Three Rules for Successful Bulk Email Marketing

Bulk email marketing is a technique used for professional internet marketers. On the other hand its cousin, spam, is anything but professional. While it seems that the two might be closely related, once you learn the three rule strategy for successful bulk email marketing you’ll see why spam isn’t anywhere close to the same league. Always double check your actions before you send out mass or bulk emails to ensure that you are not even entertaining spamming.

Rule 1: Use Permission as Part of Your Strategy

The basic difference between bulk email marketing and spam is permission. Spam doesn’t have to contain anything nasty or elicit, it’s simply email sent to people without their permission. Permission can come in the form of subscriptions, which means that users actually request that you send them the information you want to offer. This not only protects you from spam issues, but it also indicates that there is already a predetermined value for the user. He or she is primed for your information.

Opting in is what it is called when someone agrees to be on your mailing list. This can be done any number of ways. Any time you’ve ordered something and you see that there are boxes pre-checked indicating your interest in future offers you’re witnessing opting in. You can also have a splash page where your web visitors land and are encouraged to sign up for email mailings prior to entering your website. It’s not a requirement of the law that you send out confirmation emails, yet many internet marketers find that this is helpful. While it does offer the subscriber a chance to change their mind, it also means that those who respond positively are a more targeted audience.

Rule 2: Become Familiar with the Whitelist, Get on it, and Stay on it

Most of us understand what it means to be blacklisted. A blacklist is basically a list of those who are not tolerated for one reason or another. When it comes to email marketing, you want the whitelist. Really, this list is nothing more than the list of contacts in any user’s email account. These contacts indicate some familiarity with the sender.

A whitelist means that the user is interested in the things that you have to say or offer and is willing to put your email address in their system. The whole point is to prevent the spam filter system from preventing your email from hitting the inbox. How do you get on this list? You simply ask. Include the recommendation to add your email address to their contact list when they initially opt into your mailing and again during your initial emails. If a user is interested they will follow through.

Rule 3: Basic and Simple Campaigns Equal Success

How often are you willing to read through a long winded email that is filled with droll and poetic language, even if it’s from a friend? Most of us just want the information handed to us in a clear format that doesn’t take long to read.

Bulking up your emails to include serious advertising efforts is actually a turn off to most users. You’ll find your bulk email marketing campaign is much more successful if you simply let people know the basics right away. Just like a Journalism 101 class, answer who, what, where, when or why within the first fifteen seconds of reading material in order to keep your readers. If you have the best deal, if you’re starting a new website, or even if you’re looking for feedback from your readers cut to the chase in a respectful manner.

Avoid deceit in your subject headings. Keep it simple and give the direct information from the beginning if you want your emails read and your credibility to remain intact. Deceit only creates distrust. Simple and honest headers and subject lines create familiarity. The user may not open every email, but when they do open one you don’t want to do anything that might prevent them from opening any future emails.

Visit Active Web Group to read more about email marketing and how it can work for you, or contact us today!

Easy Tips for Adding Subscribers To Your Email List

Building an email list is easy. You simply gather as many email addresses as you can from a bevy of sources, right? Not exactly. The key to a successful email list is to build a targeted email list. That means your email list should not only be comprised of individuals who would be interested in the content of your email, but also those who willingly accept your emails. Better yet, those who volunteered to receive email from you, usually by subscribing.

So how do you get these valuable email list subscribers?

It takes a bit of work and strategy, but it can be relatively easy, provided you abide by these simple rules and tips. The effectiveness of these tips might also vary slightly, depending upon the type of emails you send to subscribers, but generally apply to most types of emails, from newsletters to promotional messages about sales or special announcements.

The first and best way to get new subscribers is to simply ask them to join sign up for the email mailing list. You have to promise them something of value in return though. This can be anything from informative articles to exclusive discounts on products, or even a free sample of a product. There are many ways to get the message out across the Internet about your email mailing list. Currently, the most common, popular and effective method is utilizing social networking sites, and blogs and forums to a slightly lesser extent.

Another surefire way to add subscribers is to ask them as a follow-up to a sale, or as they register an account on your site. More often than not, if a potential future customer registers and account on your site, they will not shy away from also electing to receive emails from you (once again, provided they are aware of the potential benefits of receiving such emails.) Likewise, include links to sign up for the mailing list or a checkbox option for customers who have just purchased a product or service from your site.

It is important to remember that ease of use and quick results are important factors contributing to the overall happiness and satisfaction of visitors to your site. It should not be overly time-consuming or difficult for subscribers to sign up for the mailing list. Asking too much information or making them go through a series of links and pages is simply too much; you will annoy them and they will leave before finishing the signup process.

Beware of Twitter Scams

Anyone who has spent even a minimal amount of time on the Internet has learned that cyberspace is home to a plague of scams designed to extract money from unsuspecting victims, collect and use private information, and even seize control of their computers through malicious hacks.

Social networking site Twitter is not immune to scammers; in fact, the rate in which Twitter scams are being discovered and reported is growing steadily as more sophisticated criminals try their hand at Twitter scams.

Many of the Twitter scams are just slight variations of phishing scams: you receive an email that appears as though it is sent by Twitter or by a Twitter user. The email either mentions that there is a problem with your account, of, if pretending to be from a Twitter user, displays as a direct message asking you to log into Twitter to view a posted picture or some other item or message of interest. In both scenarios, the key factor is that you are being enticed to click the link provided in the email to log into Twitter.

However, this is in fact a classic phishing scam. The link does not actually go to Twitter, even though the page you land on might look like Twitter. It is in fact a cleverly designed copycat site that will capture your username and password when you attempt to log in.

A somewhat inventive Twitter scam utilized Twitter itself to gather usernames and security question answers from users. Dubbed the “Twitter porn name scam”, this hashtag trend invited users to create a funny porn name for themselves by adding their answers to common security questions to their username. Once this was tweeted, the Twitter scammer now possessed the usernames and security question answers to many accounts. Because Internet users often use the same info for various accounts, scammers could often hack into users email accounts with a few tries, and possibly even a bank account.

Another Twitter scam sends a message to Twitter users that tries to convince them that they have just won a free cell phone, and provides a link to claim their prize. Clicking the link sends users to a website where they need to fill out their current cell phone number and a few minor details. The scam then succeeds in enrolling the user in a subscription text service of one kind or another.

These are just a few of the Twitter scams populating the social networking site; some are still being used, and new ones appear regularly. It is important to always remember never to give anyone personal information without being able to accurately verify who they are, and always type the Twitter web address into a browser yourself in order to login, rather than using links provided in emails.

Pay Per Click Terms You Need to Know

The world of Internet marketing can be a confusing place for the uninitiated or those relatively new to the Internet itself. But if you wish to attract customers to your website, you need to stop treading water in cyberspace and jump in headfirst to discover the benefits of commonly used online marketing solutions.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

One of the most widely used methods of attracting visitors to your website is called Pay Per Click. This is also more commonly referred to as PPC. With Pay Per Click, you create targeted keyword ads. These are short ads consisting of a short headline and 1-2 lines of copy, and a link.

Keywords

The headline and the copy below it should integrate the best keywords possible that will attract visitors to click on the link, as well as align properly with search engine queries by Internet users.

For example, a Pay Per Click ad might look like this:

New YA Fantasy Novel on Kindle

Download the 1^st 3 chapters free.

Fantasy Novel Only $4.99 on Kindle

http://www.talesoftanglewood.com

The keywords in this ad are “Fantasy novel” and “Kindle.” When individuals search Yahoo, Google, or another search engine for “fantasy novels on the Kindle,” this ad is likely to appear in the sidebar of the search results.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

It costs you nothing to create the ad and have it appear in search results. However, when users click the link in your ad, you will incur a cost. The amount is known as Cost Per Click (CPC) and will vary according to how much you are willing to pay for an ad that utilizes specific keywords. For example “fantasy novel” is likely to be used in a large amount of ads by competitors, and so you would need to place a higher bid on the keywords. This means you are willing to pay more than your competitors each time someone clicks on your ad; it also means your ad will likely appear more often than those of your competitors, and in a better position.

Cost Per Thousand (CPM)

This is another method of payment utilized with PPC ads. It essentially means that you will pay a flat fee for every thousand impressions. An impression is the instance of your ad being shown alongside a search result, regardless of whether it is clicked on or not.

To learn more about Pay Per Click ads and how they can benefit your website, contact Active Web Group for a free Pay Per Click campaign analysis. Active Web Group is Long Island’s leading online marketing solutions agency, with expertise in PPC Management.

Avoid These Three Common Email Marketing Campaign Mistakes

Email marketing can produce the highest ROI when done effectively and professionally. Unfortunately, many companies attempt to initiate an email marketing campaign without proper knowledge of specific strategies and guidelines, or without utilizing a professional online marketing agency experienced with email marketing.

The result is often an ineffective campaign due to one or more mistakes that are actually quite common, yet usually easy to remedy.

Email Marketing Mistake #1 – Vague Subject Lines

The easiest mistake to make is to place all of your focus on the content and none on the subject line. The subject line is the first thing recipients of your email will see, and if it doesn’t grab their attention, into the trash it goes. Regardless of whether the recipient has voluntarily subscribed to your emails, or if you’ve added them as part of a targeted campaign, you need to display something about the content of your email in the subject line in order to pique their interest. Simply stating “July Newsletter” isn’t going to cut it. You need to spice it up a bit: try something like “July Newsletter – The Heat is Rising but Our Prices are Dropping!” or “July Newsletter – The Latest and Greatest Online Marketing Strategies!”

Email Marketing Mistake #2 – Sending Emails to Those Outside Your Target Market

Sending 1,000 emails to targeted subscribers is effective email marketing. Sending 10,000 emails to everyone in your email database or on a purchased list is a mistake. Too many managers are under the assumption that sending as many emails as you can, as often as you can, will increase the chances of achieving a high ROI. The reality is quite the opposite. Sending emails to those who don’t elect to receive them, or to those who may not be your target market for this particular campaign will likely result in annoying many recipients and instill a negative image of your brand. It likely won’t be long before you receive many “unsubscribe” requests.

Choose your target markets wisely: do the research and send emails to those most likely to respond or appreciate your message.

Email Marketing Mistake #3 – Out of Control Design Elements

Of course you’d like your email to stand out from others. But a simple design produced by a professional graphic designer is typically more aesthetically pleasing than an email that contains a multitude of graphic intensive elements. Keep your color palette simple, don’t use more than two or three different fonts, and use fonts that are easy to read.

Including images is fine – in fact, images go a long way towards achieving better results, but be sure that they are optimized for the web. Slow loading times or images that display incorrectly, as well as distracting Flash movies and other elements you might think are clever only detract and distract from the message content.

While these are just a few of the more common mistakes in email marketing, there are certainly a host of others committed everyday by those with little experience in online marketing. Email marketing is an extremely tricky type of marketing strategy can work against you if not executed properly.

Active Web Group is the leading full service online marketing agency on Long Island, a pioneer in email marketing and website development. Our email marketing professionals possess the technical and marketing expertise to help you launch your email marketing campaign right from the email design all the way up to the content of your email newsletter.

For a Free Email Marketing Analysis, Contact Active Web Group!

Free Keyword Selector Tools

There are actually quite a few free keyword selector tools on the internet that can help you come up with a much more powerful keyword list than you probably can on your own. These tools offer all kinds of information that can help you make firm and sound decisions to help you avoid wasting money on guesswork.

The most recognized tool is Google Adwords Keyword Tool. All you have to do is enter your main keyword and watch as a whole list crops up. You can see as you go through the list that there is an objective and easy to understand statistical application to each word on the list. This tells you how popular the keyword is.

Some people reverse the theory of using the most popular and try to gain high search results using mid to low rated words. For some niches, this has paid off. Look before you leap, as some niches don't have a lot of wiggle room.

Of course, you're not limited to Adwords. Wordtracker and KeywordDiscovery websites offer you help that is just as thorough, although formatted a bit differently. The user friendly versions of these tools makes it easy for just about anyone to find the words they need to start setting their business apart from the rest of the crowd.

Check in often. Don't assume that because today your top five keywords were listed as such that they will remain the top five in another month. While many will stay relatively static, the internet and its applications is a fluid ideal. This means that even the best statistics are bound to change from time to time. Checking back regularly will help ensure that your efforts (and advertising money) are focused in the right area.

There are more free keyword selector tools like these popping up all of the time. It's not a bad idea to use two or three and compare the results. It only takes a moment of your time and can save enough waste to make it a worthwhile daily endeavor for serious web business builders.

Using a Twitter Profile to Gain a Following

When you use Twitter for marketing purposes, one of the first things you want to focus on is your profile. This will not only indicate to other users who you are, but whether or not you have something of interest for them. How you create your profile can either encourage or discourage others from becoming part of your marketing success.

Keep your profile highly intentional and well targeted. Stick to the plan and don’t mix your personal profile with your marketing profile. Don’t include unnecessary personal information, pictures of your pets or your most recent vacation, or stories of that funny thing your two year old did the other day if it has no bearing on your marketing.

Use a real name, not a company name. Most people will use their real name, although some people prefer to use a pseudo name when they start marketing on Twitter in case they make a mistake and have to create a whole new campaign. If you use a company name you’re going to turn people off. A real name is a personal connection.

Your username should reflect something important, powerful, and relevant. You can use branding here if it fits. You can also use your profession. Avoid usernames that are irrelevant and personal like soccerguy, catlady021, or sailingfan if they have no bearing on your business.

Make sure you take the time to enter the information that is requested in the profile set up. People like to know who they are dealing with and that there is an actual person on the other end. An incomplete profile is actually a red flag that will keep potential followers away.

Your bio is the place to interject who you are. It’s not a resume or a chance to write a brief cover letter. This is where you can bring some of your personality and even an interest or two into the limelight. You can present yourself as a real person here. This helps to create connection in the right setting.

While you might be tempted to lock your Tweets to feel like you have control over who is following you and who isn’t, this is a bad idea. Remember that this is for marketing purposes. Any locked settings will often prevent someone from following you. Make it an open account. Set up a locked account for your personal Tweets, not your marketing ones.

A headshot is not a bad idea as it gives a face to the name. If you are busy on more than one site, it’s usually recommended that you use the same headshot for all sites. Tweeters are often Facebookers and etcetera. Maintaining the same look will help. However, use something different for your personal accounts. Avoid avatars, especially those that are cutesy and irrelevant.

Marketing isn’t just about being out there. It’s about being out there and getting noticed. Therefore, taking the time and using a custom background in order to reflect either your brand or the proper qualities of your business is a great idea. It shows your potential followers that you are not just here for a day to “see what happens” and it helps extend your familiarity.

Twitter has a very useful tool for helping your profile become more follower friendly. If you take a moment and use the grader (twitter.com/grader) you’ll be able to receive direct feedback in helping your profile reach more users in a more productive manner.