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Quick and Easy Reasons Why You Should Use Email Marketing

Brian Rooney, our official Autoresponders Expert

More and more businesses are turning to Email Marketing. In today's economy, it is more important than ever to make sure that any advertising money spent results in good return. Email Marketing has been proven to be tremendously cost-effective and efficient.

Recent figures from the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) indicate that email marketing is now overtaking direct mail in terms of volume.

Regardless of the size of your business, you should consider using email marketing to begin reaching more prospects, attracting more business, and improving customer retention.

Here are a few of the top reasons your business should be using email marketing:

1) The Personal Touch: Email messages can be personalized to include the recipient's name. When someone gets an email addressed directly to them, they are much more likely to open it.

2) The Fast Track: Direct mail campaigns can be very time consuming and quite complicated. Typically, a direct mail campaign can take weeks or months to execute. Then there is the added waiting for delivery via postal mail.

Read Brian's entire article Reasons To Use Email Marketing

Top Ten Tips For Email Marketing

Brian Rooney, our official Autoresponders Expert

When done correctly, email marketing can be an extremely powerful and cost effective marketing method. No other medium allows such easy, inexpensive, and measurable access to help your business build value and credibility.

You should also realize that when email marketing is done incorrectly, it quickly becomes one of the most destructive things that can happen to your business. Irresponsible email marketing will quickly erode your brand equity, alienate customers, and virtually guarantee that your prospects never buy from you.

This guide is designed to give you some insights on how you can use best practices to allow your business to make the most of your email marketing campaigns, maximize your return on investment, and truly profit from permission-based email marketing with TrafficWave.net.

It is my goal and sincere desire that you and your business effectively implement and benefit from this guide to effective email marketing best practices.

Top Ten Tips For Email Marketing Success:

1) Only send emails to people and businesses who have requested to receive them. Otherwise, you are spamming (sending unsolicited commercial email) which will undoubtedly get your emails blacklisted, blocked, and trashed.

2) Only send content that is relevant to what the receiver has requested. When someone requests information from you, they are placing their trust in you that they will receive relevant information. Violating that trust can quickly cause your prospects to unsubscribe.

3) Be consistent with your sending schedule, whether daily, weekly, bi-weekly. As your subscribers become familiar 

Read Brian's entire article Top Ten Email Marketing Tips

Get Results from Your Emails!

Jessica Swanson, our official Shoestring Marketing Expert

I remember the good ol' days of email marketing.

I would send out an email and 75 percent of my prospects would open it. (Can you imagine?)

Then, along came the spammers, the CAN-SPAM laws, the smartphones and the competition. And suddenly, email marketing was a whole different animal.

In today's noisy and cutthroat email environment, research suggests that only about 11.4 percent of our emails are even opened. (Ouch!)

But, let's not throw out the baby with the bath water. Email is still a powerful and low-cost ways to effectively communicate with your prospects.

Here are 10 steps to writing emails that get results:

1. Decide on ONE call to action.

Read Jessica's entire article 10 Steps to Creating Emails That Get Results

Bands and Musicians Start Email Marketing!

Brian Rooney, our official Autoresponders Expert

Are you a singer or band looking to build your fan base? Have you tried email marketing?

Email marketing for bands and musicians is a great way to keep in touch with your fan base, build your fan base, and communicate with your fan base. And when it comes to success in the entertainment industry, building and keeping your fan base is everything!

The good news is that it doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg for expensive promotional campaigns. In fact, email marketing has an outstanding delivery and response rate and can cost pennies on the dollar when compared to traditional direct marketing.

Once your list is started, you can announce bookings, cd release parties, new merchandise, and special events with the click of your mouse button.

Read Brian's entire article Email Marketing for Bands and Musicians

Open Rates with Email Marketing

Brian Rooney, our official Autoresponders Expert

Is Your Email Marketing Message Getting Through?

Two critical elements to email marketing success are:

1) Is your message getting delivered?

2) Is your message getting read?

Email Marketing Deliverability is a hot topic and rightfully so. If your message can't be delivered, it won't be read. And that means your email marketing campaign is done before it gets started.

There are a number of ways you can check deliverability. Here is a quick link to a free resource to help:

Email Marketing Deliverability

It's definitely worth your while to make sure your autoresponder company has a solid track record of getting your messages delivered.

The next step is finding out if your message is even being read by your subscribers.

I highly recommend reviewing our article on Email Marketing Best Practices to make sure you are giving your email campaigns a strong shot at success.

Once you've taken steps to be sure you have selected a credible email marketing firm, and utilized best practices, the next step is to track your results.

Read Brian's entire article Email Marketing Open Rates

Email Marketing -- Give Your Subscribers an 'Above and Beyond' Experience

The first year I taught third grade, a little girl with the most angelic face raises her hand during class and innocently says, "You know, I was scared to have you as a teacher. Everybody told me you were so mean. But you're nice."

Ouch. Crush my first-year-teacher heart.

But, here's the irony. I'd never taught before. Who were all these kids who had said I was such a meanie? The principal barely knew my name, I was that new.

Ah, image is everything. Whether we like it or not. Folks are more likely to stay away and never give us the first chance to prove ourselves if they have heard a negative comment about our business. Even if we just got into town and have our sign up for all of two full minutes.

Read Lisa's entire article Email Marketing -- Give Your Subscribers an 'Above and Beyond' Experience

Lisa Preston, our official Email Marketing Expert

How to Get More Subscribers

One great way to build your list is to give away a free incentive to get people to subscribe. An ebook is one such give away that works most effectively in email list marketing.

The following video will walk you through the process of promoting your ebook for free on IdeaMarketers.com. Anyone may sign up for a free writer account and then log in and submit their books or ebooks for free.

Or for an economical amount, you can promote your books on the popular home page of ideamarketers.com and on all articles in the category relating to your book or ebook.

This is a powerful way to build subscribers to your list using economical list building tips.

If the video doesn't display, you may view it here.

Sign up for a free writer account and promote your ebooks for free. Also discover more about email list marketing techniques to get more subscribers by giving away a free ebook on your site and promoting that ebook on IdeaMarketers.com.

Need a Hand in Business? Walk through the Open Door!

If you're stuck, wondering which online-business-opportunity to research, which niche to start out in, which step to take first . . . here's a little help from - who else -- a kindergartener!

My niece Leah just turned 5 and is quite the little personality! She has adventures galore (er, so do we!). One thing Leah does that few folks do is take massive action.

During a dental visit this week, my brother asked Leah and her seven --year old sister to sit in the waiting room while he had a crown repaired.

After a while, the dentist appeared at the doorway and said, "Brooke, it's your turn."

Read Lisa's entire article Need a Hand in Business? Walk through the Open Door!

Lisa Preston, our official Writing for Entrepreneurs Expert

Where to Find Free Photo Stock Images

Are you aware that thousands of free photo stock images are available for your business and commercial use? Both online and offline businesses require access to images for brochures, websites, informational materials, business cards, etc. While many entrepreneurs purchase their photos, there's another route. With just a little research, you can find thousands of free photos to use in your work.

Even though the site may say "free photo stock images" on the homepage, it's still up to you to look through the terms of use to make absolutely certain that the photos you want are indeed copyright-free. Some photographers and artists offer free use of their work to site visitors; others ask for a simple email to let them know their work is being used. Still other photographers ask for a byline beside their photos. These terms are easily met, and are a small price to pay for use of a professional photograph.

Read Lisa's entire article Where to Find Free Photo Stock Images

Lisa Preston, our official Email Marketing Expert

Email Marketing -- Changing the Blurred Face of the Internet

Now, let's face it, internet marketing is about as impersonal as you can get. It does have its perks; it's fast, there's no waiting on hold, or wading through voice mail choices, it can be done anytime day or night, and if it's a digital product, the customer gets immediate gratification.

But, as in so many parts of society, at an internet store, you're just a number. An order number. No one knows you -- you're just an email address.

Gee, wouldn't it be nice to be appreciated for choosing to shop at one place over another?

Read Lisa's entire article Email Marketing -- Changing the Blurred Face of the Internet

Lisa Preston, our official Writing for Entrepreneurs Expert