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Do you own a small retail or service business? Have you learned how to harness the power of the internet, specifically email, to advertise, market, and promote your business to new and prospective customers? If not, here’s a short article on why and how to use email effectively.

Approximately 60 billion emails are sent every single day. Billion… with a “B”! Of course, most of those messages are some form of SPAM or pornography, but you can also assume that many millions of those messages are communicating some type of marketing or sales message. What’s sad is that many of THOSE will be left unopened, and of the ones that ARE opened, most will never be read.

I can show you how to use email effectively in your small off-line service or retail business, and how to get those messages opened and read by your prospects and customers. The question is, “Why aren’t you using small business email marketing?

Marketing your small off-line business using email gives you a very low-cost and time-efficient way to communicate to customers and prospects a tightly-focused marketing or sales message. In addition, once you discover an effective tactic, it becomes easy and in-expensive to repeat it. What could be better than that?

Think of a time you needed to make sales fast- either cash was in short supply, or you had an overstock. How did you get the word out. If you had your customer’s and prospect’s email addresses, and you had been set up to blast an email message to them, you would have known just what to do. The good news is, those are both simple things to set up for yourself, if you know how. Once they are in place and working smoothly, it’s like having your very own staff of personal couriers delivering your message directly to your customers.

Maybe you’ve always believed that small business email marketing was beyond your capabilities, but I can safely say that anyone with even the most basic computer skills can set up an email marketing campaign in a single afternoon. Then, in under one hour per week, you can maintain regular, personalized contact with all your customers and prospects.

If you could let each of your customers know when you have a special, a sale, or a discount with just the press of a few keys on your keyboard, wouldn’t you like to do it? That’s a pretty accurate description of small business email marketing. If you’re not on board, it’s not too late to start.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ben_Fesxbe

Headlines are absolutely vital for all your marketing efforts. Whether you plan to use them on your website, your emails, your newsletters or anywhere else, they’re the hook that grabs your readers, reels them in and turns them into customers. There are dozens of different kinds of headlines that you can use and some of them are better than others. These are the ones that I use, and that I’ve found the most effective.

The No Nonsense Headline

The first type of headline you can use is the simplest. No frills, no tricks, no hooks, just a straightforward description of the contents of your message. You could produce something like:

Tips To Save Money On Your Weekly Shopping
The Best Way To Choose Your Next Car
Real Estate Agents That Shift Property Fast!

Notice that you can still use explanations and hard-hitting adjectives to get your point across, but these headlines do little more than tell the reader what to expect.

The advantages of these headlines is that they’re easy to write and easy to read. You don’t have to try to come up with some hard-hitting sales message and customers aren’t put off by a document that looks a piece of promotional material. On the other hand, they’re a bit weak and that makes them hard to turn into cash.

When to use it

You can use No Nonsense Headlines when you don’t need to work hard to make the sale. If you’re sending information that you know your customer will read, either because it’s free or because it makes no obligation on them, these are the kind of headlines to use.

The Question Headline

Question headlines work by asking customers a question that plays on their worries and promises a solution further on. These are great devices when you really want to grab a customer and ram your message home.

Want To Save Thousands On Your Home Insurance Bills? Learn How To Cut Your Costs In Half! Where Do You Look For Love? Discover The Best Places To Meet Your Match! Suffering From Termites? Drive Them Out With The Extermite-Ator!

To write these headlines, think first of what problem your product is actually going to solve. (If it’s not going to solve a problem, then you’re going to have a problem selling it!) In the first half of the headline, you ask your customers if they’re suffering from the problem. Just by asking, you’re suggesting that they do. In the second half of the headline, you tell them that you have the solution. Dead easy and dead effective.

This is a really simple formula to follow: all you have to do is state the question and promise the answer. And it sells too; you’ve put the problem in the reader’s mind, now you’re offering the solution.

Of course, these kinds of headlines depend on the reader empathizing with the problem. If they don’t, or if they decide that the headlines looks too long to read, they’re not likely to buy.

When to use it

Question Headlines are most effective when your product is going to clearly solve someone’s problem—and when you know your customers are going to empathize with that problem. If they don’t say yes to the question, they’re going to say no to the sale.

The How Headline

This is pretty similar to the Question Headline—but only offers the solution. It makes for a shorter read than question headlines so you get your point across faster, but you lose the empathy.

How To Fix Up Your Home Without Breaking The Bank!
How I Made $3,000,000 With One Phone Call!
How I Lost 33 Pounds On A High Fiber Diet And A Revolutionary Light Exercise Plan!

These kinds of headlines cut straight to the problem-solving aspect of your product. They’re short and to the point and can be easily absorbed with just a glance.

When to use it

How Headlines are great when the rest of the document is going to reveal information. That information might just be details about your product, but the focus should always be on telling customers how they can solve a problem. These work best when you’re selling information products like books or newsletters.

The Numbered Headline

There’s a good reason that magazines like Cosmopolitan use headlines like “6 Ways To Drive Your Man Wild!” They work. Most people are put off by the sight of a giant slab of text. They want their information in bite-sized chunks. When you put a number in your headline, you let your reader know that the information you’re offering them is going to be easy to read:

7 Ways To Make Your Computer Run Faster
15 Top Tips To Turn Your Website Into A Money spinner
23 Sales Tools That Guarantee A Sealed Deal

The advantage of these headlines is that they promise easy reading, increasing the chances that your text will actually be read. It’s also easy to slip a call-to-action sales message into these kind of documents: one of the tools, deals, or ways etc. will be “buy my product”!

On the other hand, easy reading isn’t the same as interesting reading. The headline still has to grab your readers to make them want to read it.

When to use it

Numbered Headlines are most effective when you’re confident your readers will find your message interesting and you don’t have to fight to make them read on. They’re best used when you’re competing against other articles or sales letters. I use them a lot in newsletters, especially when I know it’s going to published in a joint venture partner’s newsletter.

The Testimonial Headline

These are some of the toughest headlines to write. You take a chunk of text from a letter written by a satisfied customer and use that as the headline for a sales letter:

“Last Year, I Was Working 12 Hours A Day And Making Just $36,000. Last Month, I Made $32,000 And Worked Three Days A Work—And It’s All Down To Your Amazing Methods!”

“I’d Tried Every Weight Loss Program Ever. I’d Tried Dieting, Exercise, High-Fiber, Low Fat, High-Carbs… You Name It, I’d Done It And Nothing Worked. Then I Tried The Lose Fat Fast Program. I Lost 33 Pounds In The First Two Months And I’ve Never Felt Better!”

“Within A Week Of Sending Out My Resume, I’d Got Three Interviews And A Fantastic Job Offer. I Couldn’t Have Done It Without You!”

These headlines puts your reliability right at the top, increasing the customers’ confidence to buy. They explain in detail precisely what you’re offering and what you can do for the reader. They also create massively long headlines that are difficult to absorb at a glance and can put a reader off.

When to use it

Testimonial headlines are best used in industries where reliability is a bit of a problem. If you’re selling weight loss products for example, or any other life-changing service, then a headline like this goes some way towards proving to the buyer that you’re on the level.

Those are just five kinds of headlines that I use in my businesses every day. There are dozens more, but these are the ones that I’ve found the most effective. There’s certainly enough here for you to get started. Play around with them, figure out which ones would work best for your business and try them out.

But even the best headline will only grab a reader’s eye and get him reading. They won’t close the sale. After the headline you’ll have to describe all the wonderful benefits of your product—you’ve got to get the reader to actually take the action that will seal the deal. That’s the call to action.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tim_Yu

If you’re running an online business, you know that your list is your most important asset. And regardless of whether you’re just starting out or not, if you lose a chunk of your subscribers because even just one of your emails gets flagged as spam, it’s going to hurt your business.

It’s vital to the ongoing success of your online business to make sure you know the difference between spam and opt-in email. Here are some tips on how to make sure you’re only sending email to people who have specifically asked for it.

1. Only Use Permission-Based Email Marketing

Simply put, opt-in email (also called ‘permission-based’) is email sent to people who have given you permission to contact them via email. So if someone hasn’t directly requested information from you, they should not be on your opt-in list.

2. Single or Double Opt-in?

Depending on the email list service you’re using in your business, you may have a choice between single or double opt-in email. With single opt-in, someone gives you their email address once and they are added to your list. With double opt-in (also know as confirmation opt-in), someone gives you their email address, to which they then receive an automated response from your list service asking them to click a specific URL to confirm that they do in fact want to be added to your list. Only once they click that link are they then added to your list.

So, which should you use? It depends, but for your main email list, I want to encourage you to use the double opt-in process. It means that you will lose a certain percentage of those people who signed up for your list because they then don’t confirm their subscription, but it protects you from being labeled as a spammer.

3. Post Your Privacy Policy

Wherever you give people the option to sign up for your list, make certain your privacy policy is clearly stated. Something like “We will never share your email address, period” should be fine.

4. Avoid Content Filter Triggers

In your subject line and message body, avoid common words that make your message look like spam. For example, don’t use words or phrases like FREE, guarantee, or increase income. Avoid using excessive punctuation or symbols, and phrases like “click here” as well.

5. Have a Clear Unsubscribe Link

In every email you send to your list, have a clear way for your reader to unsubscribe if they desire. Usually this is in the form of an unsubscribe URL at the bottom of the email. When someone clicks on the link, they should be taken to a page where they can remove their email address from your list. Just make sure your unsubscribe function works!

6. Get Whitelisted

Each ISP has their own rules that they use to determine if an email is spam or not. Do some research and start the process of getting whitelisted with the major ISPs, like AOL, Yahoo, HotMail/MSN, etc. Doing so is worth the time and effort required to protect your email from being considered spam.

At the very least, implement these 6 strategies in your online business today if you’re not already. Then check with your email list service provider about other ways to protect your email from being flagged as spam. Protecting your list like this acts as an insurance policy on your bottom line. You may not like making the ‘payments’ on that insurance but you won’t be sorry that you put it in place.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alicia_Forest

Anyone with an email address has had to worry about how to stop junk email, and they are probably not ready to admit defeat, even though it’s much like the Energizer Bunny. It just keeps going and going. How your email deals with junk depends on what service you use, and can also depend on what you have on your computer. There are a few things you can do to stop junk email before it even starts. Many have come up with some good solutions, but you may have to try them all to get any results.

One of the best ways to stop junk email is to keep your email address to yourself. If you have an email address through your website, there may be nothing you can do about that. However, you can keep a yahoo or hotmail account to yourself if you watch where you post it. Some people have two or even three emails in an attempt to stop junk email from coming into their personal account. They have one they use to sign up for things online and one that they give only to friends. When you sign up for websites, those sites might sell your address to spammers, even if they claim they don’t. Have a special account just for that purpose and keep your personal one to yourself.

You can also stop junk email by remembering that there are bots that scan the Internet looking for exposed email addresses. This means that if you post on a message board that you need help or want someone to contact you, and you list your email address, chances are good your address will be picked up and sold to spam mailers. In you want to stop junk email, you have to refrain from doing this, or use an email account just for that purpose. You should expect that it will fill up with junk after doing so, however.

You can also get a special program to help stop junk email. This software will return and email to sender and ask them to fill out a code to verify they are a real person. Though you may miss a few emails this way, anyone who wants to reach you will fill out the little box and the email will then be allowed to pass through. If you have a business email, you may not be able to find a way to stop junk email entirely while letting all important emails through. For the time being, you may just have to put up with it.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Davie_Beasley

Writing responsive emails is probably as much art as it is science. Maybe one way to look at it is like painting or drawing - there are proven rules for what works, but there is a lot of creativity that goes into making the painting poignant.

Responsive emails can sometimes be so unfriendly and impersonable. Adding that special touch of human contact lets the reader know that they are important and that there concerns and needs matter to you. Ensure that your responsive emails are set up to generate quickly. This providing the customer with quick responses if there was some form of mistake on either party’s part. Customer service is important even online.

Keep your responsive emails short, simple, and to the point. Readers hate to read long draw works. You already advertised the “product” and they “bought” it, keep the email scannable. The important parts should be bolded or highlighted, make them stand our and grab the readers attention. This focusing on what they received. This will help keep your customers coming back. However, do not keep them so short that they aren’t informative enough. I know this is tricky but too little information is as devising as too much. You know what the middle ground is. Use the KISS method, Keep It Simple Stupid!

To summarize, greet them by name, address particular information, provide contact information if they questions or concerns, and provide a turnaround time. Providing these simple yet strategic methods will prove to assist in your responsive emails and provide that personal touch that seems to be lost when using the internet.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_Ray