There are two basic groups of individuals who you will have contact over the course of your marketing efforts: buyers and non-buyers.

Buyers have already made a decision to purchase, they just may not be sure exactly what they want to buy. They tend to be looking for the vendor that can most fully and readily justify that decision.

Non-buyers are psychologically very different because they have not yet made that decision. So even though they are offering you the opportunity to coax them through the decision-making process, your efforts are much less likely to be rewarded and the tactics required are very different.

The focus of this article is right where the focus of your own marketing efforts should be: on the buyers.

You see, a lot of businesspeople run into problems by failing to distinguish between members of these two very different groups. Whether you’re marketing by email, direct mail, over the web, through television and radio advertisements, or face to face, the surest way to make sales is always to appeal to the buyers. You may be able to convince a non-buyer to make a purchasing decision, but that will tend to be a hard-won sale. A buyer has already made that decision. They basically just need a safe place to deposit their money. Actually, what they need is a sense of security.

Take a moment to remember the last time you had made a decision that you had a need. You went out looking for a solution, and what did you do? If you are anything like me, you started greedily devouring all the information you could find about the possible solutions to your need. You went out and made yourself an expert.

And what did you end up buying? Probably the product you had the most information about. The one that offered to fulfill aspects of your need that you hadn’t even thought about. The authority product.

Many people make the mistake of keeping their email marketing messages, web pages, and other materials nice and brief in order to appeal to the widest possible audience. They justify this to themselves by imagining that a snappy, bullet-list approach will instantly embed itself into the subconscious minds of passers-by, spurring them to suddenly take the dramatic action of biting into whatever hook you’ve tossed out for them.

In reality, this approach does nothing for the people who matter most: the buyers. These folks come to you with money burning holes in their pockets, and all they want is for you to make them an expert on why your product is so wonderful. If you can sufficiently educate them on the benefits of your product and the needs of the market it serves, they will feel grateful to you for accepting their money.

Every successful business fills some type of need. This is a useful thing to keep in mind when it comes to marketing your products and services, because you will be much more likely to make the sale if your potential clients clearly understand why they need to have what you’re offering. If they think your product is something that would be nice, but is ultimately unnecessary, how likely do you think they will be to open up their wallets at a time of economic crisis? In order to succeed, you need to show them why the benefits of your product are absolutely indispensable to them.

Now the reason we say that something is a “need” is because there are strong consequences if the need is not met. You need to eat, because if you don’t eat then you won’t survive. You need to sleep, because if you don’t sleep then a lot of very bad things will happen to you. So in order to demonstrate that your product is not just desirable but necessary, you have to figure out what will happen to a person who fails to buy it from you.

It might sound like an impossible task, making your product sound as essential as food or rest. In fact, you really don’t have to go to that kind of extreme. And if you were to try, it would be pretty difficult to sound convincing. But the scary part is that our world is full of twists and turns, and we’ve all had the experience of thinking we had something completely taken care of, only to find out that we had missed some crucial ingredient.

Here’s a great example: everybody eats because they know they have to, and they even enjoy it. But up until a few years ago no one had ever heard of Omega 3 fatty acids. Your brain is made of them, and your mood and immune system go wonky if you don’t get enough of them, but nobody ever knew the difference. Until suddenly, some ingenious vitamin marketer caught wind of the discovery and went around explaining to journalists and magazine writers that the food everyone had been eating wasn’t enough. We all needed more of these mysterious and elusive Omega 3s that we’d never heard of before. We call this creating a market.

And what happened as a consequence of this publicity? Supplements like Omega 3 fats are now driving the continued growth of a 25 billion dollar a year industry, even while the rest of the economy is tanking! So you see, the real meat and potatoes of remaining profitable is explaining what is missing from the meat and potatoes that people already have.

All of this is leading up to the real practical application, and that has to do with email marketing. If you set your mind to it, email marketing can be a really outstanding way to spread just the right kind of fear. In fact, if you do it right, your likely to increase your subscribers’ level of engagement with your newsletter. Because every company has some handy dandy product or service that would make life easier, and most of them send out “newsletters”full of product updates and sales information and the like. But very few of them ever contain any real “news.” And, coincidentally, very few of them ever get read.

Think about it: what kinds of things do you see on the front page of a newspaper? Mostly scary things. And why do you see them there? Because they sell newspapers! People are always drawn to scary information, because we know that we have this tendency to overlook things. I was sure something was missing from my diet, and so I listened when all the bloggers and TV doctors started telling me I needed Omega 3s. And I’m still listening! I’m waiting for someone to tell me what else I’m overlooking. Everyone is. And we’ve got 25 billion dollars to spend just on supplements that we never knew we needed before!

So if you’re sending sending out a newsletter, why not make it less about your product and more about the “news.” Point out some recent tragedy that could have been cleverly avoided through the judicious use of your product. Highlight some failing market that is plagued by a dramatic underuse of your product. Share a case study about some customer who almost didn’t make it because they weren’t using your product. Create your market.

And if you’re not sending out a regular email newsletter, in this economy? Good luck!

In my last post I discussed some ways that you can use email marketing to build up positive feelings so that people will look forward to receiving your messages and feel relieved when they arrive. Rewards, even small rewards, play a huge role in shaping our motivation and determining the types of actions we will take in the future.

However, as important as positive reinforcements are for successful marketing, they are only a part of what it takes to motivate people to take action. And this is doubly true when you are trying to market your products or build your brand during a slow economy. When fragile markets and shrinking budgets are making people more and more hesitant to invest their resources, you have to develop an understanding of their hesitation.

People hesitate because they are afraid of making the wrong decision. They are afraid of wasting their time, their money, and their manpower, and they are ultimately afraid of failing. There are two ways that you can work with this fear: by defusing it, or by turning it to your advantage.

Email marketing offers an ideal platform for defusing fear, because it allows you to portray your company as a solid and reliable performer. You can emphasize your commitment by developing a regular schedule of mailing that go out just like clockwork. Over a long period of time, you become as familiar and comfortable as an old pair of sneakers. People come to feel at ease relying on you because they find that you stay with them in good times and in bad times.

Of course, not everyone has the luxury of being old faithful. But there are plenty of ways that you implicitly and explicity build the perception of reliability into your mailings. If you’ve been around a long time, you can celebrate the anniversaries of important dates in your company’s history. But if you haven’t, you can build the sense of reliability into the very fabric of your company by sending out company timelines that stretch out years into the future.

Above all, you want to position yourself as someone who can help with the problems that your potential clients are inevitably experiencing. And the best way to do that is to talk knowledgeably about those problems. Try building your newsletter around the idea that you are in the business of solving the problems that your clients experience.  Then your actual product or service is reframed–it is just another way that you’ve come up with to help people overcome the problems that you seem to know so much about. There’s something very comforting about that.

In my next post, I’ll explore the flipside of this equation: ways that you can turn your clients’ fears to your advantage, by placing the emphasis on what will happen if they fail to fully utilize your products and services.

A sender’s reputation can follow not only an IP address but a brand and a sending domain.   A holistic approach is necessary when considering a sender’s reputation as no one factor alone determines what that reputation is.  Reputation can be broadly defined as the opinion of a community toward an object.  Knowing what the community looks for when determining a reputation will allow you to maximize your delivery rates.

Spamtraps

We first eluded to spamtraps when we discussed Paid Subscriber Lists. A spamtrap is an email address that appears to be valid but is in fact used by ISPs to catch spammers. You will sometimes hear these referred to as “honey pots.”  Spammers use harvesting programs which scan millions of web pages looking for email addresses.  These email addresses may come from old email addresses which are recycled by ISPs in order to catch commercial emailers that use old, rented, or paid subscriber lists.  Some sites bury email addresses in their source code so that they are picked up by harvesting programs.  The company where the email originated is then alerted to any incoming emails that go to that address at which time they contact your web host and file a spam complaint.  Spam traps are bad news.   Its been reported that your delivery rate can drop as many as 20 points drop with one spam trap hit.   Spamtraps are one of many factors that ISPs look at when calculating your sender reputation.   Not only is your delirability affected but they can result in temporary or long term blocks.

Good list maintenance is necessary for avoiding spam traps.   Here are some things you will need to avoid:

• Poor List Sources -  This includes avoiding paid subscriber lists as mentioned previously
• List Poisoning – Using confirmation Opt-In mailings will reduce the chances that you will receive invalid email addresses
• List Aging -  Because spam traps are often used by recycling old email addresses use bounce management to remove any old email addresses and also remove any inactive addresses from your list.

Sender Authentication

This is used to prevent domain forgery and spoofing and provides a framework for helping ISPs to distinguish between legitimate email senders and spammers.  ISPs Identifying and verifying a claimed domain name has been authenticated or authorized for sending from a MTA makes it possible to treat suspected forgeries with suspician,  reject known forgeries, and block email addresses from known spamming domains.

• Sender Policy Framework (SPF) – a record that allows you to determine which computers can send emails on behalf of your domain.  Adding an SPF record to your domain name’s TXT entry, while not required, can help improve email delivery rates by reducing the chance that the emails you send will be seen as spam.  It can also help prevent others from sending spam and using your domain name.  This is used by Bellsouth, AOL, Gmail, and MSN/Hotmail.
• Sender ID – is very similar to SPF record except this extends the verification process to include the purported responsible address included in the header.  Used by MSN/Hotmail
• Domain Keys – an authentication standard that is designed to verify the DNS domain of email sender and the message integrity.  All outgoing emails are digitally signed with a private encryption key to match a public key that is published in the sender’s DNS record.   Used by Gmail, Yahoo, SBCGlobal, British Telecom, Rogers Cable, Rocket Mail, etc.
• DKIM – an enhanced authentication standard that allows a person to verify that a message comes from the domain that it claims that it came from.

Getting Technical

Your system admin should be able to assist you with ensuring that the following technical configurations are in line as they can improve or harm your sender reputation.

• IP Address – because email originates from this address you need to establish a low history of spam complaints, spamtrap hits, and low bounce rates in order to have a positive reputation that will affect your long term deliverability.   If you wish to qualify for whitelists, feedback loops, and reputation services, your IP address must have low spam complaints, unsubscription management, and proper setup for the domain associated with it.
• Sending Domain or Subdomain – Domain registration and domain age are two factors for establishing a positive reputation.  Newly registered domains are regarded with suspicion as spammers often hop from domain to domain.  If a sending domain has a bad online reputation it will result in low deliverability rates.
• RFC Compliance – these are information documents used as governing standards for internet traffic.   RFC 2821: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and RFC 282: Internet Message Formatare relate to email reputation.
• Reverse DNS – used to identify the domain name associated with an IP address.  The IP address is the only data that can not be forged and not having this enabled is in violation of RFC standards and a requirement for many ISPs.  If this is not enabled or is configured improperly you must immediately contact your server admin.
• Bounce Management – An email address is considered dead and should be removed from your list if it bounces 3 consecutive times or if the time between the most recent consecutive delivery rejection is in excess of 15 days.

Where to Go From Here

The final way to improve your deliverability is to get certified or accredited by a reputable organization.   There are three different types of ways to get yourself certified!  The first gets your emails automatically whitelisted or delivered to ISPs and companies that are working with the relevent program.  Another audits your email practices so that you can display a seal of approval next to your sign up form.   Another allows you to display an icon next to your email in your inbox that indicates that your email passed a quality test.  We will focus on whitelisting programs here:

• Goodmail Systems -  ISPs supporting this program ensure delivery with a “certified” icon attached.  This accreditation is supported by Yahoo and AOL.
• Sender Score Certified – Acceptance in this program puts you on the whitelist that includes 240 email address as well as MSN/Hotmail and Roadrunner.
• Habeas – requires business processes and email practices.   Their safelist is support by many email receivers including AOL, Earthlink, Google, and MSN
• SuretyMail – While not technically a whitelist a large number of ISPs, spam filters, and mail servers take this accreditation into account when making delivery decisions.  Senders with this accreditation will see improved delivery.

If you are concerned about whether you have already been blacklisted you can go here.

You want to segment your subscriber list based on shared needs so that your subscribers respond similarly to your marketing strategy.   Ineffectiveness arises in email marketing when you do not address your subscribers’ needs or your subscribers become disenchanted with your products or services. Effective email marketing involves developing a relationship with your subscribers that is built around addressing their needs.  Through list segmentation you are able to differentiate between the different needs of your subscribers so that you can then send targeted mailings that your subscribers will respond to in a similar way.  Send messages that are irrelevant to your subscribers’ needs and you risk losing them.  The better you are able to segment your lists the higher your response rate.  Treat your subscribers as if you were in a relationship with them and they will respond to you more.  List segmentation should not be rigid or fixed.  If you are responsive to your subscribers they will be responsive to you. How you segment your subscribers will change over time as you learn more about them.

Sending out email surveys are a good way of collecting additional information about your subscribers.   This information can be used in addition to your subscriber fields to put you in a better position to segment your subscribers.  When using subscription forms you should only ask for critical information.  If you make your subscription form too long you may be creating a barrier for people that would otherwise be interested in signing up to your list.

Including a short survey link in an autoresponder you send out after a subscriber joins your list is a great way of collecting non critical information that can be used to more effectively segment your list. You do not need to ask your subscribers everything you ever wanted to know about them in one survey either.   A short questionnaire with only one or two relevant questions can be very effective.  Your subscriber will be more willing to participate especially if you explain to them that you are asking these questions so that you can send them information that is more relevant to them.  You can then send them more short surveys from time to time in order to collect additional information so that you can continuously segment your subscribers.

Another option would be to send out a survey when a subscriber purchases a product from your website.  You can use this survey to gather preference or opinion data that can be used to better segment your subscriber list.   You can learn how they feel about a particular brand or technology.  These are meaningful segments that allow you to send more relevant messages.   Are your subscribers brand loyal or do they look for the best deal irrespective of brand.    Are they purchasing a camera because they are a photographer or is it only out of necessity for a special occasion?  You can set this up by redirecting your subscriber to a page containing a survey embedded in an iframe after they purchase a product.

You are asking your subscribers about their needs, preferences, and behavioral patterns as part of your market research.   Your survey should ask questions related to the marketplace and an industry rather than focusing on a business.   This information is a good predictor of your subscribers’ future behavior and will form the basis of how they are segmented for truly targeted email marketing.

In marketing segmentation the total market is divided into submarkets that share characteristics that cause each group to share distinct needs.   If done properly each segment will respond in a similar fashion to a given marketing strategy.  When applied to email marketing this concept will allow you to build relationships with your subscribers so you can then send targeted mailings that are relevant to each group of subscribers.    By treating your subscribers as distinct groups with distinct needs your email campaigns will yield higher response rates.  You will not only get more results from your existing subscribers but you will lose a lot less subscribers if your mailings are relevant.

But what data should you use to divide your subscriber list into segments?   Previously we discussed how your newsletter should have a purpose that leads your subscriber to a clear call to action.  What is that purpose and what action are you calling on from your subscribers?

If the mailing you are sending is not relevant to all of your subscribers then they should not be included in your mailing.   This is a key principle of email marketing writing and one of the things that makes email marketing more powerful than other one-to-many advertising mediums. If you run a pet store you would not want to bother dog owners with coupons for cat food unless of course they owned both a dog and a cat.  Your job here would be to identify which of your subscribers had cats or dogs, owned cats but not dogs, owned dogs but not cats, or owned both.    In this example it’s safe to assume that your subscriber is not going to buy a cat if you send them a coupon for cat food.   Why bother your dog only subscriber with a mailing if you know they are not going to buy cat food?

Three areas to consider when breaking your list down into segments are:

• Demographic data – Consumer statistics regarding socioeconomic factors such as age, income, sex, education, location, marital status, and occupation.   This could be a good starting place for observing marketing trends.   People from similar backgrounds will often act a like and you can begin to observe patterns emerging.  While this is valuable for lending insight into general behavior, it cannot be relied up on as a predictor for individual behavior.   If the pet store coupon is for a premium pet product then someone with more disposable income may have more interest in your product.  Then again a single adult may be more indulging to their pet.   You never know when it comes to people and their pets.
• Preference and Opinion Data – Information usually collected by surveys, polls, focus groups, or through conversation.  This information can sometimes be biased in some way or another. There are many people that will tell you what you want to hear or what they want to be true rather than what is actually true.
• Behavioral Data – Using past behavior to predict future behavior is usually the most reliable data to collect.  Unlike preference and opinion data you are relying on someone’s actions and not what they say.   If your subscriber has used coupons to buy cat food in the past then this is the best indicator that they will actually use your coupon to buy more cat food.

Philip Kotler, an S.G Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, suggests that to be effective and useful to your business a market segment should have the following characteristics:

• Measurable – You need to find out its size, key characteristics, purchasing power, and preferences
• Substantial – Is the segment of interest large enough to be profitably served by you.
• Accessible – There is no purpose to segmenting if you already know that there is no practical way to access a segment’s members.
• Differentiable – Segments have to respond differently to different marketing programs.    If there is no difference in whether men or women buy certain cat foods, then there is no effective segmentation.

Once you have effectively segmented your subscriber list you can then target each segment.  When each segment is differentiated on the basis of their needs it allows you to send mailings that address those needs.   When you address those needs your mailings are relevant to your subscribers and they are more likely to respond.

Your relationship with your individual subscribers will change over time as you learn more about them.  Email Marketing provides you with metrics for your subscriber such as how frequently your subscriber opens your mailings, how often they click on your links, and you can also gain insight into their purchasing habits.

In client based marketing strategies individuals are treated as separate entities.   In marketing circles a widely held maxim says that 20 percent of your clients will come up with 80 percent of your revenue.  Keep the 80/20 rule in mind when it comes to segmenting your subscriber list. When developing your marketing strategy you are going to want to identify which of your subscribers make up the top 20 percent of your list and you will then want to pay special attention to them. 20 percent of your revenue comes from this group so they will deserve special recognition.   If you do not then you risk alienating them and losing a core segment of your business.   Find ways of showing your appreciation like thanking them over email while at the same time targeting them with incentives to purchase more.

Everyone must deal with bottom feeders that cost businesses profitability.   Those at the bottom 20 percent will often cost you business.   You will need to consider strategies for bringing this segment up to a profitable level.   The middle 40 percent is often high to marginally profitable.   By understanding their needs you can map out strategies for convincing these customers to invest more heavily into your company.   Always keep an eye on the middle.   These customers can move between marginally to highly profitable depending on how well you market around their needs.   Keep the 80/20 rule in mind when segmenting your list.  A good marketer will know how to use this rule to enhance their profitability.

Many business owners fail to realize what an excellent opportunity email marketing provides for developing lasting relationships with customers and potential customers who you meet offline. In much the same way that regular mailings can keep visitors coming back to your web site, they can also keep visitors coming back to your brick & mortar location. Regular e-mail contact with offline customers also provides all the other benefits of email marketing to online clients: increased brand recognition, improved familiarity and trust, and an opportunity for you to expand the perceived usefulness of your products and services.

There are a near infinite variety of ways in which you can recruit mailing list subscribers offline, and the ways that are appropriate for your business will depend on the opportunities for interacting with clients that your business normally affords you. For example, if you run a retail business, it is both simple and highly effective to simply place a signup sheet on the counter. An even better tactic is to ask each customer if they would like to sign up for your e-mail list as they are checking out.

If you work with clients over longer-term projects or in a business-to-business setting, there are even more strategies you can employ to encourage contacts to sign up for your mailing list. One very simple way to do this is to advertise your newsletter on your business card. Just a few words describing the information you provide in the mailings and a URL to sign up at will draw more subscribers than you might expect, and they will tend to be very high-quality and high-converting subscribers.

These days it is standard practice to send a follow-up e-mail to a new contact, and this is a perfect opportunity to mention your newsletter in a way that can come across as more helpful than self-promoting. You should also very seriously consider adding a small advertisement for your newsletter to your e-mail signature and also onto your letterhead and invoices. This way everyone you come in contact with in a professional capacity will become aware of the additional information that you provide, which in turn will keep them aware of your products and services.

Any event at which you are speaking or presenting information is also a fantastic opportunity to build up your mailing list. Let your audience know what you provide through the list and why it will be helpful to them. Then simply pass around a signup sheet or collect business cards for people that would like to subscribe. These are methods of generating highly qualified leads that will pay off greatly in the long term. Follow this link for more email marketing tips.

Many people find the idea of building up a mailing list quite daunting. However, when you have built a successful web site with a steady stream of visitors, it is much easier than you might imagine to convert those visitors into mailing list subscribers. You only need to understand the reasons why people are visiting your site to begin with, and offer your newsletter to them as a way to get more of what you already know they’re looking for.

This means tailoring the content of your content to the audience of your site. Of course, the content you’ll want to include will vary widely depending on the type of business you run. Whatever your type of business, try to make sure that your newsletters are not simply ads for your products and services. Make sure to include useful information that is relevant for your customers. Remember, the best way to sell a product to someone is to teach them how to use it.

In addition to this, you need to make sure that visitors know about your mailing list and can sign up easily. This is why so many site owners are experiencing excellent results with pop-up windows. You simply add a pop-up on your site that displays for new visitors or for visitors who have not signed up for your mailing list already, and include a sign-up form and just a line or two about why signing up would be a good idea for them.

A great way to improve your sign-up rate is to offer something special to your users who do subscribe. What you offer should depend on what type of product or service you provide, but might include a free report on some relevant topic, or even a free e-mail course sent out over the course of a week or a month. Offering discounts or time-limited specials for newsletter subscribers is another very effective way of enticing people to sign up and maintaining great relationships with the subscribers you already have.

Of course, you will want to make sure that a sign-up form for your mailing list is visible on every page of your website. This not only makes it easier for people to find the sign-up form if they are looking for it, but also helps to build familiarity with the idea of joining your mailing list. The more pages your visitor views, and the more times he or she sees the sign-up form, the more comfortable and positive they will feel about the idea of signing up for your newsletter. This will tend to increase your sign-ups across the board.

Finally, word of mouth advertising is always the most effective form of advertising, so make sure to include a “Forward To Friend” link in every e-mail. Of course your subscribers could simply hit the “forward” button in their e-mail client, but adding in a special link for this purpose serves two functions. First, it allows you to track how many people are forwarding the message along. And second, it provides a subtle reminder to the reader that the newsletter can and should be shared with others who may find it valuable.

Effective email marketing writing is persuasive to your subscribers, enhances your image and credibility, and adds clarity to the message in your newsletter. Even the most eye popping email design graphics and layouts will lose their appeal if subscribers are presented with email copywriting that is shoddy or substandard. In the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin bellows the following advice to his hapless sales team; “A-B-C. A-Always, B – Be, C-Closing! Always be closing!! A-I-D-A. Attention, interest, decision, action.” AIDA is an acronym used in marketing that is short for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.  This can be applied to email marketing as well.

Attention – Grab your subscriber’s attention with an engaging subject line so they open your mailing. This is your invitation to your subscriber to hear what you have to say. Once your newsletter is opened you can also get your subscriber’s attention with the appearance of the newsletter as well as the headlines and lead sentences. You may want to think of this as your pick up line or your “hook”.

Interest - If you are meeting someone for the first time and all you do is talk about yourself then you shouldn’t be surprised if that person gets up and walks away. This could be the point where your subscriber quits reading your newsletter or they opt out of your list altogether. However, if you include a person in your conversation then they are going to want to stick around. Focus on advantages and benefits as they relate to the substance of your communication.

Desire – Strong interest yields to desire. Use the power of persuasion in your conversation now that you have your subscriber’s interest. The better you can relate to someone in your conversation, the more they will want to hear. Use the body of your newsletter to convince your subscriber that you have what they want and they will feel a need for what you are offering. You are writing to build up motivation for your subscriber for what you are offering with your newsletter.

Action – Your newsletter should have a purpose and your writing should lead your subscriber to a clear call to action. You’ve now convinced your listener that you have what they want. Make it easy for them to do something about it! This action could be clicking on a link, purchasing a product, or even replying to your newsletter. You should structure your mailing in a way that is likely to generate a direct response from your reader.

Now, a word about subject lines or what we have noted as your all important hook. While you want to make this interesting enough for your subscriber to have a reason for opening your mailing you are going to want to exhibit caution. Think of the subject lines that you see in your spam box. You are going to want to be weary of using dollar signs, too much punctuation, or appearing needy as these are often techniques used by spammers. The subject line is important because you do not want to ruin the integrity of your list by being seen as spam. If you google top 10 spam subject lines you will get a good idea of what you want to stay away from.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your subject lines consistent and familiar to your subscribers. You can start with the same words so that your recipients recognize you. For example, “ActiveCampaign Newsletter: Name of the Newsletter” as a lot of email clients will cut off the end of the subject line. Try to keep the length of your subject line below 50 characters. Some internal testing may come in handy to see the maximum number of characters you can use before the subject line is cropped. You need not worry about this too much as you want to use as many characters as is necessary to get your subject across. The trick to writing a good subject line is to appeal to your subscriber’s interest which should be some combination of your target audience and relating the purpose of the newsletter to their needs.

There are many stylistic ways of holding your subscribers interest. Be succinct in your writing. This means giving your subscriber relevant information in as few words as possible. The more succinct your writing is the more weight your words will carry.

Include the most important parts of your newsletter in the beginning. Subscribers will read the introduction first before they decide whether the rest is worth their time. Many subscribers are going to scan through rather than read everything you write in your newsletter so arrange your text accordingly. This may include using dashes and bullet points as well as blocks of text rather than chunky paragraphs. You would write a newsletter differently than you would write a term paper or a thesis.

You can also engage your subscriber’s interest by using the active voice in your writing. This conveys a powerful message because when the verb of a sentence uses the active voice, the subject is doing the acting. When you use the passive voice the subject is being acted upon which can make your writing sound weak.

Keep your newsletter personal. Make your subscriber feel as though you are talking directly to them. One obvious way to do this is through using personalization tags such as the subscriber’s name.

Write to your audience. You can find out more about your subscribers demographic by using a tool such as A/B split to find out what your subscribers respond to. You do not have to be overly formal as in traditional business or marketing writing. It is perfectly alright to be irreverent at times so long as you are not overly casual and risk setting the wrong tone for your audience. It is important to know who your subscribers are before setting a tone for your audience. Remember you can set up separate mailings that target specific market and customize each campaign accordingly.

You’ll need to take in a few more technical suggestions into considerations with your newsletter. It’s best to avoid URLs altogether in your links. If you do use URLs in your mailing make sure that is reduced in length and that it fits on a single line. If you must use two lines for your URL then tell the subscriber how to piece the composite URL in their window. Also along those same lines, be sure to wrap all text at 68 characters per line. Although all email clients vary, all email applications will correctly display text at 68 characters or less per line. Also many email readers will only read ASCII characters. Be sure to avoid the use of “smart quotes.” Use a text editor and not a word processor when composing your messages.

Email marketing is one of the most effective and versatile methods for marketing your business during an economic recession. Its low cost and ease of implementation make it ideal for small and growing businesses as well as larger and more established organizations. The unique flexibility of this marketing platform also allows for a greater degree of experimentation and accountability than other options. As long as you utilize good email design and email copywriting, you can realize excellent results.

Maintaining a regular e-mail contact with your customers helps to builds familiarity and credibility for your business. This is particularly important in times of economic stress because people tend to be more careful about who they spend their money with. When you have an established presence in your customers’ minds, they will feel more comfortable making expenditures on your products or services because they will see you as a consistent and reliable vendor.

A great way to do this setting up an autoresponder series that provides useful, relevant information to each new subscriber over a period of weeks or months. Once you have set up such a series, it literally runs itself, allowing you to effortlessly build trust with your clients by offering them education and advice that reinforces their need to utilize your products and services. You can maximize the benefit of these and other types of mailings by targeting them to specific subgroups within your mailing lists to ensure that every piece of e-mail your clients receive from you applies directly to them.

On top of this, an active mailing list allows you the luxury of instant publicity for your sales and promotions. The messages you send out arrive directly in the inboxes of the people who you already know are most interested in what you have to offer. The benefit of this is two-fold: you will experience a much higher conversion rate with this type of message than less targeted forms of marketing, and will also realize more word-of-mouth advertising due to the increased loyalty that you will see from your mailing list subscribers.

As I have mentioned, cost is also a major advantage of e-mail marketing. By purchasing software products such as ActiveCampaign Email Marketing, you can send out unlimited mailings for nothing more than the cost of hosting. There is no need to pay per recipient or per impression as there would be with traditional direct mail or advertising programs. On a shoestring budget and in a relatively short amount of time, you can now achieve the type of reputation that would previously have required years of prohibitively expensive marketing effort. Visit this page for more email marketing tips.