The key you utilize the most when going through your email is the delete key.

First, you start deleting all of the email from senders you don’t recognize.

Next, you delete the email you know you’ll never read.  Finally, you read the emails that grab your attention.

So, is it the sender’s name, URL or subject line that grabs your attention?

Often, it’s that and more.  Read on to discover nine ways to get your own emails opened and read so that your recipients will be enticed to take action.

1. Be consistent with your “From Field” so your recipients see exactly from whom the email is coming.  Setup your name, company or brand name in your email management program by referring to your help guide for setup instructions.
2. Ask your recipients to white list your email address to avoid your emails being blocked or routed to their spam folders.
3. Always stuff your emails with value.  Your recipients will gladly open them because they will expect something interesting.
4. Be creative with your Subject Lines.  Create curiosity.  For example:  “They don’t want YOU to know!” creates more curiosity than “The marketing experts don’t want you to know.”
5. Test your subject lines on small segments of your lists.  One subject line will always get a higher open rate than another.  Use the best one to email to others on your list.
6. Be careful to avoid list rot.  People change email addresses, get new spam filters and lose interest because of your lack of contact or old content.
7. Email once a month at minimum.  Most marketers simply do not email often enough.
8. Surprise your email readers every so often with something completely new.  Make your emails fun so your recipients will want to open them.
9. Always ask for some action on the reader’s part.  Get your recipients to do something like clicking on a link to your website or blog.

If you’re not totally convinced that these tips can pay off, let these email marketing stats marinate a bit:

• 35% of email users open messages because of the subject line content (Juniper Research, 2007)
• 17% of Americans create a new email address every six months  (Juniper Research, 2007)
• Those who buy products marketed through email spend 138% more than non-readers of email (Forrester Research, 2008)

Email marketing can really pay off by focusing on the right elements.  By

always

delivering valuable information to your readers, you’ll rarely have to worry if you’ll get a favorable response.

Author: Vikram Kumar

Sending out mailings can be a great way to help bring in new business. Whether you mail to existing customers of your business or are prospecting for new customers, sending printed direct mail can help to raise awareness of your business.

Traditionally however, the success rate for direct mail marketing has not been great. You have to mail thousands of postcards or flyers to get a few responses. With the avalanche of mail that arrives in most mailboxes each day, it is hard to get your potential new customers to focus on your advertisement or promotion.

However, the latest trend in direct marketing, “personalized” or “variable data”, is proving to generate much higher return rates and deliver new customers to businesses that use variable data technology. Studies have shown that when personalized mail is sent to a consumer, businesses will receive a higher response rate than with simple generic printing.

Even if you are able to show with sincere conviction that you can solve their problems, it still might not be enough to close the sale.

You are at a disadvantage from the start.

People must desire your products/services more than they desire an equal amount of their money. However, if you include a fantastic, solid guarantee, it can make a dramatic difference in your marketing response and closing rate.

The best guarantee that can be offered is a full, lifetime, no-questions-asked refund or replacement guarantee. If your product/service fails for any reason, it will be replaced or refunded. This guarantee removes the most risk from the client by putting that risk on you.

“Stand behind everything you do.
‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ will make all the difference.”
- Sam Walton

Now, I have to point out here that there always will be someone who will abuse a powerful guarantee like this.

However, if what you sell is of high quality and value and you stand by what you sell, then the additional sales easily will offset the few occasions on which you will need to honor your guarantee. I advise you to add 1-2% to the price of your products to offset the cost of the times that you will need to honor your guarantee.

How well do you stand behind your products/services?

Nobody is alone in any market niche. And if you are, it’s going to fill up really fast.

One of the most important things to learn to marketing on the Internet IS direct response marketing.

The Internet is only one more marketing tool to help sell whatever you’re selling. And the more you learn about direct response marketing, the better you’re going to be able to get a good strong message out there.

People will to come to your website, but if you don’t have a real strong headline and content to keep them their, to keep them interested, entertained, reading, listening and looking for information, they’re on to the next website, fast.

I recommend, highly, that your learn direct response marketing or hire someone who does.

Now when I say direct response marketing, I’m talking about being able to write a good headline. Being able to write some good body copy and bullet points. Being able to create offer so strong that they would be crazy not to to take you up on it.

That’s the name of the game when you’re selling anything on the Internet.
To get an immediate order or to get a name and email address so you can build trust them sell what you have to offer

It’s not easy.

And most likely, because it’s tough to sell someone the first time they do arrive at your site, you’ll want to capture the interest of your prospects enough to come back for the second and a third and a fourth time, so you can sell them in the future.

E-mail marketing efforts are not the same as a traditional marketing effort. DON’T try to use traditional direct mail copy in your email marketing efforts. Even if your direct mail effort was successful.

Keep in mind that the Internet is a different kind of “place.” The marketing copy that pulled a high response and was profitable when mailed might not even get read when it is put in an email.

Your print headline must become a subject line in an email, and you only have three to twelve words to hook your prospect into opening your message. Write a short, emotion driven subject “headline.”

The persuasiveness of the “subject line” determines whether or not your email will get read. Tricky or deceiving headlines that use items that are not related to your message rarely work. Internet users are smart, and their index finger is always aimed at the DELETE key. They resent being tricked. It’s a tough way to start a relationship.

Make your e-mail message personal and compelling. People on the Internet want to be talked to one-on-one, just like the readers of your off-line marketing messages. Use a common conversational tone, and avoid “English Professor” language.

“It is the responsibility of the sender to make sure the receiver understands the message.”
-Joseph Batten

Get to your point quickly, keeping your message short and simple. Put your offer in the top of your email message. Don’t drone on and on for several paragraphs or pages. Most people on the Internet want to read information quickly, so keep it clear and concise. Paragraphs should be no more than 4 – 6 sentences long. Keep the total length under 300 words.

Each email you send should give your prospects a strong offer, and an incentive to act NOW. I’ll say it again: provide a reason to buy or act NOW.

People on the Internet are always in a hurry, and once they close your message they may not ever come back to it again.

You absolutely have to give them a compelling reason to visit your site or buy NOW (limited-time offer, free trial, free shipping, contest, discount, etc.). At a bare minimum, you want them to ask to be sent more educational information, because then you can contact them again and lead them to a sales decision.

What all of this means is that you must always include a call to action. You must tell people what you want them to do and how you want them to do it.

Don’t leave them wondering what to do next. Direct them to what you want them to do. Otherwise they may just surf around and forget about what you’re trying to get them to accomplish. If you don’t give them a strong compelling reason to come back, they may leave your Web site and never come back to buy your products/services.

“Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.”
-Isaac Newton

Use the information on your Web site to close the sale. Your e-mail marketing efforts should be designed only to drive people to your Web site. Don’t try to close the sale in the email. You want people to have more questions. Those questions require answers, and the answers will come with interaction at your Web site. Interaction on your site will promote stronger relationships, and will hopefully lead to future sales.

Your e-mail marketing effort should help build business relationships. Customers are probably not worth having if they are interested in only one visit to your Web site.

Having the objective of a long-term relationship in mind, you can design your “initial contact” emails, and your Web site content in a way that will lead to ongoing sales and profits in the future. Listen to your customers. Treat them like you’d like to be treated, and they will return and buy your products/services.

What can you do to get your e-mail messages opened?

• Call your competitor on the telephone and pose as a prospective client.
• Talk to their sales staff
• Ask the right questions and most salespeople will tell you exactly what you want to know about their business. Many salespeople love to talk about themselves and their business. This can help you with your research.
• Collect your competitors’ brochures, ads, and sales letters.
• Record their voice messages and their radio and TV commercials.
• Visit their booths at trade shows and go to their showrooms.
• Also, check out their Web site(s).
  Most Web sites will give you a lot of information about how the company does business with its clients. The site may even provide a list of clients, which can become a great “target list” for your own sales efforts.
  While visiting the Web sites of your competitors, request more information regarding their companies and their products/services. Then, keep an accurate record about how quickly they respond.

What other ideas can you develop for gathering marketing information on your competitors?

Many businesses set up an online presence and then forget about customer service.

Too many times they take days or weeks to respond to client and prospect questions.

Even worse, sometimes they forget entirely. One great way to set your business apart from your competition is to attempt to respond to your online inquiries within minutes.

A short time ago, I was offered a one-on-one phone session with Chet Holmes, a protege of marketing guru Jay Abraham. Chet was promoting the marketing seminars that he was conducting with Jay Conrad Levinson.

Within fifteen minutes of leaving Chet an email message, I received a call from one of his associates, who asked me some qualifying questions and then scheduled a telephone meeting for the next day.

I was impressed, both with the fast response and with the information that I received from Chet Holmes and Associates.

These things showed a level of caring for the client that is extraordinary in today’s business climate.

What can you do to improve your customer service?

Even more importantly, how much do you love helping your clients?

How passionate are you about it?

I have met so many business owners over the years who are just not very passionate about what they do or sell.

This makes me wonder, “Why did they go into business in the first place?”

Having passion for your business is an essential part of successful marketing.

In fact, the passionate drive to succeed is a huge factor in the success of any business.

If you love what you are doing, then your success will be so much greater than what you will achieve if you don’t.

Whether or not you are truly excited about what your business has to offer will be very evident to all of your customers and prospects. It will come across in everything that you do, in all of the words that you write, and in how you speak about the products/services that you offer.

If you really believe in your business, then your intensity will be transferred to your employees in the amount of effort that they put forth, and to your customers and prospects in a way that will increase their interest in your products/services.

If you are passionate about what your business does, the result will be more sales. It does not matter what motivates your passion, whether it is making money, or loving the “in-charge” feeling that you get with self-employment, or enjoying the freedom of setting your own hours.

If you maintain a love and passion for your business, you will find that many people will want to do business with you, both now and in the future. Passion breeds success, and success breeds more success.

If you don’t love what you are doing—if you are not totally passionate about it—then go find something else!

“Passion is everything.”
-David Copperfield

People will have a hard time believing you if you don’t have passion for what you are doing. Your clients and prospects can sense it in you when you don’t believe in what you are marketing.

You might fool them once, but you won’t fool them twice.

Be passionate about your business. It will catch on fire.

What are you doing to show how much you love what you do and the things that you sell?

Well, then, why not create your own “best-seller list”
and feature it prominently in your marketing efforts?

People buy what is popular.

The higher up on the best-seller list that an item is—i.e. the more “popular” that it becomes—the more that sales for the item will climb.

For example, if you own an ice cream parlor, create a best-seller list of the most popular flavors of ice cream that you sell.

Post the list at several highly visible locations.
When folks come in, watch the sales of your best-selling ice cream soar!

You can create a best-selling list for any
product/service that you offer.

The power of suggestion helps people who do not know
what they want as well as those who are having trouble choosing what they want.

Many people just can’t make a decision
(sometimes even a life-saving decision), so why not help
them along by showing them what other folks like the best?

Some clients of mine (a husband-and-wife team who run a
carpet-cleaning service) were having trouble selling their service.

We created a best-seller list of the services that
the company offered by using good, better, and best offerings.

This list helped the couple’s prospects to choose the
services that they wanted based on what other people had done in the past.

The sales and profits on these “best-sellers” have increased dramatically.

This means that the sales and profits for the company
are up overall, which was our goal in the first place!

How can you create a “best-seller” list for your products/services?

Are you are waiting for everything to be absolutely perfect? The perfect product to sell, the perfect marketing effort to start, the perfect sales staff, or the perfect distribution network—you will wait forever.

Perfection equals paralysis.

You need to be willing to act.

Just realize that you are going to make mistakes: Everyone does.

“Have no fear of perfection
— you’ll never reach it.”
- Salvador Dali

You may market to the wrong target or pick the wrong mailing list.
You may make the wrong offer or use the wrong media.
Sometimes, even when you think that you’ve done everything right, things don’t work out the way that you hoped they would.

Mistakes happen.

The key is what you let yourself learn from them.

I once sent out a broadcast fax to 5,000 businesses for a local co-op, business-to-business mailing. The only responses that I received were 83 requests that said “Take me off of your fax list.” I did not get one positive response: nada, zip, and zilch. It happens. Luckily, it was a small test. At least I didn’t fax 50,000 businesses and get the same results. Now, I can change my message, or try a different marketing approach.

The important thing is that I tried something and learned from the experience.

If I had decided to wait until I had perfected everything, I’d still be waiting.
I wouldn’t have learned anything.

Remember: you can’t learn if you don’t act.

If you keep on trying and keep on testing, your efforts will succeed.

What you decide to do doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to be done.

Action is the key. Decide to act!

Are you allowing perfection to paralyze your marketing efforts?