marketing-email-advertising-online-33

Understanding the pros and cons of HTML emails

A plain old text email isn’t flashy, but it certainly gets your message over the net in minutes. When you’re using email to convey information back and forth between you and your friend, the text email is most efficient. On the other hand, if you’re marketing products or services, an HTML email does look nice. The difference between text and HTML emails is much like going to get a sub sandwich with your sister and meeting a potential new client. HTML emails are indisputably more visually attractive, but even in business, there are situations which are best served with the plain text email. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each type.

When you’re marketing a product or service on your website and you keep in touch with your potential customers via an e-newsletter, you’ll usually want to give your readers a choice between a text edition and the HTML version. Depending on your content, your readers may actually file your e-newsletters faithfully, right in a folder dedicated to your site. These people find your information so valuable, that they want to store your e-newsletter permanently, on their PC, as a reference resource. These readers often prefer a text version, simply in the interest of disk space.

On the other hand, if your site promotes artwork, food or nursery plants, the majority of your readers may prefer the HTML email version. Visuals can whet the appetite for products of this type far better than a text message. A text message including details of the exotic orchid hybrid, won’t get you many sales. The same email, with images and an attractively formatted page serves as an instant reminder to your potential customer. Your click-through ratio will whip the pants off the return you get on the plain text email.

When your HTML email is an e-newsletter, be careful in designing your colors and layout. In order for your readers to make an immediate association with your company, a consistent look is essential. Match the color scheme to your website for easy identification.

For business applications, always give your readers an option between text and HTML communications. Let them decide which serves them best.

For personal email formats, the disk space issue is not a major concern. It’s fun to make your own HTML layouts, just as you might design your own stationery. You can create HTML email templates for every member of your family and friends, if you like. BTW, this is a very cheap way to personalize your messages!

So there you have the pros and cons. HTML emails can bring sales and are by far the most attractive. Text emails do have their place.

Dealing with Junk Emails

Anybody who has an email id must have gone through the annoyance of receiving unsolicited junk emails in their mailbox. Advertisers use spamming to reach out to a wider population at nearly no cost. While the individual users only suffer with smaller problems because of spam, large organizations face huge cost impact in dealing with the spam mails.

The sophisticated filters these days usually keep move them to the spam folder the moment they hit the inbox. Yet there are some of those emails that find their way to the inbox and entice the unsuspecting mail user to click it open. Sometimes, this nave action can invite trouble. In any case, the information provided in the junk emails is unwanted and on no importance.

There are no perfect formulae to avoid junk emails altogether. From time to time, you are bound to get some mails that fool your spam filter. But it is not usually very difficult to identify them by just reading the heading. More often than not the subject line will be a product offering. You might not even recognize the sender. In that case it is best to leave those unread and delete immediately.

Sometimes, the mail can look genuine. It might use one of your friends names and may have a simple personal note for the subject line. You would hardly suspect your friend or acquaintance to send a junk mail. But once you open, the content would be totally unrelated. It might be just another offer of a free credit card or a mortgage loan. There is no way you can prevent this. But this has a rare probability of occurrence. For security reasons, do not open any attachments in the mail if it doesnt look genuine. This can prevent the emails from downloading any harmful content to your computer.

Never unsubscribe junk emails. Unlike their responsible counterpart companies, junk emails are not promoted my ethical means. If you click on the link to unsubscribe, there is a heightened possibility that you may be spammed more often. It is best to identify them as spam and leave at that. Always keep your spam filter on and any time a new sender is suspected to be a spammer, just add to the list. Even if you are using Outlook, this facility can be availed.

At times we are required to provide our personal details for accessing some information or receiving some alerts. You can create an alternate email address which can be used while filling up online or offline forms. Even if the information collector turns out to be a fake organization that spams your mailbox, you still have your primary id intact. There are numerous service providers that offer free email accounts and creating one doesnt take more than a couple of minutes of your time. This is one of the most effective methods in reducing the number of junk emails you receive.

Junk emails are a fact of life. But with prudent ways, one can reduce the number of such mails.
Avoiding the onus of spamming: marketing email advertising online is a delicate subject

Just about everyone is aware of how devastating spamming can be to your reputation. Let’s say you’re selling the most wonderful service that millions of people want. Your service is graphic design and you’re quite talented, if you do say so. You cannot simply send out a thousand unsolicited emails to people and businesses who might want your service. You could lose your ISP, your email might be closed and your web host might refuse service. All of your hard work has come to nothing. So how are you supposed to drum up some business?

There are several ways of marketing email advertising online which are not frowned upon and can give you great exposure without earning you a reputation as a spammer one of the worst monikers on the net! Let’s take a look at how you can be legitimate and successful, marketing email advertising online.

If you don’t now have a free e-mail newsletter available for your visitors, start putting one together now! You can hire someone to do it for you, or you can publish it yourself. Check out the many free tutorials available online, complete with templates and the information you need on auto-responders, etcetera. When you’re ready to publish, advertise your free e-newsletter on every page of your site. This gives you tremendous exposure. If your visitor considers your website valuable to their interests, they’ll sign up. The rules on marketing email advertising online require acceptance on the part of your recipients. The reader must request your e-newsletter, or opt-in.

Your e-newsletter must, of course, contain valuable information and links to more. However, you are also permitted to insert advertising within your content and regular features. Don’t overdo it and risk turning off your readers. Your advertising should be highly targeted to your reader. In the case of the graphic designer, perhaps your current issue contains a feature story on effective logo design. Construct a small group of leads which your reader may find of use, such as a print or e-book on branding, or another related product or service which doesn’t compete with you. This strategy of marketing email advertising online keeps your readers interested in what you have to offer while gaining commissions for you. This strategy also builds your readership. Word of mouth is a powerful advertising tool, with not the slightest hint of spamming!

Now that you’ve got your own e-newsletter going, it’s time to branch out to other readers, not in your customer base. Offer your feature e-newsletter articles to other related e-newsletters. You’ll be giving your articles away for free, but in exchange, you get a byline, with a link to your site! You may have noticed that all of this marketing email advertising online costs you nothing, except for the time you invest in searching out resources or writing an article. When you contact the owners of other sites, be discriminating. Choose those of high quality and large readerships, for the best exposure.

Marketing email advertising online is easy. Know your customer’s needs and target those audiences as precisely as possible.

Popularity: 1% [?]

email-software-45

The Best Free Email Software

If you want to access e-mail on your computer you do not need expensive software such as Microsoft Outlook. There is plenty of free email software available. Email software allows you to connect to a POP or IMAP server to retrieve your messages. You can access your messages on your computer as well as on the internet; given you have the right settings selected and your provider offers Webmail.

Mozilla Thunderbird is often overlooked but offers all of the features as a paid program. It is a secure program and allows you to categorize your messages, filters junk mail, and allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds. Mozilla is often known for their Firefox browser, but Thunderbird is a close second.

Eudora Mail is a free (and fee based) email software. You can use it for free in Sponsored Mode, which means there will be periodical advertisements on your screen. It is a classic email program that offers the basic features plus excellent spam filtering.

Opera Mail handles basic email very well, but there are some definite downfalls. Opera does not support encrypted messages and their text editor is at best, mediocre. It has a modern user interface and offers integrated RSS feeds.

Mulberry is cross platform email software that offers many neat features. It does, however; lack simplicity. The interface is hard to navigate and has a steep learning curve. Email software similar to this is Pegasus, which offers many features but lacks a nice user interface.

IncrediMail is a free and fee based email software that offers a family oriented user interface and is easy to use. It protects you from spam and fraud mail but lacks organizational and productivity tools, such as email categorization.

The other free email program is Windows Mail, which is built into their operating system. Windows Mail is basic email software that allows you to send secure and encrypted messages, offers a nice text editor, and has spam filtering. Be careful though, the spam filter catches legit messages. Other benefits include flawless incorporation with Windows Vista (and soon, 7).

Choosing the right email software is an important step. If you will be syncing your content to a Palm or Windows Mobile device, be sure it is supported by your sync software. If you are going to be using a PDA with it, Outlook is your best option. It combines your calendar, email, contacts, and to-do lists all in one program. You would need to use three or four separate applications in Windows to do the same.

If you will be using your providers Webmail feature, be sure to check the box that says leave a copy of my messages on the server or else you will not be able to access them away from home.

Popularity: 1% [?]

free-email-accounts-33

The Best Free Email Software

If you want to access e-mail on your computer you do not need expensive software such as Microsoft Outlook. There is plenty of free email software available. Email software allows you to connect to a POP or IMAP server to retrieve your messages. You can access your messages on your computer as well as on the internet; given you have the right settings selected and your provider offers Webmail.

Mozilla Thunderbird is often overlooked but offers all of the features as a paid program. It is a secure program and allows you to categorize your messages, filters junk mail, and allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds. Mozilla is often known for their Firefox browser, but Thunderbird is a close second.

Eudora Mail is a free (and fee based) email software. You can use it for free in Sponsored Mode, which means there will be periodical advertisements on your screen. It is a classic email program that offers the basic features plus excellent spam filtering.

Opera Mail handles basic email very well, but there are some definite downfalls. Opera does not support encrypted messages and their text editor is at best, mediocre. It has a modern user interface and offers integrated RSS feeds.

Mulberry is cross platform email software that offers many neat features. It does, however; lack simplicity. The interface is hard to navigate and has a steep learning curve. Email software similar to this is Pegasus, which offers many features but lacks a nice user interface.

IncrediMail is a free and fee based email software that offers a family oriented user interface and is easy to use. It protects you from spam and fraud mail but lacks organizational and productivity tools, such as email categorization.

The other free email program is Windows Mail, which is built into their operating system. Windows Mail is basic email software that allows you to send secure and encrypted messages, offers a nice text editor, and has spam filtering. Be careful though, the spam filter catches legit messages. Other benefits include flawless incorporation with Windows Vista (and soon, 7).

Choosing the right email software is an important step. If you will be syncing your content to a Palm or Windows Mobile device, be sure it is supported by your sync software. If you are going to be using a PDA with it, Outlook is your best option. It combines your calendar, email, contacts, and to-do lists all in one program. You would need to use three or four separate applications in Windows to do the same.

If you will be using your providers Webmail feature, be sure to check the box that says leave a copy of my messages on the server or else you will not be able to access them away from home.
How to get solid email spam protection

Spam was once a minor annoyance. Then it became a major problem, both for corporations and individuals. Now most people accept it as a fact of life. But you don’t have to.

Nearly all web-based email providers have built in email spam protection in their software. They highlight keywords like “Viagra” or even “V1agra”, to keep them out of the inboxes of their millions of clients.

They’re also able to put visual identification protections into their software to protect their users from mass-emails of dubious origins. The visual email spam protection works because, more often than not, it is not a person sending out the spam but rather a program written or used by people that automatically sends spam. This is called a “bot”, computer parlance for “robot.” Computers can’t see the way humans can, so the visual clues used to be impossible for them to decipher, which slowed the torrent of spam for a while.

But as always, innovation wins out and the spammers came up with software that was able to read these visual safeguards, reopening the floodgates. Visual email spam protection had to get more sophistocated and did, but it turned out not to be the cure-all end to spam that Bill Gates himself once thought it would be. Gates, of course, famous said that spam would no longer be an issue by 2006.

How wrong he was. Spammers send hundreds of billions of emails a day, and only need a fraction of 1% of those emails to work to turn a huge profit. That’s why you need the best, up-to-date email spam protection.

Start by switching from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox, a more customizable and secure browser. Download “Noscript” and “Adblock plus”, both of which can prevent unwanted content from unwanted emails from opening and infecting your computer.

Once you have that up and running, just use your common sense. One of the first rules of the internet is that anythign that has the word “free” in the title isn’t actually free, so make emails of that nature as spam. Also, if you get an email from a reputable source like the Social Security Administration, don’t click on any links provided in that email. Instead, open a new browser window and navigate to the needed page yourself. Spammers have been known to produce perfect forgeries of emails from reputable sources, so make sure to do your due dilligence.

And make sure you realize that the best email spam protection comes from you! Use your common sense, use the tools your email host and ISP provide, and always look before you leap. It’s the best way to avoid falling prey to spammers.Free email accounts have come a long way, baby!

Back in the early days of the net, there was no such thing as free email accounts. You needed an ISP to connect to the net and along with the price of that connection, you were provided with an email account. All ISPs offered email, some with just one, others offering multiple email accounts, all in an effort to capture the largest segment of net users.

When free email accounts made their debut, it was a hard sell. I’ve already got email. Why do I want another? I’m already paying my ISP for this service. Clever marketers, with varying motives, sought to diss the free accounts and many web sites, message boards and forums refused to sign you up if you gave a free email address. Not enough control or proper oversight was the purported reason. This created an unfavorable image of free email service in the public mind, having acquired the earmarks of a second-class sort of email account.

Today, some ISPs, realizing the popularity of free email accounts, the cost involved in maintaining email for their customers and the current competition among ISPs offering a connection for less, are now countering these disadvantages by offering a connection only at a slightly reduced price. This marketing trend is on the rise.

Many of the big-name search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, along with hundreds of thousands of others, offer free email accounts with plenty of bells and whistles which satisfy the most discriminating of web surfers.

Some people use free email accounts as their sole vehicle for receiving all of their email. While some websites are still resisting, demanding an ISP-provided email address for registration on their site, these are becoming the exception.

For those who enjoy subscribing to newsletters or the occasional download, both of which require an email address, a free email account offers advantages. While reserving your ISP-provided email for communicating with family and friends, the free email provides protection from spam that is sometimes generated through a newsletter subscription. Even when the website producing the newsletter promises never to share, sell etcetera, if you opt in for additional information from other sites, you run the risk of getting spam from the outside sites.

A few years ago, while researching all things stock market, I ended up with thousands of emails from sites I’d never visited. The result? I had to completely shut down my email address to get rid of these unwanted communications and start all over again. What a mess!

Free email services that I use now put everything not on my contact list into a spam folder and simply delete them after a month. Problem solved.

If you want to research the features and benefits of free email accounts, there are free guides available for the reading. You may well find them so convenient, you can save a few bucks on your ISP connection. Why not?

Popularity: 1% [?]

email-marketing-45

The do’s and don’ts of an email advertising campaign strategy

If you’ve had a website for any length of time, you know that an email advertising campaign is one of the most cost effective advertising methods. However, email advertising strategies require some finesse. Too many website owners us a much too heavy handed approach, which usually results in a greatly reduced ROI, as well as reduced credibility and lots of subscribers canceling. Worst of all, an angry audience may start tagging your emails as spam, before they cancel their subscription. This is not the way to succeed. Here we present some common, but plentifully practiced, email advertising techniques that you should avoid, as well as tips on making your email marketing campaign a winning proposition.

Here’s a prime example of what you don’t want to do. I once subscribed to a travel writer’s newsletter which I ran across in another newsletter’s feature article. I clicked through and found a few items of interest, so I signed up for their newsletter. First of all, I soon discovered this website sent a ‘newsletter’ on almost a daily basis, which was far more than I cared to receive.

Then, I started receiving additional emails from this site, telling a story of how so and so just returned from a trip to Costa Rica, writing a story accompanied by the photos they took on their trip and promptly selling it to a travel magazine. The story was but a couple of paragraphs, which was not especially interesting or informative and a thinly disguised lead-in to the sales pitch that followed. The gist of it was that for a mere $3000, I could attend their next workshop and learn all the tricks of the trade.

After a week or two of perusing the newsletter, it became obvious that they had no information of value. A short editor’s note, telling me what she’d been doing that day, was always followed by a long and pushy sales pitch. I canceled. This is the epitome of bad email advertising. Don’t take this approach. It’s a loser.

Now let’s take a look at how to construct an email advertising campaign that does your website traffic and income good. You know the value of an e-newsletter, but as mentioned earlier, the successful email marketing campaign requires finesse. Just as on your website, your newsletter demands quality content. If you don’t provide information your readers can use to increase their knowledge, or which is simply entertaining, you’re fighting an uphill battle. A single, quality feature article in every issue is a great start to building a loyal readership, some of whom will forward it to a friend, perhaps resulting in a new subscriber and potential customer.

When doing email advertising within a newsletter format, your ads should not comprise more than 10% of the total content. This translates to about 2-3 ads per issue. If you have a particularly outstanding offer, you might put it up front. For example: ‘This week I ran across an amazing deal that I wanted to pass on …’ Then tell them why. Use a review style and keep it short and sweet.

If you use the ’special offer’ approach, use it judiciously and don’t overdo it. It’s got to be truly special, time dependent and worthy of sending in a separate email. If the offer doesn’t meet this criteria, your credibility will suffer. Readers won’t even open these after a while.

One effective email advertising technique is to intersperse ads within freebies and resources at the end of your newsletter. You make this section a regular part of every newsletter, under a title such as ‘Freebies, top picks and resources’.

Follow these do’s and don’ts of email advertising and see if you’re not well rewarded!

email blogs using feeds

Email Follow Up

There are very few companies right now that don’t have a website. Frankly, it’s hard to find a person right now without a website, never mind a company, yet with all this information passing in the ether there are still plenty of us that really don’t understand how these things work, or should work. More or less everyone has an email address of some sort or another, be it work or using your boyfriends or from your own site, we can all get in touch through it. Question is, though, just how effective is it?

Email as a tool is great for everyone, its practically free (depending on where you are in the world) and it does indeed draw attention to itself, and yet so many sales organizations or companies complain that it’s not as effective as they thought it would be. A simple solution to this is to ensure that contact is maintained. It really is not enough to simply receive the email, go “Great” and ignore it. If I’m looking for more info on the Wotzit your shilling, then I want more info. You do this with an email follow up.

These can be things as simple as a “Thank You, we’ll be in touch” to a detailed email describing exactly the information that you wanted to know about. Those emails you receive from Comcast or whoever when you’ve paid your bill? A follow up. The email you receive when you put in a Request for service online with any company worth their salt, that’s a follow up, folks.

Why is it important to have a follow up? If your me, you like to know that your info has being received, or that your problem has (at the very least) been received. This is the basis of follow up emails. If your a small project, then it may be possible for you to issue these on a one time basis, that is, to address each individual email as it comes in, and reply accordingly. More so now companies use automatic email follow up, simply to let people know that Yes, we got your enquiry/problem/complaint etc.. It’s an incredibly cost effective way of putting to the clients that you care, and that you will attend to it.

As a sales tool it second to none, because the company that asks me 2 months after buying anything, Is all ok with you? – that’s the company I’ll recommend to others, and buy from again.
How does Email Marketing Work?

Email marketing is a type of direct marketing strategy that is used to communicate fundraising or commercial messages. Many companies have a direct mailing campaign and gather email addresses from its shoppers, supporters, or constituents. In the last presidential election every candidate had an email marketing campaign.

The first step in developing a campaign is to create a database of thousands even millions of users. Once the database is created, they must be imported into an eBlast provider, such as ConstantContact, FuseMail, VerticalResponse, or Campaigner. Each service offers unique pricing plans and features that are different.

The next step is to design your email marketing documents. Each eBlast should use the same style and template. You can have a number of different eBlast templates. Examples of the various eBlasts include product launches, scheduled newsletters (i.e. weekly, monthly, and quarterly), tour schedules, letters from the CEO, etc. Each blast can be targeted to a specific demographic within your database. For example, if your band is touring in California, send the eBlast only to those who have California addresses.

Certain aspects of your campaign need to be decided before production. Having an eBlast schedule is important, and determining how often you will send out newsletters. The issue of what is too much is a common debate in the realm of email marketing. Users who feel they are bombarded will remove themselves from your list, while users who do not receive enough updates will forget about your product or service.

Never send more than one or two messages per week to the same person. The key is to use targeted demographics. Do not send a 75 year old man a press release about your new fat burner miracle pill. Collecting demographics is fairly easy, and you should make note of each users relative age and location. It all depends on the services and products you provide.

Depending on the size of your company and financial restraints you can hire third parties to execute your entire email marketing campaign. Once everything is setup it is quite easy to maintain, and requires little technical knowledge. You can even send eBlasts for free using your own email provider. If you are sending more than one type of eBlast or when your mailing list reaches in excess of 300 people it is time to consider a managed solution.

Services such as ConstantContact can ensure you are receiving an investment from your email marketing efforts. For example, they can tell you how many people open the message, click on links, visit your Web site, or even buy your product after reading the message. They also tell you how many delete the message, and how often your eBlasts are placed in junk email folders.

You also must decide as per what format to send your messages in, HTML or plain text. Services such as ConstantContact can decide, based on ISP, what format to send the message in. It also allows users to select their own preference.

Popularity: 1% [?]

email-advertising-33

The do’s and don’ts of an email advertising campaign strategy

If you’ve had a website for any length of time, you know that an email advertising campaign is one of the most cost effective advertising methods. However, email advertising strategies require some finesse. Too many website owners us a much too heavy handed approach, which usually results in a greatly reduced ROI, as well as reduced credibility and lots of subscribers canceling. Worst of all, an angry audience may start tagging your emails as spam, before they cancel their subscription. This is not the way to succeed. Here we present some common, but plentifully practiced, email advertising techniques that you should avoid, as well as tips on making your email marketing campaign a winning proposition.

Here’s a prime example of what you don’t want to do. I once subscribed to a travel writer’s newsletter which I ran across in another newsletter’s feature article. I clicked through and found a few items of interest, so I signed up for their newsletter. First of all, I soon discovered this website sent a ‘newsletter’ on almost a daily basis, which was far more than I cared to receive.

Then, I started receiving additional emails from this site, telling a story of how so and so just returned from a trip to Costa Rica, writing a story accompanied by the photos they took on their trip and promptly selling it to a travel magazine. The story was but a couple of paragraphs, which was not especially interesting or informative and a thinly disguised lead-in to the sales pitch that followed. The gist of it was that for a mere $3000, I could attend their next workshop and learn all the tricks of the trade.

After a week or two of perusing the newsletter, it became obvious that they had no information of value. A short editor’s note, telling me what she’d been doing that day, was always followed by a long and pushy sales pitch. I canceled. This is the epitome of bad email advertising. Don’t take this approach. It’s a loser.

Now let’s take a look at how to construct an email advertising campaign that does your website traffic and income good. You know the value of an e-newsletter, but as mentioned earlier, the successful email marketing campaign requires finesse. Just as on your website, your newsletter demands quality content. If you don’t provide information your readers can use to increase their knowledge, or which is simply entertaining, you’re fighting an uphill battle. A single, quality feature article in every issue is a great start to building a loyal readership, some of whom will forward it to a friend, perhaps resulting in a new subscriber and potential customer.

When doing email advertising within a newsletter format, your ads should not comprise more than 10% of the total content. This translates to about 2-3 ads per issue. If you have a particularly outstanding offer, you might put it up front. For example: ‘This week I ran across an amazing deal that I wanted to pass on …’ Then tell them why. Use a review style and keep it short and sweet.

If you use the ’special offer’ approach, use it judiciously and don’t overdo it. It’s got to be truly special, time dependent and worthy of sending in a separate email. If the offer doesn’t meet this criteria, your credibility will suffer. Readers won’t even open these after a while.

One effective email advertising technique is to intersperse ads within freebies and resources at the end of your newsletter. You make this section a regular part of every newsletter, under a title such as ‘Freebies, top picks and resources’.

Follow these do’s and don’ts of email advertising and see if you’re not well rewarded!

email blogs using feeds

Popularity: 1% [?]