marketinguru4u

[marketinguru4u]

Email Marketing Tips To Improve Your Open Rates

Many email marketers frequently fail to realize that their subscriber’s email application preview pane is the first opportunity their content has to attract the attention they require. And unfortunately those that don’t allow for a snapshot preview in their content design fall victim to lower than expected open rates as their subscribers are less likely to open the message in full. Here are four simple steps you can to take to ensure your next email message preview pane design gets all the attention it should: First, be aware that prior to Outlook 2003, the preview your subscriber sees runs horizontally along the foot of their screen. In Outlook 2003, this view is a vertical slice showing the left hand side of your content. As a tip take a blank sheet of paper and then reveal the top third of your next message and then the left third. Does what you see in both instances seem interesting enough to entice your subscribers to click on? Second, by allowing for the thinnest of newsletter mastheads, you should cram into these viewable snippets as much content as you can. Plus, if this content tells your subscriber exactly what your message contains, then the chances of them opening it increase even further. Third, don’t have too many images cluttering the preview space. By default, my version of Outlook 2003 suppresses all images sent to me in HTML messages. All I see is a sea of red crosses, which tells me nothing about the message. (I tend to leave these messages until later, which CAN become NEVER! Your subscribers may well do the same.) And finally the smart newsletter designers use images sparingly in this top part. Even better, they build their masthead using not images, but HTML text and colour to effectively get across their message. As a consumer, I’m far more tempted to break my train of thought and dig down deeper into that juicy piece of content I can see. Thus, by treating the preview pane of your newsletter as a quick-peek mini-summary for your subscribers, you are on the right track to grab a new client! It’s simple really–the quicker your readers are intrigued by the very first lines of your email, the more they will read them.

[marketinguru4u]

Why Not Email Marketing

If you are currently participating in other types of Internet marketing but not email marketing you should seriously consider why you are avoiding this type of advertising. This is important because email marketing can be a very important part of an Internet marketing campaign. Many business owners avoid email marketing for fear of being accused of spamming. Internet markets may not have a clear understanding of what is spam and what is not so they avoid participation in email marketing campaigns to avoid the potential for being labeled a spammer.

Why are Internet marketers so afraid of being accused of being purveyors of spam? This is a common fear for a number of reasons. First of all there may be harsh penalties associated with sending spam emails. Recipients of spam have the option of reporting the spam to their Internet service provider who will investigate the validity of the claim. If the originator of the email is determined to be a spammer there can be harsh consequences.

Internet marketers are also afraid of email marketing because they believe it will not be well received by potential customers. This is an important concept because Internet users are bombarded with spam each day. Receiving this quantity of spam each day can be frustrating and can anger some Internet users. These Internet users are not likely to be receptive to email marketing. The fear that these potential customers will view email marketing and stray to competitors keeps many Internet marketers from taking advantage of this type of marketing strategy.

However, it is important to note that despite the prevalent problem with spam, many Internet users are quite receptive to email marketing. This is especially true in situations where they specifically requested to receive more information from the business owner regarding his products and services. Potential clients are particularly receptive to email marketing which provides something of value to the recipient of the email. Emails which contain in depth articles, useful tips or product reviews may be appreciated by consumers.

Additionally, items such as e-newsletters and correspondence courses offered via email can be of particular interest to potential customers. E-newsletters are typically longer documents than traditional email marketing pieces and can provide a great deal of additional information to the email recipient. Email correspondence courses may be offered in short segments and typically amount to a significant amount of information which is likely to be greatly appreciated by the email recipients.

One final way to prevent email recipients from viewing your email marketing efforts as spam is to only send the emails to recipients who register with your website and specifically request for you to send them additional information and promotional materials. This opt in formula is ideal because it ensures you are not wasting your email marketing efforts on recipients who are not interested in your products or services. It also ensures the recipients of the email marketing campaign do not view the informative and promotional materials they are receiving as spam. This technique for compiling an email distribution list is quite effective but it is important to remember you should always include information on how recipients can opt out of receiving future emails, www.Automatic-Responder.com is a great service to help with this. This is important because the email recipients may have once been interested in receiving marketing emails but over time this may change. If they are no longer interested in these emails, they may begin to view the emails as spam if they are not given the option of being removed from the distribution list.

[marketinguru4u]

Characteristics Of A Successful Advertisement!

Many small businesses don’t get success they want from advertising due to availability of very little resources. The results are simply flat due to lack of good ideas for improvements. Whether the ads are put in a local newspaper or are printed in the famous periodical or posted on a website, the money invested should gain the desired outcome. There are some common mistakes small businesses and professional service providers do when designing and posting the advertisement, which leads to the failure of the advertisement. Bigger is better is believed in by many. That’s exactly what some of the small firms think when they want to advertise their product. They think bigger and select a medium where they need to invest a lot of money, but do not reach the targeted market. Like if a company specializes in designing diet plans and want to help out people who had disappointing results from their individual diet plans, and the company chooses to advertise a full page in the local paper instead of running advertisement in a health magazine, obviously not many of the dieters will notice the advertisement and the advertisement doesn’t get the desired attention. So the point is to come up with the best campaign, which will increase the probability of the ad getting viewed and the right customers trying to buy the product or sign up for the service. Studies and research can be carried out on the market and targeted audience can be narrowed down. Once getting the list of newspapers, magazines and magazines meant for the customers in mind, find out how many readers they have and the cost they ask for posting the ad. Special deals are offered by them from time to time and can only be found by watchful eye. It is estimated that everyday people are subjected to around three thousand commercials. That is a huge number and if someone desires to be noticed, he should certainly be different. Not only the services and product sold should be unique in the market, so should be the advertisement. For example, if a business selling mattresses says, “We sell mattresses”, it will not make a statement and will be passed off as any other mattress advertisement. But if they say, “Our mattresses are of the finest quality”, it will make the advertisement stand out in the crowd. Other catch lines are “Are you suffering from back pain? Probably you must try our mattresses “, are more specific and will catch the fancy of the people who are suffering from back pains since a long time. The advertisement should also focus on the uniqueness of the product and how it is better compared to the competitors’ product. Focusing on the problems of the customers and giving a solution for them, is what a customer demands. A customer does not buy a product; he buys benefits in the form of a product. The real value of the product should be realized and a clear picture of it should be presented to the customer so he will be able to relate with the product. If the advertisement doesn’t specify the solution it can provide, the customers will never know of it. So focusing on the customers problem is what some ads miss. The last thing missing in most of the advertisement is motivation for the customers. If the advertiser has designed the advertisement and the customer had read the advertisement, all efforts and money invested will be wasted if he doesn’t get up and do something about it. It shouldn’t be assumed that the customer knows what to do; instead the advertisement should influence the mind of the customer and should tell him what to do. Call of action is the final job of the advertisement. It should call for information, or visiting the store or even visiting the online store. The message should sound confident and clear.

[marketinguru4u]

An Internet Marketing Lesson I Learned From My 7 Year Old Grandson

A few weeks ago I was watching my 7 year old Grandson Joel as he was drawing a picture of a strawberry patch. As he drew, it began to look more and more like a Christmas wreath than a strawberry patch. I told him that it looked pretty good, but suggested to him that “maybe you could put a few strawberries here, and here and here” as I pointed to the big white area in the middle of his drawing. He looked at me in all seriousness and said… “Grandpa, it doesn’t matter what YOU think, it’s what the artist thinks!” It was funny at the time, but I have been thinking about this quite a bit. You know what? He is right! There is a great lesson to be learned here. The lesson applies very well to Internet marketing. Actually it applies well to ANY kind of marketing, it doesn’t necessarily have to be on the internet. We have a tendancy to come up with an idea that we think is the greatest thing since sliced bread. We’re absolutely convinced that everybody will beat a path to our door to buy our product. We spend lots of money to develop a sales campaign, build a website, buy advertising and so on, and spend a lot of time and effort to draw people to our website, get good search engine positioning, and then more often than not we’re disappointed because very few people buy our products. Could it be that the marketplace doesn’t care about our opinion? Does that hurt your ego? It shouldn’t. It should open your eyes to this very simple, but wildly profound truth. IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK, IT’S WHAT THE MARKETPLACE THINKS THAT IS IMPORTANT! Big companies spend millions of dollars on market research, testing and surveys before they ever spend any money in developing a product or marketing a product. Doesn’t it make sense that before we ever spend a dime on any kind of product development, website development or whatever that we should spend some time first to find out what people are buying, when do they buy, and how do they buy? By doing proper research in advance, you’ll save yourself a lot of wasted time and effort, and you’ll be rewarded many times over by successful, money making websites. Finding profitable “niches” is not a difficult process, but it can make all the difference in the world as to whether or not your website will be a huge success or a dismal failure. As you consider what kind of websites you’ll be building, keep in mind the lesson learned from a 7 year old.

[marketinguru4u]

How To Write Better Advertising Copy

A successful marketing plan relies heavily on the pulling-power of advertising copy. Writing result-oriented ad copy is difficult, as it must appeal to, entice, and convince consumers to take action. There is no magic formula to write perfect ad copy; it is based on a number of factors, including ad placement, demographic, even the consumer’s mood when they see your ad. So how is any writer supposed to pen a stunning piece of advertising copy — copy that sizzles and sells? The following tips will jumpstart your creative thinking and help you write a better ad. KNOW THE BASICS All good advertising copy is comprised of the same basic elements. Good advertising copy always: Grabs Attention: Consumers are inundated with ads, so it’s vital that your ad catches the eye and immediately grabs interest. You could do this with a headline or slogan (such as VW’s “Drivers Wanted” campaign), color or layout (Target’s new colorful, simple ads are a testimony to this) or illustration (such as the Red Bull characters or Zoloft’s depressed ball and his ladybug friend). Promises Credible Benefit: To feel compelled by an ad, the consumer must stand to gain something; the product is often not enough. What would the consumer gain by using your product or service? This could be tangible, like a free gift; prestige, power or fame. But remember: you must be able to make good on that promise, so don’t offer anything unreasonable. Keeps Interest: Grabbing the consumer’s attention isn’t enough; you have to keep that attention for at least a few seconds. This is where your benefits come into play or a product description that sets your offer apart from the others. Generates Action: This is the ultimate point of advertising copy — it must make the reader react in some way. This doesn’t necessarily translate to buying the product immediately or using the service. Your ad could be a positioning tool to enable the reader to think about you in a certain light. Speak to your audience, or the audience you’d like to reach, and you’ll be surprised how frequently they come to you in the future. KNOW THE MEDIUM How you write your advertising copy will be based on where you will place your ad. If it’s a billboard ad, you’ll need a super catchy headline and simple design due to the speed at which people will pass. Online ads are similar; consumers are so inundated with Internet advertising that your ad must be quick and catchy. Magazine advertising is the most versatile, but this is solely dependent on the size of your ad and how many other ads compete with yours. If you have a full page ad, feel free to experiment; more page space gives you more creative space. If the ad is tiny, you’ll need to keep things as simple as possible. KNOW THE STYLE Advertising copy is a unique type of writing. Its point is to balance creativity and readability into something persuasive and entertaining. Keep the following points in mind when you write your copy: Be Succinct: There are few things more damaging to an ad campaign than messy wordiness. Use short sentences with as many familiar words as possible; save the thesaurus for a thesis or dissertation. Always make sure to use precise phrasing (why use five adjectives when one good action verb would do?); and eliminate any redundancies, such as “little tiny” or “annual payments of $XXX per year.” Talk To Your Audience, Not At Them: Though you are announcing the availability of a product or service, avoid being clinical or overly formal. Write as if you’re talking to your ideal customer; use a style they’d use, words they’d be familiar with, slang they’d probably know. But be absolutely certain that you’re using these terms and phrases correctly. A recent McDonald’s campaign attempted to reach a certain audience by using the phrase “I’d hit it” in reference to a cheeseburger, unaware that the phrase is almost always used as a sexual reference.

[marketinguru4u]

Feedback Management

Conversations can be a tricky business. Sometimes, decoding what is said with what is meant is difficult at best. However, communication is a necessary tool in todays world. And it’s not only speaking that can be difficult, but trying to interpret body language, and other language barriers are just a few of the obstacles barring effective communication. It’s often been the case were one party completely miscommunicates to another due to a misunderstanding between parties. Most people learn to talk when they are relatively young. Gaining in verbal capacity as the get older and engage in conversation with more and more people throughout their lives. And while most people will spend their time constantly speaking, some never really learn to listen, which is the king of effective communication. It may seem strange to hear such a thing as this, but it’s true. Even though it may not sound true to the individual who just spent the last couple moments listening to some co-worker blather on about his fantasy football picks, but it is. Without proper listening, speech communication would just be a lot of annoying sounds. Unfortunately, most of the time we spend listening, really is just the process of physically absorbing the annoying squawks and squeaks that come out of someone. The problem with listening is that it’s so hard. It’s even harder to Listening actively. What’s required to listen actively is more difficult to learn than it was to learn to speak when we were young. It’s not something that can be absorbed through simply interacting with other humans. Active listening requires the receiver in the conversation to seek out among the speakers words and try to understand what the speaker is really saying. To fish through the emotion, defensiveness, cultural differences and jargon. If it’s so hard to listen than it must be extremely hard to get some one to pay attention to what your saying One of the most important elements of communication is creating effective feedback. Whether by picking up on non verbal cues or audible ones feedback is important. Knowing that your message is being understood correctly is vital. Feedback when done by the sender, allows the speaker a chance to make sure that the listener understands what is trying to be communicated. Someways to use feed back is through closed ended questions like “do you understand what I’m saying?” or ” did that make sense?” Another effective tactic is using an open ended question and through this method the listener will hopefully summarize the message you have been trying to impart and in turn expose any misunderstandings between the two of you. Using a question like “what do you think about what I’ve just told you?” or “what are your feelings on the subject?” are both effective examples of using a open ended question in order to obtain clarification between the sender and the receiver. In the business world feedback is even more crucial. Feedback from your employees, your clients, and customers plays an important role in creating and maintaining a business or institution. Making sure that they understand what your trying to say whether it’s through management or advertising. It’s important to know that, not only is your message getting through, but that it’s being interpreted correctly. Once you’ve gained an understanding of how your information is being perceived and interpreted. You’ll know how to proceed, cutting of those things feedback has shown to be ineffective and replacing it with solutions known to produce the results you want. Make sure that people understand what you are trying to say. Whether in marketing, management, or just everyday conversations. Through feedback, communication can be an effective tool in the world of business and everywhere else.

[marketinguru4u]

Don T Make This Idiotic Mistake Build Your List

Yes it took me 2 yeas of trying to market online until I finally got this concept brutally pounded into my head. BUILD YOUR DARN LIST! If you have heard of this and haven’t gotten around to doing it, you just spinning your wheels. I worked my rear off marketing for 2 straight years nonstop and built sizeable down lines in multiple programs. Sure I made a few bucks here and there but what was digging myself a deep grave. Today, all these programs I built down lines are gone and had nothing to show for it. I was promoting somebody else and not myself. I am not saying promoting affiliate links is a bad thing but just remember… would you rather promote affiliate links from you optin list or promote these same links with hard work? So before you do anything else: build a website, create and newsletter, and start promoting your site and newsletter. This will save you tons of time and headaches in the long run. Build your list by giving away free software, ebooks, and offers. I would recommend giving away a viral e-book to new subscribers personally. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to work nonstop all day long marketing. If I wanted to do that I would just go out and find a job right? You probably want to be lazy like me and wake up late and go to bed early knowing your gonna make money either way. So 25,000+ subscribers later I can feel comfortable doing that. I am not saying you can be lazy but you get the point It is much easier to promote affiliate programs or your own programs for that matter when you can e-mail several thousand subscribers about it. So heres some extra benefits of building a list will bring you…. 1. offer paid ads in your newsletter 2. promoting affiliate links or your programs mentioned above 3. potential viral sales 4. days, weeks, months, and years of residual income potential 5. future Joint Ventures with your subscribers or other webmasters affiliated with your business Those are just a few of the benefits of building a list offers, I am sure you can find other good reasons if you put your mind to work. Be careful! Once you have a list its up to your to maintain it. Watch what you promote or recommend. For the most part stick to your “newsletters theme.” Its okay to go off topic every once in awhile but keep that to a minimum. Remember that you have a good reputation to keep and if you start angering your subscibers or flood their e-mail box with offers your business will start to sink. Build your list right and build your list smart! If you don’t know how to build a list properly feel free to check out my signature for the “Optin Master Course.” I hope that this sheds some light on the importance of building your list and stop you from following my idiotic mistake!

[marketinguru4u]

Email Marketing Tips To Improve Your Open Rates

Many email marketers frequently fail to realize that their subscriber’s email application preview pane is the first opportunity their content has to attract the attention they require. And unfortunately those that don’t allow for a snapshot preview in their content design fall victim to lower than expected open rates as their subscribers are less likely to open the message in full. Here are four simple steps you can to take to ensure your next email message preview pane design gets all the attention it should: First, be aware that prior to Outlook 2003, the preview your subscriber sees runs horizontally along the foot of their screen. In Outlook 2003, this view is a vertical slice showing the left hand side of your content. As a tip take a blank sheet of paper and then reveal the top third of your next message and then the left third. Does what you see in both instances seem interesting enough to entice your subscribers to click on? Second, by allowing for the thinnest of newsletter mastheads, you should cram into these viewable snippets as much content as you can. Plus, if this content tells your subscriber exactly what your message contains, then the chances of them opening it increase even further. Third, don’t have too many images cluttering the preview space. By default, my version of Outlook 2003 suppresses all images sent to me in HTML messages. All I see is a sea of red crosses, which tells me nothing about the message. (I tend to leave these messages until later, which CAN become NEVER! Your subscribers may well do the same.) And finally the smart newsletter designers use images sparingly in this top part. Even better, they build their masthead using not images, but HTML text and colour to effectively get across their message. As a consumer, I’m far more tempted to break my train of thought and dig down deeper into that juicy piece of content I can see. Thus, by treating the preview pane of your newsletter as a quick-peek mini-summary for your subscribers, you are on the right track to grab a new client! It’s simple really–the quicker your readers are intrigued by the very first lines of your email, the more they will read them.