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Is Email Marketing a Fad?

By Christian

In a recent post, I indicated how essential email marketing and list building are to your success online. I was challenged by a reader that email marketing and list building are only hot trends right now, because email clients simply haven’t become sophisticated enough to filter everything out. I found that interesting. Seriously?

It seems to me that if one person feels this way strongly enough to send me a message about it, surely others do as well. I do not feel email marketing is a fad. I want to examine this for a minute and see if I can shed some light. Maybe further clarify my point.

Many Small Business Owners Do Not Use Email Marketing

This is clearly a fact. I work primarily with small business owners whose main business is NOT online. You know, store owners, Realtors, attorneys, etc. Many of these professionals and business owners may have a website, but in many cases they do not proactively build an email list, and even when they have a list it is often outdated and underutilized.

One client I work with originally had over 10,000 email addresses…and hadn’t emailed ANY of them in two years! Oh my, what a waste!

Why?

So why is it that so many small business owners fail to recognize how powerful email marketing is? There are two main factors I’ve seen:

Not understanding the power
A belief that selling is rude

There are other peripheral reasons, but these seem to me to be the two biggest culprits. It surprises me how often business owners in sales-based businesses like retail, real estate, etc…are averse to involve themselves with sales!

It’s why I’ve written more than once on this blog how essential it is that we understand that we are all salespeople!

Let me cover both of these two concerns in just a bit more detail…

Not Understanding the Power

If you’ve not ever effectively worked an email list before, it’s easy to understand that you may not realize just how powerful it can be. Consider these benefits:

Personal, effective interaction with your customers
Communicate effectively with a large number of people, very inexpensively
Establish entirely new income streams
Test new product and service ideas
Get hugely valuable feedback from your customers

And this is just a FEW of the powers email marketing contains :). If you haven’t done it before or haven’t had much success with email marketing and building a list for your business, consult with someone who has. Hire someone like me or talk with a friend or colleague who is very competent with it.

Success in business does not come from skipping the fundamentals. Email marketing and list building are fundamental!

A Belief that Selling is Rude

Email marketing and list building are often associated with spammers. This is an understandable association, but it’s completely inaccurate at the end of the day. Of course you do not want to come off as a spammer with your customers. But this does not mean you don’t sell to them!

The best way to not come off as a sleazoid salesman to your customers is not to skip selling…it means you need to do it skillfully! The belief that selling is rude and distasteful is widespread, and I feel it’s one of the main factors that causes many business owners to miss out on a lot of great opportunity. As a result, they don’t sell at all.

What Happens When You Don’t Build a List?

So what’s the alternative? It’s important to look at your options. I mean, you’re either going to build a list and work it…or you’re not, correct? As a business owner, you need to make sales. That’s a given. But if you have the mentality that selling is rude or that email marketing is unnecessary, you’re going to have to use other means of building your business.

Traditional marketing and advertising still work to a certain degree, and you can also just sit back and assume that everyone will come seek you out because you’re so awesome 🙂

Candidly, if you don’t use email marketing, the results are simple…you just don’t get the benefits of it! In other words…

Less personal, less effective interaction with your customers
Communication with your customers is more expensive and less pervasive
You do not have as many income streams at your disposal
Product testing is more guesswork; market research is much more expensive and time consuming
Getting valuable feedback from your customers is more difficult and expensive

I try to be as careful as possible in saying you HAVE to do something in business. Do what works…if you’re meeting all your goals and do not need to grow, then there is simply no need to change what you’re doing.

But beware of assuming that your business and market share are static in nature. If you have competition…they will be happy to squeeze you out. Are THEY using email marketing? If they are, then they are getting all the leverage and power of this tactic, and you are not. Are you cool with that, and can you survive despite the fact that your competition is engaging all their customers on a much more personalized and helpful level than you are? It’s something to consider.

How Do You Use Email Marketing Tactfully and Effectively?

Of course BAD email marketing is not helpful…in fact it can be done so poorly that it does more damage to your brand than good. Perhaps this is what my reader was just referring to, and I’ve blown this whole thing out of proportion!

That said, I do see a number of business owners not doing this, so it’s a point worth making regardless.

So how can you create an email marketing campaign that’s well-received, highly valued, even anticipated and yearned for by your customers? The answer is quite simple. Give them what they want! Not to oversimplify, but this really is the key.

Sending your prospects email is not spam. Not if you follow these guidelines:

They’ve specifically requested it
You respect and cultivate the trust they’ve extended to you
You do not email them too often (few people want to hear from your business every day, no matter how great and targeted your information is)
You keep your messages targeted and not overly commercial
Your focus is on creating a valuable resource for your prospects. Selling is kept as a welcome byproduct of the information you provide
Use an email marketing platform like Aweber to handle your double opt ins, bounces, opt outs, etc. It’s not only much more efficient for you, but it keeps your list clean, efficient, and the deliverability is much higher.

If your outgoing messages follow this blueprint, it’s really pretty hard to screw things up. Look, if you’re providing a valuable product or service to people, and they’ve told you they want to hear about it…don’t let them down!

Is Email Marketing Just a Fad?

The assumption that all selling is spamming is still out there in a big way. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. Is email marketing a fad? Will it fall out of vogue at some point? I won’t argue that it will never be replaced, but SELLING will not ever be replaced.

Bottom line, if you want to succeed in business, you have to sell, and email marketing is a highly efficient, personal way to do it.

It’s true that spam filters will continue to get more sophisticated, but consumers are still going to consume. And in order to do so, they’re going to need information. Internet marketing is highly competitive. I consider this a really good thing. It means in order to stand out, you have to actually be good and provide a lot of value to people. Yes, SEO factors into it, but it’s mostly about…all always will be about…creating something valuable for people.

As long as you’re doing that, your email will always be welcome and appreciated by your customers.

What about you…do you feel email marketing is something that’s optional? Is it going to blow over? Have you found anything more effective in your own business?

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.

20 Essential Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Start Blogging

By Christian

The last post I wrote was about why to write a plan for your blog. Of course Next Level Blogger is focused on monetizing, business blogs and sales training for everyone involved in internet marketing and social networking. As such, this content doesn’t apply so much to personal blogs or any type of blog that is not concerned with making money online.

If you DO want to make money online…blogging is of course a key activity, and writing a plan before you start is essential if you want to avoid coming off as a spammer and doing more damage to your brand than good. I hope this list of questions is thought-provoking and helps you create good content that not only helps you sell but also helps you engage your prospects on a personal level. This is what building a real business is all about. If you can create trust and build relationships, you can sell many products to the same people over years, get referral business and more. It’s so much easier, simpler and more cost effective than constantly scraping together new business to meet your goals month after month 🙂

People in home based business, internet marketing and many other businesses often take a spammy approach to achieving their sales goals. It’s smart to sell things online through your blog. It’s how you make money and build a business. But if you want to do it long term, it’s essential to do it in a way that is sustainable, smart and well-received by your customers. It takes more work up front to help you make sure you’re selling effectively, but the extra work will come back to you in the form of more trust from your customers, more referrals, more sales over time and a lot more. I hope this list of questions helps you get the thought process started:

What are the top three goals you want to achieve from this blog?
How is the content you produce specifically targeted to help you achieve these three goals?
How do you plan to monetize?
Is your chosen method to monetize sufficient to help you reach your goals?
Have you verified there is enough demand and that this is a strong enough market that your buyers will be able to realistically meet your sales goals?
Have you designed a sales funnel?
How will you drive traffic to the blog?
What actions will you take to ensure that each page of your site moves buyers a little further down that sales funnel?
Can the actions you plan to take to drive traffic be in any way perceived as spam by your prospects?
How will you interact with and engage your customers on a personal basis?
What steps will you take to encourage personal interaction with your readers?
Do you have a unique value proposition? In other words, is there a clear and compelling reason that buyers should buy from YOU, and not someone else?
Does your site rely on buyers taking the initiative to buy, or are you taking steps to personally engage them and lead them to a sale?
Is your site clean, easy to navigate?
Is there a call to action on every page?
Can you write a personal description of your target buyer?
How old are they?
Where do they work?
What social networks, forums and sites do they frequent?
How do you plan to engage them on a personal level in these places and bring them to your site?