Internet Marketing Strategy

How to Make Sure Your Email Gets Delivered

By Christian

Here is another Fantastically Simple set of rules for all of us bloggers and internet marketers to follow. It’s one thing to build a powerful and targeted email list. It’s essential if you want to make money online, and if you’re going to go through the trouble of building a list, you might as well make sure you’re your subscribers actually RECEIVE your email, wouldn’t you agree?

There is something to know here: nothing you do can guarantee 100% deliverability. Some of your email is going to get blocked, but what’s odd to me is that most business owners don’t even bother to address this directly. As it turns out, most of us assume that all of our email is getting through. Well here’s a hard fact of life: IT’S NOT! Some of your email is getting blocked by spam filters…yes that’s right, YOU are getting blocked as a spammer, even if what you’re sending is not spam! Even if you’re only sending to legitimate subscribers, some of your messages are not getting through. And here is why: technology is not perfect. Plus, not everyone knows how to use their machines very well. They may have their spam filter set too high and not even know it.

Regardless, there are steps you can take to make sure as much of your email is received as possible. This is simple stuff. Some of it you will have heard before, but I guarantee most of you will learn at least one thing from this list that you’re not doing. I will admit that I even have not yet implemented 100% of this, but soon will be.

As I said, most of us do not address these things at all and just assume our messages are being delivered. Even though nothing GUARANTEE your email is delivered to every single recipient, taking these steps will take you almost no time at all, and they will improve your results.

Don’t be surprised if your response rate goes up after implementing all of these steps! It really does help your business when your customers actually receive what you’re sending them!

Ways to Make Sure Your Email Gets Delivered

Don’t spam. I hate to start off with such an obvious one, but the fact is that many of you still think that renting opt-in email lists is not spamming. It is. Sorry, but the only way to email legitimately is to build your own list from scratch. Yes, it’s slower, but it’s also the only way to do it. The list of 100,000 “opt-in” email subscribers you rented may have opted in for something, but they didn’t opt in for YOUR email list…how could they have? Rented lists are spam lists. Of course the brokers don’t call them as such, but that’s what it is. Build a legit list of your own, and you’ll have taken the biggest and most important step toward getting huge results from your email campaign.
Get whitelisted. When someone subscribes, ask them point blank…”please add this domain to your safelist”. Even go so far as to provide simple instructions on how to do this. This will ensure (for those that follow through on it) that email from you will be given free passage into their inbox. Getting whitelisted (or safelisted, whatever you want to call it) is the only way to fly 🙂
Don’t use ALL CAPS IN YOUR SUBJECT LINE. This makes spam filters happy. They get excited and eat your message up, so your recipient never receives it.
Don’t use massive amounts of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It attracts attention, just as you wish it will…it attracts attention from spam filters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t talk about sex! Use of certain words sets of most spam filters. Words like “sex”, “viagra”, you get the idea. This is an example of spam filters not being so smart, of course there are many completely legitimate uses for these words, but the fact is that tons of spam contains certain words, and spam filters are updated to catch as much of it as possible. Also avoid the words “free”, “make money” or any other overtly sales-oriented language. It’s not fair, I know, but it’s a fact. Using the word “free”, for example, will not necessarily get your message blocked, but it will be noticed, and if you have a number of things like this, your message scores higher on the spam rating, and if you get enough of these points, out the window it goes.
Label your message appropriately. Is your outgoing email a newsletter? Use the word “newsletter” or “weekly news” in your subject line. Other options: “monthly newsletter”, “News from …name of your site…”
Use Aweber. I have to be honest, I’m in the process of setting up with Aweber but have not made the switch yet. I have just started this blog, and I don’t want to wait until I have thousands of subscribers before I switch over. Aweber is certainly not the only autoresponder out there, but they are pretty much the king of autoresponders. Can using Aweber really improve your delivery? Yes, it can. Do you have whitelist agreements with internet service providers? Aweber does. They maintain your lists for you and make sure everything is done by the book. This means playing by their rules. I’m not one for jumping through hoops, but I’m also committed to getting the best results. That’s why I’m moving my email delivery to Aweber. I highly recommend them. They also offer a ton of other features to make your email marketing more effective, but as far as ensuring deliverability, Aweber is really a great asset to have on board.
Bottom line: if you want to be treated as legit, separate yourself from spammers as much as possible. We’ve all seen our share of spam. We know what it looks like it. Take steps to avoid looking like it. For example, don’t use a subject line like ://///FREE Viaaagrrrraaaaaaa****. Seriously, do you think that’s gonna get through, you sly dog you?

Once again, the rules of success in blogging and internet marketing are Fantastically Simple. A few extra steps here and there make all the difference!

How to Get Visitors to Look Forward to Your Emails

By Christian

If you want to make money online, it’s important to build an email list. Period. This is a fundamental way of building a conversation with your buyers. It’s important logistically, because with an email list you can communicate directly with a lot of people and make money doing it. It’s also important psychologically, because things start on your blog, but if someone signs up for your email list, they’re taking the next step.

It perhaps seems like a small thing, but the visitor understands that they don’t have to sign up for your list. It’s completely voluntary, and the fact that they’re choosing to sign up is of significant psychological importance. They’re moving down the sales funnel, and they’re moving your relationship to the next level.

Signing up for an email list a large commitment of course, but it DOES take a commitment. This person understands that they’re going to receive direct communication from you now, and they’re raising their hand as an interested prospect. In truth, it’s a huge vote of confidence in you. Don’t screw it up! It means that the person signing up for your list has found significant value in what you offer, and they want even more. Hopefully, you have something more to give them!

The key to getting people to look forward to your emails is to give them MORE than they expect

As usual, the principle of success here is fantastically simple. One rule I learned in sales is to always under promise and over deliver. If you do this, you will always create a positive impression on your subscribers. Follow these simple principles, and you’ll have your email readers hanging on your every word:

Give them time to miss you. In other words, don’t email too often. Everyone has a threshold. Even the best content can come in too quickly and be overbearing. I honestly think most professionals (even some of my favorite internet marketers included) email too often and if they emailed LESS, they would make MORE money.
Build different lists. Categorize your subscribers. This takes forethought of course, and it can be done a number of different ways, but the point is that when you send out a message, it’s important for it to be as targeted as possible. Sending out a single message to everyone on your list is one thing. Sending out a targeted message to a specific group of people for a specific reason is an entirely different animal. Which one do you think is more effective?
Give more. If you promised a report or an ebook or a premium of some kind in exchange for them signing up, make sure it is delivered promptly. Then, follow up a week later with ANOTHER free report or some gift that relates to the first they received. Repeat on occasion. Under promise, over deliver. Do you think this will get people checking their email to see what else they’re going to get from you? It will.
Make your email highly deliverable. This may seem like a no-brainer, but if someone doesn’t receive your email because it was blocked by their spam filter, it doesn’t matter how effective it would have been. They didn’t get it. So it’s important to take steps to make sure your messages are as deliverable as possible. I recommend checking your messages against this free email spam checker. Often, making some small change to your outgoing messages can make a big difference in how many people actually receive it. There is no way to ensure 100% delivery rate, but being mindful about what you’re doing pays off.
Do more than sell. Email lists are powerful sales tools. It’s true, and I recommend you sell things to everyone on your email list. It’s a great way to extend value, continue your conversation with your visitors and make money online, all in one step. But anything can be overdone. If all you do is hardsell people with every message, you will make sales, but you will also suffer from inordinately high opt out rates and low response rates. Concentrate on the quality of the dialog you’re building. You can use your email list as a means of conversation, getting people’s opinions on different product ideas, etc. The possibilities are endless, and with a little creativity, you can explode the effectiveness of your operation through email marketing, but only if you look at your email list as more than a sales tool. The double benefit of doing this is that it will make your sales efforts more effective as well.

Quick Start to Internet Marketing

By Christian

Many people out there are looking for a quick start to internet marketing. I understand. Most people in my network are business people, and we are the kind of people who want to get things rolling quickly. You know being online and marketing yourself with blogging, internet marketing and social networking is essential, but you don’t know the best way to go about it, and you have a million questions.

This massive access to information causes what’s called “paralysis by analysis”. In other words, we’re so fixated on learning what we need to do, we fail to act. This is death for business. You need to act, but you don’t want to screw things up. So here is a quick start to internet marketing checklist that will give you what you need to get started. It contains a little philosophy and a few specific actions that will get you off and running. There is a lot of value in knowing you’re starting off on the right foot, so I hope this helps. If you have any questions, let me know by commenting or contact me!

Quick Start to Internet Marketing

Make the decision that your focus is going to be building a real business…or extending your existing business. Do not allow your sole focus to be making money. If your focus is on building a real business, creating a good reputation and brand and creating value for others, it’s hard to screw things up. It’s when we decide to focus solely on making money that we start doing crappy, spammy things that we will regret later…and that will not do us any good. This is the first step, and it’s easy. Just decide that your focus is going to be on creating value for your customers, not just selling stuff. With that, you have already cleared half the hurdles. Believe it or not, it really is that simple!
Start a blog. Don’t over think it. Don’t dwell on it for more than five minutes. Pick a platform, and fire it up. If you want my specific advise, I recommend using WordPress, and I recommend having a professional set it up for you. I can do it for you, or you can have any number of other professionals do it for you. WordPress can easily be search engine optimized, and it is highly extensible. Some of the most successful blogs on the internet use WordPress, and for good reason. That said, it’s more important to have a blog than it is to make absolutely certain that every detail is perfect. Your blog will serve as the hub of everything you do to market yourself online. It is your home. You need a place to hang your hat. You need a blog.
Post to your blog regularly. The more you blog, the more you will learn. The most important thing is to get started. I could write for 10,000 words easily right now about how to do this. And if you want to solve any specific marketing issues sooner rather than later, I recommend using my consulting services to jump start your efforts. That said, this is not rocket science, and if you put in the effort you will learn everything you need to know simply by doing it. You get out what you put in. Again, if you’re focusing on creating value for your customers, your blog will be on target.
Get on Facebook and Twitter. Are there other social networks? Heck yes there are. Is there value in checking them out and learning about them? Heck yes. But this is a quick start to internet marketing guide, right? So let’s keep it simple. The fact is that Facebook is huge, and Twitter is massively important and an indispensable tool. You can do a lot of damage with just these two. Just as with blogging, use them regularly. An inactive profile is worthless to you. Just like if you leave your house unattended…it will deteriorate over time, this is true for your internet property as well. You have to maintain it for it to grow and remain valuable. Use your social networking profiles for being social and meeting people. Sure, link out to your blog posts and such, but keep the content you produce 99% social. Believe it or not, people know you sell widgets even if you don’t tell em. It’s linked up on your page, see? So they know already. You don’t have to tell them every five minutes. Meet people and concentrate on getting to know and learning from others with similar interests. After doing this for a while, you will start to get these mysterious messages in your inbox. They will be coming from people who have visited your site and are interested in what you’re selling, and you’ll wonder where all this magical activity is coming from. Some of it’s coming from Twitter, believe it or not. And it will have all happened without you having to hard sell anyone. This stuff works really well, if you work it. Let it take time. It’s fun anyway, so why turn it into hard work?
Let it take some time. Like I mentioned in the previous step, this stuff doesn’t happen instantly. One thing about internet marketing is that people often expect immediate results. I’m not sure why that is. It must come from a misconception about what’s happening. When you give someone a business card at a social event, do you expect them to buy something from you right there on the spot? No. You meet 28 people that night, and 9 of them call you back over the next few weeks. You build it from there. This is how it works. Social networking has become confused with being this new phenomenon, and we think it’s complicated. It’s not. Social networking is people with common interests hanging out, talking. This has been going on for ages. It’s how business is done. And building a business takes time.
Read and learn. Study what you’re doing. Read other blogs. Look at other websites, especially within the same field as you’re working. Apply the CASE principle of success I’ve described in a previous post. Never stop this. Learning and stealing ideas from your competitors is another age old business principle that is not ever going to go away. Use it to your advantage.
Don’t quit. Be consistent. As I say so many times, things take time. As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Of course I don’t consider this quick start to internet marketing checklist an ultra-comprehensive tool. After all, it’s a quick start checklist! However, I would love your input. Do you have anything you’d add?

In upcoming posts, I will be posting some of my top resources. Articles and tools I’ve used to learn this business. It’s only fair for me to share all my secrets with you, seeing as how everything I’ve learned about internet marketing is online…imagine that 🙂

Why Automated Businesses are B.S.

By Christian

This is something I’ve been seeing so much lately, I just wanted to comment on it. Automated businesses. Are you buying into this? I hope you’re not. I’ve been on Twitter a lot, and that’s where I’m seeing it mostly. It seems that Twitter has a growing number of spammers, and I fear it’s only going to get worse.

It’s human nature I suppose. We always want to find the path of least resistance. I believe in using tools to help you streamline your work and save you time, but if you believe any of these are a good idea, you’ve got your head in the wrong place: “Make $250k a Year Working 2 Hours a Day”, “Get 10,000 Twitter Followers in the Next 30 Days…Automatically!”, “100,000 Visitors to Your Website for $39”. Just a few examples.

You will do yourself and your customers a great service by simply putting your head down and getting to work. Instead of looking for a shortcut that can be had for $39 (of which none exist of course), create your OWN success, one piece at a time. And guess what…THAT kind of success is REAL and FREE! But the more time you spend on this automated business B.S. the further you’re pushing back the day that you’ll ACTUALLY be successful! Hard work won’t kill you, but it WILL make you successful! It’s just not fair, I know 😉

5 Ways to Create Urgency

By Christian

Urgency is a staple for anyone who sells anything, anywhere. As anyone who follows this blog knows, my career started in door to door sales. In that environment, you learn immediately that the time to make the sale is NOW. Not later. Later never comes. No one ever calls you back when you’re selling stuff door to door, so you have to make the sale on the spot or just move on to the next appointment. So the ability to create urgency is mandatory.

Selling online is very much the same, but the approach is very different. If you try hard selling people online, you will be wasting your time in a big way! You will turn them away and you’ll never see them again. Yet at the same time, you need to sell things in order to make money, so what’s the solution? How can you create urgency to buy your product or service now?

How to Create Urgency

Here are the ways to get prospects to buy your product now, as opposed to later…or never:

Limited Supply – This needs to be used very cautiously. In other words, be truthful. Honesty is absolutely essential with internet marketing. If you expect people to trust you that is. And remember what we’ve said about trust. If you’re product is a digital product, how can it possibly be “only available to the next 100 people?” It is this type of claim that will make your buyer leave immediately, thinking poorly of you and your brand. This type of urgency is easier to use well when you apply it to a service. For example, I do consulting for business owners who want to get better results marketing themselves online, and it’s easy enough to say at any given time that I can “only take on 3 more clients”, because it’s true. My time is very limited, so I really can only take on a few clients at a time. If it’s true, make sure your buyers understand the supply is limited. It creates urgency.
Limited Time – Placing a time limit is one of the more common and effective methods of creating urgency with both products and services. Placing a time limit on a valuable asset (like an ebook or a service you’re offering) is very reasonable, especially if you back it up with detailed information as to why you’re doing it this way. People respect authentic boundaries and expect you to charge for valuable things. They understand you need to make money. But keep one key point in mind: make sure to follow through. Stick to your word. If you’re offering an introductory price for an information product for a specific time frame, when that time frame closes, it closes. If people catch you going back on your word just to make another sale, you’ll regret it. Remember, everything you do has a ripple effect!
Reduced Price – Price is always one of the first things people want to do to entice sales. I’m including it because it works, but it’s not one I recommend. I usually avoid it and prefer to do business at full price. I always offer full value and then some, and I expect to earn what I’m worth. I feel that if someone is only buying something from me because it’s cheap, then they’re really not an ideal customer. In other words, if the value is actually there, the real customer would have bought it at the higher price anyway, so why drop the price? This is a personal choice. It’s not an endorsement for over-charging, mind you. Charge what something is worth and leave it at that. That’s my take on it. Dropping the price and making it cheaper just cheapens the product. I prefer to increase the value. If your product only sells well when it’s cheap, you have a problem.
Added Benefits – This flows nicely out of my argument about pricing. Instead of dropping the price of something you’re selling, add more to it. And leave the price the same. I’ve always believed that people are not nearly as cheap as Wal-Mart makes them out to be. Of course if you put two pairs of jeans together and one costs $150 while the other is priced at $20, most people are going to go the $20 route. But that’s just where your business differs, right? You’re offering a unique service that no one else can compete with, right? If someone wants to get what you’re offering, they pretty much need to go to you, right? So why cheapen it? Instead, add MORE value. Constantly add to your products and services. And of course, blog about the improvements you’ve made. Tell the world. And leave your prices alone. People want value, and they are willing to pay for it, because they know it’s what enables you to keep working your tail off.
Create an Overwhelmingly Compelling Value – This is the holy grail of urgency. Create a product or service that speaks directly to your buyers’ needs in a powerful way. Create massive value, and show them in detail how you can help them create huge pleasure or avoid pain in their lives. Do this, and market it with passion, and you will create urgency by default. We’ve all experienced it…when a marketing piece connects with us in just the right way, at just the right time…it’s almost magical, and we have no choice but to pull out our credit card. Any time this happens, it is not luck. Behind that sales copy and product that reeled you in at that unexpected time is an entrepreneur who was up very late for days or weeks…or months, researching and planning, writing and rewriting, getting every detail right. And then it all came together.

Creating urgency is an art that balances reason and emotion. The successful internet marketer understands that people buy because of emotional reasons, but they back up their decision with analytical data. The successful internet marketer uses both of these elements in sales copy to make sure that the buyer has everything necessary to make a buying decision…now.