Email marketing question - just ask me!

Swipe file are great if you doing email lists or autoresponders. Some headlines keep popping up all the time because one thing is somewhat true with ad copy. The same old things seem to keep working year after year decade after decade.

Like you mentioned keep a copy of those emails to a junk address and researching those emails and if you see a common subject or phrases in an email you bet it is a tried a true winner that gets people to take action and likely helps with conversions.

 

I read complatly less then 10% of the e-mails I get.And if the mail is an advertise, I do not read it. And I think other people do so, as well.

 

By the way, I am in weight loss and fitness industry. The fact is, I have been doing what you just said without much success. My open rate and action taken rate has been a lack luster. The main reason for this, in my view, could be that I am averse to using the hypee style for pitching when I guess this is what works. Do you suggest adapting a toned down "hype" or a blend of both the worlds?

 

I have this question to ask. Probably this one will not qualify as a marketing question.
I installed php list to replace the freeautobot.com which I am still using.

The leads downloaded from free autobot are formatted so badly that phplist doesn't recognize them at all. Also, entering each one of the lead manually is out of question for me. Is there a way around this?

 

First of all, to my utter disbelief, phplist isn't a sequential autoresponder. Someone once offered a plugin to make it one for $25, but since no one was interested in buying the plugin, the plugin author jumped the price to a whopping $250.00!

As far as email backup data from freeautobot, I'd convert the data using a database program (my favorite is Filemaker Pro). Import the data, then export the emails as a text- or comma-delimited file -- here's a download link to get a free trial:

http://www.filemakertrial.com/?homepage=fmp10_free-trial&try=fmp10_free-trial

 

I refuse to use hype in any of my emails... so that's not the problem.

Most of my emails generate more than 10% clickthrus. Back in 1999, I used to get almost 30% clickthru rates (ah, I remember those days well). I could care less about an open rate -- if 100% of my recipients open my email, but 0% don't click, it's still 0%.

The email subject line is crucial. It must get your recipient to open your email. Here are some I'd try for your industry:

I made this quick video for you
Inside: before and after weight loss videos
Lose 7 pounds in just 21 days (tips inside)

Next, the email is all about getting your recipient to take action. Most email marketers include WAY too much stuff in their email message... and most just delete the email without taking action.

My most successful emails are just 2 to 5 short paragraphs long.

For your industry you might go with something like:

I just stumbled upon a
short video showing
before and after pics:

[link to video goes here]

... This mom of 3 children
lost 17 pounds in just 3 short weeks.

And the best part is she
still eats pizza and junk food, too.

Check this out if you're looking to shed pounds:
[link to video goes here]

[salutation goes here]

See that? Simple. Just a few paragraphs, a benefit and a call to action.

That's why you want to create a swipe file of every email related to your industry. Pick out the one-liners that excite you and use 'em for inspiration in your email marketing promotions.

 

Rep added for MarketingJunkie. A great asset to DP. Just read the whole thread and amazed by the thorough explanation. I myself have missed on lots of sale potential because I lacked a follow-up newsletter campaign. I'm able to get the opt-ins and leads but the email follow-ups are lackluster at best. Continuing to improve, however. To our success.

 

What are the basic strategies I need to be understood while doing email marketing?

 

Hi!

I would like you to comment on my email marketing strategies. I would like you to see my blog and comment on the part where I want to capture the leads(visitors) to sign up for my newsletter.

My intention is to provide quality and timeless contents to my visitors.

Since, you have been doing email marketing from 1997, I believe that you could advise me on this because of your vast experience. Intuitively, I trust your wisdom on this matter.

Thanks

 

I'm a big fan of using article marketing and/or blog posting as your own "link bait" via email marketing.

In other words, every time you post to your blog or submit an article to a directory, you should tease the blog post content in a prescheduled autoresponder message to your list.

You should ABSOLUTELY display sponsored text ads on your blog as I get 4.53% of my visitors to click on these ads and average $19.34 per thousand visitors (I just checked for the month of March). That's excellent set-it-and-forget-it money that I can bank on each and every month.

As far as convincing your blog readers to optin to your email autoresponder, that's the easy part...

... Somewhere in each of your blog postings, you want to link to your optin form. I tend to use the last paragraph of my article marketing/blog posts to accomplish this -- for example (and feel free to steal my sig file template paragraph below):

The "Bonus tip:" in bold really, really works well (I've split tested this)... and the "sig file" uses the Hegelian Dialectic (problem/agitation/solution) to convince readers to click on my link, visit my simple landing page and subscribe. My clickthru rates hover around 27% and my landing page conversion (visitor --> subscriber) hover around 76%. (I have one very niche landing page about retail marketing that's almost 100%... one person didn't subscribe).

You can use this amazing template for just about any business... here's one for you:

I could go on and on.

 

The best place to start if you're totally new to email marketing is to subscribe to a bunch of lists in your industry and let it sink in. Just absorb it. I've discussed this in a post above. You can also follow me on Twitter as I post a daily tip about email marketing. (In fact I just posted a great tip about email open rates just a few hours ago.)

 

MarketingJunkie, You are an internet marketing genius. You should change your nick name to MarketingGuru to do justice to your reputation. WHat you said sounds so simple but only after you said it. Thank you very much, junkie.

 

I appreciate the kind words, Alevoor.

By the way, I'm not a big fan of "gurus."

 

What is the major benefits of email marketing. how can i generate business through this.

 

Well, I'll get back to you on the filemaker if I have questions

 

For me, the most powerful benefit of email marketing is we marketers control OUR business activity instead of our prospects controlling OUR business activity.

For example, when a visitor comes to your business or website and leaves without taking an action (buying something or getting a quote or asking for a brochure), odds are very very very very very high they'll never come back. In this scenario, your VISITOR controls the flow of business. Not good because your visitor is bombarded with marketing from your competitors. So your visitor's attention span is very very very tiny. They simply won't return.

On the flip side, when you convince your prospect (or customer) to add themselves to your email list, they've given you permission to stay in cordial contact. That's YOU controlling the business activity.

And subscribing to your email list gives you permission to email as often as you'd like.

You might think you run the risk of being tagged as a spammer if you email too often. And this is true... true if you email junk, nonsense or flat out spam.

But when your emails reference valuable stuff, most of your email list is going to embrace your email messages... not think of them as spam.

When you write an email as if you were writing to a small group of good friends, you subconsciously train yourself to write valuable emails. After all, you wouldn't send your best friend a hyped up email link to a worthless home study course, would you? Of course you wouldn't.

I once emailed my prospects every single business day of the week and had less than .12% unsubscribe rates (that's VERY low). What was my secret? My emails contained business-building tips... and most of these tips were free to put into action. In other words, I wasn't pitching and hyping junk every email... and that's why my unsubscribe rate was low.

Let me tell you about just a few of the many success stories I know about when it comes to email marketing:

One of my clients (who owns a retail store selling luxury linens in downtown Chicago) sent out an email to just 984 prospects a few days ago. She was able to get 24.4% of her list to take action (and that number continues to grow). Within minutes her phone started to ring. And the same day her store was crawling with customers.

A pizza restaurant I consulted has its busiest day on Tuesdays (normally the industry's slowest day). What's their secret? They simply sent an email about a special deal. The emails were short and right to the benefit. And it ends with something like, "Print this coupon and bring it in to get a free gift." The free gift might be an extra free topping or beverage.

I helped a Mexican restaurant send emails out and convince one out of every 10 customers to buy the most expensive item on the menu.

Whether you like him or not, Frank Kern makes millions of dollars in less than 24 hours after sending out just a single five sentence email. His emails are hard to resist.

Eric Rusch of Breadtopia.com creates videos about making bread at home. These videos are amazing. But very few people would know about these videos without getting an email announcement from him.

When I promote my business-building talkcast, I ALWAYS tease my email list with the theme of my broadcast. One time I forgot to send out an email and just three people showed up for my talkcast. (I'll never make that mistake again).

Even social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn all use email marketing to encourage your "friends" to join their service.

I could go on and on.

No other forms of marketing (that I know of) are faster or cheaper to create business out of thin air than email marketing (and that includes Twitter and Facebook).

When prospects optin to your email list, they WANT you to give them solutions to their problems. And when you send an email that hits their hot button, it relatively easy to create almost-instant business.

 

Aweber is good but now I also use Profollow to deliver emails to my lists and so far all is good and easy. Also, it works similar as the Aweber although it has much cooler features than what Aweber have got like the styles of subscription boxes, customizable templates, etc. After setting that up, ensure that quality of contents that you'll be delivering and make sure your subject line would always deserve a read!