas (you can tell if I ran out of good ideas – I always start with 10 as a goal but sometimes can only do 7 or 8!)
• Tools To Help Your Customers – It is always good to send information about tools that you readers can use, whether or not you get paid for suggesting them.
• How To Dos – These would be more detailed descriptions of how to accomplish something in your industry.

CURRENT EVENT EMAIL NEWSLETTER MARKETING TOPICS AND IDEAS

• Hot Topic Industry Information – Tom Terwilliger who has a book about Achievement, did this WONDERFULLY the other day. He talked about how leadership was vital for saving the miners trapped in South America. A timely topic that was still related to his industry.
• Statistics – EVERYONE likes statistics from time to time. This is my least favorite category BUT people really like to know that 500,000 million people are using Facebook or that 90% of husbands don’t know what to get their wives for Christmas.
• Answer Common FAQs – This is SO easy. You have probably answered hundreds of emails of people asking questions about your products or services. Copy and paste your answers right out of your email!

FUN EMAIL NEWSLETTER MARKETING TOPICS AND IDEAS

• Video Posts – Video posts are still new enough to be novel. Make sure you do not try and embed a video in your email, just take a screen capture of your video playing and link to the YouTube.com video!
• Funny Stories – I am not very funny so this is not my category BUT humans like funny things so if you can find a funny story, video or idea, that might be a great way to go!

COMPANY FOCUSED EMAIL NEWSLETTER MARKETING TOPICS AND IDEAS

• Client Testimonials – Satisfied client testimonials is a great way to generate new sales. Just make sure you do not fill your newsletter with self-serving propaganda.
• Case Studies – Case studies are a GREAT way to prompt people to want to learn more about your product or service. If you can pair a case study with a neat video of that customer speaking, even better!
• Polls (Survey Monkey) – You can use a free service to ask questions of your email newsletter list. We recommend the free www.SurveyMonkey.com service.

Related posts:

1. Realtor Marketing – Realtor Newsletter Ideas
2. Can One Message Mess Up Your Entire Email Newsletter Marketing List?
3. How To Send Free Video Email – Eyejot

Burning your list means that you oversaturate your message to a group of people. I am here to tell you that a list of people who have said you can contact them on a regular basis is a beautiful thing to waste.

Years ago we all had a rolodex of people we could call or send a holiday card to. Today we have MANY different types of lists, phone numbers, email, Facebook, Twitter, even people who follow us on Digg or other bookmarking sites. When you have a list, your responsibility is to treat it with respect.

Mobile List Burning

When I saw that the internet marketers were pushing mobile marketing I thought, OH NO, here we go again! I worked in the telemarketing industry in the early 1990′s and saw what constant phone calls where doing to people who were eating dinner or getting their family ready to head out the door. Marketers could buy a list of phone numbers and incessantly call until legislation stopped that practice.

Now mobile marketers are using my cell phone to call, text, send push notifications and perform other horrific things that I did not specifically say they could. For example, Gowalla asked me when I downloaded a geotargeting app if I would accept push notifications AND that I could turn them off in the settings. What they did not tell me what there is no GLOBAL turn off, I have to go into each and every person and turn it off manually. I feel lied to and have decided to stop using the service.

Now my stopping using Gowalla is not going to be their death knell BUT I do teach many classes on marketing and I will be promoting FourSquare instead. A blip on the radar, but you get enough blips and you are out of business!

Email List Burning

When you set up your “real” email list, you should have explicit permission to send them out through asking the person when you take their card or having a double opt in feature on your list. So what about all these “new” list building techniques where you have multiple lists and feel that you have more permission to spam some of them than others (I KNOW – you got them through a free offer but that DOES NOT give you permission to send them content every day for the rest of their lives).

I LOVE the internet marketers. These are the guys and gals who are making things happen and who portend new online marketing trends. Those of you who are internet marketers email lists are probably aware of their “launches” where they send out a dozen emails and their friends all send you a dozen of the same emails. Well these marketers have hit a wall called “launch fatigue“. Their list members have basically said that they are not going to keep buying $1,000 products every week, no matter how many emails they get about it.

On a smaller level small business owners and entrepreneurs can burn their own lists. By changing the frequency of your mailings from 1 per day to 3 per week to 1 per month back to 1 a day, you will confuse your readers. They will not know what to expect and will become disenchanted with your marketing. Keep it consistent and try to avoid sending totally self serving messages more than a couple times a year.

Social Media List Burning

Your friends and followers are on lists too! Now these lists are the property of Twitter and Facebook BUT you have access to talk with these people on a regular basis. The worst thing you can do to these lists is burn them out with a repetitive marketing message.

On Twitter you can be more marketing-y since no one sits there and reads all of your posts BUT if your feed is nothing but affiliate links or sales messages, you will have to spend lots of time getting new followers to replace the ones that drop off. If nothing else, make sure to “feed” your feed with lots of great content from blogs to offset your marketing messages.

On Facebook I try and make sure that my profile is mostly real info about me – NOW know that I don’t do much but marketing so there is a lot of talk about that but selling is done on my business pages. Occasionally I will post an event or something else on my profile but for the most part it is a sell free zone. As this is in line with Facebook’s terms of service I SHOULD be okay but have to tell you, you do not own this list and cannot export it so be careful to stay on Facebooks good side!!!

SOCIAL MEDIA TIP!

Try and get your Facebook and Twitter peeps into your email list! If you ever lose your account you don’t want to lose touch with those people!!!!

Related posts:

1. Email Marketing – Hiding your list
2. Social Media Marketing – Twitter Hashtags or Facebook Page
3. Facebook Marketing Making Lists

Email marketing seems like a breeze. All the top people are telling you to just grow a list, send out emails to it and watch checks start rolling in. Well, writing great email headlines or subject lines will add to your success.

The industry standard for email open rates in the third quarter of 2009 is about 22% according to Marketing Firm Epsilon, meaning that 22% of the people who receive your message actually open it. This is a little disingenuous as there are email systems which allow you to see the message without ever actually “opening” it and also programs which show as an open without the user having actually read it. But let us start there.

My last three mass emails have had an open rate of between 21.2% and 70.3% with the industry standard being 13.5% for both the open and click through rate for marketing companies (according to Constant Contact FAQ open rate chart). The best click through and open rates seem to be for Craft emails with a 27.1% open rate and 22.1% click rate.

So what do all those number mean for your company’s email marketing campaigns. Having more people open your messages means that you have more of an opportunity to engage them, sell your products or services or just let them know you are thinking of them. BUT, you will never get that opportunity if they never open up your message.

Your subject line is HUGE in email marketing. It is what is going to intrigue your reader enough to open your message and read what you have written. You would read a message from a friend who said big news, but would you read one from your phone company that said big news? I would assume that they are talking about big news for them, not so much for me. WIFM (whats in it for me) is what every email reader thinks when considering whether or not to spend their precious time opening your email.

Email Marketing Subject Line Case Study

I was talking with a client the other day and she said that she was GREAT at sending follow-up emails to people who had visited her trade show booth and requested a free product sample, but that she didn’t have a great response rate. REALLY? They met her in person, gave her their email address, SAID they wanted a free product sample and then would not even hit reply with their mailing address. HUM. I was confused until she told me her subject line, “Trade show follow up”. DOH!

Picture that potential client sitting at home or at work, going through the hundreds of emails they get a day and seeing trade show follow up. I would assume that someone was trying to sell me something or that I would be getting a “nice to meet you” kind of thing which I do not have time for! Now picture that same person sitting there and an email comes in saying “How to get your complimentary green cleaning product” or “Here is your free cleaning product sample”. There is a lot more in it for them that way! One note, having free in your headline may cause some of the spam filters to block your email so use it judiciously!

Email Subject Lines Examples

Here are some poor subject lines pulled right from my email inbox. There is NO way that I would ever open them in the mass of emails I get in a day.

• Your daily dose from DSN news – this one comes every day and I generally NEVER read it. I do not know specifically what it is about today and have no compulsion to read it. Many emails come like this, it is easier for the sender but I have to think that their open rates would increase if they told me a little about what I would be reading.
• One in a lifetime (open now) – this is WAY over the top! I would not open this as the claim is too ambiguous.
• Discovering the keys to social media marketing – Too fluffy, would rather see 5 ways to increase your twitter followers.
• Urgent, Last Chance, Heads Up or any other “tickler” subject lines with no indication of what it is about – If the sender can’t spend the time to tell me a little bit about why I should be so motivated I am not going to waste my energy.
• Affiliate marketing “launch” emails – I get a ton of emails from internet marketers and I can always tell when they are launching a new product, my email box fills up with duplicate subject lines. If you are going to do affiliate marketing, PLEASE cut and paste the subject line and then do a twist to make me open yours instead of the 30 others I get in a day!

Here are some GOOD subject line examples from people who I read frequently. Most of them are marketing related so translate them into your industry!

• Tara Did You Get This Free Google Tool? – it has my name (not all that necessary but some people like that) AND it talks about a free tool. Additionally this guy sends out great content that I always enjoy reading.
• Great tools for business marketing – I obviously have a tool thing, but I like to know what is out there that can help grow my business.
• Proven way to higher summer sales - Relevant time wise AND says they have empirical data to back it up, what is not to like?
• Extended this weekend Free Shipping At… – If it is a product or company that I buy from, free shipping always hooks me and they get bonus points for the timeline call to action.
• Networking Lead Gen Tips & Tricks – this is my last headline which had a great open rate, click through rate and I generated sales with it! It works because I send great content AND have a focus on marketing so they know there will not be cooking tips or extra “fluff” in there.

We use Constant Contact for our newsletters because of the reporting, ease of use and great delivery rate they have! If you would like to get great marketing information twice a month sign up here!

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I like email marketing as much as the next gal! I have numerous lists of people who have subscribed to receive my message and I email them twice a month with great marketing information in my newsletter. Do you know something funny I noticed recently? You can’t subscribe to my “real” email newsletter! HA!

Over time I have noticed that people who signed up online to receive my newsletter unsubscribed faster than everyone else. They sent me nasty emails and said “take me off your list” – just so you know, I send out about 1,200 emails and get only one or two unsubscribers per mailing so it is not a common occurrence to me. And it makes me sad. I spend a A LOT of time writing my newsletters and make sure to only send out great information so when someone sends me a mean email it really does hurt my feelings.

So how do I get new people on my list you ask? I meet them! I go to networking and ask them very politely if they mind if I send them out a marketing newsletter twice a month. BRILLIANT! I also teach them. I teach classes on marketing and ask THOSE people if they would like to hear from me too!!!

Sometimes I “meet” fun people online who I don’t really know but it feels like I do – I ask and add them too!

So how do you get on my super cool, very informative small business marketing email list? Wouldn’t you like to know!

PS – I have been working really hard on my membership site and may be a little punch drunk BUT I had SO much fun writing this I don’t care!!!! Happy New Year…:)

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How to do email marketing

How to use email for marketing is simple. It is not easy but the benefits you get FAR outweigh the time it takes to become proficient! In Learn Use the Top 10 Internet Tools for Small Business, I talked about 10 things that I thought were super vital for your internet success. Here you will find out about how to make the most of email marketing.

For each of these items I am going to start with advanced ideas and work back to beginner basics. The reason for this is that there is A LOT of information out there about basic email marketing and I have found that if I tell my readers hard concepts they get them (after a while..:)

EMAIL MARKETING – THE MONEY IS IN THE LIST

When you have a list of people who have agreed to receive emails from you, you hold great responsibility. They have said that you can take their time in exchange for providing them with good information.

What software should you use for keeping track of your lists?

Email Marketing Software Programs – If you have over about 250 people in your database I highly recommend that you start having your people in a “real” email program.

• Aweber – This is the one that I recommend to all my non-realtor clients considering starting with a “real” email marketing program. Aweber has great email and autoresponder capabilities, meaning that if you are targeting different types of prospects you can do it from one place. The one drawback is that you cannot manually add people individually after your initial upload so be careful if you are wanting to use this as a general contact database (you can have them signup via a web form). Sign up for their FREE trial and see if it will work for you.
• Constant Contact – This is a friendly email program that is great for beginners but it really makes me mad that they do not have multiple autoresponders so you can not target multiple types of clients (although you can set up multiple types of lists). That being said, it is SUPER easy to use and has really pretty email newsletter templates if you have only one type of client.
• Brokers Helper – BEST Email marketing program for Realtors with lots of templates and ease of use. They have a FREE trial also!
• My Red Tools – Brokers Helper program for KW Realtors (you get a little discount) They have a FREE trial also!

Almost every small business owner I speak with wants to know what database they can use for everything. Their shopping cart and email marketing and direct mail and the list goes on and on. I wish that there was one UBER program that could handle all of these things well that was affordable for everyone but I have yet to find it. Once you know that you will be managing multiple lists you can get to the business of marketing and stop complaining about how hard it is!

Here are some things you can do to monetize your emails:

1. Send out information about your product or service. This can be done in a non-spammy way by providing great information and then adding a link to find out more about your offering. This is number one because generally your highest ROI is from selling your own products or service. For example – a garage door guy could send out an email about how to winterize your garage door and then put a link to his page or post that offers that service on a paid basis.
2. Send out emails with affiliate offers in them. This requires that you sign up to be an affiliate with a company or to have a referral agreement with a partner. Almost any business has affiliate programs that are relevant to them and it is easier than ever to get information about available offers. I like to use www.offervault.com to find great offers easily.
3. Email information about your industry. This is the most passive kind of email as there is no call to action to buy anything. That having been said, Lori Crawford of Trinity Eastlake Real Estate gets a lead almost every time she sends out a newsletter about local real estate information to her list. You would be surprised at how just contacting your list on a regular basis will get you more business!

ADVANCED EMAIL MARKETING

So now you have a regular email marketing program set up..what’s next? Autoresponders! Autoresponders work by sending out a series of emails once someone has signed up for your email list online. All of the email marketing software programs that I recommended you use have some sort of autoresponder built in.

Top Autoresponder Mistakes – Here is my take on the top autoresponder mistakes people make once they get people on their list

• Sending out too many messages – I KNOW, everyone says you should send out messages to your list daily or at the very least weekly. I think that people can get overwhelmed when you send out too many messages and that the impact can get diluted. I like to send out two messages a month and have had great feedback on that amount.
• Numbering their messages – I have one list I am signed up to that tells me I am on message number 235, etc. I think that they did it for ease of use in setting up their autoresponder series BUT it just reminds me that they have sent me LOTS of messages.
• Not adding their blog posts to their autoresponder series. I know that I am a prime offender for this one. DO NOT assume that everyone who signs up for your lists reads your blog posts regularly. This is a great place to get extra content for your autoresponders.

This post is a part of my ongoing posts Top 10 Internet Tools! If you would like to learn more please visit…

Top 10 Internet Tools Writing Great Headlines | How To Use Social Networking

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