Sunday, October 15, 2006
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Good Email Advertising
I thought it might be good to talk about a few of
my likes and dislikes about email advertising.I
have picked up a few good pointers over the
years.Even though a lot of these may be known or
said before they are worth repeating.
After all the whole idea is get people to read your
emails( not DELETE) in the hope that they will
sign up or buy whatever you are promoting.
One of the first things you are going to want to
do is make sure you don't go across in your email
more than 65 characters a line.There are 2
reasons for this and the first is what is known as
"eye fatigue".What this means is if the person
reading has to go across too far to the right the
reader loses interest.The second reason is some
email clients have what is called line wrapping
which means your message will come out all
garbled if it is over 65 characters.
Next thing is avoid using all capitals.When a
person uses all capitals on the internet it is
considered shouting and nobody likes shouting all
the time.Gilbert Godfrey shouts all the time and at
first it is funny but then you come to expect it and
eventually he's not funny anymore.So be
creative.The odd CAPITALIZED word can add
variety however, and can make a product or
benefit stand out in your email.
The next thing after that is one of my personal pet peeves.
I can't stand emails that are full of bad
grammar.Bad spelling doesn't hurt your
professional image it flat out DESTROYS it.It
makes me think the guy on the other end can't be
bothered to proof read his emails which in my
mind makes him a bit of a retarded chimp.
Another pertinent practice you are going to want to do on a
regular basis is put your link to your site in your
email no less than 3 times.You know the old saying
"a picture is worth a thousand words".Chances
are your website has all the interesting pictures or
videos you'll need to capture your prospect's
interest so make that the goal.Space them out
evenly through your email and make sure they
work by sending yourself one of your emails.Then
CLICK on it to see if it works.I can't tell you how
many people have sent me links that don't
work.For goodness sake don't be long winded.A
little info..then your link..a little more info..then
your link..well you get it.What I want to know is
who are these people who babble on and on...yama
yama... yama.. bla.. bla..little do they know is I went to
the kitchen to get a fork so I can stab MYSELF in
th EYE rather than read anymore.Short and sweet
or KISS(keep it simple stupid) is the KEY.
Sometimes we tempted to use uncommon fonts or
really loud colors in an attempt to dress up your
email.I must confess I used to do this just because
I liked the all the fun tools, colors, and smiley's in
my email arsenal.All it did was make me look
gimmicky and silly along with my
program.Remember you are trying to build trust
and integrity on the net.Using Ariel, Times New
Roman, or Courier as a font style is professional
looking enough.
When it comes to your subject line this is where
you want to grab them.If you follow the rich jerk's
advice he recommends you can even say
something shocking like "YOUR UGLY" or "HEY
STUPID" however, one must be careful here.Trial
and error here and one's own personality to make
you look unique (as compared to all those other
emails) will get people opening your emails.I do
confess that I have clicked on "HEY UGLY" just
out of curiosity.I don't know if I want to be in
business with someone that obnoxious though.I
guess it depends on whether you are building long
term relationships or just looking for the fast
sale.You may want to tell the odd clean joke in
your emails.Especially if you are loading then into
an auto responder.You'll find people will look
forward to your emails just because they can get a
chuckle out of them.
my likes and dislikes about email advertising.I
have picked up a few good pointers over the
years.Even though a lot of these may be known or
said before they are worth repeating.
After all the whole idea is get people to read your
emails( not DELETE) in the hope that they will
sign up or buy whatever you are promoting.
One of the first things you are going to want to
do is make sure you don't go across in your email
more than 65 characters a line.There are 2
reasons for this and the first is what is known as
"eye fatigue".What this means is if the person
reading has to go across too far to the right the
reader loses interest.The second reason is some
email clients have what is called line wrapping
which means your message will come out all
garbled if it is over 65 characters.
Next thing is avoid using all capitals.When a
person uses all capitals on the internet it is
considered shouting and nobody likes shouting all
the time.Gilbert Godfrey shouts all the time and at
first it is funny but then you come to expect it and
eventually he's not funny anymore.So be
creative.The odd CAPITALIZED word can add
variety however, and can make a product or
benefit stand out in your email.
The next thing after that is one of my personal pet peeves.
I can't stand emails that are full of bad
grammar.Bad spelling doesn't hurt your
professional image it flat out DESTROYS it.It
makes me think the guy on the other end can't be
bothered to proof read his emails which in my
mind makes him a bit of a retarded chimp.
Another pertinent practice you are going to want to do on a
regular basis is put your link to your site in your
email no less than 3 times.You know the old saying
"a picture is worth a thousand words".Chances
are your website has all the interesting pictures or
videos you'll need to capture your prospect's
interest so make that the goal.Space them out
evenly through your email and make sure they
work by sending yourself one of your emails.Then
CLICK on it to see if it works.I can't tell you how
many people have sent me links that don't
work.For goodness sake don't be long winded.A
little info..then your link..a little more info..then
your link..well you get it.What I want to know is
who are these people who babble on and on...yama
yama... yama.. bla.. bla..little do they know is I went to
the kitchen to get a fork so I can stab MYSELF in
th EYE rather than read anymore.Short and sweet
or KISS(keep it simple stupid) is the KEY.
Sometimes we tempted to use uncommon fonts or
really loud colors in an attempt to dress up your
email.I must confess I used to do this just because
I liked the all the fun tools, colors, and smiley's in
my email arsenal.All it did was make me look
gimmicky and silly along with my
program.Remember you are trying to build trust
and integrity on the net.Using Ariel, Times New
Roman, or Courier as a font style is professional
looking enough.
When it comes to your subject line this is where
you want to grab them.If you follow the rich jerk's
advice he recommends you can even say
something shocking like "YOUR UGLY" or "HEY
STUPID" however, one must be careful here.Trial
and error here and one's own personality to make
you look unique (as compared to all those other
emails) will get people opening your emails.I do
confess that I have clicked on "HEY UGLY" just
out of curiosity.I don't know if I want to be in
business with someone that obnoxious though.I
guess it depends on whether you are building long
term relationships or just looking for the fast
sale.You may want to tell the odd clean joke in
your emails.Especially if you are loading then into
an auto responder.You'll find people will look
forward to your emails just because they can get a
chuckle out of them.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Home Business Success Tips #2
This is a short note to those of you who may be receiving emails from people in your safelists that you signed up to.I am not too big a fan of safelists but here is something you may want to consider.One of the main problems with safelists is everybody just deletes everyone else's email ad because thay are only interested in signing up people to their programs.But here is what you need to look for in the future.
Instead of deleting these emails you are going to pay attention to the ones that leave you an email address.Then you are going to start a conversation with these people about their business or their life.Be sincere and ask questions like:
#1 how long they have been with their program?
#2 how well they are doing with it?
#3 how much it costs to keep their program running?
#4 anything about their family or personal interests?
Offer to exchange marketing ideas with them.Remember this is not spam on your initial contact because every time someone sends you junk mail, they have relinquished their right to ever complain about you sending email to them! You've eliminated the "anti-spam" problem, and captured a potential contact.
The truth of the matter is most people change programs or add other ones to the ones they are currently in.That means you are talking to your target market.You may find that their program is better than yours or perhaps they are more skilled in marketing than you. In either case YOU win.Of course by establishing a relationship with the person behind the ad you are doing what everyone will tell you to do and that's building trust and credibility to your business and reputation.So don't be in too big a rush to blast out your safelist ads.Start responding to others.It's much more effective.For more on this email me and I will send you a free e-book that goes into more detail.
Instead of deleting these emails you are going to pay attention to the ones that leave you an email address.Then you are going to start a conversation with these people about their business or their life.Be sincere and ask questions like:
#1 how long they have been with their program?
#2 how well they are doing with it?
#3 how much it costs to keep their program running?
#4 anything about their family or personal interests?
Offer to exchange marketing ideas with them.Remember this is not spam on your initial contact because every time someone sends you junk mail, they have relinquished their right to ever complain about you sending email to them! You've eliminated the "anti-spam" problem, and captured a potential contact.
The truth of the matter is most people change programs or add other ones to the ones they are currently in.That means you are talking to your target market.You may find that their program is better than yours or perhaps they are more skilled in marketing than you. In either case YOU win.Of course by establishing a relationship with the person behind the ad you are doing what everyone will tell you to do and that's building trust and credibility to your business and reputation.So don't be in too big a rush to blast out your safelist ads.Start responding to others.It's much more effective.For more on this email me and I will send you a free e-book that goes into more detail.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Home Business Success Tips
Yes everyone starting a business online needs an auto responder.Why?Well because it is kind of like a pushy salesman.You know the one that continues to pursue you until you buy from him.So after you buy from him what happens next?A good salesman knows that if he takes care of his customers he can continue to make that repeat sale over and over.Take my profession for instance.I have a window cleaning business that I have built up over many years.I actually have some customers that I have been doing their house every year for 10 years.Just like window cleaning it will prove true with an online business.We have to remember there is a person behind the newbie looking to start a business.Chances are he is not really sure if your online business is the right one.So now newbie signs up with your program.Now what happens?Do we say "thanks for the signup" and "hope you make it and if you don't sorry about your luck".Most likely most newbies know nothing about autoresponders, blogs, forums, article writing, or any other avenue of successful online marketing.The question now becomes how willing are we to help the newbie get going.Personally I like programs that benefit both the newbie and the sponsor.The newbie's success should also be your success.You ought to be accountable to your newbie also.What does that mean you ask?Well that means you keep pushing for your newbie's success even if it takes awhile.I believe if you put on this attitude you'll go far in your online business because now all you do is the same thing over and over with the next newbie.Zig Ziglar said it best when he said "you can get whatever you want in life if you'll just help enough people get what they want."
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