5 Points to Help You Choose An Email Marketing Service 5 Fast Ways to Choose An Autoresponder
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Dec.13,2010Here are 5 critical points to consider in your e-mail marketing.
1) Not all e-mail marketing services are equal. There is no one size fits all Email Marketing service
For online marketers, the number of emails delivered is the most important factor considered when choosing an autoresponder. More e-mails to your subscribers translates into more money in your bank account. The more people that read your emails the better Yes, there are other factors to consider, but none of them matter as much as delivery. Depending on whom you choose you may experience anywhere from 30 to 90 percent deliverability. Depending on the quality of your emails and your target market you will experience wildly fluctuating delivery rates across autoresponders.
Of course much of this depends on the quality of your list and how well you’ve grown it.There are autoresponder services out there who specialize in working with e-mail marketers with dirty lists. The list owners probably have higher than normal spam complaints. Their reputation will affect your delivery rates. If you have a super clean double opt-in list, do not settle for anything less than the best. Shop around, and do test mailings to sections of your list through various autoresponder services before you decide on a final solution.
2) You probably will not be able to make a fully informed decision for at least a month. Plan on doing at least a 30 day trial.
At Overcome Everything Inc, we have experimented with many different auto-responder services and have often experienced higher than normal deliverability at the beginning. But almost without exception, after a month or two of these amazing figures fall slightly and stabilize at a lower value. We are not 100% sure why this is, but it does not seem to be specific to a single autoresponder service. The important thing to remember is not to be disappointed if your inbox numbers fall slightly. Here at www.overcomeeverything.com we’ve been in the email marketing business for over 5 years and have tried out many email marketing services. Initial delivery rates seem to start out higher and then level off.
3) Put a disclaimer at the end of affiliate mailings stating you may receive compensation.Make sure you include a disclaimer stating you may be paid if subscribers purchase from your affiliate promotions
This one is simple. If you intend to make money from people who purchase via links in your affiliate promotions then tell them. This one is easy, simply be straight with your subscribers by letting them know you have a personal interest in them purchasing from your emails. Today subscribers are accustomed to seeing these disclaimers and most of them do not even notice. Remember the huge buzz not long ago about the “new” FTC rules that applied to online marketers? It ended with more focus on implementation and enforcement of existing rules than anything else.
4) Your list is like a garden that must be cared for on a daily basis or it will die. A subscriber database is similar to a car or a house. Like any asset it requires maintenance for peak performance and longevity.
Don’t be shy about contacting your subscribers. They signed up with you initially because they wanted to hear from you. Don’t let them down. Help your subscribers remember WHY they signed up to begin with. Never forget that each email address in your database represents a real person. It can become easy to see your list as a faceless entity. Remember you are talking to humans. Give them things that help out with their individual human lives and you’ll see postive results! This is a common mistake for companies of all sizes. Some organizations will contact their subscribers several days a week with coupon offers, advice etc. Their subscribers WANT to hear from them. A 20% discount coupon for auto parts is usually welcome right?
Then there are companies who do not cultivate their list properly. They send one or two emails a month. The subscribers often do not remember who they are, or why they would want to read their messages. The messages are sometimes very “salesy” without perceived benefit for subscribers. If you have a dedicated IP for your email marketing sending infrequent broadcasts can cause an IP to grow “cold”. Basically this raises a red flag with major ISP’s, who prefer to see regular activity, not intermittent mailings.
5) If you do not split test your e-mail messages you leave money on the table. A simple subject line split test can yield impressive results.
Do you know if the list will respond better to a message with a template, or do you get more clicks with a plain Jane e-mail?If you do not know the answer may surprise you. You are looking for more clicks and opens. Split testing of e-mail messages can be as simple as using two different subject lines. You can use unique subject lines on the same e-mail. Test one element at a time (headline, e-mail template and so on), otherwise you will not know what made the difference. Make sure that your autoresponder has the ability to split test emails and accurately report the results of your email marketing efforts. Split testing emails isn’t hard once you get the hang of it. You will probably find yourself addicted to checking the stats and working on improving them.
A few recommended autoresponder services are:
Aweber aweber.com
iContact icontact.com
MailChimp mailchimp.com
Visit http://www.overcomeeverything.com for additional email marketing advice.
