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Dave Bartlett | Internet Marketing, Beer & Beyond?
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Email Marketing Mistakes

July 21, 2009 By: admin Category: Internet Marketing

Email marketing can be very effective for promoting your business. It is a tricky area though and it is easy to make common email marketing mistakes if you don’t know the right methods to use. This can be frustrating for you as it will cost you money yet not generate any additional sells. Here are some
common email marketing mistakes and pitfalls you need to be aware of. It will make your marketing strategies more effective.

Consumers what to feel like they are a person to your business, not just a statistic. Take the time to address each email personally. It is more expensive, but it is more effective. You will get a much better response then something addressed to ‘Dear Customer”. Don’t use dollar signs in your email marketing campaign. It is turn off to consumers who view it as you only want their money. Don’t use email marketing during the holidays.
Customers are flooded with them and yours won’t stand out. People are too busy and stressed to relax and read email that is not personal or important at this time of year. If you want to market for the holidays then you need to do it early at least before Thanksgiving.

Consumers don’t have a lot of patience! Your email message needs to jump out at them the moment they open it. Put the most enticing information first with the other details further down. They are more likely to read the entire email message if you get their attention from the start. As each consumer is different, so is their computer set up and the type of program they use.
Don’t assume the email will open up the same in every type of email service. You will need to test it out for each popular email service. Always give the consumer the option of opening the email in either html or plain text.

Confidentiality is very important to consumers. Make sure your email sign up clearly states that you will not sell their information and that it will be kept confidential and secure. You will be surprised how many people won’t sign up for your email promotions if you don’t offer this bit of information.
There are rules and regulations out there regarding what you can and can’t do when it comes to email marketing. Make sure you are familiar with those laws. They vary by country so if you do global marketing make sure you check the regulations for each area you will be sending them to. Failure to do so can lead to huge fines for your business.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you know what your consumers want. If you really want to know what they are after then take the time to ask. Be open to their comments, questions, suggestions, and concerns. Letting them know you are available for such customer service is a great way to earn their loyalty. It is easy to sell something to a consumer but much harder to please them so they will come back again and again.

If you are new to email marketing, consult with a professional. This will make the entire process flow easier for you as well as yield better results. Take the time to research the consultant before using them. As for references and talk about what your goals are. If the consultant is not willing to make your goals a priority then don’t work with them. Are you afraid to spend a large amount of your revenue on marketing? Consider working with
a broker consultant. This means you only pay them for the actual positive results the marketing brings you. They will be paid based on the traffic they generate for your site or the amount of new sales resulting from the email marketing. Make sure what ever method you choose is clear to both parties and in writing. Make sure the time frame that they will receive benefits for is
clear as well.

You don’t want unhappy subscribers to your email marketing campaigns. The laws require you to offer a link where customers can unsubscribe. While you want to do all you can to keep them reading your emails, it is important to respect their wishes and remove them from the mailing list immediately. They will become very frustrated if they continue to receive them once they have asked to be removed. It can cost you their future business. Email marketing can be effective for your business if you keep these common mistakes from becoming part of your marketing plan.

Affiliate Traffic Tricks

June 09, 2009 By: admin Category: Internet Marketing, Residual Income

With affiliate programs, you can easily sell products without even having to have the product in your hand.  As nice as it sounds, you still need to have you own website; it is a requirement for many affiliate programs.

Having a website is ideal, but to really make money with affiliate programs, you need to have a website that receives a relatively high amount of traffic.  If you would like to increase the amount of traffic that your website sees, you should examine newsletters. They are a great way to increase website traffic.

Before examining how newsletters can help you increase your websites traffic, it is best that you first understand newsletters.  When it comes to understanding newsletters, there tends to be a little bit of confusion.  Newsletters come in a number of different shapes, sizes, and styles; they are all used for different purposes.

Newsletters are essentially emails that are sent to those who have requested to receive them.  Some use newsletters solely to update their customers and other uses them just as means of regular communication.  Despite a variation in purposes, one the most common uses of a newsletter is to
increase traffic.

One of the most common questions asked, concerning email newsletters is “why?”  A large number of individuals, namely affiliate program participants, wonder why they should even bother writing and then distributing a newsletter.

In all honesty, there are an unlimited number of reasons why you should
write and distribute newsletters to those who are interested in receiving them.  The number one reason is because you can do it as little or as often as you want.

Many webmasters only send out newsletters as often as their time allows them to do so.  It is also important to note that your newsletter content can be whatever you want it to be.  In fact, you may even want to think about tying in your affiliate program or the products that you are selling.

In conjunction with an affiliate program or an affiliate product tie in, you can not only use newsletters to increase your website traffic, but also to promote your affiliate products; products that you are responsible to help sell.

You can do this by writing a quick review or recommendation of the products or products that you are helping to sell.  If you haven’t tried the
product yourself, you may want to try and find other internet users who have.  Most of the time, you will find that many internet users are more than willing to write a quick review, just for the sake of helping others.

If you are an article writer or if you enjoy writing, you may want to write your own newsletters.  If you are not an article writer or if you are, but you just don’t have the time to produce you own newsletters, you don’t have to.

There are a number of alternatives for you to choose from.  One of the
easiest alternatives is to pay a professional to write your newsletter for you.  If you are looking for a free way to make a newsletter, you are urged to examine article directories.

Many article directories give out free usage rights for their articles. This means that you can easily find newsletter content, that you didn’t write, without having to spend a dime!

When using article directories, it is advised that you use articles that are, in one way or another, related to your website or the affiliate products that you are helping to sell.

As you can see, there are a number of reasons why you should at least think about writing and disturbing a newsletter.  In addition to those reasons, there are also an unlimited number of benefits to using newsletters to your advantage.

Whether you make the decision to write your own newsletters, hire a
professional, or use free content from article directories, you are urged to give newsletters a chance.  In the end, you might be surprised just how effective they are.

Get a website, create a product and send a newsletter.