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There Ought To Be a Law Against Spam!

Doug Williams @ 4:04 am

This blog entry was posted on November 23, 2010.

There is… It is called the CAN-SPAM Act. OK… looking at our inboxes, we can see it isn’t working well. Rather than create new laws, we need to get this one being enforced. After all, any law without enforcement isn’t really a law at all.

The term spam is generally thought to have originated from the well known Monty Python Spam sketch. Unlike the spicy lunch meet, spam, the email is a form of mass marketing like junk mail. Let’s take a look at this law.

CAN-SPAM stands for “Controlling the Assault of Non Solicited Pornography and Marketing.” The act was put into place January 2004 to set out requirements for those sending out commercial emails, establish penalties for spammers, and give consumers the right to ask e-mailers to stop spamming them.

Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000,

  1. From: Don’t use false or misleading header information. Do not disguise who the sender is in any way.
  2. Subject: Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the receiver.
  3. Identify the message as an ad. Clearly and conspicuously state that it is an advertisement.
  4. Location: Tell recipients where you’re located. Include a physical address or a PO box on every email.
  5. Opt-out: Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Specific instructions or an opt-out link must be included.
  6. Honor opt-out requests promptly. All opt-outs must be processed within 10 business days.
  7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. You are responsible for another company if you hire them to send out emails.

The law seems clear… Why then is there no enforcement? Why then are our inboxes so full of spam?

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Filed under: Email Marketing



Creating the Right Incentive for Your Email Sign-ups

Doug Williams @ 6:00 am

This blog entry was posted on October 30, 2010.

If one of your website goals is to build up your email list, you need to offer the right incentive that will attract the people that are interested in what you sell. Visitors won’t sign-up on your list unless they are getting something they want and need. They need to see value in what you are offering.

It is not enough to offer great information at regular intervals. You need to offer some sort of sign-up bonus… some sort of free offer to grow your list.

Your incentive needs to make an impact. Something that causes them to say “wow” I need more of this. This helps you get very high open rates when you deliver your special offers, recommendations and relevant content by email. The key is start by delivering something they really want in your initial incentive.

What makes for a great incentive?

  1. Relevance: Your offer needs to be relevant to the product or service that you offer. This creates a continued long term interest in your company and a desire to read your future emails.
  2. Engaging: Deliver something they will want. Many times it requires an attention getting title that gets people to take action. The topic should help people solve a current problem.
  3. Useful: Your bonus should be something that can be applied or used right away. Make it practical and not theoretical.
  4. Deliver digitally: Deliver an eBook, eCourse, coupons or a free report automatically using auto responders. This way you can deliver information at any time visitors request it. This gives immediate gratification.
  5. Measure results: Set-up Google Analytics or other monitoring analytics to measure success. Test different offers and watch which ones get the best response.

An example of a great incentive is one offered by womanwithin.com and by roamans.com. They both offer a free shipping coupon delivered to your inbox if you sign-up for their mailing list. The offer only applies to new registrants to their mailing list.

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Filed under: Email Marketing



Use Drip Marketing to Nurture Leads

Doug Williams @ 4:54 am

This blog entry was posted on October 10, 2010.

Drip marketing is a lead nurturing method where prepared messages are sent out to customers or prospects over time. These “drips” usually take the form of emails that are sent out at predetermined intervals.

Prospects will generally sign-up for some sort of free offer on your website. The free report or digital download is automatically delivered. Follow-up messages are sent out using sequential auto responders. The email messages are pre-written in a planned sequence and sent out at planned intervals such as once a week or every 3 days.

You are trying to encourage prospects to interact and engage with you. You are educating and providing information that your best buyer would find helpful. You are providing relevant content that will grab the attention of these future customers.

The idea is to deliver information that a prospects would consider of value. This could take the form of an e-course or a series of emails designed to help your prospect solve some problem or issue. To be successful, drip marketing keeps the basic messaging the same, but each communication is fresh and interesting to your recipient.

The goal is to build brand awareness. It fixes your brand and company name in your potential customer’s mind.

You will want to provide opportunities for drip marketing recipients to engage you in a low risk manner. This could be links in your emails for webinar registrations; ebook downloads or even a free analysis or quotes. This makes it easy for prospects to further engage with you.

Drip marketing is ideal for selling big ticket items where there is a long sales cycle. This works well for real estate sales and insurance agents. This also works well for B2B sales.

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Filed under: Email Marketing



Email Capture Form Best Practices

Doug Williams @ 6:01 am

This blog entry was posted on August 1, 2010.

Capturing email addresses is one of the best strategies you can use to interact with interested visitors. These are simple steps you can take to increase collecting email addresses on your website.

You have decided that you want to build your own list of email addresses of people that are interested in what you do. You will be adding a form on your website to collect email addresses for your newsletter or regular emails that you plan on sending out. Follow these steps to maximize the effectiveness of you list building.

  1. Targeting: Focus on your best buyer. Your offer and your emails should grab the attention and interest of those people most interested in what you do. This way you will develop a list that you can effectively market to.
  2. Offer: To entice people to sign up for your list, offer them something that they would consider valuable. This could be a free membership, free eBook, free report or free samples.
  3. Visibility: Place your email form where it is clearly visible on your web page when a visitor first arrives. Usually the upper right quadrant of the web page is very effective. Use a color like red to make your form stand out and be seen.
  4. Headline: Use an attention getting headline that grabs the visitor’s attention and interest. Stay away from passive headlines like “Sign-up for More Information.” Instead use something like “Free Report. How to Double Your Sales in Just One Week.”
  5. Information: Never ask for more information than you need. Either just the email address or name and email address. People just skip forms that require them to reveal too much about themselves.
  6. Privacy: Include a short statement at the bottom of your form that something like:  “We will never give or sell their email address to anyone else”. This helps build trust and increases your sign-up rate.

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Filed under: Email Marketing



Getting Your Email Through the Spam Filters

Doug Williams @ 4:52 am

This blog entry was posted on November 25, 2009.

You can carefully follow CAN-SPAM rules using only legitimate opt-in methods only to find your emails not making it past the spam filters. Many sophisticated Internet providers use Anti-Spam protection that scores your email based on a point system. The more things you do wrong, the more likely that your email may never actually be received.

These are 10 common mistakes people make that cause email to appear as Spam.

  1. Trigger words: Spam filters scan for certain trigger phrases in detecting spam. These include phrases like free, amazing, congratulations, great offer or order now. 20 common spam words
  2. Subject line: Capitalization can be risky, especially entire words or acronyms. Capitalize a trigger word like FREE and you are sure to be ejected.
  3. Attachments: Don’t send attachments. Many attachments carry viruses and are more carefully scrutinized.
  4. Images: Most of your message must be text. Spam filters eject emails when the image / text ratio is too high.
  5. Punctuation: Using punctuation to create exaggeration will also be picked up as spam. Be careful of too many exclamation points!!!!!!!
  6. Color: Avoid playing with colored text to get your message across. If you really want to catch a spam filter’s attention change both the text color and the background color.
  7. Bcc distribution: Keep bcc to less than 10 names. Long bcc lists are frequently used by spammers.
  8. SMTP: Use an SMTP server to launch your emails instead of using unauthenticated email.
  9. Text format: Avoid using large fonts, different fonts, italics or text with large gaps in the words.
  10. HTML: If you send out emails as formatted HTML, also send out as a plain text alternative version of your message. HTML versions are filtered out at a higher rate than plain text versions.

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Filed under: Email Marketing



Writing an Ebook as a List Building Strategy

Doug Williams @ 5:35 am

This blog entry was posted on November 3, 2009.

If you sell your products on the Internet, then having a large email list is a very important way to increase sales. Building your own opt-in list is often done by offering a regular newsletter filled with great tips and ideas that your ideal prospect would find interesting.

You can use your ebook as a freebie enticement for people to opt-in to your email list.

Writing your own ebook is a powerful way to position yourself as the authority in your market. Find a topic much like your newsletter that your ideal prospect would find interesting and compelling to read. Teach a technique or skill that is being sought. People are hungry for information that will teach them how to get results.

Many are intimidated by the thought a large writing project. An ebook does not have to be long; it can be as little as 20 pages if what you teach is compelling. Worry about the content more than the length. The pages are usually small and fast to read. Save your ebook as a PDF so that subscribers can download it once they subscribe.

There are two ways to use your ebook to build your email list. Start by assigning a price to your ebook of let’s say $39.95. “Free” ebooks are not perceived as valuable as ones that have an assigned price.

  1. Sign-up Bonus: Place your news letter sign-up prominently on your website with a special “bonus offer” where people signing up will receive a free copy of your ebook that has a sales price of $39.95.
  2. Joint Venture: Find others that have their own email lists, possibly a newsletter you already subscribe to. Allow your joint venture partners to give their readers a special offer of your ebook at 50% off the retail price. This would be $19.95. Allow your joint venture partners to keep 100% of the proceeds or perhaps keep $1 to cover your credit card fees. They win by getting revenue and you win by building your email list at no cost.

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Filed under: Email Marketing,Internet Marketing



How to Build Trust with People on Your Mailing List

Doug Williams @ 5:13 am

This blog entry was posted on August 23, 2009.

Online consumers today simply don’t trust email marketers. Effective email marketing means building trust with the people on your list. Violate that trust with spam or breach common email etiquette and members on your email list will evaporate.

You will want your message received with a positive impression. This will mean the difference between having your email read or just deleted without a second thought. Building trust is an ongoing process that you have to work on with every communication and every interaction with your prospective customer.

  1. Targeting: Your original offer should appeal to your ideal target audience. This way your emails will be about topics your prospect will be most interested in and will be eager to read.
  2. Sign-up bonus: When someone signs up for your mailing list, offer a free report, software or some online tool as a reward.
  3. Double Opt -in/ Easy Opt-out: All mailing list sign-ups should send an email that has the requestor confirm they want to be on your list (double opt-in). Every email you send should also include a simple opt-out link.
  4. Keep commitments: Always follow through and send information that was asked for. Set up auto responders to automatically send reports or commentaries that are requested.
  5. Don’t spam: Once someone signs up to your list, don’t inundate them with promotional offers. When someone signs up, let them know what to expect such as a monthly or weekly newsletters.
  6. Provide value: The topics of your emails need to be tangible and helpful. Provide tips, news, how-to advice, commentaries and cost saving ideas.
  7. Allow Interaction: Get opinions and input from your mailing list using survey tools. You can get ideas for topics, specials and even offers that your readers want to see.
  8. Keep it simple: Avoid complex emails that include Flash, sound, videos etc. Use HTML wisely and keep the focus on your message.

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Filed under: Email Marketing



Get the Most Out of Your Auto Responder

stacey @ 8:06 pm

This blog entry was posted on April 4, 2009.

Most of us know by now the importance of an auto responder campaign and the great affects it can have on your company’s conversion rate. An automated email sent out every so often providing interested leads with information about your company is HUGE in today’s sales world.

But how do you know that your emails are actually capturing the attention of these leads causing them to want to know more? There are some things you need to remember when generating your emails for your auto responder campaign to insure the effectiveness.

1.    Subject Line – This is the first thing that your readers will see. It needs to grab the attention of the reader because this is where they decide whether or not to open your email. One way of doing this is making the subject line personalized by adding the reader’s name.

2.    Email Body – The body of your emails should address a problem that the reader is facing and then a solution to fix it. Don’t focus on all the features of your company, but spotlight the benefits of your product or service and how it can solve their problem.

3.    Don’t Write a Novel – Trying to sell everything your company offers from your auto responder email is not a great idea. Instead, highlight specific benefits that tease the reader by giving further information in each email. This will cause them to want to go to your website to find out more.

4.   Links – Make sure to create links throughout your emails that direct the reader back to your company’s website. Your website is your selling page, so make sure that your links are not broken before the emails are sent out.

5.    Call to Action – People need to be told what to do. Make sure that your call to action stands out and is clear to the reader.

6.    Contact Information – Remember to include all the necessary contact information in every email. You want to make sure that the reader has the ability to contact you when they are ready to buy.

7.    Frequency – Studies show that it typically takes up to seven touches before a lead converts. Therefore, it’s a good idea to create at least seven emails for your auto responder campaign. Use decreasing frequency by sending out the first three emails within the first week and then space the remaining emails a week apart. This way you don’t “over email” your lead causing them to be annoyed.

If done correctly, an auto responder campaign can act as an extra salesperson for your company, converting many leads. And the best part is…you don’t have to pay this salesperson commission.

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Filed under: Email Marketing