This article is from Dosh Dosh.

“t’s the first month of a new year and at this time I’m itching to start new web ventures both for fun and profit. I usually do up a list of possible startup and site ideas and narrow them down into those with the highest potential. But success depends on execution and not just plans so I tend not to be too hung up about having a complete vision of what I want.” Read rest of article.

This article is from the Vancouver Sun.

“Size matters when it comes to an e-mail’s subject line, according to a new study of more than a billion e-mails, but it’s not the only consideration for Canadian job seekers, corporations and even parents who want their messages to stand out amid fierce inbox competition.

The research conducted over a one-year period by the world’s largest permission-based e-mail marketer found that while shorter subject lines generally outperform longer ones, word choice and order are also “vitally important” to decreasing the probability e-mail will be deleted before it’s even opened.” Read rest of article.

“E-mail Marketing: How It Can Help In Your Online Business”
by Gwyn Estember

We all know and understand the power of email and how it can affect our lives. Truly, the service that email provides, achieves our desire of easy and immediate results to our mails. Undeniably, email provides higher response rates than direct mail or even to online banner advertising. That is why most businesses today, use email as part of their marketing strategy. Using email as a form of internet marketing is called email marketing. A form of advertising using emails as a means of communicating commercial messages to an audience.

Emails are easy to generate and to retrieve as well. The call to action is clear with the easy to click links features it provides, that is why email marketing generates an immediate response. Business of all types and sizes can achieve outstanding results with email marketing. It is one of the most powerful marketing tools available today which requires only a small amount of time and an even smaller amount of money.

When used properly, Email marketing as a marketing tool can help increase your sales conversion. It can also generate repeat sales, up-sell and cross-sell products and services and retain more customers. As compared to traditional media, email is fast, extremely cost effective, personal and interactive.

1. Cost effective because it reduces marketing costs for no printing required, mailing or media expenses.

2. Generate repeat sales, up-sell or cross-sell products for it allows more frequent customer contact which translates into higher revenues.

3.The reduction of costs and timeliness associated with email marketing allows business to communicate with customers more frequently and thus retaining them.

4. Email marketing enables you to take on the initiative to communicate with your existing customers and even prospects rather than waiting for them to go to your website. An effective way to drive site or store traffic, develop loyalty among customers and thus increase your sales.

On the other hand, when you do email marketing you should not only think of your own purpose of sending mails. You send mails with the purpose of increasing your customer’s base, enhancing relationship with your current customers or convincing them to buy your product. But you should consider also other factors that your customers will likely read your emails or it will just fall to look like a spam. So right timing is in all things the most important factor. The right message to the right person is only the right message to the right person if it arrives at the right time. Always think of the right time to send your email. Otherwise, your efforts will go to nothing. Many companies now send unsolicited bulk email or spam. To avoid this to happen, consider triggers to your emails that your customers would likely to respond to them.

Another thing that the email features is the measurable results. You can easily test and view statistics of email campaigns or which message generates the best response and alter your campaign accordingly.

Gwyn Estember is an employee of DotComSecrets which teaches various internet marketing strategies to internet business owners.

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1. Make sure that the content of your newsletter pertains to and closely associated with your business or the theme of your site.

2. Ensure that you have well written, information riddled and content rich articles. You articles will be the body of your newsletter and that they should be able to excite your readers as well as provide information.

3. Fact-check your articles. Make sure that you provide true facts and figures so that your reputation as an expert and knowledgeable in that field is not questioned

4. Provide fresh and new articles that can provide new information to your subscribers. If you publish stale and old news in your newsletter, there is a tendency that people or your subscribers already have read and known about them

5. Never use copyrighted materials such as photos and articles. This is outright plagiarism, you may get into a lot of trouble for this.

Building a list is crucial, only a small percentage actually subscribes for an opt-in list. Many people find promotional mails annoying but of you provide a good newsletter or promotional material, you will see your list build up and grow. You can also achieve this by having good content on your site. If people like what they see and read on your site, then they surely would want more. Newsletters would be a way to attract them back to your site.

Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions.

Some viral marketing techniques

1) Ebooks and reports are among the ideal viral marketing tools. It costs almost nothing to create an ebook. You can either offer it for free in various ways or sell it.

2) Free opt-in ezines are used as a viral marketing technique to build targeted lists which is a must for any online marketing business.

3) Offering viral articles for reprint is another effective viral marketing tool.

TIP - Direct Marketing Techniques are “evergreen”- you just have to adapt them to the changing environment of the Internet

1. define and identify your niche market

2. find a product or service people want to buy

3. develop your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

4. create a product that is in demand

5. sell your product for the right price

6. know how and where to advertise

7. know how to write successful classified ads

8. know how to create winning sales letters

9. always list your product’s benefits

10. always give quality premiums

11. always give unconditional money-back guarantees

12. always test…test and re-test your ideas

13. create more products for back-end sales

1. be prepared to work
2. you can’t be in it for the short run
3. start small, and develop over time
4. target your audience
5. write about what you know and what you like
6. think of an original name
7. remember to have fun
8. listen to your subscribers (do surveys)
9. provide a link to your website
10. use good grammar
11. be honest in your communications
12. be polite
13. offer them valuable content
14. make it easy for them (to sign up/to unsubscribe)
15. don’t ask for too much information
16. develop a relationship with your subscribers
17. be prepared to “fire” some subscribers
18. archive your issues and offer sample issues
19. promote your ezine in your email sig file
20. treat your readers to sales and discounts
21. do an ad swap with other ezines in your niche
22. keep up a regular publishing schedule
23. include the ‘Benefits of Subscribing’ to the newsletter
24. give your visitors an incentive (bonus) to sign up
25. place a ‘Privacy Statement’ next to the sign up box
26. involve your subscribers in your ezine
27. include testimonials
28. Don’t Spam!

Email marketing is one of the best ways to get the word out about your service product. Email is cheap and efficient, but from the recipients’ point of view, it can also be annoying and very invasive. For this reason, you need to know how to persuade your audience that your email letter is worth their time, and that you are not offering them another piece of spam email.

Ezines are essentially email newsletters that contain content, graphics, links and subtle forms of advertising. In general, ezines should be informative and useful to the subscriber but should also serve some type of marketing purpose as well.

The best way to get subscribers (your list) for your ezine is to create some free content that interested visitors need to register their email address to receive additional information from you.

The copy in your e-newsletter should contain valuable information that will be useful to your readers. You can also include objective articles, product reviews or shorter articles containing useful tips. Links to your own websites or to other websites which might be of use to your target audience should also be included.

Opt-in marketing requires the permission of a willing customer to subscribe to your marketing materials. The more opt-in marketing email is sent, the more chances there is to eventually make sales.

To do this, you must build a list of all those who want to subscribe to your opt-in marketing list. This is the best kind of list since these people have already shown interest in what you have to show and sell since they have willingly signed up for your list. (Anti-spam)

If people like what they see and read on your site, then they surely would want more. Ezine newsletters are an effective way to attract them back to your site.

If you want to successfully promote yourself and your services on the Internet; if you need to market and distribute your Independent films or videos online; if you want to advertise your film related products from your own Website or Blog; you need to first know and understand the principles of Direct Response Marketing!

Direct Response Marketing is simply targeting the best possible market for your product or service, creating an irresistible marketing message and then delivering that sales message to only those people who are most likely to respond and buy!

Different markets have different “hot buttons.” That’s why knowing who your market is, is so important before you begin selecting a product or service to offer them. And knowing what motivates people in your market to buy is powerful knowledge.

Success in Online Marketing is almost always market driven (sell products people want to buy) rather than product driven (sell products you want to sell.) The more you find out about what interests your market, the better your chances will be of coming up with a successful Online product or service.

This “little known secret to Internet profits” is what all successful Online marketers follow – find the “want” first, and then find a product or service to fulfill that want!

REMEMBER – Most of the techniques used in Direct Response Marketing – from targeting your niche market, qualifying your leads and creating the offer to writing great copy, testing your ads and closing the sale – are 100 % transferable to Online Marketing!