Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady

Attract Customers and Make Yourself Famous

Don’t Become Phish Food

by

phishingDon’t get caught on the line when scammers go phishing for victims. Phishing involves faking emails or web pages, making them look like they represent a genuine company or website in order to trick the user into giving up sensitive information, such as logins, passwords, Social Security Numbers and more.

You may have received phishing emails claiming to be from Amazon.com, eBay, PayPal, banks and other trusted companies. They may say that your account has been compromised or that you need to verify your information to avoid having your account suspended. A link in the email leads to a site that looks like the real site, but is actually a fake. You are asked to log in with your user ID and password, or update personal information.

With this information they can then access your real account. Also, because many people use the same log in and password on several sites, they may be able to get to other accounts by trying your info on other sites.

How can you spot a phishing email? Tell tale signs include: [Read more…]

Using an Email Signature

by

One of the most effective Internet marketing secrets is also one of the easiest–and it’s free!

Do your emails include a signature file? A signature file is a standard block of text you include in each of your outgoing email messages and postings to forums.

Most email systems (including Gmail, Outlook and others) allow you to create a signature file which will automatically appear at the end of every message you send. Search the “Help” function in your email program to learn how to do this.

Your email signature may include your name, tagline or slogan, URL and other contact information, such as your telephone number, links to social media profiles or IM and Skype IDs.

To make your signature most effective, include a call to action. Your call to action may drive people to your website to sign up for your newsletter or download a free report. Or you may ask people to follow you on Twitter or call you for a free consultation. Or include a link to your sales page where they can buy your flagship product.

It is best to keep your signature file to no more than 7 lines. You can’t tell your whole life story, just give the basics of who you are, how to contact you and why they may want to contact you.

Keep it simple. Don’t use HTML in your signature. Many mail programs won’t read it properly, and recipients will see a jumbled mess of codes instead of your beautifully formatted message.

Do put any URLs in your message in this format: http://www.IdeaLady.com/. Most email programs will read the URL as a hotlink, making it easy for readers to click through to your site. You can also make your email address a hotlink by entering it as mailto:email@example.com. 

This is a strategy you can implement today. It’s easy, it’s free and it really works. Many of my customers originally found me through my signature file. How many customers will find you with yours?

Email Marketing – Get Your Email Read

by

How many of the people on your email list actually open and read your emails? Most people get so many emails that, even though they have asked to receive your email newsletter, they may filter it off to a folder to be read “later” or–even worse–just delete it unread.

No matter how good your email message is, if no one opens your emails they won’t do you or your customers any good.

So how can you get them to open your email newsletters? Some email marketers resort to tacky gimmicks. They use subject lines such as “You have earned a commission,” or something else that is false just to get you to open the email. Well, that may work to get you to open it, but you are likely to read only far enough to discover that they have lied to you. And then you will look for the “unsubscribe” link to keep that unscrupulous huckster out of your email inbox.

People are becoming wise to stupid email tricks. Instead of trying to trick people into opening your emails, you will get much better results when you use ethical and effective methods of email marketing.

Here are a few tips to make your email marketing more successful::

  1. Craft a good subject line. In fact, you may spend more time on your subject line (at least per word!) than you do on the rest of the email. This is your headline, and like any headline if must grab the reader’s attention. Be creative but not deceitful. Promise a benefit (on which you will deliver), provoke your reader’s curiosity, ask a question or make a bold statement.
  2. Be consistent. This could mean always mailing on the same day, having the same format and style for all of your emails, or having starting each subject line with an identifier, such as your name or the name of your website or newsletter. For example, when I send out my IdeaLady Insider email newsletter, my name is in the “from” field and the subject is “IdeaLady Insider -“ followed by the title of that issue. Make sure that you are doing what you promised to do when subscribers joined your list.
  3. Always provide great content. When people know that you always send emails that are interesting and useful, they will make it a point to open and read them.
  4. Let your subscribers get to know you. Build a relationship by sharing yourself with them. That can mean sharing personal information (but watch out for over-sharing!) or it can mean having personal contact. You might make yourself available to them by answering questions via email or holding teleseminars where they can talk to you. When they feel that they know you they will want to read your messages.


Can You Have More Sales, Too?
Helping over 90,000 businesses like yours raise profits and build customer relationships using AWeber’s opt-in email marketing software for over 10 years.




Take a Free Test Drive today!

As you see your email open rates increase, you will also see increased sales from your email newsletters. Use email wisely to build relationships with prospects and they will become your customers.

Why Building Your Own List Is Important to Succeed Online

by

email-list

Why you need an email list, and tips on building one. This post is by David Smith of Conversion Optimization company Invesp.

You’ve a great product which you want to sell online. So you created a stylish website with some great content, you’ve written a great sales letter covering all the reasons why one should buy the product , But still you are not getting sales?  Why, because you don’t have traffic. Your target audience doesn’t know about you. And to get traffic you have to buy it through PPC campaigns or by investing in SEO activities.

In early business stages, you may have to rely completely on search engines and PPC campaigns for traffic. But, if you want to be successful in long term you must have direct access to your customer base. And, there comes the importance of list building. It doesn’t matter what products/service you have to offer building your own list of potential customers and their contact details should be your top most priority from start.  Below are the few benefits of having your own list.

[Read more…]