Email Marketing

Spam! No one likes spam. No one wants more spam in their inbox. No one wants to be know as a “spammer”, especially to their Internet Service Provider (ISP).

So, what is spam?

According to the Bureau of Consumer Protection, spam is:

“If the message contains only commercial content, its primary purpose is commercial and it must comply with the requirements of CAM-SPAM.”

Your email must comply with the following in order to be viewed as compliant.

“1. Don’t use false or misleading header information.
Your email address, the reply address and your domain and business name must be accurate.

2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines.
The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.

3. Identify the message as an ad.
The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.

4. Tell recipients where you’re located.
Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.

5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you.
Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.

6. Honor opt-out requests promptly.
Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.

7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf.
The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.”

So how do you violate the CanSpam Act?

Let’s say I attend a networking event that allows me to place my business cards on a common “networking table.” You come along and pick up my card, go back to your office, and add me to your email database. Since we didn’t meet, you don’t have any reasonable expectation that I would be interested in receiving your emails.

Most small business owners start out by putting email addresses into their Outlook, or desktop email program. If that’s how you are handling your email contacts, you MUST include your address and a visible method of opting out of your emails. It can be as simple as telling your recipient that they may unsubscribe at any time by replying with unsubscribe in the subject line. The trouble with this is that many small business owners don’t want to hurt your feelings by asking to be taken off your list. An easier way for them to deal with this is to hit the “Report Spam” button. If you get too many complaints your ISP could severely reduce your ability to send email.

The other problem is something like this. This actually happened to me. I met someone at a networking event. They put me on their email list. They actually had an opt-out method I used to unsubscribe. However, the person who put me into the email database wasn’t the person who received my unsubscribe. I was continually put back into the database, as my card was continually picked up at networking events. You must honor the request of those who wish to unsubscribe to your email list.

Lastly, if you are using Outlook or something like it to handle your email list, don’t CC everyone on your list. Send the email to yourself and BCC the recipients. If all those copied on the email can see all the other addresses your chances of seeing a “Report Spam” action taken on your email increase dramatically.

The long and short of it is, you need a service that is recognized as an industry standard in email delivery, like Constant Contact or Get Response. These services are compliant with the CanSpam act  and can handle a growing email list.

I used to belong to a women’s networking group that had a list of approximately 800 women. The list had to be broken down into lists of no more than 50 and each list sent separately. After the sixth go ’round with the lists of 50, the ISP shut down our ability to send out any further emails. It took a lot of time and patience to get them to give back email access.

These services run around $15 to $18 a month to start. They allow you to collect email addresses through a form on your website or social media site. Of course you’ll want to offer an incentive for people to opt-in, but that’s another blog post…

I was asked this week to review an affiliate program where you sell access to a “Lead Generation” software that uses search results to “harvest and extract content” from targeted websites. The software then takes that information and puts it into a “comma separated value” document you can open in Excel and manipulate. For an additional charge you can use their robocall phone system, which I assume makes those calls we all love to receive from no one we know.

So what’s the problem with this? It depends on your values as to whether you would want to use a tool like this.

When I program websites, I go to great lengths to make sure the email address of my client is not put on the site that makes it easy for software like I’ve just described to “harvest” (and that’s a word you don’t want to use with your Constant Contact or GetResponse representative) email addresses. Usually, if you want your email on the site, I’d program it this way: debra (at) syndicatingyourcontent (dot) com. This method delivers the email to you, but makes it impossible for the software to recognize this as an email address.

These programs look for the specific code and/or the email format. When they find the code they take it and that’s how you get so much spam. Spam is the reason why we try not to put email addresses, in a recognizable form, on your websites. Instead we use contact forms.

These programs also extract the content from your website. Your content can be used on fake websites that are built for the specific purpose of creating inbound links to the spammers sites and to feed off your keyword rich content. This is called “scraping”, and trust me, it’s not fun when someone scrapes your site and steals your content so they can make money.

Unfortunately I had to deliver the news to my friend that lead generation software used in this manner is not something I would advise anyone to invest in. Using software like this could hurt your business more than support your business. After all, if enough of us hit the “Report Spam” button on your email, your internet service provider (ISP) could stop you from sending email. Is that what you want?

In the next blog post I’ll share with you how you can make sure I don’t hit the “Report Spam” button on your email.

Previous Post in an ongoing series on email marketing and list building:  Marketing with Email

When you create email messages to send, do like the Boy Scouts and “Be Prepared.” If you take the time, you can really develop some great tools to help you in preparing a compelling email.

Marketing Tools

Folder – create a folder on your computer and in print form for “email marketing” and keep ideas you have for future campaigns there. Save favorite emails there you get from others, too, as inspiration. You can use these as templates to create your own unique messages.

Headlines – Start a Microsoft Word or text document where you list favorite headlines and ideas for future headlines. Check Google for sites that offer tips on creating compelling headlines.

PS – People like to head straight to this area first, many gurus say. So create a document in your email marketing folder with favorite “PS” remarks; special sales, freebies, etc.

Guarantee – Ditto with guarantees. Which guarantees are listed on items you’ve purchased recently? Use these as starters. They attracted you!

Reference Guides – Keep handy reference sites like Dictionary.com or favorite encyclopedias book marked in a special Favorites folder on your computer. Keep print editions available nearby, too!

With the right bunch of marketing tools gathered ahead, you can “Be Prepared.” Start gathering your arsenal for great email marketing campaigns.

Previous Post in an ongoing series on list building and email marketing: Constant Contact As Your Email Service

A popular way for companies to communicate directly with consumers today is to use email. One of the most popular email services is Constant Contact.

Email serves a variety of functions including sales promotions and being a means of education about products and services. Messages also can include branding with logos and / or tag lines, and they can offer direct response tools like reply links, emails, telephone and fax numbers.

Basic email message writing comes across much better with skill that can be learned. Main focus should be placed on the tone of speech and grammatical language in the body of the message.

Points which should be remembered for writing the email

• The subject line should be exciting, making the reader want to open the mail and read the further text.
• Keep the subject line brief.
• Make sure to include details about the sender to comply with spamming laws. Check Spamcop or other “anti-spam” sites in your favorite search engine for more info.
• Develop the body of the email; i.e. the message, with a good introduction followed by well-described paragraphs. Avoid hype and misleading readers.
• Use your email spelling and grammar check tools. And don’t “shout” or use all capital letters.

Practice and read emails that come your way. Learn to write messages that you’d like to receive and improve your communications.

Do you have some tips to share? Please feel free to comment.

This is the final post in a series of fifteen, sharing how you can build your email subscriber list. I know this can be a bit overwhelming, so take these 15 suggestions (first five, second five) and look at what you can do yourself. Then,

1. Include a “Sign Up” button in your newsletter. If you’re using plain text instead of HTML, be sure to provide a text link to your subscription page. You may feel that this is not required because the subscriber is already on your list, but remember that readers will forward your newsletters to others, or reprint them online. Make it easy for them to subscribe!
2. Add a squeeze page. A squeeze page has one goal − to acquire opt-ins and build your list. Think of it as a mini-sales letter to go along with your subscription or opt-in gift. It should feature a strong headline and a couple of powerful benefits that should make subscribers salivate to sign up! Once created, use a service such as WordTracker to find hundreds of targeted keywords, and promote your offer using pay-per-click advertising from Google, MSN and Yahoo. Now that should make a splash!
3. Include testimonials on your squeeze page. This is crucial. Put one or two strong testimonials from satisfied customers on your squeeze page. This can be in any format, but you may find that multimedia (audio or video) is more “believable” and inspires more people to action. To further enhance believability, get permission to use actual customer names, locations and/or urls (Don’t use “Bob K, FL”). Add a note inviting others to participate. After all, it’s free publicity!
4. Blog religiously. Blogging is a great way to communicate with prospects and potential customers, and creates a nice synergy with your email marketing. Be sure to include your newsletter sign-up form on each page of your blog. You can start a free blog at Blogger or WordPress.
5. Post on other blogs. Post thoughtful comments and information on similar blogs with a link to your squeeze or opt-in pages. Also comment on others’ blogs through trackbacks. In most cases, your comments will be posted on their blogs with a link back to your site. This is an easy way to generate new traffic and subscribers, and get your brand out there!

The last blog post started a series of fifteen ways to build your subscriber list. Here are the second five tips to building your list.

1. Provide samples of your newsletters and Ezines. This lets potential subscribers review your materials before they sign up to determine if it’s something they’d be interested in.
2. Archive past newsletters and articles. An online library of past newsletters and articles is both appealing and useful to visitors and builds your credibility as an authority. In addition, if your articles are written with good SEO techniques in mind, they can increase traffic to your website through enhanced search engine positioning.
3. Give gifts subscribers can actually use. Offer an opt-in bonus for joining your subscriber list! Write an ebook or provide a PDF business report, or even hire a programmer to create downloadable or web-based software. But don’t limit yourself to offering gifts to opt-ins. Give them out when your readers fill out a survey, provide a testimonial, success story, or a great product idea. Let them know when they can expect the next gift offer. Everyone likes to get something for free! And if you pass out “goodies” throughout the year, your subscribers will feel truly appreciated − and that’s good for business!
4. Ask your subscribers to pass it on. Word of mouth is a powerful viral technique that works great with email marketing. If your subscribers find your content interesting, amusing or informative, they’ll probably share it with their friends. This can be a great source of new customers, so make sure to remind them to “pass it on”.
5. Let others reprint your newsletter as long as the content is not modified. If you’re happy to share your content with the universe, then why not! Many webmasters and newsletter publishers are actively looking for high-quality content and, if they reprint your newsletter, you’ll get new subscribers, and more traffic and links pointing to your site.

I’d love to hear how you are building your list. How about a comment??

Email marketing can be profitable for any business, no matter what kind of product or service you offer. It is significantly cheaper than other advertising methods and, if done right, helps build loyalty and trust with customers. As a result, you generate more sales and more profits!

The foundation for successful email marketing is a targeted, permission-based email list. Marketers call contact lists their “goldmine” because it can generate much of their sales revenue. If you’ve built up a list of opt-in subscribers that are qualified and interested in what you have to offer, then you’ve completed the first step and are on your way. Now it’s time to “mine” for gold!

Below you’ll find several list-building and retention ideas that will help you get the best results from all your email marketing activities:

1. Provide useful, relevant content. Your visitors will not give you their email addresses just because they can subscribe to your newsletter free of charge. You have to provide unique and valuable information that will be of interest or use to them.
2. Add a subscription form to every page on your website. Make sure it stands out so it is easy to find. If it doesn’t look cluttered, you may want to include more than one on some pages. For instance, if your opt-in form always appears in the top-left corner of your site, you may want to add one at the end of your most popular articles.
3. Add subscription forms to your social media pages. Make sure that you don’t waste this valuable source of revenue opportunities. Integrate your sign-up forms with Facebook and more!
4. Make it easy for readers to sign up. The more information you request, the fewer people will opt-in. In most cases, a name and an email address should suffice. If it’s not necessary, don’t include it here. You can always survey them once they’re customers! We do recommend that you provide a link to your Privacy Policy however.
5. Publish a Privacy Policy. Let your readers know that they can be confident you will not share their information with others. The easiest way to do this is to set up a Privacy Policy web page and provide the link to it below your opt-in form. (Note: If you don’t have one, put the words “privacy policy generator” into a search engine and you should be able to find a suitable form to use.)

How are you building your list? Feel free to share your tips by commenting.

The last blog post shared the 5 most important reasons you should syndicate your content through an ezine. It also helps you keep in touch with your clients.

This post will give you five more ways you can use an ezine to market your business and staying visible by reaching out to your prospects.

1. Get feedback from your readers. Make it easy for you to stay in touch with prospects and customers and vice versa. Ask them to take action and comment on your articles and offers. Conduct polls and surveys. Start a “Letters to the Editor” column in your ezine. Feedback allows you to fine tune your messages, target your marketing, and expand your product line. It’s also great for relationship building!
2. Develop an information product. If you deliver your newsletter once a week and include two articles, at the end of a year you’ll have 104 well-researched articles in your portfolio! Pick the best-of-the-best and turn them into a bonus ebook for opting-in to your list, submit to download sites to build your list, or sell in PDF-format!
3. Grow your mailing list. Let your ezine subscribers work for you. Be sure to remind your readers that it’s okay to forward your newsletter to anyone they’d like. In addition, it’s important to include sign-up instructions for those who received your ezine from viral marketing methods. A simple line titled, “Get Your Own Copy of XXXXXX”, with a link to your squeeze or opt-in page is all it takes!
4. Gather demographic data. By offering surveys, feedback forms, and niche reports, you’ll be able to get valuable information about your prospects and customers. Learn what makes your readers tick, how to better serve them, and how to give them what they want. Make sure they become repeat customers!
5. Save money! All of the above benefits of publishing an ezine are free or almost free. The small cost of a top-rated ezine publishing system is nothing compared to the cost of brochures, business cards, advertising, direct mail, pay-per-click or other means of promotion. Not only that, but someone has to manage that production! Because your newsletter is delivered online, you can grow your list to be as large as you want without worrying about the expense. Bottom line − it’s proven that email marketing is the most cost-effective marketing solution for companies just like yours!

The next blog post will wrap up our reasons for sending out a regular email to our clients and prospects.

Leveraging your business online requires several components. For the next two blog posts, I’ll be talking about the benefits of establishing an ezine for your business, and why you’ll want to publish an ezine. In subsequent blog posts, I’ll be talking about ways to build your email list.

So, why should you consider publishing an ezine?

1. Establish yourself as a trusted expert. People search online for information and will look to you, as a subject matter expert, to provide it to them. Every week (or whatever schedule works) provides an opportunity to build on this, while reinforcing your brand.
2. Build a relationship with the people on your list. It’s common knowledge that people like to buy from people they like. By using ezines to connect with readers in their homes, you can develop a relationship of familiarity and trust. Be sure to share a little about yourself or your company in every issue, whether it is an anecdote, event, or employee spotlight.
3. Keep in touch with prospects and clients. Consideration should be given to eventually developing two ezines: one for prospects and one for clients, as each require different information. This is a great way to notify your readers of weekly specials or upcoming product launches, offer new articles or customer stories, and provide links (or urls) to updated FAQs, blogs and splash pages.
4. Drive traffic to your website or blog. As noted in #3, remember to call attention to new blog posts or other changes to your website with links directly to those pages. Remind readers of your online newsletter archives. Promote special sales (maybe with discount coupon codes only for subscribers) with a link to the sales page. Use links to turn your ezines and newsletters into “silent salespersons”– driving traffic to your website and building your lists around the clock.
5. Build content on your website. Make a habit to adding your ezines and newsletters to your website in an archive area. This serves a several important purposes:

• Visitors can read an issue or two to determine if your ezine will be of interest to them, which could help to increase sign-ups and potential sales.
• If you optimize your article placements, you will not only make your website “meatier”, but you’ll also bring new traffic from the search engines.

Are you publishing an ezine for your business? If so, please feel free to join the conversation and share your tips by commenting!

One of the most important keys to success in online marketing is building your own opt-in list of prospective and previous customers. For those that are just starting out online, this process should start even before you start planning to publish your own ezine/newsletter.

As you initiate your business you can begin to build your opt-in list in order to follow-up with these prospects and customers. It doesn’t have to be a formal ezine initially, it can just be a once a month update on new products and services. When your list starts to increase to a good size then you can consider a formal ezine.

So how do you capture the addresses? There are several ways to do this, and it will take time to gather information and create the ultimate list.

A Web Site Sign Up Form is an ideal way to gather information. Place a sign up form on every page of your website. Or at a minimum have a “subscribe” link on every page that goes to a separate subscription page. Make sure that you just don’t put “subscribe to our ezine”. That means nothing for a potential client. Just a short description will greatly increase your subscription rate. For instance. Using “Weekly Marketing Tips and Techniques emailed to you! Subscribe today” would be better than “Subscribe to Our Ezine”.

Give something away free like a free white report with information that is geared to your site’s content. Make sure they have to request the information so you capture their email address. Using an autoresponder can help you automate this process by sending out the information to your subscribers. That way the information is available 24/7. With most good services you will receive an information copy as soon as someone requests the information and it will have their email address in it. But, and this is important, just don’t send them the free information. Make sure that at the end of your auto responder text that you send them, there is a short blurb about your website services/products and your ezine if you have one. But don’t over do it.

Another important item is that you do not just add the person’s email address to your opt-in list or ezine. You don’t want them filing a (CanSpam Act and CanSpam Legal Brief)SPAM complaint since they didn’t ask to be on your list. Offer them the ability to get future mailings from you as indicated above in the mailing itself. You want to create a true opt-in list.

An exception to this would be if you were offering them a free gift for subscribing to your list. Then they should be added to your list.

Many will ask – Is it all right to email someone that has requested some free information report from you? Yes if you do it the right way. By using an autoresponder, you can also send an invitation to your e-mail list.

Follow Up often, this way you are not forgotten. If a potential customer does not want your services, than they will ask to be un-subscribed.

To learn more about using autoresponders to build your e-mail list, sign up for GeekSpeak To English, 101 on Wednesday, June 27th, 6pm PT. And watch for the podcast next week at North San Diego Business@Large.