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 efforts were suggessful. Did your prospects download the report? Did they enter the contest? Did they purchase what you were offering for sale? what percentage?

Once you have this information, you’ll want to revise your email campaign or scrap it and start over.

Whatever you do, pay very close attention to his last comment:

“Whether you’re doing email or a website, make it about the customer instead of about the company.”

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 their prospects and clients?

My guess: at least 80 percent.

A few years ago, I made a purchase for my home, spending what I consider a large amount of moolah. I also had plans to make a purchase of a related item (which would cost about twice what my original item cost) in the very near future, and told the salesman so. Have I heard from them since I made my purchase? Nope. No phone call, no mailing, no email. Northing. They didn’t ask for my email address and so I know for sure that they don’t have an email campaign going.

Not that I expected it.

Listen, it doesn’t have to be super-duper professional, or hypey. Your goal is to get involved with the customer’s own thoughts and desires, and when they have a need for your kind of product or service, they will naturally think of you.

And why wouldn’t they?

I don’t believe is has to be difficult. For some reason, with many of these small operations, it sounds scary. Maybe it *is* a little frightening if you haven’t done it before.

I ask you: would it differentiate you from the vast majority of your local competitors? You bet.

If done properly, it would foster customer loyalty like you wouldn’t believe.

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:

1. The email will be less likely to be caught by spam filters
2. If one goes to the blog to read the rest of the message, he or she may continue reading other material on the site
3. He or she may buy something for sale on the site
4. It gives an opportunity to let the reader view any advertising on the site, with the hope that that some readers will click on ads and make a purchase.

Of course, your abbreviated email had better be good enough to get your readers’ attention!

When sending messages to your list, it can be an advantage to have a predictable pattern. If you normally send one message per week, please don’t suddenly send out 10 messages in one week.

And, remember if people are actually reading your emails (that’s the goal, right?), they will get used to receiving them on certain days. Do your best to stick to the same schedule.

I receive a certain e-letter every Tuesday and Friday, and do I notice if it’s late? You bet.
If you are late with your message, please be polite and apologize or give some kind of explanation. Think about it, you are dealing with human beings on the other end.

People love routine.

Also consider the format of your emails. If you have any kind of structure at all, follow the same pattern every time. I receive e-letters that usually contain a quotation of some kind, and I expect it to appear at the top of the screen, because that’s where it usually is.

Permission email marketing means that you get your prospect’s explicit permission before putting him or her on your list.

This has several aspects.

• Using double opt-in for all subscribers
• Personalize the emails
• “Layers” of permission: realize that some customers will want to receive more information than others, and more frequently.

Ezine advertising is often an effective method of lead generation. It can bring highly-targeted leads and also borrow the goodwill of the ezine owner or writer.

What you are doing is effectively buying a piece of their email real estate, similar to buying space in a magazine or newspaper.

If this is something you are considering, don’t overlook the obvious: add yourself to the mailing list and ensure that the ezine is suitable for your campaign.

According to returnpath.biz:

http://www.returnpath.biz/resources/archives/2006/05/subject_line_re.php

You can expect dramatically better click-through rates with subject lines 49 characters or less vs 50 lines or more.

This can be tested to find if it’s true for your particular market.

When you send an email message to your subscriber list, the objective is to get the message read. Observing the following guidelines will increase the likelihood of that happening.

Personalize the email. This is a technique used by direct mail marketers for years, because it works. Dale Carnegie used to say that people like to hear the sound of their own name. If you can capture the prospect’s name, you can easily format your messages to insert his or her name in the header and/or the body of the email.

Always include something of value. Your objective is not only to get your message read, but to continue a conversation with them in the future. Give them something to look forward to for your next message. Be entertaining, and helpful too.

Always include an unsubscribe link. You must provide a link for your reader to unsubscribe, and in fact it’s a requirement if you are sending “commercial bulk email” – which is what marketers normally do. Some marketers take this a step further and play with the legalese a little.

“Here’s an example: you’d be crazy to unsubscribe, but if you want to miss out on all the benefits I offer every week in this newsletter, here’s how you do it…”

If you sign a contract with one of the major autoresponder services, you can set up the preceding actions to happen automatically. It takes a little bit of work on the front end, but the results will be worth it.