Email addresses should be obtained only by legitimate means like through opt-in and subscribe boxes on your website, or by specific request. This is why email marketing lists are often called opt-in lists. Valid contact information should be included in every piece of email marketing and a privacy policy should be provided.

Single Opt-In Marketing Lists vs. Double Opt-In Marketing Lists

• Single opt-in emails do not require a confirmation via email. In this case, when a customer subscribes, they are automatically added to your marketing list.
• Double opt-in emails require the subscriber to confirm their subscription and agree they do want to receive your email marketing messages. In this case, when they subscribe, a confirmation email is received in their inbox. They will only be added to your list if they click on the link in the email message.
• NOTE: Just because you meet someone at an event and they trade cards with you doesn’t give you the right to add them to your list. Also, adding everyone you have ever met to your list and justifying it with an unsubscribe link that gives them the option to not receive your ezine is unacceptable. If you use either of these tactics, you will be viewed as a spammer.

Remind Email or Ezine Subscribers How they Joined Your List

Many email marketers will include a 1-2 sentence description of how their list is generated. This short statement reminds the recipient that they did in fact opt-in to the marketing list.

For 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, www.bourncreative.com, www.jenniferbourn.com, www.designandprofit.com, or purchased a product from Bourn Creative.”

Provide an Easy Unsubscribe or Opt-Out Option for Your Email Newsletter

Believe it or not, by making is clear that you include unsubscribe and opt-out links in each email message, email newsletter, or ezine, you will actually increase your subscriber count. At some point people who have joined your list may want to leave. By showing them that leaving your list is as easy as joining it, you bypass some of the fear associated with the possibility of receiving spam and unwanted email in their inboxes.

An email newsletter or ezine (email magazine) is a very popular form of email marketing. An ezine is an electronic form of communication that is sent out on an ongoing basis and used for business to business or business and consumer companies.

Because email marketing doesn’t require printing or postage, staying connected to your audience via email marketing is a more cost effective alternative to traditional print newsletters.

Email marketing is an essential tool to growing your business in today’s fast-paced world of Internet business. Offering open, conversational, and interactive communications is quickly becoming a necessity for business marketing. In fact, these days, it seems as if everyone already has, or is currently developing some type of email newsletter or email marketing system.

No matter what type of business you have or what services or products you sell, a value-added ezine can be a great tool to help build your business. Publishing an ezine, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or even quarterly (if it makes sense) helps you stay in front of your customers and prospects, increase your marketing “touches,” and generate more leads and referrals.

Publishing An Ezine or E-Newsletter Will Also Help You:

• Save valuable budget dollars (and some trees) by going digital. By producing your ezine online, you’ll save on design fees, printing, postage, envelopes and mail handling, not to mention the fact that your ezine will get to your audience much faster than snail mail.
• Increase your brand recognition by getting your image and name in front of your customers and prospects more often. Include your logo, tagline, ezine title, color palette, brand graphics, and photo in every issue.
• Connect with your target market, customers, and prospective customers on a regular basis, keeping you at the top of their minds and the tip of their tongues, ensuring that when your services or products are needed they will buy from you or refer you to their friends, family, and business associates.
• Increase your credibility and gain the trust of your target market, making it easier to sell your product or service.
• Educate your current clients on all of your services, products and talents, enticing them to expand their relationship with you and increase profits from your existing customer base with the “I didn’t know you do that, can you do it for me?” response.
• Attract new opportunities, such as strategic partnerships, joint ventures, media interviews, speaking engagements, and more.
• Create new passive streams of revenue by referring products or services that earn you a commission (affiliate programs), directly selling your products or services, or selling ad space in your ezine.
• Expand your network and build your list by capturing the email addresses of your website visitors with an opt-in box and getting permission to market to them.
• Organize your industry knowledge and package it into products, programs, reports, ebooks, tips lists, articles, and endorsements that can easily be reused and/or repurposed.
• Reach a wider audience and bring in more potential customers by repurposing your email newsletter content on your blog or submitting your articles to news bureaus, PR websites, and ezine article directories.

From designing and programming your newsletter templates, to writing content, and implementing each issue, if you want to publish an email newsletter to enhance and build your brand, Bourn Creative can help. We offer design, copywriting, and full-service email marketing implementation services for businesses just like yours.

No matter what type of business you have or what services or products you sell, a value-added email newsletter can be a great tool to help attract more customers and prospects. Email marketing helps you stay in front of your customers and prospects, increase your marketing “touches,” and generate more leads and referrals.

To do any type of email marketing, you have to set up an account with an email marketing service provider. These service providers enforce strict email rules, work tirelessly to keep their servers white-listed (liked) by the internet service providers / email providers, provide you the ability to track and measure your email marketing campaign results, and manage your email marketing list subscribes and unsubscribes.

Listed below are a few great email marketing service providers. The providers marked with an asterisk (*), are the providers I currently work with, or have worked with in the past for either myself or my clients.

• www.InfusionSoft.com*
• www.ConstantContact.com*
• www.Aweber.com*
• www.1ShoppingCart.com*
• www.iContact.com*
• www.myEmma.com*
• www.VerticalResponse.com*
• www.MailChimp.com
• www.EmailBrain.com
• www.GetResponse.com
• www.Bluehornet.com
• www.Lyris.com
• www.bronto.com

“Not only did you develop a beautiful website that feels and looks like an extension of the inner ‘me’ and my brand, (I receive compliments on it daily/weekly) but you also designed a beautiful, functional e-newsletter that my subscribers not only love to read but to look at each Monday in their inbox! The note cards you designed are beautiful as well – and there it is priceless to be able to write my clients personal notes and continually extend my branding and Claim Your Worth!® message. You have a beautiful and unique gift for making business beautiful – and taking the intangibles and bringing them to light and to shine in lights! Thank you again for everything and I look forward to your input and services for future projects as well!”

Brenda Stanton
www.brendastanton.com