Auto-responders have been around for years.  These productivity wonders consist of software that gives users the ability to send pre-written messages at specific times or after a given action has or has not taken place by the recipient.  The market has quite an array of compelling follow-up services to choose from. What differentiates follow-up services is an exercise in research and testing, but how and for whom they are used can make a significant impact on any business. Read on and you’ll learn some of the uncommon ways (not a complete list), auto-responders or follow-up sequences can be used to grow your business.

5 Uncommon Ways to Use Auto-Responders to Grow Your Business

If You Resell Products Online

One of the top benefits of an auto-responder is to remain top of mind.  If you resell products online and have regular communications with the product provider as a result, consider using an auto-responder to remain top of mind with the provider.  There are many ways to do this depending on your situation.

Real-World Example

The company for a product I resell has a slew of territory account representatives.  The site I have that sells their product processes orders for customers in every territory, as a result I have an opportunity to build relationship with each rep, with each prospect and sale. This is especially useful with a company who partners well with resellers (not competing with the reseller for sales).

In my situation, I’ve added sales reps to a follow-up sequence that shares what I’m hearing from customers an finding effective in selling their product, this is part of an introduction sequence put in place when a new sales rep comes on board.  The idea here is as you build the relationship by adding value, sharing valuable information making it a win-win for both.

JV Partners and Affiliates

Similar to product provider sequences, on the flipside, if you have a product that you sell via JV partners and affiliates, you can build relationships with each new product launch.

Affiliates and JV partners managed well can act as an army of sales reps for your company.  Adding them to a follow-up sequence that shares valuable information will help to build rapport with them, and encourage them to promote.

Information shared via auto-responder with partners and affiliates might include:

• Your split testing results for converting offers
• Affiliate marketing training
• Upcoming product launches
• Contest information – standings
• What customers are saying, using data from customer feedback survey’s.
• Product discounts
• Affiliate marketing incentives
• Upcoming offline events you hope to meet them at (broadcast)

Employee Auto-Responders

Whether hiring employees in the traditional sense, or outsourcing talent for a specific role in your company, auto-responders can be a great way to train and provide regular inspiration.  Some ideas include:

• Build on and reference items from the employee manual.
• Orientation or reminders on specific HR processes.
• Mindset, culture and branding information (every employee is an extension of a company’s brand)
• Product features and customer testimonials to help them get excited about changing the world through your company.
• Internal employee profiles, quotes, stories, and social interaction.
• Communicate marketing plans, great for marketing centric organizations.

This is not to replace process and procedure documentation, rather to help orient and affirm them in their role as well as the mindset of the culture.

Those You Met at An Offline Event

If you do a fair amount of networking – attending offline events, following up with those you meet can be a powerful strategy, especially since most don’t do it.

Example: After attending an event, I go through a process of determining who to follow up with.  Individuals are added to an auto-responder sequence which sends them to an article entitled, 3 Strategies for Profitable Followup After an Event or Seminar.

In the email, they are asked  questions to see what they liked most about the event it cultivates a conversation tone, and they are invited to reply to the message. While not everyone responds, many do. This has proven to be a very effective strategy.

Can You Be Using Auto-Responders More Effectively?

How does this information apply to your situation?  I want to hear from you. Whether you resell a product, have a list of JV partners/affiliates, or even attend a lot of networking events.  How can you apply this information to your business? As you leverage auto-responders in these and other areas it will have positive impact on your business.

Learn more about the system I use with 21 Ways I Use Infusionsoft to Automate Followup.

Chime in using the comment boxes below.  Feel free to Like (Facebook), Tweet, or bookmark this post if you think it would be valuable to your peeps.
Image Credit: sarabbit

Technorati Tags: autoresponder tips, email marketing tips

Inboxes are fatter than ever with offers, pitches, spam (of course), and yes even an occasional personal email from friends and family.  People are simply overwhelmed with email.  In fact, as depicted in the cartoon image to the left, getting and keeping readers attention is where the value is.  Online properties and services are taking notice and responding.  With social circles and engagement time of marketing emails being measured those that were once in the inbox are now arriving in spam, or not at all. Email lists that are not double- opted in are virtually of no value.  Even with double optin subscribers how does a marketer stand out from all the noise, and run profitable campaigns? One word: relevance.  The only way you can provide relevance is to ask subscribers what is relevant to them.  In this post you’ll learn questions you must ask of subscribers in order to offer relevant content, which generates response, and response, sales.

How to Use Survey’s That Increase Email Marketing ROI

Surveys can have an impact on many levels. Simply asking these questions will differentiate you from the competition.  What you do with the information will impact profits. Important tip: making the survey optional is important to the success of the survey.  That said, you certainly should bribe them into completing it. Perhaps bribe is a strong word, consider rewarding them for taking the time and sharing their feedback.

Who Is On Your List?

Here are four categories to help you determine who your audience is.

Sex: Men and women in general have unique interests and buying patterns.  This information will help you provide more relevant and targeted information.
Age: Provide ranges for subscribers to share their birth year.  This is important because as time goes on, you their birth year will not change, but their age will.
Education: Ask if they have graduated high school, or have a given college degree.
Experience Level: Understand how to talk with them, find out how long they have been in the industry or field of interest that you are serving subscribers.

What Do They Expect?

Ask what their #1 struggle is with [industry/topic of interest]:  Provide an open text box for them to put it in their own words. After you have a decent sampling (100 or so responses), you can develop themes and perhaps develop a drop down of choices to choose from instead.

6 Months Question: What will they experience over the next 6 months to know signing up as a subscriber was a smart move from them.
This information is useful as you develop email marketing campaigns to send to subscribers.  You can also follow up in a few months time to ask how you are doing, and build a bank of testimonials in the process.

When to Communicate?

This is tricky as subscribers may not know the answers, but simply asking these questions shows that you care, and will have a positive impact on your email marketing effectiveness.

Timing: Ask when the best day of week and time of day is best to receive emails.
Frequency: How often would they like to hear from you.  Daily, 2x a week? Weekly?  2x a Month? Month? Quarterly?

You might also offer a “no preference” response to each of these questions.  The point here is to let subscribers determine how your content should be unique to them.

You don’t have to implement every survey response in your marketing.  Share that you may or may not be able to honor their timing preference immediately, depending on subscriber demand and functions of your email service provider.

Some Final Words on Using Surveys to Derive Meaningful Content

Be sure to thank subscribers for their time and participation after completing the survey.  use the survey thank you page to deliver any promised bribes for their participation.

Review the feedback, and strategize how to improve your email marketing content going forward.  Share with subscribers how the feedback will be implemented to make the information shared more valuable.

As you implement changes based on survey results, not only will your subscribers appreciate you asking, but they will have a tighter connection to you, resulting in less spam complaints, more responsiveness, and more sales.

Feedback? Have your own experiences to share, or suggestions, engage using the comment boxes below.
Cartoon Image Credit: Geek and Poke

Technorati Tags: email marketing strategy, email marketing tips, how to use surveys

Email marketing is a key function to any serious online business.  An email marketing list is one of the top 3 assets of any online business.  However, the inbox is a crowded place as more marketers tap into this “free” marketing medium.  Getting in the inbox is important, next is getting the email opened, and then taking the action (click) that leads to profits for your business. Since email marketing has strong ROI potential, it is something marketers should always be testing and improving.

4 Ways Video Makes Email Marketing More Profitable

This post discusses the various places to incorporate video on the front end of your email marketing to increase delivery rates and profits.

1 – Make a Clear Offer

What: On your lead capture page, use video to inform the web visitor what it is they get, and how their life will be better as a result of being a subscriber to your site.

Why: The last thing that people need is more email, what they want to hear is the value they will experience as a result of being a part of your crowd.

Example: FollowupAdvisor.com is a lead capture page, for another site I manage.  It has a video giving a clear understanding of what they get as a result of signing up (special report), and that they will save a ton of time doing research if they read the report and the product matrix it contains.

2 – Double Opt-in – Confirmation

What is it? Process by which a web visitor confirms their signup by clicking a link that was sent to their email inbox after filling in a web form.

Why? Delivery.  Security.  Recipients indicating that they really want a marketers email. Marketers more likely have real people in their list, not bots that are opting in to harvest email addresses of marketers. Protects email address holders from having their address used maliciously.

It has been debated whether or not to use opt-in confirmation or not.  The naysayers have been loosing ground as email delivery rates continue to plummet.  In most cases it makes sense to require confirmation. Not only does this increase delivery rates and reduce spam for marketers and recipients alike (see here), but many email service providers are now requiring it.

3 – Thank You Page Video

What: This is the first page subscribers see after submitting an opt-in web form.
Why: This becomes more important when requiring confirmation.  In my experience, only 60% complete the confirmation process, the thank you video becomes essential to communicate what the subscriber should do next to complete the sign-up process.

Example: At MarketingProfessor.com, the thank you page video demonstrates completing the confirmation process by talking subscriber through my Gmail account and clicking the link.

4 – Confirmation Page Video

What: When a subscriber clicks the opt-in confirmation link found in their email they end up on a confirmation page.
Why: This is often overlooked, but important to provide a consistent experience, especially if they are getting a newsletter, or regular content from you in their inbox.  This is a great opportunity to congratulate them, encourage them to check their email for the promised information, as well as remind them what they signed up for, setting expectations (again) and giving intrigue as to what they’ll get next, and when they can expect to hear from you.

All of This is Useless

Email marketing strategy is essential for any online business.  However, unless you do something, at least part of what is presented here, you will continue to experience the same delivery rates and profits with your email marketing.  Consider implementing these ideas incrementally over a couple weeks. It will give you more traction with your market while benefiting your bottom-line.

Testing is key. Your results will vary based on the market and approach, so consider testing various elements of your opt-in process for optimization.

Thoughts, additions, questions, feedback on this post? Be heard in the comment boxes below.
Image Credit: picadillywilson

Technorati Tags: email marketing strategy, email marketing tips, list building tips, video marketing strategy

Being everywhere your target market can find you is an important component to any online marketing strategy. This is a strategy that I’ve been employing in varying degrees, one being with the weekly wrap-up videos on this sites YouTube channel. I’ve been an Aweber customer for years and was reviewing an enhancement they recently released. In this post you’ll learn how a this update makes it easier to repurpose content and increase opt ins.  There’s also a video showing some of this feature in action.

A Way to Repurpose Content and Grow Your Email Marketing List

Email marketing is hard work, with opt in and open rates both on the decline, evaluating email marketing for improvements and fine tuning should be a part of every businesses email marketing strategy.  Those who make regular small adjustments toward improvement will surpass those who are otherwise complacent.  As with anything online, the key is building trust with your market, go the extra mile to build trust and you’ll have a big payoff down the road.

Link from An Opt in Form

One thing I’m always interested in is increasing opt ins rates. A growing an vibrant email marketing list is one of the greatest assets of any online business.

The opt in form can be a place to build trust by sharing with potential subscribers a screenshot of your special report or newsletter. You may have noticed a graphical representation (blue and green books) of the MarketersFAQ subscribers are given for joining this site (coupon box below this post).

Aweber takes this concept much further with a feature they recently enhanced allowing customers to link to their newsletter archive from anywhere on the web. How about from the webform itself? By linking to it from the form, it demonstrates to potential subscribers how often you publish as well as what they can expect as a subscriber

As A Widget on Your Blog

The other way this can be utilized, is by leveraging the RSS feed on the newsletter broadcast archive page. There are actually many ways this RSS feed can be used, one is to create a widget for posting on your blog. This would give visitors a link to more related content, further enticing them to become a subscriber.

Here’s an example of how to add an RSS Widget to a WordPress blog.

Archive Has An Email Signup Form

The biggest advantage of using the updated broadcast archive feature of Aweber is the included opt in form. Visitors to your archive can opt in to your list right from the Archive page.

Beyond the opt in form on this page, there is the RSS feed, and users can also configure their Twitter account for display on this page.

Here is the feature in action (can’t see it? Go here):

What say you? What other ways come to mind for using the broadcast archive feature to build trust, repurpose content, and grow you list? Chime in below.

Technorati Tags: email marketing strategy, email marketing tips, list building tips

Today I searched the web for content pertaining to Email Marketing, I’m always up for fresh ideas.  I found a few posts I thought were useful and wanted to share them with you here.  Find them below, and not in any particular order.

Useful Email Marketing Posts from Around the Web

Marketers ‘rely Heavily on Email Marketing, but Prioritise Speed …

New research suggests that more than one in six Australian marketers surveyed have no means in place to measure the success of their email campaigns and the…

Best of 2009 | Email Marketing Strategy – Blue Sky Factory Blog

Blue Sky Factory’s Amy Garland lists the best blog posts from 2009. From strategy to best practices, here are must-read posts that will improve your email program…

Email Marketing: Building Relationships; Subscription Form Tips …

Imagine that you’re a single and one day you meet someone in a park on a sunny summer day (OK, it’s winter now, I know, but we’re fantasizing here). You start talking a bit, and if you’re lucky, as the relationship develops, …

Email Marketing – Three Keys Before You Hit Send | SiteProNews

Unfortunately, the first word that pops to mind when many people mention email marketing is ‘spam.’ The junk mail of the modern era, spam is frequently held up as an abominable combination of inconvenience and social evil, with spam blockers and anti-spam petitions filling the news online and offline…

Hope you found them as useful as I did. -Travis

Technorati Tags: Email Marketing, email marketing strategy, email marketing tips

One of the things I appreciate about entrepreneurs and small businesses in general, is their opportunity to innovate, and make changes quickly. This agility (as some call it), is coveted by large businesses who are unable to react as quickly. I liken this big business small business dynamic to a huge cruise ship that is trying to turn, while it is being circled with little speedboats. Well, one speedboat is making some waves,  helping others make some waves of their own in the process.

Follow Up Marketing Just Got More Affordable

Infusionsoft is known for helping small businesses automate their follow up marketing, making it easier for small businesses to generate sales and increase profits.  In fact, a while back I shared 21 Ways I use InfusionSoft for Follow Up Marketing and what was apparent from the response? Infusionsoft follow up marketing system goes beyond being an autoresponder (way beyond), and while many seem interested in the product, the top reason more hadn’t signed up was the cost to get started.

Open Disclosure: I am a Certified Marketing Automation Coach with Infusionsoft, and help customers integrate this software in their business.  I use other tools as well, but Infusion has had the most significant impact in my business.

Infusionsoft Setup Fees Now Optional

Yesterday Infusion announced that all setup fees are now optional, and customers can choos a self-service route with their system.  Before this announcement, setup fees ranged from $2000-$5000.  From what I can tell, they have invested heavily in their online support videos, training, and added a walkthru wizard that makes it much easier for customers to setup a new system.  I have seen it, and they have done a good job.  The system is very powerful, but with that power comes complexity, I think this setup wizard is going to make it much easier for new customers to get results with the system faster. Learn more here

Free Trial for Infusionsoft?

They also made available a free trial of their software.  It’s for 15 days, and does require a Credit Card to signup, but should give you enough time to determine if it’ll work for your business.  Learn more about the Infusionsoft Free Trial here…

How Big a Risk is This for Infusionsoft?

In light of the economic climate, it is worth inquiring of the viability of companies you partner with for your business.  No doubt without risk there is no reward, and certainly this is a risk for Infusionsoft.  They are passing on upfront revenues and going for a broader reach.  Time will tell just how well this pays off for them.

To be fair, it is a risk for you to move your business to their platform.  What I would say, is what risk do you have remaining where you are?  Will your competitors be taking Infusion up on their offer first?  I’m not interested in hype or scare tactics, these are questions everyone marketing online should ask of any service they are considering.  And Infusion is an investment, not only of money, but time. What I can tell you, is I’ve been using the system for 18 months, and it is the most valuable tool in my online marketing business.

Bottom-Line on Infusionsoft Announcment

Infusion has been serving online and small business entreprenuers for years.  If you aren’t already using Infusion, I strongly encourage you to at least take a look at the free trial they are offering.  If you choose to signup and become a paying customer here,  I’ll give you a copy of my 10 Secrets to Maximizing Email Marketing with Infusionsoft training which is due to come out very soon and is valued at $297.  All you have to do is post a comment here with your signup information, once verified you have become a paying customer, you’ll get access to the course as soon as it’s available.

What Say You? Using Infusionsoft, considering their latest change as an opportunity for your business?  Chime in below.

Technorati Tags: email marketing strategies, follow up marketing, infusionsoft

In recent weeks social networking services seem to be maxed.  Twitter continues to have struggles as the fail whale has returned in full force, I’ve found posting updates to the site has become slow and challenging, and as a result I haven’t been updating as frequently.  Facebook has it’s own share of issues with the recent interface enhancements, as well as cracking down on suspicious accounts, and locking users out whom they deem a dangerous, even LinkedIn has been slower than normal.  All this instability rightfully puts internet and small business marketers on edge if they are using social media to grow their business.

Your Business Plan for Failing Social Networking Sites

SPECIAL UPDATE: Here is a great example of someone who was “devistated” when Facebook shut down a page he managed.

In a post last month in the post Why Email Marketing Should Be the Hub of Your Social Marketing Efforts it spoke of the common understanding in social media circles of driving social media traffic to your blog.  Of course a blog is good, as it serves you or your companies own social real-estate, however, as the post suggests it is not enough, you need an email list.

Email Marketing Strategy – A Lost Art?

Don’t get me wrong, all the buzz and interest in social media sites is mostly warranted.  Social marketing presents a great opportunity, and while business owners and online entrepreneurs figure out how to apply this to their business (no doubt some are ahead of others- but it is still early), they are also subject to the kinks and bugs of any early adoption technology.  What is concerning is the unpreparedness that exists for any number of circumstances that might render your favorite social site (and your profile and contact information) unavailable.

Many out there are espousing building large profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and others.  This is great, but with that emphasis what is often left out is an important piece of your email marketing strategy.  Lead them to your special offer for joining your email subscriber list.  As they connect on a social network, the next step is to connect further into your rings of intimacy (see diagram on last months email marketing strategy post), good news is, they will be more likely to opt-in because of their other connection with you.

10 Advantages of Having Your Own List

The main benefit of having your own list of subscribers is, you control it.  If Twitter, Facebook, or any number of social sites become unavailable, those with a list can rest at ease.  To encourage you to take action, here are a few things you can do with your email list, many of which impact profits:

• Promote an online event or webinar
• Announce a new blog post (RSS readers are still cumbersome for many)
• Promote and sell products
• Subscribers who become customers often become repeat customers.
• Customers can become affiliate partners
• With a vibrant list – attract joint venture partners
• Ask for customer testimonials
• Subscribers only information, which you may not want on a public blog or social site
• Testing a product offer to your list (or segment)
• Track open rates and clickthrus on your emails

Social networks provide an unprecedented opportunity for small business and online marketers to extend their reach, but don’t stop there.  Leverage your social collateral and web traffic to build your list and draw subscribers, you won’t regret it.

What say you? What other advantages are there to having your own list? Am I making too big a deal here?  Is this idea too overwhelming to consider?

*Image credits to buzz.bishop

Technorati Tags: email marketing goals, email marketing ideas, email marketing strategies, email marketing strategy, email marketing tips

There is a pretty standard rule when it comes to social media for business, you need to get people in your target market to your personal or company social media site, that is, your blog.  If you get people there, and they interact, you can build community…but does that go far enough?  In this post I will share the rings of intimacy, and the benefits of having your email list as the inner ring.

Why Email Marketing Should Be the Hub of Your Social Media Efforts

I’m amazed to see what a following many blogs have out there today, and great content, yet many are missing an opportunity to engage with followers further by linking it to their email marketing strategy.  Email marketing is what I believe to be the tightest ring of intimacy a marketer can have with followers and their marketplace.  Getting to be on your subscriber list (done correctly) should be a privilege and a joy for subscribers.

Key benefits of email marketing is that it establishes you as the expert, let’s you identify with your market, and puts you in a position to introduce products and services that will help solve subscribers pain.

While I can speak only from my personal experience, I think many would agree that while having a solid email marketing strategy is important, it is not easy to do.  It is hard work.  As valuable as email marketing tips may be (and there are many out there), it is different from an overall email marketing strategy.

The illustration in this post represents what I call “rings of intimacy”.  Social Networking Sites like Facebook might direct them to your Micro blog like Twitter or any of the inner rings, Twitter to the blog which then directs them to your email marketing list.

Email Marketing Offers Communication Diversification

If Twitter goes away, or is down, this single channel is down, not your entire communication structure, it’s the same for Facebook, and social networking sites.  Also, if have a business blog hosted at a free site like Blogger or WordPress, consider that while indeed it is a simple and easy way to start blogging, it can stop at any time if they decide your blog no longer meets their terms of service.  Email marketing serves as a consistent backdoor channel to reach your market should any of your social media front door channels fail.

People Want to Be Led

Readers want to understand what the next step is to be in tighter connection with you, so tell them!  As you add value, and let them know where they can go to get more information.  People in general respond well to those who know where they are going.  Leading followers gently down your social media rings, should continue as an email subscriber.

Of course, having subscribers on your email list introduces a whole new strategy for engaging them (hint: this is where email marketing strategy kicks in).

Good for Business

Don’t make your blog the final destination, invite people to become a subscriber by opting into your email list.  The more people you have on your email list the more likely you’ll be able to sell products and increase your bottomline.  Quite simply, this is part of a good email marketing strategy.  You don’t want to be held hostage by free services that can cripple your business at a moments notice if they don’t like your content, or decide to change their terms of service.  Putting yourself in this situation is not fair to you, your company, or your customers and subscribers.

It’s Your Turn: What is the value of an email subscriber to you? What’s am I missing here? Please leave your comments here on the blog.

Image Credit Darwin Bell

Technorati Tags: email marketing strategy, email marketing tips, social marketing strategy

Have you ever purchased a product, only later to have that sinking feeling known as buyer’s remorse?  I have…and over the years, I’ve signed up for many email marketing lists for various products or services, and later couldn’t find the unsubscribe link fast enough. In this post I’ll share three main areas I found email marketers commonly forget when it comes to managing their email marketing campaigns.  This results in what I call, Subscribers Remorse.

Let’s Learn Together: This is an incomplete list, scroll to the comments box and add to the conversation.

Email Marketing: 3 Tips to Avoid Subscribers Remorse

Consistency. Having Some.

Risk. That is what email marketing is.  The subscriber is taking a risk that you will do what you say you will do when you ask them to fork over their email address.  Do you?  After hitting the “Subscribe Button” does the following (thank you) page reflect your branding and site design? Does it tell them what to expect next (confirmation email)?

If you have all subscribers click a confirmation link (double opt-in), does your confirmation page work like your thank you page with branding and design? Does it tell them what to expect next (check your inbox), etc?

Subscriber Longevity. Consistency begins with these first few interactions, and should remain throughout.  If you see sudden increases in unsubscribes, look at which messages are triggering the spikes, and make necessary adjustments.

Unless you build in these consistencies into your email marketing strategy, you are missing opportunities to build trust, and avoid subscriber’s remorse.

Expectations. Let Them Know What’s Coming.

Let your subscribers know up front what they will get and how it will add value to them by being your subscriber.  Share a subscriber quote or testimonial of how someone else benefited by being a subscriber. Also, let them know if you’ll be doing things that could potentially annoy people (product promotions,special offers, etc.).  Lastly, inform them that subscribers can unsubscribe at any time.

Some might suggest that last idea is counter-productive, in reality it is more counter productive to have disgruntled subscribers flag your email as spam because you didn’t do a good job letting them know what they were getting into,making it more difficult for emails to arrive to those who do want your information.

Manners.  Being a Gracious Host

What I’ve been finding is that very few (even online Guru’s) welcome new subscribers.  This speaks to the opportunity in the marketplace.  If this isn’t part of your email marketing strategy, it’s a great opportunity for you to stand out in your market.

What is in a welcome letter? Glad you asked!  There is no exact formula, but think of a time when you were a guest at someone’s house and felt really welcome.  Consider adopting a similar approach in your first email to them:

• Say thank you.  Common courtesy, wouldn’t you agree?
• Give them what you told them you would when you invited them to subscribe.
• Let them know how your subscribers get the most out of their interactions with you
• Give them an idea how often you will be communicating with them via email
• Let them know what to expect when they get an email from you (special offers, product recommendations, industry news, etc.)
• Give them access to you outside of your list… Contact information, and social networking contact info (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)

The good news, they all tie together and overlap so they can be a part of any email marketing strategy.  Avoid them, and you’ll be head and shoulders above the rest in your market.

*Image credits to Tanya Ryno

Technorati Tags: email marketing strategy, email marketing tips, online marketing strategy, small business marketing

Making email marketing pay is 100% about execution. That means getting your email delivered, opened, read, and the consumer moved to action. Drop the ball on any step in the direct email marketing process and chances are you dropped you conversion to 0% on that email.

Enlisting a good autoresponder service is the only way to manage your email marketing campaigns. Like any marketing approach, your results get better and more effective if analyzed and iterated. A good email service can help you execute better and measure results for continual improvement.

Message Delivery

Email delivery is getting trickier and trickier in the age of information overload, spam, and incessant phishing. Keeping up with how to actually get a legitimate email reliably delivered is daunting effort. Your core competency is probably email marketing, not email technology. That is why you must strongly consider outsourcing your autoresponder service.

Email marketing services are responsible for reliable delivery. Unlike your own efforts, outsourcing your direct email marketing delivery can help you track every inbox successfully hit and clean up your list of any email bounces.

Small business email marketing is a great way to drive up business, but you have to get delivery right. These services can dramatically increase your delivery rate–driving up your opportunities for conversion.

Reputation, Trust

Like email delivery, direct email marketing suffers a reputation and trust problem resulting from the increase in spam and phishing. Many of these emails are blasted from ghost, free email service accounts. The simple step of using a reputable autoresponder service like AWeber, Constant Contact, Mail Chimp or other email service provider can increase credibility with the consumer.

These autoresponder services have strict rules and guidelines that will help you build a strong reputation and trust with the customer. Some of the important email marketing tips most email services enforce include:

·       Double opt-in feature

·       Physical address inclusion

·       Simple unsubscribe mechanism

·       Email response capture

Nothing is more important to email conversion, after delivery, than building trust with each consumer you email.

Reliability, Scale

As I mentioned in the opening, every step in the direct email marketing process has to work. This is where reliability is critical. When you are sending out 1000+ email marketing pieces, reliability becomes a factor. This is not a job for your Outlook email client, or even an Exchange server.

This kind of scale requires a professional. Not only for the technology, but also for the appropriate flow and white listing of these kinds of email blasts. Spam protection is always on the watch for large volumes of email releases from a single domain, or large quantities of simultaneous receipts for a single domain.

Email marketing services manage all of these nuances at whatever scale you need.

Reporting, Compliance

Finally, you need to know what happened and that you did it within the letter of the law.

Direct email marketing requires constant tuning and continual improvement. The only way to do that is with a consistent flow of reliable information. Autoresponder services and email providers are built on analytic engine. These services can constantly feed you delivery, open, and click-through rates. While, at the same time, cleaning up bounces and undeliverables–improving each campaign iteration.

Most importantly they are keeping you out of trouble with the law. Increased fines and penalties associated with CAN-SPAM can in the best case kill the profitability of your email marketing and in the worst case land you in jail. A reputable email service will remind you at every turn how to do the right things and help insure your compliance.

image credits to Woodley

Technorati Tags: autoresponder service, direct email marketing, email conversion, Email Marketing, email marketing tips, small business email marketing