Why You Need Email Marketing for Your Business
 Email marketing is an essential tool to growing your business in today’s fast-paced world of internet business and e-commerce because it offers open, conversational, and interactive communications.
Now I know it seems as if everyone already has, or is developing some type of email newsletter, ezine or email marketing system. With increase in bulging inboxes, you may even be wondering if the market is over saturated or whether starting an ezine for your business is a good idea.
Starting an email newsletter is ALWAYS a good idea because a personal, relevant, value-added ezine that speaks right to your target market can help you attract new customers and prospects to your list with just one or two clicks of a mouse. In fact, adding direct email marketing to your business by starting an ezine or launching an email campaign is a great way to increase your brand exposure and build your brand visibility online. And that’s what it’s all about, building your brand, building your list, and getting contacts into your marketing funnel.
Skip all the fabulous, valuable information below and just download the report
You Must Avoid Email Marketing Disaster!
Unless you follow the seven standard email marketing best practices listed below,
marketing by email can potentially be a complete disaster!
Email Marketing Best Practice 1:
You Must Have Permission
Permission based email marketing operates on the principle that you obtain email addresses through only legitimate means like opt-in boxes on your website or by specific request from a prospect. This is why the typical "subscribe box" used to capture email marketing leads is also frequently referred to as an opt-in box.
Without permission, marketing by email is just another word for sending SPAM.
If someone doesn’t opt in to your list or asks to be added, you may not add them in your email campaign marketing list. It’s against the law.
Meeting someone at a networking event and trading business cards, does not give you permission to add them to your list unless they specifically ask to be added. Also, adding every business contact you have ever made to your list and justifying it with an unsubscribe link is also unacceptable. If you use either of these tactics, you will be viewed as a spammer, and could possibly be reported.
Email Marketing Best Practice 2:
Remind Readers Why They Are Being Contacted
Many of your email marketing leads probably subscribe to multiple online newsletters, so give your prospects a quick reminder of why they may be receiving your email blast. You should include a 1-2 sentence statement that reminds the recipient that they did opt in to your list.
Here’s an example:
“You are receiving this email message because you made a verbal or written request at an event, opted-in on one of our websites, or purchased a product from us.”
A quick reminder may be the difference in whether or not your ezine gets opened, gets deleted, or even worse – gets flagged as SPAM.
Email Marketing Best Practice 3:
Provide an Unsubscribe Option and Commitment to Privacy
Make it crystal clear that you respect your email marketing leads’ inbox by providing an easy opt-out or unsubscribe link in each email campaign or message you send.
At some point, your prospects may want to leave your list and stop receiving your email blasts – and that is okay. Showing your prospects that leaving your list is just as easy as joining it, is an effective way to bypass the fear that is associated with receiving unwanted email.
Remember, direct email marketing is based on permission and trust. You must guarantee that you will never violate that trust by sharing, renting, selling, or trading your prospect’s information.
Every email blast you send must have a clear and straight-forward unsubscribe or opt-out link. If someone unsubscribes from your marketing list, continuing to send them email marketing campaigns is considered SPAMMING.
Luckily, most email marketing programs include this as a default at the bottom of your messages. All opt-out requests should be handled immediately, if not done automatically by your email campaign software. Valid contact information and a privacy policy should also be included in every email campaign or message you deliver.
Email Marketing Best Practice 4:
Single Opt-In vs. Double Opt-In
Single opt-in email marketing campaigns do not require a confirmation via email when someone chooses to subscribe. Email marketing leads that opt-in with a single opt-in are immediately added to your marketing list.
Double opt-in email marketing campaigns require a confirmation email with a link that must be clicked on to confirm a prospect’s subscription and their agreement to receive your future email blasts.
There are a few ways to look at this.
- A single opt-in email campaign is easier to administer, but it can lead to people entering fake email addresses to get their hands on the materials you are offering.
- A double opt-in email campaign will ensure that only real email addresses are being collected, but you do risk the chance of the confirmation email never reaching your prospect or the confirmation link never getting clicked.
We recommend a double opt-in policy because a high quality list is better than a high quantity list.
Email Marketing Best Practice 5:
Creative Ezine Design Increases Your Results
Using free email newsletter templates will not set you apart from your competition. Think about it. If your leads can’t distinguish your email marketing template from your competitors’ email marketing templates, what makes you think they will remember you when they are ready to make a purchase?
Investing in professional ezine design will have a big impact on your email campaigns.
If your email marketing template appears unprofessional, contains broken links or broken images, and doesn’t effectively use margins or spacing, you could be sending an email blast that is not only unreadable, but is one that will be dismissed and not worth their time to read. No one is going to ask you to resend your ezine. Instead, they will just hit "Delete."
Email Marketing Best Practice 6:
Do Not Use Cheap Email Marketing Software
For your message to reach your leads, you must invest in quality email marketing software.
If you try to send bulk email from your desktop email application like Outlook, you run the risk of getting flagged as a spammer from popular email providers like Yahoo!, Google, and even your local Internet Service Providers. If that happens, every email you send, not just your email blasts, can get completely blocked from reaching anyone. Imagine what would happen to your business if your personal email address was no longer valid.
Plus, sending your newsletter from your regular email account doesn’t give you the ability to include a professional unsubscribe link – one your subscribers can click on and unsubscribe without having to send you an email with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line. That is supremely irritating and makes people feel uncomfortable. Some may not unsubscribe even though they really want to because they don’t want to email you, and do you really want a list like that?
I personally believe Infusionsoft is one of the best email marketing systems available and use it to manage our email marketing. But because we manage email newsletters for several of our clients, we work with a large number of email marketing campaign software providers, including:
Email Marketing Best Practice 7:
You Must Provide Valuable Content
For direct email marketing to work, you must respect your audience’s inboxes and only send quality email campaigns and newsletters that bring them value. If you constantly clog their inbox with sales pitches and irrelevant information, your email marketing leads opt-out rate will skyrocket and marketing by email will cease to become effective for your business.
Before every email blast you send, ask yourself “If I received this in my inbox today, would I be glad I opened it and would I receive value from reading it?” If you can’t honestly say yes, rewrite your content before you send it.
 BONUS!!
Email Marketing Best Practice 8:
Grab your own copy of the report, Email Marketing Best Practices: How to Use Email Marketing to Build a Powerful List and Accelerate Your Online Marketing Success
Yes, I did say there were only seven email marketing best practices, but trust me, downloading the report Email Marketing Best Practices: How to Use Email Marketing to Build a Powerful List and Accelerate Your Online Marketing Success is the most important action you can do today to start a targeted email marketing campaign to increase your website traffic and generate more qualified leads for your business.
If you want even more smart email marketing tips, simply download the “no opt-in required” report we created just for you: Email Marketing Best Practices: How to Use Email Marketing to Build a Powerful List and Accelerate Your Online Marketing Success.
In this high-content, high-value report you will get:
- 10 ways email marketing can help your business
- The 7 email marketing best practices with even more detail
- Design and layout rules for your email marketing template
- Ideas on how to implement a targeted email marketing strategy
- Tips on how to grow a quality list quickly
- Easy ways to generate fresh and valuable content for your email newsletter
- Simple recommendations on how to evaluate the numerous email marketing systems available and determine which service is right for you
Don’t waste a second worrying about giving us your email address. We’re not even asking for it! This is simply a great resource to help you learn more about email marketing. So download the report now and get the jump on your competitors — You wouldn’t want them to find this website and start using our email marketing strategies to grow their list first would you?
Best Wishes and Incredible Success!
Bourn Creative, LLC | Online Marketing Agency | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer Notice
FTC Disclosure: We personally use Infusionsoft for our email marketing campaign software and are registered affiliates. So if you are considering purchasing Infusionsoft to use as your email blast software and click our link, we may get a commission, so thanks in advance.
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