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Email Marketing Tips

by: Anna-Marie Stewart

If you don`t know it yet, you will probably learn over time, that email marketing is probably THE most effective way of marketing online. That is, IF you do it the right way.

Here`s a couple of hints and tips that have worked for me:

I have a habit of signing up for safelists that offer free pro memberships to the first so-so many members. I find that smaller safelists are most responsive. Once they reach around 1000 members or so, the actual opening and reading of mails seems to die off.

Think about what would make YOU open an email. What would grab YOUR attention? Try to make the subject both interesting and captivating, with just a touch of urgency.

Make sure your subject line isn`t misleading. That`s such a huge turn-off to most marketers. They open a mail with a great subject line, and find that it bears absolutely NO relevance to the mail itself. Not only will they most likely delete the mail right away, but they`ll probably remember who sent it, and never open mails from that person again.

Remember, if you`re going to use safelists for your email marketing, get a seperate email address for all the mail you`ll get from other members.

I probably have about 10 so-called "junkmail" accounts, where I get all my safelist mails. I go through my mails every day, and yes, I do delete a lot of them right away.

Sometimes though, something catches my eye, and I take a closer look. If the subject line`s are interesting, I open them ALL. I find it`s a GREAT way of keeping on top of what`s happening in the world of internet marketing.

Now, if safelists are just NOT your cup of tea, you need to work out how to create a warm market, for your own personal use.

The best way of doing this, is by building your very own contact list. Whether you want to publish an ezine, or just create a mailing list is up to you, but make sure you do it properly. I personally find my contacts through chat. I go to as many chatrooms as I can find, and make sure my profile is up-to-date and lets people know that I`m an online marketer.

That way, if people are interested in learning more about me, they`ve at least got a starting point, and from there, it`s pretty easy to get them to allow you to add them to your mailing list.

Don`t harvest email addresses, it`ll only end up in tears. Don`t buy mailing lists, no matter how cheap you can get them. Most of the lists that are for sale are made up of harvested email addresses. Harvested emails are by no means "opt-in" and you can be pretty sure you`ll end up getting a spam complaint. It`s a surefire way of losing your isp, webhost or even both. Pure SPAM is the biggest no-no out there.

No matter which way you decide to go, it`s going to be hard, mostly because of all the spam filters that are now in place. ISP`s are really cracking down on spammers. So much so, that even legitimate emails are getting filtered out.

I`ve gathered together a few sites that I find very helpful when I`m writing my ezine, and sending mails to safelists etc. It`s quite amazing to see what actually sets spam filters off. Take some time to go through it all. Bookmark the sites. If you`ve ever wondered if your mail is getting through, you can easily check, just by looking for the trigger words.

Here are a few sites/articles that show you some of the words that are considered to be spam triggers:
http://www.iprofitsystems.com/articles/spamfilters.html
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/spamfilter_phrases.htm
http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/ezine_killer.htm
office.microsoft.com/Assistance/9798/newfilters.aspx

This one I absolutely love. It`s real fast, gives you a quick review of your mail onsite, and sends you an email with more information. I use it every time I send out a "marketing" email of any kind.It`s most definitely one of the best "spam" checkers I`ve found.
www.lyris.com/contentchecker/

Email marketing can be a lot of hard work, especially as, according to the averages, people need to see your offer AT LEAST 7 times before they "bite". Be consistent, get your mails out there, but also be responsible. The last thing on earth anybody wants, is to be accused of spam. Spam accusations can hurt both you AND the website/product/program you`re promoting.

Don`t be afraid to add a little "personal" touch to your emails, just don`t go totally overboard by telling people the ins and outs of your life...hehehe

Above all, enjoy what you do.

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