10 Essential Steps to Developing a Successful E-Mail Marketing Campaign

Written by Fabian Lim


Continued from page 1

And remember not exceed 40 characters when developing your subject line.

Step #5 - Remind your subscribers where and when they opted-in

If you do not e-mail your subscribers very often, say once every fortnight, it would be good to remind them where and when they opted-in, right atrepparttar top of your e-mail.

In e-mail marketing,repparttar 109542 popular axiom, "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" bears much truth.

Don't expect your subscribers to remember where and when they opted-in to receive information from you if you're not in frequent contact with them.

If they can't recall when they opted-in to your list and you fail remind them - don't be surprised if they scream "SPAM"!

Step #6 - Provide an unsubscribe link

In e-mail marketing, you should never ever hold anyone hostage.

You'd rather settle for happy unsubscribers than angry subscribers, right?

So, provide your readers with an easy and convenient method to unsubscribe.

They'll sleep more soundly at night and so will you.

Step # 7 - Check and test your e-mail

You've spent a great deal of time crafting your e-mail.

So it is a good practice to check through your e-mail to make sure you do not overlookrepparttar 109543 following: 1) Spell check your e-mail 2) SPAM check your e-mail 3) Test all e-mail links 4) Double-check mail merge codes (if any) e.g. $firstname$ vs. {FIRSTNAME} (especially if you're sending outrepparttar 109544 same e-mail using different autoresponder software)

Step #8 - Use fixed-pitch font and proper formatting

Use a fixed-pitch font like Courier and perform a hard carriage return atrepparttar 109545 end of each line at 60 characters to avoid formatting problems.

Step #9 - Track all e-mail links

This is an often over-looked step. Tracking your e-mail links will allow you to gain valuable insights and discover what works and what doesn't.

Userepparttar 109546 tracking information to refine your future e-mail marketing campaigns.

Step #10 - KISS (Keep It Simple and Short)

Lastly, keep your e-mails simple and short.

The more e-mail content you create,repparttar 109547 higherrepparttar 109548 chance of triggeringrepparttar 109549 SPAM filters.

If possible, use e-mail marketing to Pre-Sell, not Sell.

Follow these 10 steps in your next e-mail marketing campaign and watch your campaign results skyrocket!

============================== Fabian Lim is a Management & Internet Marketing Consultant. He helps organizations and individuals succeed online. He is also editor and publisher of "BizSuccess Tips", a No Hype, No B.S. internet marketing newsletter. Visit his website at http://www.BizSuccessOnline.com ==============================


Is the "IronPort" Whitelist Actually An Extortion Tactic Targeting Small, But Legitimate Email Marketers?

Written by Jim Edwards


Continued from page 1

I was underrepparttar impression we were already paying to receive email... and last time I checked, there was no place to put a stamp!

Okay, even if we make it past that and we acceptrepparttar 109541 argument that legitimate emailers should have to pay a fee in order to get on that big "whitelist inrepparttar 109542 sky" somewhere... there are still two very important considerations here:

1. First, what aboutrepparttar 109543 little guy who starts doing really well?

You know,repparttar 109544 small newsletter publisher who puts out a great ezine or fr-e report or whatever, and gets a lot of subscribers and then wants to broadcast email to them on a regular basis?

Let's say they start making $20,000.00 a year from their ezine... are they now supposed to shell out 6-10% of their earnings in order to get their messages through? (And that's if they never get a fine!)

Do they have to be penalized for being successful?

Apparently so if this system gains widespread acceptance by allrepparttar 109545 big ISP's and email service providers!

2. Second, what aboutrepparttar 109546 high potential for abuse atrepparttar 109547 hands of unethical competitors and just plain jerks that populaterepparttar 109548 Internet!

I know it might seem hard to believe, but there are psychos out there who will sign up for a bunch of free email accounts just so they can make trouble.

(This is not paranoia! I had a user who signed up, definitely opted-in from my website, hadrepparttar 109549 emails routed through a SpamCop address so I got blacklisted by SpamCop until I could get it straightened out. Oh, and guess who owns SpamCop... IronPort, that's who!)

Now, some idiot making waves with 100 email accounts won't put a dent inrepparttar 109550 pockets of most big players inrepparttar 109551 email arena... for them it'll just be a business expense.

But forrepparttar 109552 case ofrepparttar 109553 "little" guy, fighting that potential abuse and those fees could seriously cripple and even kill a fledgling enterprise... and that, in my opinion, is a serious problem.

In my opinion, all this is going to do is cut outrepparttar 109554 little guy and make it easier for big companies to emailrepparttar 109555 hell out ofrepparttar 109556 rest of us.

A small newsletter publisher will find it cost-prohibitive to pay forrepparttar 109557 service, and some giant company will just keep pumpingrepparttar 109558 email out because they haverepparttar 109559 staff and resources to fightrepparttar 109560 inevitable complaints.

And let's face it, if a big company is paying a $10,000.00 a year licensing fee plus posting a $4,000.00 bond, how aggressive do you thinkrepparttar 109561 IronTrust people will really be to get rid of them?

In my opinion, not very.

In conclusion: Despite my ranting, I actually think this is a step inrepparttar 109562 right direction (albeit a wobbly, drunken, and inconvenient step).

Something has to be done to fight spam.

However, at this point, this whole system has (in my opinion) too many unanswered questions, especially for us little guys.

Namely:

~ Do I really need to do this if I'm a little guy operating and growing a newsletter?

~ What happens if I get unfounded spam complaints?

~ At what level does it make financial sense for me to do this?

~ What if my newsletter isn't a big profit generator... am I supposed to give uprepparttar 109563 revenue I do create just to get my emails through?

To their apparent credit, Yahoo! is also trying to pioneer a solution, but this one doesn't appear (at this point) like it will cost publishers or subscribers any money (and I likerepparttar 109564 sound of that). http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys

But with so much at stake (on both sides), this issue is a far cry from any satisfactory resolution.

Stay tuned for further updates as events warrant...

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links... Click Here> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com


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