How to Make Email Marketing Works for Your Business

Quoted From : Mr JH Saw

Topic 1 ~ Your Email Subject Lines ~ How To Write A Good E-mail Subject Lines That Works? Here are the 5 tips: 1. Ask a question. One of the best ways to get a reader's attention is to ask a question. But like a trial lawyer questioning a witness on the stand, make sure it'll get you the response you're looking for. "What's the best way to grow your business?" is a great subject line for business owners. After all, what business owner wouldn't want to grow his or her business? Or let's say you run a health club. An e-mail with the subject line, "How can you lose 5 pounds in one month?" would certainly be compelling. It's important your question be relevant to your audience. 2. Be a tease. A clever subject line can be enticing. When it's done right, reader curiosity is piqued. They want to know more--and they'll open your e-mail. Writing a teaser-style subject line requires some creativity, and your content needs to deliver. A company that sells high-definition TVs could use the subject line, "You're not going to believe your eyes" as a teaser to introduce a new addition to their product line. 3. Tell it like it is. Often, what works best is to say exactly what you want your reader to know. Examples of this straightforward approach are, "Sale on all sweaters this weekend," "Master jazz pianist plays live this Friday" and "The seven secrets of a profitable business." This just-the-facts approach works especially well when you can appeal directly to your audience's interests. It's also the best approach to use when you send a newsletter. 4. Remember "WIIFM". When a person gets your e-mail, the first thing they consider is "what's in it for me?" They have a decision to make. Do they open your e-mail, leave it for later or delete it? If there isn't something about the subject line that lets them know why it's worth their precious time to see what's inside, then the choice will be clear. Keep WIIFM in mind when creating every aspect of your e-mails, including the offer, content, images--and most definitely the subject line. It's all about them. They know that; just make sure you know it, too. 5. Get personal. The more you can make each contact feel you're speaking directly to them, the more effective your communication will be. Whatever style of subject line you use, you can make it personal by using the word "you." Professional copywriters know the secret of using this powerful little word. Just look at the advertisements, mail and e-mail you receive. A few examples are, "Find the right swimsuit for you," "You can save 50 percent on travel," and "You'd look phenomenal in a custom-tailored suit." "You" is ideal, but "your" works too. 6. Not sure which approach is right for you? Try them all, and then show a friend or colleague to get their feedback. Pick the one you believe will be most effective for your audience. Whichever approach you choose, it's always worth spending the time and effort to write a great subject line. Because if your readers don't open your e-mail, they'll never have the chance to read the important message you've created for them inside. Topic 2 ~ Increase Click-Through Rate (CTR) ~ How to Increased Click-Through Rate (CTR)? Here are some guidelines: 1. Include a feature, a benefit, and an advantage in the opening. This needs to be used in a subtle way, but in the opening you're really doing a small marketing job for this issue of your email newsletter. Highlight an article or two that are important, explain what you're providing the readers that they won't get elsewhere, and tell them what the benefit will be. A great example is something like "Nokia and Sprint announced second quarter earnings today. Learn what our Wireless Week experts say about the results, and what effect you can expect them to have on the industry at large." 2. Put the email newsletter in the context of your readers' day. This goes hand in hand with the last point. Your readers are busy, and if you can make a compelling case for why they should stop what they are doing and take a few minutes now to read your email newsletter, you'll get them in. We recommend editors reference important events, upcoming trade shows, or other things that say to the reader "You will find it worthwhile to stop and read this email newsletter now, because the information in it will help you stay on top of your business." 3. Keep it fresh. Don't craft a "perfect paragraph" and use it issue after issue after issue. One of the keys to success is to keep the copy fresh and highlight items in that issue of the email newsletter. If you use the same generic language repeatedly, people will stop reading it and it'll be a waste of your time. 4. Keep it short. This is critical. We recommend no more than two to three sentences -- just enough to get them interested and pull them in to read the rest of your email newsletter. Try it out and see the results! This is just one of the simple things you can do to engage your reader and optimize your CTR. Topic 3 ~ Killer Email Sales Letter ~ How to Write Killer Email Sales Letter That Get Results? Here are what we've found works best. Use these tips properly and your results will skyrocket. 1. Your email "from" sender line should be your brand name or company name and stay consistent. Use your own personal name only if that is your brand image. 2. Send emails only when you have something to say that will benefit the reader. No fluff. No filler. You must be relevant. If you can't be, don't send an email until you have something beneficial to say. 3. Start your emails with the specific benefit the reader can get from your message. You have no more than 3 seconds to pass the crucial "what's in it for me?" test. 4. The copywriting tone and language should be personal and conversational, instead of stuffy and "corporate". 5. Make a specific offer to the reader and, if possible, include a short deadline by which he must respond to get it. 6. Use as much copy as is needed to fully pile on all the benefits the reader will get by ordering, answer objections, create urgency, and close the sale. 7. Test your subject lines and offers on small segments of your list before you send the email to your entire list. 8. Include "Email this to a friend" service in all your communications for pass along and viral marketing. Topic 4 ~ Good Call-to-Action ~ Get More Clicks With a Good Call-to-Action! The call-to-action is a determining factor of your click-through rate. It is an important component of your email copy because it answers three important questions for the recipient. They are: 1. What you want them to do 2. Why they should do it, and 3. How to take that next step. Whatever action you want your recipients to take, you can make it happen more often with a good call-to-action. First, decide what you want them to do: 1. Buy something 2. Sign up for a service 3. Fill out a form 4. Read an article or get more information 5. Visit your website or store 6. Make an appointment Etc… Then, make sure you incorporate these 6 characteristics to get the results you're looking for. Make your call-to action: 1. Visible - People read, react, make decisions and take action differently. Some make decisions right away ("You had me at hello.") and some need more details ("I'm from Missouri."). Place call-to-action links in the beginning, middle and end of the email so that recipients can click whenever they are ready. 2. Clear - Stick to simple words, short phrases, bulleted benefits and paragraphs of 1-3 short sentences. Include appropriate graphics and cut the clutter by making effective use of white space. 3. Compelling - Use action-oriented verbs and phrases: "buy now," "call today," "save" and so on. 4. Rewarding - Offer an incentive or reward for action. For example, "Act now and also receives...," or "the First 100 respondents will be entered into a raffle to win..." The giveaway, or prize, you choose should be closely related to your product or service. That way, you will be targeting customers who are interested in what you have to offer, not just the latest gadget. 5. Urgent - The longer an email sits in an inbox, the less likely it is to be acted on. Create a sense of urgency to get a more immediate response. Try limiting the offer to a specific time period, to the "first 50 customers," "while supplies last," etc. 6. Direct - Your call-to-action links should go to the appropriate page on your website with more details on the specific product or service you're promoting. If you don't have a website, the call-to-action might be store locations to visit or a number to call for an appointment. Keep in mind that, in addition to repeating your call-to-action, you can vary your call-to-action to appeal to different types of buyers (and to fit your sales cycle). For example: "Click here to buy now" will naturally work better with loyal customers. The softer, "Click here to learn more" may be better for newer prospects. Topic 5 ~ Avoid Common Pitfalls ~ Read Your Email Message Backwards to Avoid Common Pitfalls Here are some common problems to look out for: 1. Misspelled words - It's a good idea to spell-check a document, but it's not enough. A spell checker won't catch every error. 2. Wrong word used - This is why a spell checker isn't enough. A spell checker will only flag words it doesn't recognize. It can't tell if a legitimate word is used incorrectly. Some words commonly confused: accept, except; your, you're; then, than; there, their, they're; cite, site, sight; lay, lie; loose, loosen, lose. Also, look out for a missing "r" in the word "your." It's easy to overlook a sentence such as "Visit our Web site now to receive you free copy." 3. Grammar error - Again, if you know you're not a good writer, have someone else check your writing for grammatical errors. Mistakes make you look bad. 4. Punctuation error - This is another area where you'll benefit from a review by someone who knows their stuff. If you're determined to do it yourself, purchase a good grammar or style book. One of the most common punctuation problems: Too many stupid commas! 5. Vague or confusing statement - Make sure every sentence is crystal-clear. You don't want your promotional message to raise more questions than it answers. 6. Illogical statement - Read over what you have written slowly. At the end of each paragraph, ask yourself: "Did that make sense?" Rewrite so that it does. Topic 6 ~ Frequency of Sending Emails ~ How Often (Frequency) Should You Send Email? There's no quick answer to the frequency question. It depends on the goals for your email and the type of content you send. Some rough guidelines: 1. Mail at least once a month. Mail less often than this, and you risk being forgotten by recipients. Monthly is the bare minimum if you want to keep your brand or company name top of mind (a common email goal). 2. Let content be your guide. Look at what you provide readers and you'll get a feel for proper frequency. Analyze how often the information changes and how quickly readers must receive it to act on it. 3. Work within your resources. A daily email requires many more resources than a monthly. Better a well-done monthly email than shoddy weekly or daily. It's recommended to start with a monthly. Once that's going smoothly, they can think about moving to weekly. You need to walk before you can run! 4. Watch for trends. Declining response, open, and click-through rates can be signs of list fatigue. Though some decrease is normal, watch carefully and cut back frequency if you see a problem. Don't assume if the unsubscribe rate is stable you're OK. Many people prefer to forward email directly to their delete folder rather than unsubscribe. Topic 7 ~ Understanding Spam Filters ~ Understanding Spam Filters to Avoid Your Emails Get Junked! If you send email campaigns long enough, you will inevitably run into spam filter issues. On average, you can expect 10-20% of your emails to just get lost in cyberspace, mostly due to overzealous spam filters. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. If you want to avoid getting your emails junked by spam filters, you have to understand how they work. Generally speaking, spam filters look at a long list of criteria to judge whether or not your email is junk. For example, they might look for spammy phrases like "CLICK HERE!" or "FREE! BUY NOW!". They'll assign points each time they see one of those phrases. Certain criteria get more points than others. Here's a sample of criteria from Spam Assassin, one of the most popular spam filters out there: • Talks about lots of money (.193 points) • Describes some sort of breakthrough (.232 points) • Looks like mortgage pitch (.297 points) • Contains urgent matter (.288 points) • Money back guarantee (2.051 points) • Why Pay More? (1.249 points) It's easy to use "spammy" keywords in your email without even knowing it. Here are some common ways marketers unwittingly trigger spam filters with their campaigns: 1. Using spammy phrases, like "Click here!" or "Once in a lifetime opportunity!" too many times in your email. Sometimes, you can't avoid phrases like "FREE SHIPPING!" but use them sparingly, and don't do anything else risky. 2. Going crazy with exclamation points!!!!!! 3. USING ALL CAPS, WHICH IS LIKE YELLING IN EMAIL 4. Coloring their fonts bright red, or green 5. Coding sloppy HTML (such as by converting a Microsoft Word file to HTML) 6. Creating an HTML email that's nothing but one big image, with no text (since spam filters can't read images, they assume you're a spammer that's trying to trick 'em) 7. Using the word "Test" in the subject line (agencies run into this all the time, when sending drafts to clients for approval) Topic 8 ~ Why Email Marketing Does not Work? ~ If Your Email Marketing Does not Work, Think Again Why? Before you arrive at the faulty conclusion that email marketing doesn't work, let’s look at this from a different perspective for a moment that would make your emails ineffective. First there's what you are writing in the body of the email. If this is your first attempt to get in touch with a prospect, what are you putting in the email? A dissertation? If it's longer than one or two paragraphs, it's too long. Look at your emails like an initial cold call. You need to laser in and deliver a compelling opening statement that's going to grab their interest and stimulate a conversation. Because there's no one to cut you off in an email or stop you from persistent pontification, people have tendency to ramble on and on in an email, giving the prospect the life story of the product or service they want them to consider. Keep it short and focus on the one or two benefits, opening up the opportunity to have a dialogue. That's it. Second, are you sending attachments in the first email? No attachments! It's hard enough sending an unsolicited email to a prospect. Now you're adding more barriers and increasing the chances of your email winding up in their spam box or junk email folder. Some people have filters on their email that if an attachment is sent it automatically gets deleted. No attachment until that information in the attachment is solicited by the person. Third, html or text? Once again, with all the email filters people use today, you will increase your odds by sending a text message only rather than trying to get fancy with formatting, graphics and pictures. The prospect really doesn't care about how beautiful your email looks; they care about the core message. Besides, they will never even get a chance to see your beautiful masterpiece in an html email if it's winding up in the trash. Finally, you are using way too many spam words. As mentioned, the biggest enemy to email marketing or selling via email is the additional security that companies and individuals have on their network or computer. As such, the specific words you are using in the body of the email can be the culprit who is sending your email directly into the trash or spam box. In other words, you are using words that are often identified is spam and in turn, you email is getting flagged and deleted. Not even eye contact! The prospect is not getting a chance to, at the very least, see your email let alone read it and have a chance to respond accordingly. Ending ~ Please Forward ~ Feel Free To Forward This E-Book To Your Friends! Thank you for reading this e-book on “How to Make Email Marketing Works for Your Business”. This e-book provides useful guides on email marketing, and helps e-marketers to avoid several pitfalls in email marketing. We hope you may regard this e-book as a book of guidance and that we can help you in your e-marketing effort. If you think the outlined tips can help you, please take a few seconds to help us distribute or forward this e-book to as many people as possible. I appreciate your time taken to read this e-book and I always appreciate reading your thoughtful and well considered comments, please drop an email to me at sales@blastsg.com if you have something to say about this e-book. Thank you!

When to Use Formal Uniforms for Your Business

As a business owner, you are given the unique position of deciding exactly the image that your employees will project to the customers and clients for your business. If you are like most business owners, you are likely finding it a struggle to select the most appropriate uniforms for your business to ensure that you are truly reflecting the image that you want. While picking out uniforms might sound really easy, in reality it is a large process. The way your business looks on a first impression is heavily impacted by your choice of uniforms and this means it is critical to decide if you should go with a formal or a casual approach.

Many business owners have decided that the best way to handle this issue is to use formal uniforms during the week, but allow a much more casual approach to uniforms for the weekend. However, this is of course not the perfect solution for all businesses. While it may seem completely unfair, there are some businesses that are simply expected to present a formal impression to clients. Upscale and high quality restaurants are a good example of this. If you are going to be charging premium prices for the food on your menu, your clients are going to expect your staff to be well dressed.

The restaurant industry is not the only place that formal uniforms fit though. Many business owners for stores, hotels and other hospitality businesses also opt for a formal approach. The quality feel that is provided to clients is unmatched and your business will look much more professional when your staff is wearing formal uniforms, rather than simply wearing a t-shirt and jeans to work. Trying to select the proper uniforms for your business is just as important if you are selecting formal uniforms, as it is if you are selecting a more casual approach.

In fact, choosing formal uniforms for your business means it is even more important to carefully select the proper uniforms. Many times, the poor quality uniforms will actually cast a negative image of your business instead of the upscale image that you are actually striving for. Taking the time to carefully ensure that you are selecting good quality uniforms means that your employees will look wonderful, but also ensure that you are well on your way to saving as much money as possible.

How To Excel And Reach Success In Your Business

To be able to climb the steep ladder of success, it is necessary to fine tune your business. Irrespective of the nature, type or size of your business you need to prepare and nurture it in a specific way to be ready for success.

Abraham Lincoln once stated 'while others were enjoying their sleep I was busily climbing the ladder of success'. He was referring to his phenomenal success 'from a log cabin to white house'. Like Lincoln you too can prepare, ahead of others, to take your business to the pinnacle of success. And the top of the ladder of success being never crowded on reaching the top it is easy to stay there and excel.

The groundwork to reach business excellence starts with finding answers to a few questions. The important questions are;

A. Where my business is now?

B. Where I want it to be?

C. And how I am going to get it there?

To probe what stage your business is now compare your business with the competing businesses. What is your business's market niche, the popularity, the size of customer base, current performance, turnover and profits are some of the comparable indicators. These indicators will help to indentify the current position of your business. For example if yours is a website business you can use indicators such as its search engine position, Google page rank, traffic status, incoming links etc to ascertain where your business is now.

Next step will be to evaluate the weaknesses and strengths of your business to understand it better. Then you can determine ways and means to convert the weaknesses to strengths. Business strengths will lead to opportunities.

This analysis will also reveal to you the threats to you business as well. A plan of action will help to deal with threats. Threats are challenges that test your strengths to the fullest.

On identifying weaknesses too work out a plan on how to convert weaknesses to strengths. More strength and fewer weaknesses will provide you with more opportunities.

As a useful step of this exercise you can benchmark your business with the best practices of businesses that excel. The factors such as customer loyalty and retention, product/service features and quality, business image, on time delivery, after sale service, marketing capability etc., can be benchmarked. It is useful to compare your current performance in each operational activity with the best practices and try to narrow the gaps.

The top businesses excel because of their best practices. Some of your business practices may be above or below theirs. Learn what others do better in business and make improvements to your business practices. Accordingly, make plans and implement what you need to improve to excel. It benefits you to follow those who have already reached the top.

Next your focus should be to find answer to the question 'where I want my business to be? It refers to the Vision of your business that states where you want the business to be. Your business needs a carefully thought out Vision. 'To reach the number one position in its line of business in five years time' is an example of a Vision. Decide on a Vision to aim at for business excellence. A Vision has a definite time deadline. The Vision is really a 'Dream with a Deadline'. And you need to make and follow a strategic plan to reach it.

Our final question 'how you are going to get there' relates to the Mission of your business. A business needs a Mission to take it towards its Vision. A Mission Statement should reflect your business purpose. For example a successful apparel company had as its mission 'Clothing the world in style'. Your business too can have such a rhythmic Mission Statement to constantly remind, motivate and push you and your staff toward business excellence.

Home Based Business Tips for Newbie

by: Tsuyoshi Suzuki
A major concern of all Home Based Business Entrepreneurs is to get Traffic to their websites. Most people who have searched for a suitable home based Internet Business opportunity complain about a common illness: They are sick and tired of websites that promote best home based Internet Business opportunities… sick and tired of the false promises, the over-hyped sales pitches, and the downright SCAMS that lurk behind most Internet Business opportunities. Millions of people around the world have had the dream of finding the perfect home based business and being able to fire their boss.

Starting a home based internet business can be a run away success if the website comes up within the first 20 results of organic searches. Promoting your Internet Business Offline is a great way of getting over this problem and at the same time creating an image for yourself and your Home Based Business. Hence SEO is one of the main tools for your websites promotion as well as marketing, when starting a home based internet business.

Looking at the above statistics and statements, you must have gathered a basic picture in your mind on how important SEO can be to your starting a home based internet business. If you are new to the Internet business, you might feel that you would prefer to remain anonymous because you are still learning the trade and have no expertise to share. Once you’ve decided what you are going to sell on the internet and how, you venture online to search for profitable home based business opportunities that appeal to you.

In addition to diversifying your online business, you should also take a few other things in account that are unique to the problems that home based business owners face. These are just a few of the reasons that you should consider diversifying your business. Promoting an home business calls for 3 things: increasing traffic to your website, selling goods/services that are worth the money and retaining/adding to your customer base.

In order for your internet home business to be successful, your website must well set up so that it attracts the traffic you need, and so that the visitors who will come to your website will make you some money. For your business to be successful, it is important that you constantly improve your website or products/services, and you can achieve this by having a feedback form on your website. The final fear to overcome when thinking about putting your photo on the Internet for your website, is that you are not good looking or just don't photograph well.

One of the easiest, low capital and requirement little knowledge and skill initially to build a home based business is to join a MLM or network company. Another way is to get into the mind of the small home business owner. As a Web Designer or a Business owner wearing a Web Designer Hat it seems you have 2 Choices, do what seems right and in many ways best and use a Pretty Directory Structure and Loose Ranking points or Throw out the Directory Structure and Gain Ranking Points.

Tsuyoshi E. Suzuki makes it easy to build your home based business and earn a substantial income. Finally, you should make sure that lifetime support for your profitable home based business opportunity is provided. For more information, make sure you follow the link in the recourse box below now.

How do I put AdSense on my blog (using Layouts)?

Quoted From http://help.blogger.com

First of all, choose the blog that you want to put AdSense on, and go to the Template | Page Elements tab. You can get there by clicking the Layout link on the dashboard, or clicking the Template tab from the posting or settings page of the blog.

Once you're there, click one of the Add a Page Element links. Choose the one that corresponds to the area of the page that you want to contain your AdSense ads. When the 'Choose a New Page Element' window comes up, select the AdSense option.

The next page displays an AdSense sign-up page. If you're new to AdSense, go ahead and fill it out to create an account. If you already have an AdSense account, click the sign in link instead so you don't accidentally make an extra account.

Once you've signed in or created or account, you'll get the configuration screen. Use the menus to select a format, and one of our preset color templates. If you want more control, you can also enter colors of your own choosing by typing the hex codes in the spaces provided.

If for any reason you need to switch to using a different AdSense account, click the Switch to a different publisher ID link at the bottom.

When you have things the way you want them, just save your changes and go see how it looks on your blog. Come back to tinker with the settings any time by clicking the edit link for the AdSense unit on the Page Elements tab.

Ecommerce Solutions How to Take Your Business Online

Industry Buzzword for online revolution in business points to ecommerce. Ecommerce is the term used to identify the concept of doing business online. It has changed the corporate strategies and its rules of doing business completely. It has enabled companies to grow their business in the competitive and global marketplace. Businesses can have affordable showcasing of products, global reach, 24*7 business, efficient operations, added revenues, enhanced customer relationship, all with the power of ecommerce.
Ecommerce refers to a paperless process of business information exchange using email, EDI, online shopping, stock trading, selling of soft goods (software, e-books etc) and B2B transactions. It defines the usage of internet to do business efficiently and quickly. The best thing about ecommerce is that it promotes self service by allowing customers to browse through the products and buy your products online without the need to meet you.
Ecommerce is a way of integrating an existing company website to the core of the business by introducing online shopping facilities. A shopping cart functionality enables the customers to choose products, quantity and keep track of their shopping basket. It dissolves the need for a face to face interaction by using multimedia based communication. Paying for merchandise can be done through secured servers with options to pay through credit card or digital cash. Endless opportunities exist in online business by enabling ecommerce in the website.
Ecommerce Solutions enable receipt of payments through payment gateways through secure connections acquired by the website. Payments can be received through special merchant account established for this purpose. This service manages all the transactions and enables the customers to make online payments in a safe and secure manner.
Payments are followed by delivery of the product that can be equated to order handling in mail order business. Ecommerce solutions provide easy interface for fulfillment of orders by employing an extra resource to ensure shipping of online orders. Shipping Process Integration enables customers to keep track of the shipping process. They can keep track of when their products were picked up from the warehouse and when will they be delivered at their doorstep.