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You’ve got your internet business and you have created an opt-in list. Now what?

Well, you have to encourage your list to buy from you. This is a lot harder than you may first imagine. There are series of books written on this subject and it really is an art. Many people have studied for years to perfect this, however I’m going to go through some very important rules to follow when you start selling to your list. Email is the preferred method to contact your list as its free and very effective.

Always remember the vast majority of people base their decision to buy on EMOTION. They then justify their purchase through LOGIC.

When selling to your list you must address both these factors in order to maximise the sales from your list. Over the last five years I have been involved in various internet businesses and I have found the following rules to be most effective.

Get your customers begging for more information:

You have to grab the attention of your list, you must create enough interest so that your list is begging for more information on your products.

Carry out some market research for yourself, register with various companies and see how they sell, see how they make their products “sizzle”, this is sometimes referred to as “selling the sizzle” and can be very effective.

There are many ways to present your products and many promotional styles and methods. You have to grab your customers attention and get them to visit your site for more information and therefore buy your product. Content and creativity are the keys here, you are trying to lock in your customer to your marketing and therefore your products.

1. Keep your message simple, light and creative. Your customer does not want a long winded email with loads of facts and figure about your products and their performance. Keep it light hearted, your objective is to get your customer to read the email. We all live in a serious world, add a bit of humour or fun and it can pay off.
2. Add photos and splash some colour into your emails. Send out newsletters previewing your products, make them interesting, light hearted and eye catching. Grab your customers interest.
3. You must have good content and articles about your products. This will build trust between you and your customers. If necessary get a professional copy writer to do this for you in a style that is informative and light hearted, not stuffy. Outline the benefits of your products to your customers - do not talk about features - only benefits. Try not to be too keen here, people don’t like products being forced upon them, hold back a little, this often works.
4. A picture is worth a thousand words. If you do have clear and concise pictures of your products then use them! This coupled with clear concise benefits can work wonders.

Grab Your Readers Attention With Your Subject:

This is sometimes overlooked by new internet business owners. They don’t realise that just sending an email is not enough. In this day and age there are literally thousands of companies who market their products through opt-in lists via email. You have to realise that you are just one of the many companies vying for your customers attention.

Therefore it is imperative that you actually get your customer to open your email. To some this may sound rather a basic point. But do you realise that on average every 100 emails sent to an opt-in list, the average number of emails that are actually read is approx 30-40.

THE major factor in your customer opening your email is the subject heading in your email - that is why it is so important to get this right.

1. Try and keep the subject short and concise, it should ideally provide a summary of the content of your email. You need to grab the attention of your customer so that they are intrigued to open your email and read further. Tickle your customers curiosity, use emotion and selling words. Remember you only have a few seconds to grab your customers attention before they skip or delete your email.
2. A popular method is to indicate that your email will give your customer some sort of training or tips on certain subjects. You can do this by using such phrases such as “Guide To …” or “How To …” or “Tips for …”. These are known to work well but your email content must reflect your subject heading.
3. Asking a question in the subject heading can also work well. Again you have to get emotional buy in, even from the subject heading. So questions like “Are you looking for financial freedom?” or “Have you had enough of working for someone?”. These types of subject heading get your customers thinking straight away and are known to work well. Again always ensure your email content gives an answer to the question stated in the subject of your email.
4. New product announcements. This is perfect when previewing new products you are about to launch or make available to your customers. Headings like “Announcing great new …” or “2 weeks before launch of …”. Again can be very effective given the product you are selling.
5. Issuing a command or directive. Statements such as “Act now …” or “Limited opportunity apply now …” or “Triple your income, find out how …”. Again you are emphasising the benefits of your products to your customers.

Things To Avoid When Emailing Your List:

Online and email marketing is very common and your customers will be bombarded with many internet companies vying for their money. It is important for you to avoid getting into problems with the law or your ISP or with spamming. However, if you have created your own opt-in list then you should be o.k. and not have to worry from these problems. However there are still some things to avoid.

Remember it can takes years to gain a good reputation and only a few minutes to destroy it.

1. Analyse your email broadcasts, take note of those that bounce, i.e. that are undeliverable. Also get some information on how many were opened. Erase all bounced email addresses. Some autoresponders such as Aweber do this for you. Manually check the email address for common mistakes, it may be that it is a simple spelling mistake which you can correct.
2. Always but always provide an unsubscribe option at the bottom of your emails. Aweber automatically does this as do most autoresponders. It may be that someone used another persons email address so you need to give them an easy option to stop receiving your emails.
3. Do not send shocking or disturbing pictures or video, absolutely no pornographic content should be sent. You cannot be certain of the age of the person who has opted in to your list, therefore always keep your content respectable and above board. Always stick to the content of your site or your products.

Follow the above golden rules and you should be successful at marketing your products to your list and getting a favourable response. Remember, cultivating the relationship between yourself and your customers is key in establishing trust and thereby getting your customers to purchase from you.

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Yunis Khan - I have been involved in Internet Businesses for the past 5 years and have gained some valuable experience, sometimes bitter, sometimes with fantastic results. I hope my experiences can help others become successful Internet Business owners. http://www.earnmoneydailyonline.com

Tags: email marketing, Marketing, opt in lists

“If you can’t stand in front of your target, reading what you’ve written aloud, you have no right to it.” - Frank Watson

After reading countless articles on social media, and sadly more recently of the tale of Megan Meier, it would seem that the bad element of society thrives on the safety of being anonymous. So often I’ve looked at blog postings, or more specifically the comments left by unnamed visitors, and wondered if those people would actually be able to say what they do to someone else face to face.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: article writing, email marketing, Marketing, Web 2.0

Your primary focus as an Internet marketer should be on “permission marketing”* and not be quick sales!

Sure, you can set up a website with some great content and plaster it with banners and links to pages that pre-sell products and then link through to the products themselves.

You can even succeed in making a nice little income this way, provided you are driving enough targeted traffic to your site.

But how much of the traffic drives off again without a trace, never to return?

And how many of the people who do click through and buy the product return to you to buy again?

If your site is well designed and targeted then it is quite possible that some people will return and buy again.

But, how much better would it be if instead of trying to get people to part with their cash as soon as possible, you actually focused less on the quick sale and more on building a relationship with the customer?

By focusing on your prospect’s need for trustworthy advice you would stand a much bigger chance of turning your prospect into a life-long customer who trusted you, was eager to hear from you and bought your recommended products time and time again.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Here is a list of the steps you need to take to move towards a method of marketing that places the customer’s needs at the centre and turns the relationship into a dialogue rather than a shouting match!

1. Focus on gaining people’s permission for you to contact them about their needs.

Do this by making a squeeze page (or several) and also by adding a form to each page of your website. Include an incentive for people to sign up, like a compelling free report about stuff they need to know but haven’t seen elsewhere.

2. Link the form on your page to your autoresponder, which has been pre-loaded with a series of messages that will now go out to the subscriber.

3. While you might like to include a link or two to your products, don’t over-do the sales at this stage of the game. Instead, remember that you have not yet won your reader’s trust.

What you have to do in the early stages is set up a dialogue and also provide useful services and recommendations.

To do that, your email newsletters should be packed with useful information that is written in a lively and personal manner and focuses on the customer.

Also, provide free resources, tips and information that are genuinely useful. Don’t be afraid to include links to sites other than your own - subscribers will appreciate your generosity and return for more.

4. From time to time make your subscribers a new opt-in offer. Give them a good incentive and require that they give your some more information that you can use to focus on their needs more closely.

Those who opt in will be transferred from the first to the second mailing list.

The second list will be your more powerful list of clients with whom you have developed a stronger relationship of trust and who will be eager and happy to hear your offers.

That is the list you make your money on in repeat sales and sales of your primary products and services.

But remember, it is also the list you must look after most assiduously. The subscribers on the list have learned to trust you and building trust online with your customers is the key.

If you are tempted to sell them short at this stage for a quick profit, you will soon find that you have succeeded in undermining your credibility and your hard work will have been wasted. Remember, you are seeking to build a long-term relationship of mutual benefit, so don’t muff it by succumbing to short-term greed.

I have only described a couple of stages of this “permission marketing” model.

Moving your customers “up the permission-marketing ladder”* is the key to success. It does not have to be just a one-step move. You can implement several steps, each one moving the customer relationship to a higher and more personal level.

The role of sub-niches is also important here. As you talk to your list and invite a response, you should also be prepared to place different responses on different lists at the higher level.

With fewer subscribers on each niche list, you now have the opportunity to get to know each customer more personally and open up several lines of 1-on-1 dialogue with subscribers who are now repeat-buyers.

Because they have moved up several rungs of the permission-marketing ladder you know a lot more about them and are now in a position to offer them exactly what they need, and they are in a position, based on experience to trust your offers and enjoy your mailings.

They are customers who are eager to hear from you and willing to buy from you, so treat their trust like gold-dust.

NOTE

*See Seth Godin’s “Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends Into Customers” (available on Amazon.com)

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David Hurley is an Internet marketer who is based in Japan and is the owner of http://grasp-the-nettle.com, which focuses on success mentoring for Internet marketing start-ups. Get your own work-from-home Internet business set up free and find out how you can build an online business and master the net.

Tags: email marketing, Marketing

Just like writing a sales page for your product, program or service, writing successful email promotions can be easier than you think. There’s a science to it, more than an art, and to get you started, I’d like to share a tested formula for you to follow.

Taking the time to consider and answer the questions below before you write your email promotion will make it easier to write, easier for your reader to engage with, and easier to turn your prospect into a buyer.

Here are 5 essential elements to writing email promotions that will increase your sales:

1. Who’s your audience?

It’s important to know exactly who your audience is before you start writing the copy for your email promotion. Obviously, you’ll be sending your promotion to your list. But will it be for your entire ezine subscribers list? Or are you making an offer only to the people on your list who have bought from you before, your customers? Or are you targeting your one-on-one clients only?

Getting really specific about who you are writing your email promotion to will allow you to make it as personal as possible, and the more personal you can make it, the more sales you’ll make.

2. What action do you want to your reader to take?

Decide what it is exactly that you want your reader to do. Is it to subscribe to your ezine? Is it to join one of your group programs? Do you want them to invest in a new product or take advantage of a sale you’re having on an established product?

Choose only ONE thing for your reader to do (remember, ‘a confused mind always says no’) and they are much more likely to do it!

3. What benefits will your reader get?

If your reader purchases your product, how will they benefit? If someone subscribes to your ezine, what will they get out of it? If a reader signs up to work with you one-on-one, how will that make things better, easier, more fun or whatever it is that you can do for them?

Make the benefits your reader gets crystal clear in your email promotions. If you have more than one, use bullets to make them easier to read and digest, and lead the reader smoothly to your call to action.

4. What’s your ‘take action now’ lever?

For each promotion you do, you want to choose and use a tactic for getting people to take action. We’re all procrastinators, so you want to strongly encourage your reader to take action right away.

Some tactics you can use are to offer a limited availability, a limited time, limit spots, special price, free shipping for a limited time, etc.

5. What’s your format?

Couple of notes on the format of your email promotions:

• Testing shows that HTML emails with bullets tend to generate higher response rates, as long as they are between 1-2 pages.
• Make sure your call to action (’Buy Now’, ‘Visit This Page for More Info’, ‘Order Today’) is near the end of your email promotion, after your list of benefits and your ‘take action’ lever.
• Include contact information at the bottom of your email promotions, with an email address and/or phone number for people who have questions.
• Don’t forget your unsubscribe information as well, to comply with CAN-SPAM laws.
• Include a PS, which is the second most read part of any sales copy. One effective use of a PS is to ask for the order again, including the link.

Use these 5 elements as a framework for your next email promotion and track your conversion rates. You should see more results and make more sales by doing so!

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Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & CoachT, founder of ClientAbundance.com and creator of 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success SystemT, teaches professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com .

Tags: , email marketing

When I noticed an automatically generated note from one of my email list hosting accounts at ProfitAutomation warning me that the account was approaching the 200,000 subscriber limit, and that I needed to increase its size, I realized that I finally had all of the subscribers that I really “needed.” That account is one of five that I have with ProfitAutomation, and I also have one with Aweber.

So, while I still have a goal of building my database to over 1 million subscribers before the end of 2008, subconsciously I have to admit… that’s somewhat for “bragging rights.”

As I studied list building over the years, I eventually realized that a more important question than how to grow your list is “How do you keep loyal subscribers.”

Growing a large list is fairly simple… depending upon your definition of large.

It’s as simple as:

- Having a subscribe box on every page of your website

- Having a subscribe box somewhere in the backend of each sales processes

- Giving people a very specific reason for subscribing (telling them what benefit they’ll gain from being on your list)

- Using testimonials from happy subscribers to prove that other already enjoy your ezine

- Focusing your ezine on a tightly niched topic that your audience has a real interest in

There are other things that you can do such as joint ventures, and finding ways to get in front of other publishers’ audiences, but it all centers around answering the question of “What’s in it for me?” that all of your potential subscribers have.

Once you get subscribers though, how do you keep them?

My friend Paul Myers, in his ebook, “The Amazing List Machine” taught me that you simply deliver to your subscribers what you promised them when they first joined your list.

If your ezine is on affiliate marketing, then your content teaches them affiliate marketing.

If your ezine is on website traffic generation then your content teaches them about website traffic generation.

If your ezine is on cooking (as one of mine is) then you teach them to cook.

Sounds fairly simple doesn’t it?

If you give your subscribers what you promised them when you enticed them to join your list, they should stay on your list, and read your newsletters, provided their needs don’t change.

For many ezine publishers, the tougher question becomes “How do I monetize my list without driving off subscribers.” After all, isn’t that why most of us started a newsletter?

Yes, it’s fun writing something that people enjoy reading. It’s nice getting emails telling you how long they’ve been a subscriber, and how much of a difference your lessons have made in their lives.

However, that won’t put food on your table. So, how do you monetize your list?

The answer is that you offer them goods and services directly related to the topic of your list. If your list is on cooking, then you offer them cookbooks, and cooking gadgets, and perhaps cooking videos… or live workshops.

If you ezine is about list-building then you offer them supplemental courses on list-building. You offer them software that automates the process more. You offer them case-studies that show how others are building large, responsive lists.

The whole process is fairly simple when you step back and look at it. You entice subscribers to join your list by promising them exactly what they want (that you can deliver). You keep them by delivering what you promised. Finally, you monetize your list by selling them things that make it easier for them to get what they were looking for when they first joined your list.

Take a few minutes now and examine your process. Honestly look for weak points in your system… and then fix them. Then you too will one day realize the you no longer need to focus on growing your list. Then the challenge becomes deepening the relationship that you have with list members, although you should have been focused on that all along too

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Willie Crawford has been running an online business, largely driven by email marketing, since late-1996. He is the author of the popular ebook “How I Boosted My Ezine Sign-Up Rate By 5200 MORE Subscribers Per Month - Virtually Overnight - And You Can Too.” Get your copy now at http://TheRealSecrets.com/5200/

Tags: email lists, email marketing

If you’re one of the people who worries that your customers will think you’re spamming if you send them email, no matter HOW useful the information is, I urge you to reconsider.

The truth is, when you do your email marketing right, not only is it an excellent source of income for you, but your subscribers and customers will actually appreciate hearing from you!

Here are three tried and tested ideas for successful email promotions:

Damaged or returned stock promotions - Offer damaged or returned stock for 50% off! Everyone gets returns, it’s a part of doing business. And of course damaged stock is unavoidable. Why not take advantage of email to clear out your stock that’s otherwise going to take up space, while at the same time offering your customers deals that they’re sure to appreciate?

Limited time offer - By offering a great discount on your products for a limited amount of time, people who receive the email feel like it’s urgent they respond, so there’s less chance they’ll close the email to “think about it” and never come back.

Limited quantity offer - Similar to the limited time offer, the people who receive this email will also feel a sense of urgency.

If you go with “limited time or quantity offer stick with the offer. If you write in your email that a product is available for a limited time, then stick to it.

Sometimes you see that a product is available till midnight, 14 days later it’s still available till midnight.

And those are just a few to get you started. Use your imagination, and I’m sure you’ll come up with all kinds of things to send your list that they’ll really ENJOY having. And if you find an email promotion that really works for you.

Do you panic at the thought of writing your own promotional email?

Here’s something you should know: writing an email is 95% rules, and only 5% creativity. So as long as you stick to the rules, you’ll write an email that’s suitable for sending to your customers every time!

Hypnotize the reader with compelling benefits - The most effective email promotions grab readers’ attention with compelling benefits that speak directly to the readers’ deepest desires and greatest fears. Benefits build the value you need to drive people to act when presented with your call to action.

Write your email like you were talking to a friend. Be informal, use contractions, and don’t be afraid to start a sentence with “and” or “but.”To transfer ownership, you want to make sure your reader can actually picture themselves using your product

Use automation to create personalized offers - Nothing is more appealing to people than the ’sound’ of their own names, and nothing grabs someone’s attention faster than something that affects them directly!

We don’t recommend you try to get yours subscriber to purchase directly from your email. Instead, you should ask them to “click here now to learn more,” or something similar.

How it LOOKS makes a big impact on readers, too. Here is how to format your email.

Width - Be sure to format your email message in a table that is not over 60/65 characters wide. If you exceed that, your message may be cut off on the right side of the screen — or at the very least, not print properly

Images - Try to avoid using graphics whenever possible. People with slow connections will have trouble downloading them, and people reading your message offline won’t see them at all.

Bolding - Use bolding just to emphasize the biggest and best benefits in the offer. You should be able to scan the message and instantly understand the biggest benefits

Bullets - Using bulleted points is one of the best ways to break up your copy and make some of your key points really stand out. As will all formatting techniques, make sure to don’t swamp your email with bullet points.

Finally, once you’ve written the letter, give it a final “scan test.” Set it aside for an hour, then return to it with fresh eyes BUT don’t read it word for word. Scan over the letter and see which sections jump out at you. Make sure that those sections contain the key benefits.

Stick to these few simple rules, and you’ll have no trouble turning out emails that get a response, because your customers actually WANT to receive them!

Bjorn Brands is a successful entrepreneur who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how his FREE course can help you do the same. http://www.moneyacces.com

Tags: email, email marketing