email marketing

“Smarter” Permission email marketing and Amazon.com

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

Amazon.com is a good case study of smart permission email marketing.
The emails are personalized with my name.
They send recommendations based upon what I have bought in the past.
They send recommendations based upon what people who share my interests have bought.
All of this data is uniquely targeted to me; no other person has the same set [...]

Permission Email Marketing

Sunday, January 13th, 2008

Permission email marketing vs s*p*a*m, what’s the difference?
Spam is equivalent to the “junk” mail you receive in your physical mail box, if you did not give explicit permission for the mailer to send it to you. (As a copywriter, I shudder to call it “junk” mail, but that’s what it’s known as.) To carry the [...]

Email marketing and attrition

Friday, January 11th, 2008

I recently mentioned the concept of building your list “one at a time”. One reason this is important is due to attrition.
People change their email address and forget to notify you. Sometimes they are trying to get rid of spam and sometimes it is a change for a different reason. Bottom line: their email starts [...]

Build Your List, One at a Time

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008

You should have a sign-up form on your website or blog, and ask for visitors to sign up for your free ezine, weekly tips, or whatever you send to keep in touch with your prospects and customers.
Make it easy for people to sign up. And if you use a professional service like Aweber, the process [...]

The Ezine Queen

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008

If you’re interested in starting your own ezine, one resource you should check out is Alexandra Brown’s site:
http://www.ezinequeen.com
She offers a free 45 minute audio class on starting an ezine, and free articles, weekly tips via email, and paid products.
According to her site, Mark Victor Hansen & Associates said she is one of the top ten [...]

Email marketing and sneezers

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

In his book, Purple Cow, Seth Godin discusses the concept of “sneezers”.
Huh?
“Sneezers” are “experts” who tell all of their friends and colleagues about a new product or service, and are perceived authorities in the area and are therefore influential.
The book is worth reading just for the discussion of “sneezers”.
What relevant does this have for your [...]

Ezine Advertising Strategies

Monday, January 7th, 2008

Here are some ideas to help you as you begin thinking about advertising in ezines.

Go Slow. It’s your money, so spend as little as possible in the beginning. You don’t know yet what is going to work.
Test. Have mechanisms in place to track the actions of the prospects who view the ad, and commit yourself [...]

Relationship Building and Email Marketing

Friday, January 4th, 2008

Fascinating interview at:
http://www.technologynews.info/020101.html
Interviewee is Jim Sterne.
He says a bunch about the s*p*a*m problem and offers some possible solutions.
He also pleads with businesses to define what expect to achieve from sending out the emails. Do you want the prospect to:

Download a white paper
Enter a contest
Buy something

Whatever it is, follow up and TEST to determine if your [...]

Can email marketing be used for a local business?

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

The answer is YES, of course!
When I think of all the missed opportunities that businesses seem oblivious that they are missing, I shudder.
How about you? Take a look at some of the local businesses in your region.
If you were to hazard a guess, how many could be using email effectively to keep in contact with [...]

Blogging and email marketing

Monday, July 23rd, 2007

I’ve noticed a trend with some email lists to which I belong (and maybe you have noticed it too).
More and more email authors are posting only a small portion of their message in the email, and including a link to continue reading on a blog.
Why would they do this?
Here are some of the reasons:

The [...]