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Set Up an Aweber Email List

October 21, 2010 by Cathy Stucker

Do you have an email list? Having a list of customers and prospects who want to hear from you is like money in the bank. When they sign up for your list, they give you permission to contact them and that keeps you in front of them and on their minds when they are ready to buy. An email list is a way to build and maintain relationships with customers. If you do not have one yet, you need to get started. Last week.

There are lots of email marketing companies where you can host your email list. I use Aweber because, in my opinion, they have the best features and benefits. You may think you do not need a lot of the bells-and-whistles offered by a service such as Aweber but, believe me, you do not want to outgrow your email list service. After you have built up a large list, moving to another, better provider is not something you want to do. That’s why you should start with the best and it is my opinion that Aweber is the best.

There is no reason to be intimidated by the idea of using a sophisticated system such as Aweber’s. They make it easy to use, and their online and telephone support is very helpful if you have questions. To show you how simple it can be (and some of the useful options available to you) in this tutorial you will see how to set up an email list on AWeber. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Email, Tutorials Tagged With: autoresponders, Aweber, email broadcasts, email list, email marketing

Is It Spam?

July 30, 2010 by Cathy Stucker

In a recent article on email communication, we talked about email etiquette and how to avoid annoying recipients of your emails. The last point was not to send unsolicited email. But when is email ‘unsolicited’ and when is it actually OK to send unsolicited email? 

There are some gray areas, but here is one hard and fast rule: NEVER send a bulk email to a ‘hot list’ of 10,000 email addresses you bought from someone. It is never OK to send your ad via email to total strangers. It’s bad form, and I can’t believe it works. Frankly, if someone sent me a spam email offering to sell dollar bills for 50 cents, I wouldn’t take them up on it.

It is generally OK to send email to people you know and who know you. If necessary, remind them how you know each other. (Hi! We met at the ABC conference last week . . .)

When sending to someone you don’t know, personalize your message and let them know why you chose to contact them. For example, I get lots of questions from people who found my website and want more information. Or people who want to discuss doing a joint venture or other business.

It is OK to send email to people who have asked to receive it. This is called ‘permission marketing’. Let’s say you’re a travel agent who offers to send bulletins to preferred customers when you have a great price on air fares. When I give you my email address and ask you to send the bulletins, I’ve given you permission to email me. Don’t abuse it by sending messages several times a day (unless that’s what you told me to expect) or by sending a lot of unrelated messages. And never share your mailing list with someone else. That violates the privacy of your list members and violates their trust as well.

I sometimes send press releases to media contacts via their published email addresses for press release submission. Each email is individually addressed (although I use an automated process to do so) and it is something I believe they will find of interest. I only send to appropriate media, and I don’t bombard them with press releases day after day. And, if anyone asks not to receive future releases, they are immediately removed from my data base. Each of these elements helps to keep me from being perceived as a spammer or just an old-fashioned pest.

In summary, don’t send bulk email to people you don’t know who haven’t asked to receive it. When people have given you permission to email them, don’t abuse it.

And always be polite and considerate of your recipients. After all, many of them get dozens or hundreds of emails every day. Using a subject heading which accurately describes your message helps them sort their messages easily.

Email is an important marketing tool–use it wisely and well!

Filed Under: Email, Online Business

Email Communication

July 26, 2010 by Cathy Stucker

Email is an invaluable tool for keeping in touch with customers, reaching out to prospective customers, sharing information with others in your industry and more. But you can damage your reputation and image by using email poorly. 

Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind before you press “send.”

DON’T SHOUT! Using all caps is considered bad form, like shouting at someone. All lower case is almost as bad. Your keyboard has a shift key, doesn’t it? Use it. Capitalize the first word of each sentence, proper names and, occasionally, an entire word for EMPHASIS.

Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation. Yes, email is less formal than other types of correspondence. But ‘gd riting gets ur msg acros’—and it leaves a good impression of you.  Sloppy spelling and punctuation also leave an impression, but not the one you want.

For most messages, stick with plain text. Everyone can read it. When you use HTML or other special formats, your recipient may just see garbage.

Only send attachments to people who are expecting them and have agreed to receive them. Many viruses are spread via attachments, so your attachment won’t automatically be welcomed, even by many of the people who know you. (I’ve gotten viruses from people I know and trust–they didn’t know they were infected.) Also, those with slow dial-up connections won’t appreciate the time it takes for large attachments to download.

WHEN SENDING THE SAME MESSAGE TO MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS, USE BCC: TO HIDE THE ADDRESS LIST. I know, I’m shouting. That’s because this annoys the heck out of me. I hate getting messages filled with dozens (or even hundreds) of addresses, and I hate having my address given out to all those people I don’t know. Most email programs have a bcc: feature, and it solves this problem.  (Bcc: stands for ‘blind carbon copy’—a holdover from the days of typewriters.)

When forwarding a message, delete any of the previous headers and text not required for clarity. Have you ever gotten one of those messages that seems like it has been to everyone on the Internet before getting to you, and all of the addresses and headers are in the message? After scrolling through page after page of garbage, you get to the lame joke that was forwarded.  Or, someone forwards a multi-page message with ‘I agree.’ at the bottom. Don’t include a lot of garbage in forwarded email.

Which reminds me, don’t forward every joke, warning, petition, etc. that hits your mailbox to everyone you know. It won’t be appreciated. Think before you send, and don’t send anything that might be considered offensive (which is just about anything, these days) or is probably not true. Check out warnings before forwarding them.

And, finally, don’t send unsolicited email. Does that mean you can never write to anyone who hasn’t written to you first?  Well, no, if it did there would never be any email sent. What it means is . . .well, let’s look at that in a future article.

Filed Under: Email, Online Business

Business Email Etiquette

April 19, 2010 by Cathy Stucker

Email is a wonderful communication tool, but many people do not use it properly. 

You can annoy or even anger your customers and colleagues with poor email practices. Make sure you follow proper business email etiquette practices to maintain your professional image and make your email effective.

Make your subject clear. “Hey!” or “From me” are not good subjects. Be specific.

Keep your email to one subject. The more issues you try to address in one email, the less effective it will be. If you ask several questions or include several action items, chances are that many of them will be missed or ignored.

When replying to an email, quote enough of the original email to make it easy to understand your response. However, you do not need to include all of the previous email. Keep it short.

Choose recipients carefully. It seems as though everyone has a horror story about hitting “reply all” when they meant to reply only to the original sender, or sending what was supposed to be a private email to everyone in their address book. Always check and double check the recipients to make sure you are sending only to the person or persons to whom you intend to write.

Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation when writing business emails. Although email is less formal than letters, it is still business communication. You may think it is no problem if your email is not written in proper English, but people judge you by your writing skills, even in email. Always proofread before hitting send.

Capitalize properly. Do not use ALL CAPS or all lowercase. Capitalize the first letter of each sentence and proper nouns.

Be careful in your choice of language. The reader can not see your facial expression or body language so what you thought was a funny comment may come across as nasty.

Avoid abbreviations and acronyms that recipients may not understand. Even many abbreviations that are widely used in texting are not understood by everyone.

Do not put anything in an email that you would not want anyone and everyone to see. Once you send an email, you have no control over where it is forwarded.

Attachments should not be used unless (1) they are necessary and (2) the recipient expects them. Many people will not open unknown attachments because of the dangers of viruses. Also, keep any documents and images to a reasonable size. Some people still have slow connections, and a large file can jam their email box.

Using proper business email etiquette can help you get more done while you maintain positive and professional relationships.

Filed Under: Email, Image, Online Business

Get More Subscribers to Your Email Newsletter

February 22, 2010 by Cathy Stucker

email-subscribers

You have probably heard that “the money is in the list.” That means that the subscribers to your email newsletter can be a source of profits for your business. After all, these are people who want to hear from you, and have invited you in to their email inboxes. They will be more likely to buy from you than a random visitor who happens to land on your website.

You do not have to have 100,000 subscribers to have a profitable email list. When you build good relationships with your subscribers, you can do well with a few thousand readers or even fewer. Of course, having a large list of interested and motivated readers can make you even more profitable. The key is building a list of subscribers who want to hear from you and will open and read your email newsletters. Getting your information in front of them on a regular basis increases the odds they’ll turn to you when they have a need.

Here are just a few ways to get more newsletter subscribers:

Offer a valuable bonus to subscribers. A free report, an online course, an audio or video program and other information products are low- (or no-) cost, high-value items that will motivate prospects to subscribe.

Dedicate a page on your website to promoting your newsletter. Give details about what subscribers can expect (e.g., content, frequency, special offers and bonuses). Include testimonials from other readers. Link to your privacy policy. And include a big sign up form right in the middle of the page!

Promote your email newsletter in your email signature, your profile pages on social networking sites, forum posts and other communications. People can’t subscribe if they don’t know about your email newsletter, so let them know.

Do an ad exchange with a complementary email newsletter. For example, if your niche is diet and weight loss, a newsletter about fitness could be a good match. You run a blurb about their newsletter, they run a blurb about yours, and you both get more new subscribers.

Offer sales and promotions exclusively for email newsletter readers. Everyone likes to save money, and everyone wants to get a special deal. Let potential subscribers know they will get discounts and freebies not available to others and they will be happy to sign up.

Test, test, test your sign up form. Test the layout, design, colors, position, headline, text on the submit button—everything. Generally, sign up forms are in the left or right sidebar, near the top of the page. You may find you get better results, though, with a form in the content section of your home page. Or, you might try a slide in or lightbox sign up form that appears on the page after a period of time. (Aweber makes it easy to create these forms.) It may be that none of these elements makes a dramatic difference by itself, but making several small improvements can make a big difference in the number of subscribers you get.

Each of these suggestions can increase your email newsletter subscriber numbers. Apply one of them or all of them, and watch your subscriber count climb!

Filed Under: Email, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Online Business

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