Email Marketing Tips

Want to use email marketing? Do it responsibly and drammatically increase your response rates.

By Garnet R. Chaney

Many people are irrationally over-concerned about spam, and make it a crusade to make life difficult for everyone associated with any spam message they received. I think this is stupid. The aggravation of spam doesn't justify the receivers committing crimes against the senders.

But there is no denying that spam is a growing problem. I often receive 300 - 400 messages a day, and only half a dozen or so are personally intended for me. Average people are complaining about this problem, and studies are documenting this problem, and legislators are starting to listen. More and more states, and the European Union, are passing laws against spam. Even without the laws, most ISPs have pretty quick and severe sanctions for anyone caught spamming. It really isn't worth it to get involved with sending spam.

So how can you use email in your online business? You may have heard of Opt-in lists. But even when using Opt-in lists, you are still not safe from a spam complaint. To be perfectly safe, here are some guidelines:

1. Don't even think of buying and using one of those "millions of email addresses plus a bulk emailer program" type products.
2. Do not buy other people's opt-in lists. The people who opted in to that list opted in to receive mail from someone else, not you!!!!
3. When collecting your own mailing list from your own site, have a double-opt-in process. This means that when someone signs up for a mailing list, have a system that can send them an email to verify that they actually want to be on your email list, and that requires them to either reply or click a link within the email to make sure that they really want to be on your list.
4. Don't sell your list to others. Remember your double-opt-in members opted to receive mail from you, not someone else.
5. Promptly honor any remove requests. Make an easy to follow link in every email you send.
6. Never use any kind of fake header in your email messages. In other words, don't try to hide your identity. Have a working return address that is your own.
7. Do not advertise your site or services on any mailing list newsletter that did not collect it's addresses by double-opt-in.

Think in terms of cross marketing. How can you do cross marketing with others? Suppose some guy comes to you with a really great bookstore that would be a great resource for your readers, and wants to buy your mailing list? Here's what you can do instead: In your next newsletter to your group, offer that guy to buy an advertisement in your newsletter. Or better yet, write your own testimonial recommending his site to your members. By doing it this way, two things happen: 1) Your members receive an email from someone they want to receive email from, and 2) your members recieve a personal recommendation from someone they trust, and they are much more likely to visit the site your are recommending, more than if he sent his own advertisement to your group.

Similarly, any list you want to use should already be receiving a regular newsletter from the owner of the list. Offer the owner of the list a useful article of interest to his list, and that contains a small blurb at the end talking about your credentials, and the website or offer that you would like those members to visit. Most list owners are very happy to receive articles to send in their newsletter to their members. Often this can be arranged for free if the article is not an overt advertisement.

Most ISPs have a very simple spam policy: If they are contacted with credible spam (unsolicited bulk email, whether commercial or not) complaints regarding any site they host, most will unceremoniously remove all of that customers sites from hosting, because they can not afford to have their systems blocked because of spam being sent by a customer.

But, as you can see with those responsible ways to do email marketing, there really is no reason to be accused of being involved in unsolicited bulk email and risk losing or site or even your domain name. (Yes, many domain name registrars can revoke or block your domain name because of credible spam complaints.)

Besides, the response rates for bulk email are dismal and dropping. If nothing else convinces you not spam, did you know that response rates these days are commonly as low as 30 responses for every 100,000 messages sent? And that's not customers, that's just visitors you might get from a spam you send. If you have an average sell through rate of 1%, you might have to send a million spams just to get enough visitors to receive a handful of orders.

You probably realize I've spent many years learning the ins-and-outs of the web, and how to build and promote great information rich websites. I've also spent thousands of dollars buying some of the best internet courses and books. Did you know that I've prepared a free guide to website promotion for my friends and clients? This guide will help you save time and money, and help you learn the very best internet marketing techniques. For a free list of over 40 ways to promote your website, visit my website promotion tips.

- Garnet