List Profit Email Marketing Blog

“Essential Rules” doesn’t sound like a very exciting topic, but it is a necessity that you learn these, if you expect to succeed in permission-based direct email marketing.

If you want an email marketing campaign to succeed, you don`t want to offend anyone when sending your messages. Turn off a prospect with your email and you can be sure they`ll tune out your message. Don`t let this happen to you!

Messages that earn trust and respect earn sales. That`s why our first topic for discussion is direct email marketing etiquette.

Train yourself to always — and I do mean ALWAYS — stick to the rules below when crafting your email messages.

=> RULE #1 - ALWAYS WRAP YOUR LINES AT 65 CHARACTERS OR LESS

Whenever you write an email, always format the lines so that they are 65 characters or less across. To do this, you may need to do a “hard return” by hitting “Enter” at the end of the line.

Wondering why to limit your lines to just 65 characters? There are two reasons for this rule that “less is more”:

– The first thing to remember is that looking at a computer screen for a long time causes EYE FATIGUE for many readers. The shorter span of characters across the screen makes for easier reading, and more visual appeal to the recipient.

– The other reason to go short instead of long is this: some email clients still automatically enforce line-wrapping at around 60 to 65 characters on received messages. If your email is wrapped at a higher number, the content will arrive “chopped up.” This makes it unattractive, and unappealing.

– Tip: Email clients such as Outlook Express allow you to set the line-wrap to any character-width you choose. That means you won`t have to hit Enter each time after typing 65 characters. It makes life easier!

– Tip: You can type 65 asterisks, dashes or numbers into a Notepad file to create an email template. Then paste your email below it to see if any lines extend too far to the right.

=> RULE # 2 - BE CAREFUL USING ALL CAPS - DO SO SPARINGLY!

How many times have you changed the TV channel to avoid having to listen to a screaming salesperson? No one likes a screaming salesperson … and no one likes a “screaming” email message, either.

Odds are, when someone has over-amped the volume of their message by using too many capital letters (not to mention too many exclamation points) - you`re going to be turned off.

On the Internet, messages written in all caps are considered yelling. It`s okay to write some sentences and some words in all caps, but don`t go overboard. (As you can see in this message, I only use capital letters to help break up sections of content)

– Tip: Consumers buy from sources they trust. Emails in all caps can lead to the perception that you are “pushy”, “shady” or uneducated, and have an appearance that damages the credibility of an offer.

=> RULE #3 - WATCH YOUR SPELLING AND GRAMMAR

Would you be influenced by an email that had noticeable spelling and grammar mistakes? Sure you would — and the influence would be negative, not positive!

When a consumer reads a sales message that`s filled with errors, they think to themselves, “Good grief, this person doesn`t even take the time to get his emails right. His product is probably the same quality as his emails.”

When you`re in business, YOUR IMAGE IS YOUR REPUTATION and your reputation is the reason that people either buy from you or from the guy down the block.

It`s essential that you create an image of integrity, honesty, and credibility in the minds of your prospects. Sending emails filled with errors doesn`t just hurt your professional image, it destroys it. (Ouch!)

Some grammatical rules can be broken — such as beginning a few sentences with “And” — or closing paragraphs with …

But use those sparingly, as I just did here. A few of those in an email are fine, but tons of awkward sentences and obvious or repeated “speeling misteaks” just don’t cut it!

There is lots more to learn, of course, if you want to be a successful email marketer, but these basics are the groundwork for everything else to come. Your first priority, even before you begin to develop your content, is to get in the habit of making your emails look sharp.

You only get one chance to make a first impression — make it a good one!

If yours is like most web sites, only a tiny fraction of your site visitors turn into customers on the FIRST visit. The vast majority will leave and never come back. You may be settling for only a tiny percentage of the profits you could be making from your web site and online business.

The fact is, research has shown that 80% of all sales, whether from television advertising, print media, or web sites, occur only after 5 to 7 “contacts”. Most people simply do not buy a product the first time they hear about it, no matter how useful or important it might be, nor how much they like or need it.

Your job as a marketer is to find a way to get yourself and your products in the forefront of your prospective customers’ minds and attention.

Most of the people who might be interested in your product or service, or the terrific MLM or affiliate opportunity that you promote, will simply never hear about it.

And even if you do get visitors to your web site, if they leave without giving you a way to contact them, odds are that you will NEVER get a second chance to expose them to the value of your
product, service, or opportunity, much less sell it to them.

Most of your marketing effort and advertising expenses go for nothing — 90%+ of your potential customers vanish, never to be seen again, or never hear about you in the first place.

On the other hand, when you have a mailing list of prospects, you can contact them as often as you want, forever, unless they “unsubscribe” from your list, or tell you not to email them any more.

You’re no longer at the mercy of distracted minds. You’re no longer counting on people to remember you. You don’t have to wonder whether your site is at the top of the search engine listings, or how much your Pay-Per-Click ads are costing you.

With targeted direct email marketing, you can:

• Repeatedly remind people of the benefits they will get if they buy your product or service, or join your opportunity.
• Find out what people in your target market want and need.
• Use promotions and “special offers” to increase sales.
• Win customer loyalty and trust with an e-mail newsletter.
• Establish yourself as an expert in the minds of your prospects.
• Motivate people to buy NOW with special sales and limited time offers.

You cannot afford to overlook the HUGE advantages of targeted direct e-mail marketing:

• It costs little or nothing. You pay *one time* for an autoresponder service or software program, and that’s it.
• You can generate leads from an “opt-in” form on your web site, or you can buy them inexpensively (I’ll show you how and where to get the best deals!)
• Generate Instant Income! Most of your sales come in within 48 hours of sending a promotional e-mail, but you’ll also see a few more sales coming in even days later.
• Eliminate risk. Test sales offers, promotional content, or subject lines to a small portion of your e-mail list. Then, when you have things just right, roll it out to your whole list –and be assured of its success in advance!
• Minimize advertising costs! Building your own opt-in list costs nothing, if you collect names and e-mail addresses from the folks who visit your web site.
• “Jump start” the entire process by buying opt-in email leads. For a one-time cost, you can have an “instant audience” for your offers, and use email marketing to “warm them up”.

You will be amazed by all of the additional money you can make with an ongoing email campaign to your new leads, and especially to your existing customers.

Your existing customers are the real “goldmine” for your web site or business. Once they have bought from you and are happy, selling to them again and again (via your email campaigns) becomes easier and easier.