Instead, you can take a peek at these 6 quick fire insider secrets to email marketing. You’ll immediately be able to improve your campaigns, or begin a brand new campaign without having to struggle or stumble.

Quick Fire Insider Secrets to Email Marketing

1. Personality is better than a sales pitch: We all deal with sales pitches all day long. The commercials we see and hear, the advertisements we read, the pushy salespeople at stores we visit and of course the emails we receive. It’s hard to differentiate yourself from the crowd when all you’re doing is offering a sales pitch. Instead, inject some honest personality into your email campaigns. Your list members will be more engaged, you’ll build up more trust with them and you’ll stand out from the pack.

2. Too much of a good thing is bad: This is coming from a person who normally doesn’t agree with this statement. If we’re talking too much of a good thing, like pizza, or Italian sandwiches, then I don’t think that’s possible. But if we’re talking about the frequency of your email newsletters and communications, then it certainly is.

I don’t care if I’m the founder of the company in question, if I’m receiving an email once a day and I thought I was going to be getting a once per week newsletter, I’m deleting your email, skimming past it or unsubscribing. Set up expectations for your email frequency and don’t push the boundary towards excessive communication.

3. 20% of emails don’t get delivered: I’m not talking about bounces here, I’m talking about 20% of emails that you thought were delivered. It’s a startling number, and it speaks to the importance of not making any assumptions about the success of your campaign. Always find concrete evidence to the effectiveness of your campaigns and always work on improving your list quality. Not blindly trusting the stats you receive or hear about is one of the huge insider secrets to email marketing that you should know.

4. 94% of email is spam: Not like any of us needed a statistic to be reminded of this fact, but we all are inundated with spam messages in our inbox. That means that if you want your emails to be read by your list members you really have to work hard on following established best practices. That means short, concise and accurate subject lines, displayed “from” information, qualified, permission based list members and more.

5. Cheap email marketing exists: Yes, there is such a thing as cheap email marketing and it’s one of the best insider secrets to email marketing that you can be given. In fact, many of the best email marketing providers are extremely affordable for any sized business or operation. Even better, they all allow for free trials so you can make the final call based on experience. For example, you can sign up for an iContact free trial with plans starting at $9.95 per month, a Constant Contact free trial with plans starting at $15 per month, a Stream Send free trial with plans starting at $20 per month or an AWeber free trial with plans starting at $19 per month.

6. You’re not done with tests when you’re finished with college: But don’t worry, these tests are certainly a good thing. You should be segmenting your list and sending out emails with slight variations. Compare the results and track which variables perform better so that you can optimize your campaigns to the best of your ability. One-size-fits-all email newsletters and campaigns simply don’t cut it anymore. You’ll be missing out on a wealth of valuable data. Start segmenting, testing and optimizing immediately.

If you didn’t know… now you do. Use these insider secrets to email marketing wisely.

More important than that is understanding the answer to the question “what is email marketing?” in the real world. We all receive plenty of email marketing messages each and every day, most of them we lump into the SPAM category. They are wastes of time and space, they slow down and infect our computers, they try to sell us enhancement creams or steal our bank account information and of course they give the rest of us a bad name.

Therefore email marketing in the real world has fast taken on the definition of SPAM.  Again from Wikipedia, SPAM is, “The abuse of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.”

In other words, email marketing for consumers is fast becoming aligned with fraudulent garbage. For sketchy, illicit or downright illegal business operations, email marketing has taken on the definition of the cheapest way to exploit loads of money from the unsuspecting public at large by poking and prodding repeatedly ad nauseam until somebody purposely or inadvertently caves in.

Now, what should email marketing be? I.M.P.O.R.T.A.N.T.

Now that we know what email marketing really is, by the literal definition and by the interpretations of both consumers and spammers, we should take a look at what email marketing should be. Email marketing should be I.M.P.O.R.T.A.N.T.

• Insightful
• Marketing
• (that’s)
• Personalized
• Optimized
• Relevant
• Targeted
• And
• Never
• Tired

Let’s break this down piece by piece so we have as clear a definition as we can. Email marketing should be insightful marketing. In other words, we should be using all of our judgment, knowledge, expertise and experience to deliver quality, handcrafted messages that not only will produce results, but also speak to the desires of our audience.

Email marketing should be personalized. First, that means building a permission based list of people who really want to hear from you. From there, it means using your name and showing pictures of yourself so your audience knows who you are. It means segmenting your list so that different people receive messages containing what they are most interested in, rather than a generic message of no real value.

Email marketing should be optimized. You should be testing every aspect of your email campaigns to see what works the best. Try different subject lines, content, layouts, color schemes, delivery times and more.

Email marketing should be relevant and targeted. Once again, segment your list into groups and learn what your audience is really interested in. Make your messages timely and full of valuable information that people can really use. Don’t just send what you feel like talking about; send what people want to hear.

Finally, email marketing should never be tired. This means that you shouldn’t keep sending out the same retread emails over and over again and you shouldn’t keep using that same template you had from your first email campaign in 2002.

Refresh your campaigns…bring in guests from other websites or companies to write on special topics…change your layouts so that they are more visually appealing and convert better in the process…think of new, fresh ideas for every email and always be trying new things… stay ahead of the curve and integrate new technology, services and methods instead of playing catch-up down the road.

So how can I answer the question, “what is email marketing”? How about, I.M.P.O.R.T.A.N.T.

In this email marketing tip the point I’d like to drive home is that you can take this on from two approaches.

Starting with social media – If used correctly, your social media platform can serve as a great tool for producing email marketing leads, and drawing people into your overall campaign efforts.

Starting with email campaigns – For the email marketing lead you already have, you can effectively work on converting them into paying customers by including them in some of your more personal outreach efforts.

Let’s start with the second half of this equation, taking an email marketing lead and converting him or her with your more personalized approach on social networking sites. You have to remember that signing up for an account and creating a uniform, empty page doesn’t give you any “street cred”. If you are trying to send your prospects to your social media sites, you have to make it worth their time.

In other words, don’t make the mistake of saying the same things in the same ways on all of your different outlets. I like taking the approach of keeping email marketing campaigns personal, but focused on the task at hand, whether that’s selling a product or promoting an event. Then, I think it’s great to use social media sites for a softer approach, focusing on core values and missions.

I’d like you all to meet Bob from Bob’s Chicken Shack, he’s a small business owner and he’s delving into the world of email marketing and social media. Here’s how Bob can effectively tie together his email marketing campaigns with his social media platforms.

• Bob can focus his email messages on promoting next Friday’s buy one bucket, get one bucket free promotion.
• His Facebook page however can talk about how Bob always loved animals and therefore thinks they deserve proper treatment, which is why he only uses organic products and local produce and yadda yadda.
• His Twitter page can include quick blasts like, just talked with a customer about her stance on using eggs from caged chickens. I don’t do it, but what do you all think?

Throughout all of this he tied his business together and additionally, all of the outlets served a purpose rather than being repetitious, wasted rehashes. Well done, Bob.

Making the Connections

Now you’ve seen how you can differentiate your different strategies while still keeping them related and worthwhile, but how can you actually translate this into an effective strategy for cross-promotion?

Let’s go back to the two ways we looked at this in the beginning.

Starting with social media to find email marketing leads - On Bob’s Facebook page, instead of saying “Sign up for my email list,” Bob could talk about how if people in the local area are looking for a healthy food establishment that treats animals correctly, they should look you up and they can receive discounts if they receive your email updates.

Starting with email campaigns and converting an email marketing lead – Instead of just including a link on the bottom of his email saying “Visit Bob’s Chicken Shack on Facebook”, Bob could place a blurb at the top of the sidebar in his email inviting people to learn more about Bob’s passion for organic products and animal welfare on his Facebook page.

Hey, take the analogy for what it’s worth. The point I’m making with this email marketing tip of the week is that you can effectively tie together your different online promotional strategies, including email marketing and social media.

When you do it the right way, you’ll be successful at producing more email marketing leads while also more effectively converting the email marketing lead you already have in your pocket.

Many small businesses are at a loss when it comes to making improvements in their performance. It’s not necessarily a lack of caring or effort either. More likely, it’s a lack of understanding- understanding where the problems really lie and understanding how to improve on those weak spots. Making good use of the best satisfaction survey software will easily allow you to come to a quick understanding of what you need to do.

Here’s a quick step by step guide to help get you started with customer service software. Survey your customers and prospects, respond accordingly and continue to adjust.

1. Understand why satisfaction survey software is superior – It’s not like the concept of surveying customers and prospects is a new one. It’s that the technology today has made it profoundly easier for you to take on the task by yourself without spending a fortune.

The benefits to using the best survey software companies are vast. Mainly, you will be saving a great deal of time and effort as opposed to other surveying methods. You’ll also get more honest responses as the online platform allows people to be more free and honest without fear of retribution or awkwardness.

2. Ask the right questions – Generally speaking, the more specific you get with the questions you ask the better the results that you’ll see with your customer service software. Survey results depend on participants being steered as clearly as possible into talking about specific occasions or factors.

An ineffective survey would be comprised of questions like “Describe your recent purchasing experience.” An effective survey would break that one question down into more specific questions: “How would you rate the speed of delivery?” “Was the condition of the product up to standards?” “Was the product what you expected?” “Do you feel that you paid a fair price for the product” and so forth.

3. Ask the right people – Many small businesses make the mistake of asking the wrong people for information. You might want to have several different survey groups to help you diagnose different areas. The groups could be as general as customers and prospects, or you could get much more specific.

For example, customers could be broken down into recent one time customers, multiple purchasers, multiple but recently inactive purchasers and so forth. The group you choose of course has to reflect the questions you want answered and the information you want revealed.

4. Spot trends – Some people have a tendency to overreact to each individual survey response. Don’t go and change your entire business model because one client was unsatisfied with one element of your service. Wait until you get many results for the same survey which will allow you to spot overall trends and baseline opinions. In other word’s, don’t have a knee jerk reaction to every response, whether it’s positive or negative. Wait until trends develop and you gain a more complete understanding of the situation.

5. Make necessary adjustments – Now that you have all of this information don’t waste it. Make the necessary adjustments to your business based on the results of the survey. Is your website a mess? Are your email campaigns off target? Is the quality of your product slipping? Whatever it is, listen to your customers and your prospects and you’ll be able to provide them with an improved experience.

You don’t need expensive marketing companies to conduct high quality primary market research. Delve into the world of customer service software. Survey results done in this fashion will provide everything you need at a far lowered cost than other, more traditional methods.

Don’t forget about our Race to 50 New RSS Subscribers with a chance to win a free B2B email marketing consulting package.

The point being that if you use email survey software in the right way, you’ll see a boatload of great results. Here are a few tips to help you make the most from any customer satisfaction survey software.

The best way to keep your list members happy is to know what they want from you. Your viewpoint of what you think your customers and prospects want to know, and what the truth actually is may be quite different from one another. You may think that everyone is dying to see your “Inside the CEO’s brain!” newsletter, but in reality everyone signed up to your newsletter expecting to see discounts and periodic sales or special offers.

Customer satisfaction survey software can help you get to the truth of the matter very easily. In fact, just one check box question can provide you with all of the information you need. Ask your list members, “What kinds of messages would you enjoy seeing from us?” Allow them to select as many as they want, and provide a text box for suggestions as well. You’ll quickly determine what people expect from you.

Ask them a few other multiple choice questions as well to find out even more answers. Ask them questions such as, what do you enjoy the most from receiving our emails, what do you like the least about our communications, what would make you happier or more involved with our company, and on down the line. You’re essentially asking the same thing each time, but by asking it in different ways you can really hone in on the specifics.

Another key question to ask is “How often do you want to hear from us?” Even when someone is interested in your emails, too many of them can quickly turn them off. Conversely, too few emails and people will forget about you… quickly.

The more you know about the expectations and desires of your list members, the more adequately you can serve them and convert them into returning clients and customers. The best and simplest way to find out detailed, firsthand information such as this is through customer satisfaction survey software.

You can use all of this information to completely overhaul your email campaigns, or you can use the information obtained from customer satisfaction survey software to segment your list into more specific groups. For example, if 25% of your list actually was highly interested in your “Inside the CEO’s brain!” newsletter, you can segment those people and continue sending the messages to them without alienating the rest of your list.

I also recommend that you ask basic questions like what kinds of messages do you want to receive from us and how often would you like to hear from us when someone initially signs up to your list. It will keep that person happier from the beginning, and you’ll be able to target them more effectively right from the start.

Remember that happy list members put money into your pocket. Utilize the best email survey software programs to keep your list as happy as possible.

I call this the “Hey what’s up? Buy this!” style of marketing, and it’s just not going to get the job done. Now, you don’t need to try to get all philosophical about trying to deliver exceptionally thought provoking messages. That wouldn’t be time or cost productive, and it still wouldn’t move your bottom line.

Giving Messages a Purpose

So how can you give each message you send out a purpose? As mentioned, you don’t need to do anything extraordinary in order to see results. If you’re trying to sell somebody a product directly, or get them to buy anything from your website, you need to entice them to do it. Don’t just say “Hey what’s up? Buy this!”, opt instead to try any of these tactics:

• Provide a detailed review
• Share a story about creating the product/service
• Share a story about someone else using the product/service
• Share any kind of story!
• Provide incentive to buy – Did you know that 80% of people on your list buy from a sale or from a free shipping offer?

Of course not all of your messages are targeted at creating sales. Some are targeted towards just sending people to your website, getting somebody to take another kind of action or just staying at the forefront of a person’s consciousness. The same rule applies, every message needs a purpose.

The only thing that’s as bad as “Hey what’s up? Buy this!” is the “Hey what’s up?” email that doesn’t seem to want to get anything done and isn’t even trying to sell me anything. Sure, what you sent out is claiming to be a newsletter, but did I receive any kind of news? Anything that is going to keep my attention, inform me, educate me, entertain me or be of any kind of use for me whatsoever?

If the answer to that was no, then why should I care? Listen, unless I work for your company or am prominently involved in it somehow, I don’t care that you hired a new VP of marketing.

Now, if Mr. or Ms. New VP of Marketing sends out a message with a nice little picture of himself or herself so I can see whose doing the talking and a nice little blurb explaining to me their excitement about the position, the changes I can expect to see, what else they bring to the table and so forth, I’m bound to be much more interested. The same message with a new perspective can change everything.

Don’t make one of the biggest mistakes in email marketing by not giving your messages a purpose. Even if your purpose is as simple as a sale on a new product or a free shipping offer, you’re still doing something more besides just saying “Hey, what’s up?!” Put this week’s email marketing tip to week regardless of what industry or sector you’re in and you’ll start to see improved results.

Don’t forget about our Race to 50 New RSS Subscribers with a chance to win a free email marketing consultation package.

The overlooked element that many individuals, small businesses and nonprofits miss is that you need to optimize your website as well if you want to turn those list members into customers, clients and supporters. This means using specific landing pages for different emails, offers and programs so that when somebody does click through to your site, you are much more likely to reach out to them effectively.

Utilizing Landing Pages to Maximize Conversions

Creating a perfect email message is only part of the battle. Let’s think about an entire list of goals you might have with one of your email campaigns. You want people to:

1. Sign up for your list

2. Open and read your messages

3. Click through to your site

4. Buy a product or service, or take another action

All too often, we all are guilty of focusing on the first three steps and then completely forgetting about the fourth. Sure, it’s great to see that people read your emails and click through to your website. But if they don’t take any other kind of action – signing up for your next webinar, buying a monthly subscription, registering for your forum… – then what was the point of it all?

Creating Targeted Email Landing Pages

So hopefully you can see the importance of targeted landing pages for your email campaigns, so how do you go about creating them?

The first step in the process is really thinking about what you are asking somebody to do. You need to have a clear picture of what kind of action you want a person to take and what it takes for them to do that. If you want them to sign up for a service, you should be linking directly to the signup form to cut out additional steps.

Brand a separate landing page including that signup form mentioning the email and your subscribers and you’re doing even better. Be sure you mention clearly whatever special offer or promotion you mentioned in the email right on the page. Be sure you are speaking about the same benefits, the same pricing and everything else as you did within your messages.

The two keys are 1) consistency and 2) eliminating unnecessary steps. Don’t send somebody to your home page if you want them to read a product review they have to then go find elsewhere. Don’t mention a free trial offer in your email and then send them to a page where credit card information is required and there’s no mention of a free trial.

If you effectively build targeted landing pages for your email campaigns, staying consistent with your message and eliminating as many unnecessary steps as possible, you’ll be much more likely to achieve that fourth goal mentioned above and convert your list members.

Here are some factors that may be leading to the messages from your email marketing program being tagged as SPAM along with what you can do to prevent that from happening. Wouldn’t it be great to reside amongst the very happy 6% of messages that are positively received by their intended audiences?

Your messages aren’t reaching your list members. The problem could be that your email marketing ASP isn’t reliable enough. Do some research into which email service providers have the highest deliverability rates, which have good reputations and so forth. Problems could arise for many reasons including if you get assigned a recycled IP address or if the servers of your email marketing ASP are overstuffed.

Your messages aren’t being identified. Your list members may be having a hard time distinguishing your messages from the saturated, nearly all encompassing SPAM pile (Remember, 94 percent!). To remedy the situation you need to be sure to have a recognizable name in the “From” field. Your subject line needs to be short, to the point and grammatically correct. Read more on this issue in a former email marketing tip of the week.

Your messages aren’t being read. You may not be compelling enough with the subject lines your email marketing program utilizes. Additionally, it may be time to scrub your list clean of list members who are uninterested in your messages. From here on out, get some information on your list members when they signup. Find out what kinds of messages they want to receive from you so you can segment them accordingly. Don’t forget to set the ground rules either. Inform your new list members when they can expect to receive your messages and how frequently you’ll be in their inbox.

Your messages aren’t being displayed properly. What kind of template or design are you using within your emails? Excessive images can leave the monitors of your list members filled with open spaces and X marks. Complicated HTML or other coding languages could load improperly. Keep your templates simple and clean, and consider offering a text only option for subscribers. Check out another post to learn more about choosing an email marketing template.

Starting from sheer deliverability and ending with your emails being displayed properly, there are lots of landmines and pitfalls that your email marketing program can run into. Find a quality email marketing ASP, identify yourself, compel and target your list members and design your messages effectively and your email marketing program will hopefully find a home in that 6% sliver of opportunity.

So instead I’ll be focusing on the strengths of marketing by email even if there is a slumping economy. Alternatively and in other times, your business may be going through its own downward sloping cycle as the economy is doing fine, making marketing by email all the more important.

Emailing Your Way out of a Recession

Whether the entire economy is sputtering or your business is the only one falling off the cliff, you need to turn to marketing by email to pull you out of the scrap head and ahead of your competitors. You can email yourself right out of a recession or downturn if you have the right tools in place.

What’s the most important thing you have to do when your business is struggling or the economy is suffering and money is tight? You need to find a way to control costs, while still finding new customers. This can seem tricky at best, but the truth is that there’s no more cost effective way of marketing than email marketing. This holds true for businesses and nonprofit organizations alike.

A 2005 study by the Winterberry Group found that for every dollar spent on email marketing, $15.50 was earned. This is higher than direct mail, and vastly superior to telemarketing. Many other studies turn up the same thing – marketing by email is more cost effective than other marketing mediums.

There are no large upfront costs associated with marketing by email. Many companies now offer free trials for checking out their services, and monthly plans start as low as $10.

Additionally, just as you are trying to find a way to make a better use of your money in a recession, so are your potential customers, whether you’re selling to households or to other businesses. That means you have an opportunity to see some fantastic conversion rates when you offer special deals and discounts to your mailing list. Free shipping is a go to offer if you’re selling physical products, but general discounts also work well.

Try hitting two birds with one stone by offering incentives to your email list for finding you new list members. Tell them for every 3 new list members they refer, they’ll receive a 10% or 20% discount on their next order, or will receive a special free gift with their next order. You’ll acquire new prospects and make more sales.

The importance of email marketing is also growing due to the prevalence of email itself. Email is the preferred means of communication not just for younger generations, but for professionals and executives as well. With mobile devices becoming more capable and accessible as well, people can now view and respond to their emails from anywhere.

You have to be able to reach out to consumers where they prefer to conduct their own communication. It’s not hard to see that people don’t run out to their mailboxes 20 times a day looking for letters from friends and acquaintances from around the world. No, it’s the email inboxes they check all day long, where they spend a lot of time and where they are receptive to communication. Meet a consumer on his or her own domain, and you’ll have a greater chance of success.

Maybe all of this helps to explain that while 60% of marketers surveyed by the Aberdeen Group in January 2009 said they will be decreasing their traditional marketing spending, 47% will be increasing their budgets for marketing by email.

Not juicy enough for you? Well, Forrester has projected that total spending on email marketing is going to increase to more than $2 billion by 2014, from $1.2 billion in 2009.

So let’s see… lower your costs, increase your ROI, take advantage of the preferred means of communication to make easier connections with your customer base and on down the line we go. No matter how bad a recession is or how badly your own business is suffering, some clever marketing by email can pull you right out of the red.

Some people are at a loss for how to do this but the truth is it shouldn’t be too difficult to change the style and focus of your messages in order to connect with your list at a much more appropriate and effective level. Here are some ideas you can use to reach out to your list more successfully.

Learn when they signup – Find out about your email list members when they signup for your list by providing a checkbox question where they can pick what kinds of messages they want to hear from you. This will help you segment your list (see below) but will also provide you with firsthand information on what your list members actually want to be receiving from you.

Conduct a survey – Most email service providers today come with survey features that will allow you reach out to your existing list with easy to use and effective surveys. Ask them straightforward questions without being afraid of receiving negative feedback. Ask them what they like and don’t like about your emails, what you should change, what’d they like to see more of and so on. Use a combination of multiple choice questions and open ended short answer questions for maximum results.

Segment your list – Using the above information or other data that you have on your list members you should segment them into smaller, more focused groups. This will allow you to send out specific newsletters or blasts that only the most interested people will receive. See last week’s email marketing tip of the week for more information on segmenting and targeting your list.

Get personal – Far too many businesses try to take the approach of providing a completely impersonal message or service. Customers want to buy something, not have a friend, right? Well it’s actually far more effective to personalize all of your communications. Show a small picture of yourself in every newsletter so people can associate a name and face with your business. Share a short anecdote. Take questions and answers. Be honest. Show some personality.

Switch your perspective – Hopefully you view all of your newsletters when they go out. Next time, don’t view them as the satisfied creator, view them as the skeptical list member. If you received this message from another company, what would you think? Would you want to buy something or take another action? Would you roll your eyes at all of the self promotion or ineffective sales tactics? If you can’t give yourself an honest review, have your friends or family members do it for you.

Remember, you have to reach out to your list members on their level. Provide them the information they want in the way they want to get it. Segment your group, get personal and view your emails critically.

Hopefully this email marketing tip of the week can help your organization more effectively connect with your list members and improve the success of your email campaigns.