Email Marketing

Isn't that Spam?
Have you received the spam messages touting the 25,000,000 email addresses, that you can send email to for free - guaranteeing your prosperity? Guess what? its called spam, and it is NOT what we call email marketing.

Its spam, it is annoying, and we all get too much of it. You probably got yours because you were listed on the aforementioned 25,000,000 name list!

Its not really a bargain, and it can do incredible damage to your business. Even if it is still legal - which is debatable. Many seemingly innocent operators have been dropped by their Internet providers for sending out massive amounts of bulk mail (Spam, UCE,unsolicited commercial email- whatever you want to call it.) It is like direct mail, only the recipient pays for it in bandwidth and time. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) bear the brunt of the cost, in added traffic (bandwidth) and the administration required to sort and deliver mail to their subscribers. We consider spam a heinous practice. We do not do it, don't ask.

The Right Way

Your Own List
Email marketing the right way is targeted, effective, and still very inexpensive. Hopefully, you already have an email capture utility on your site. You should be using it to develop a relationship with your visitors by sending them followup messages.

You will need to offer something of value to get them to sign up for the list. We can help you brainstorm if you like. Topic oriented information, schedules, recipes, sweepstakes, contests, discounts and sales notices - whatever you can think of that will add value to your initial offering, or entice more visits or sales. Be sure that your subscribers know beforehand that you will NOT sell or rent your list, and you will honor their privacy.

Use your list to cross-sell related goods, do a joint venture with a non-competing site, sell related goods as an affiliate.

Perhaps you could even set up an autoresponder to automatically send "canned" followup messages. If this email marketing information is completely new to you, give us a call, we'll get you up and running.

Remember, advertising gurus of the last three decades have said that it takes an average of 7 messages to make your point and make a sale. I am not sure if that is true, but it sure can't hurt. Make it clear that visitors should be on your list, give them an easy option to get off your list, and its not spam - its added value.

Opt-in Lists
The second tactic we employ is rental, or sponsorship of an existing topic oriented list. We will find existing lists that are mailed to your target market, and find a way to include your ad. Paid sponsorship, an article, or a joint venture / cross sell where you each send mail to each others list. In this fashion, you do not disclose your in-house list, nor offend your subscribers by selling or renting your list.

Ezines, newsletters, email lists, all serve the same function - keeping in touch with a list of people who are interested in a given subject.

Some lists offer free advertising to subscribers, others charge a small fee. Highly targeted lists with larger numbers of subscribers are more pricey, but more valuable. The majority are sold at a very reasonable CPM (Cost per thousand.) We'll work out a good campaign within your budget.

Remember, though, if your visitors don't initially buy from you, offer something to get them on YOUR list for further followup. Rather than trying to sell directly in a sponsorshop advertisement, think of a way to entice readers to come to your site to learn as much as they want about your offer.

You name it, there's probably a list devoted to it. We'll find it, and strike a good deal for you, finding highly targeted prospects.

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