Do You Have A 'Hidden' Mailing List?Written by John Evans
Do You Have A 'Hidden' Mailing List?copyright 2002 John EvansStrange as it may seem, I'll bet there are many of you out there who have mailing lists on your computer, or in your email program, and you're not aware of them. We have been marketing on internet for a while, and have never thought too much about marketing with email. Why? Well, for one thing there's so much talk about "spamming" that I just didn't want to get involved in it. Who needs that kind of hassle? But, every once in a while I like to go through my computer and clean out old files. And it just happened that I started looking through my email program (Eudora) and came across quite a few (for me) names. Now, these names came from (1.) people who had joined one of my free ad-page programs, or (2.) those who had clicked on one of my autoresponders, asking for more information. As a result, I came up with a little over 200 names. Not a whole lot when compared to some web masters, or ezine publishers, but it was a good start for me. And, these were people who had contacted ME at some point in time. Since I just became involved in a really great program, it occured to me that I might as well give this email marketing a try, and contact these people. I carefully constructed an appropriate sales letter, and made sure there was a clickable "Remove" link at bottom of it. In fact, I actually wrote 2 sales letters. Since AOL's email program doesn't support "normal" links, on one of letters reserved for AOL members, I put "Remove" link in HTML. This way, they too can just click on it, and not have to copy and paste mailto: address.
| | "We Were Taught To Say 'Thank You' ... Written by John Evans
"We Were Taught To Say 'Thank You' ... Have We Forgotten HOW?" copyright 2002 John EvansWhen you get an order, do you remember to say Thanks to your customer? If someone requests information from you, or even your autoresponder, does message they get say Thanks? Do any of your replies say Thank you? Saying those two little words, "Thank You", could be one of keys to getting new customers, or getting return visitors. Return visitors could become return, buying customers. Even if they only ask for information, or download free gifts from your site, they deserve to be acknowledged. If they take time to visit, and you're aware of it,why not take time to tell them you appreciate it? If you can, try to 'personalize' it. Why? Because we are humans, and humans have egos, and egos like to be stroked, to be recognized. What better way than to use person's name? Many times, this just isn't possible, but for those times when it is, Just Do It!
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