The Right Subject Line Can Make Or Break Your Email Marketing Efforts

Creativity, style, formatting and length of subject lines are all important points to take into consideration before you send an email.

Be Creative

Using a subject line that’s specific is most appropriate when corresponding with people who know you or with people who are expecting your message.  How do you get the attention of someone who doesn’t know you or who isn’t expecting anything from you?

The answer is – be creative.  Writing a subject line that’s creative is an excellent method for improving chances that your email message will be opened.

In this instance, the subject line isn’t used to describe the contents of the message.  Instead, the subject line is used to convey some other type of information.

What kind of information?  It will vary with each message you send, and it depends on the recipient.  The key question is – what can you tell the recipient that will convince him/her to open this message and read it, instead of deleting it?  In some cases, you’ll need to be quite creative.

There are numerous types of information you can provide in the subject line to help convince the receiver to open the email message.  Here are a few examples.

(Uses for the subject line):  Identify who you are
(Sample wording):  Lawyer

(Uses for the subject line):  Tell how you met this person
(Sample wording):  Chamber Networking B’fast

(Uses for the subject line):  Tell why you are contacting this person
(Sample wording):  Animal shelter fundraiser

(Uses for the subject line):  Find things that set you apart
(Sample wording):  E-commerce lawyer

(Uses for the subject line):  Find common bond with recipient
(Sample wording):  Fellow IU grad & lawyer


Subject Lines:  Formatting and Style

There is another challenge you must overcome when crafting an effective subject line.  This involves the length of the subject line.

The new message box you view on your screen for the subject line will allow you to type as many words as you want.  But, the receiver’s screen has limited space.  Only a small portion of the wording will be viewed by the recipient.

How much appears on the recipient’s screen for the subject line?  It varies, depending on the person’s system and how he/she has the screen setup.  A safe guess is that approximately 25 to 35 characters will appear.

Definition
Pay careful attention here.  This approximation doesn’t mean 25 to 35 words.  It means “characters.”

A character is defined as a letter, space, or punctuation.  For example, any time your cursor moves one space, that’s considered one character.

Phrases
Since the space is so limited in the subject line, you don’t need to type a complete sentence.  Use a phrase or series of words instead of a full sentence.

This is one time when an incomplete sentence is appropriate.  Leave out the little words, and get to the point.

Capitalization
The only “rule” regarding capitalization in the subject line is to be consistent.  For example, you may choose to capitalize only the first word.  Or, you may decide to capitalize every word.

Remember not to use all uppercase (CAPITAL) letters.  This is considered shouting.  Shouting at a person would certainly not be the best way to convince him/her to open your message.

Always remember that the creativity, style, formatting and length of your subject lines are important factors to consider before you send an email.  Be conscientious of the image you project to your customers and colleagues by using effective subject lines.

You May Also Be Interested In: The Mega Money Emails System

You may also be interested in: The List Building Formula

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Building An Email List Is Key To Your Online Success

Building a power list of loyal subscribers that are willing to gobble up anything you throw at them is the key to maintaining and expanding an online business. This list will be the main focus of any online business to earn money online successfully. Every online business provides either a great product or service focused on solving a problem for the customer and generating satisfaction. This satisfaction that customers get from the product or service can make them become loyal repeat customers and let you earn money online over and over again. They may even be so satisfied with your product as to recommend you and your site to other people.

The first step of building a power list is to capitalize on your current traffic and entice them to subscribe to your mailing or opt-in list. This list of subscribers has agreed to receive promotional materials such as newsletters and catalogs to keep them informed of the latest updates to your business or niche. Such promotional materials are sent through emails to the subscribers at various time intervals or as an occasional broadcast message.

Email marketing is the perfect media of advertising for online businesses. With email marketing, there is no need for any high costs as sending an email is absolutely free. Building a power list of subscribers will make sure that whatever you send them is received and read and not easily deleted. Email marketing will allow you to earn money online successfully as you build a base of loyal subscribers.

Your emails should ideally consist of information about all your products, new products or services as well as any promotions and special deals that you are currently having. Tell them that these promotions are your way of saying how special your subscribers are to you and is your way of thanking them. Making them feel special will ultimately make you huge profits in the future. There may be a chance that they will even forward your promotions to other potential customers as they recommend you and your site to their families and friends letting you earn money online with ease.

Occasionally, subscribers will unsubscribe if they feel they are not getting what they want or expect. It is not possible for you to please everyone but it is possible for you to improve your email marketing strategies and keep your subscribers loyal and excited. The following are some tips to build your own power list of responsive subscribers that will let you earn money online many times over.

Do some due diligence and research on what your customers are looking for. You can do this simply by asking them what kind of information or service they desire in a broadcast email. This will also show that you truly care about your customers and help build a long-term relationship and undying loyalty. You can even go one step further and look for fresh and exciting things that you believe they will be interested in. Having new and fresh things to excite your customers will definitely keep them ogling for your next email.

Provide good and valuable information with great articles will also keep your subscribers happy. They are interested in this niche and will definitely value good information. If your subscribers enjoy your articles, they will go to your site by clicking the links you put in your newsletters to read some more. Make your articles diverse and interesting, such as writing humorous articles, to ensure that they are well received. With both information and humor in your articles, you can be sure your subscribers are going to stay happy and loyal.

If you are afraid that you will not be able to provide great articles because you don’t writing, this is not a problem. There many professional and experienced article writers that can do the job for you for minimal fees. They know what they are doing and can provide the need that you have for your newsletters. The money that you pay for your articles are going to be met with good reviews, which can result in potential sales and profit for you. But of course, this is your own online business and nobody knows more about it better than you do. Ideally, you are the best person to write the articles that will allow you to earn money online successfully.

One great way to “one up” article writing is to create and send an ebook to your subscribers about your niche or business. Use your knowledge and expertise in the field you have chosen to help other people who are similarly interested and in turn they will help you to earn money online. You can write about anything informational and helpful to your subscribers. If you don’t like writing, hire a professional to create one for you for a small fee. Offer this ebook for free on your site to entice more subscribers and also to your present subscribers. Share this ebook with everyone and even other sites. This ebook will improve your credibility and can potentially be passed around to more people than your current reach of customers. Your ebook with your website link in it is a very powerful tool to earn money online the fast and easy way.

One final tip is to add e-coupons in your newsletters that will give your subscribers special discounts. Make it such that the e-coupons can only be used once. Your subscribers will be exhilarated to find special discounts in your newsletters. This will in turn make them eager to receive your newsletters in anticipation of what you are promoting next.

Building a power list of subscribers and keeping them loyal, happy and responsive is by far the most profitable way to earn money online successfully. Your subscribers will benefit from your expertise and you will be able to profit from them as well. This is an incredible “win-win” situation that will develop into a mutually beneficial long term relationship that can only mean more business for you and aid you to earn money online over and over again.

You May Also Be Interested In: The List Building Formula

You may also be interested in: The List Building Formula

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Automate Your Email Marketing With Autoresponders

Automation is an important part to any business. The less time you devote to doing small redundant tasks the more time you will have to devote to primary business activities, such as: product development, advertising, customer service, and list building. Or, you may want to have more time for enjoying other things in life other than working, so the more you automate your business the more time you will have available to spend on whatever you desire.

Putting an online business on autopilot is not very difficult and much of it can be done by simple using autoresponders to do many simple tasks for you. An autoresponder is a software program that you pay usage fees for, or that you buy and put on your own hosting account’s server. It is a program that responds to email inquiries from other people with whatever you program it to send out. And it can also easily be programmed to send out email messages that you enter into it at whatever time you want. Therefore an autoresponder, abbreviated AR, can be used for many purposes to assist in handling business communication activities.

An AR can be used to promote your products or services and to get people to visit your website. Just type or copy and paste your sales or informational message into your AR and have it sent out to whoever you have entered into the AR. Then, when a person receives your message and visits your web site and makes a purchase you can have your AR setup to deliver another message to them. The message would thank them for their purchase and then deliver their product and receipt to them.

You may also program it to give your customers detailed instructions on how to go about obtaining their products and describing other products you have to offer that they may be also be interested in purchasing. In this way you have the ability to promote more products and possibly make more sales. You can also program your AR to send out follow-up messages a day or two after a purchase to ask customers if they are satisfied with their purchase. This assists in building strong customer relations and also gives you another opportunity to promote more products while saving your time.

It will also allow you to make more “back-end” sales by using follow up messages every few days. It is advisable to always include some meaningful and relevant information in your follow up messages so your messages do not appear to just be blatant sales messages, which most people do not generally like or appreciate. The beauty of all this is that you can be off doing something else while much of your business communication activities are being handled automatically by your AR.

Autoresponders are great for training and teaching purposes. Many college professors who teach correspondence courses set up their lessons in an AR and then send them to their students at specified times throughout the semester. And, because the courses being taught often do not vary much from semester to semester, or from year to year, the lessons can be set up one time and used over and over again with only minor adjustments being needed.

ARs are great for providing training lessons to all types of groups. For example, a 12 week training course can be written in advance and then scheduled for deliver when the time is appropriate. The lessons can even be set up to be delivered to different groups at different time intervals. ARs are great for keeping members of an organization informed of upcoming events, deadlines, and special offers or promotions.

Promoting products for sale is one of the most popular uses of autoresponders in online business. But when using an AR to promote your sales just realize that most potential customers do not like the direct “hard sale” approach and it has been documented that on an average a potential customer must hear from you at least 7 times before a sale is made. It is usually best to contact potential customers in the first 2 to 4 messages with valuable information that is interesting for them to read or use in their lives. It is good to give away something of interest and value and to thank them for subscribing to your email newsletter or ezine.

It has been said that the best way to entice sales is to build interest slowly and start with an informative message about something that interests your reader. And, when you do try to make a sale be sure to focus on a problem or solution that your product or service will help resolve for them. Gain their confidence by providing free information that is relevant, accurate, and informative for them.

There are many AR services available and you can certainly find them by doing a search with any of the main search engine services. Many AR services will give you free limited service, but be cautious of these AR services because they will put their advertisements on all of your outgoing messages, or limited the amount of messages and subscribers you can send to. These things certainly will not help your business any. Be very careful when choosing and signing up with an autoresponder service to use in your business.

Some popular ARs frequently used are listed below:

- http://www.aweber.com/
- http://www.getresponse.com

And, of course there are many, many more so please do a good and thorough investigation and analysis before deciding which AR to use. If you are a beginner then you may want to try the free service listed on the last line above. It is called, “EGGS” for short. It is very easy to understand and to use. It does have some limitations but it has plenty of functionality for most people and there is no cost
involved unless you would like to donate.

You May Also Be Interested In: Make Money On Autopilot With Autoresponders

You may also be interested in: The List Building Formula

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A Simple Guide To Email Marketing With Autoresponders

Offering free things to your website visitors is one marketing method that often results in a lot of sales. Free courses that are delivered via email are very popular, and people sign up for such courses on a regular basis to learn more about a topic of interest to them. These courses are best maintained and delivered with the use of autoresponders.

An autoresponder can be set up to send out a series of lessons for an email course. The lessons can be set for distribution at specific intervals. You determine how often the lessons for the course are sent to the people who have signed up for it. Email courses are very different from traditional courses, web based courses, or any other type of course.

There is no student and instructor interaction. The instructor writes the information out, puts each lesson in an autoresponder series, sets the timing for the lessons, and the rest is automated. You can opt to have lessons delivered daily, every other day, every three days, or any other time frame that you think works best for your email students.

Email courses are commonly used to sell products and services. For instance, if you sell widgets, you might develop a course that teaches people how to use widgets or how to care for their widget. Experts agree that an email course can be written for almost any product that you can imagine – if you put enough thought into it.

Start by determining what your course will be about, and how long it should be. If the course should be delivered every other day for two weeks, you know that you would need seven lessons. Write the lessons, and load them in the autoresponder. Set the interval for each lesson, which in this case would be 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13.

This means that the first lesson would be delivered one day after the person has requested the course, and the second lesson would be delivered three days after the person has requested the course, and so on. The interval for each lesson is set for the number of days after the person has signed up Make sure that everything is spelled right, and that your sentences are grammatically correct. You want the lessons to look and sound as professional as possible.

Next, simply advertise the email address that will activate the autoresponder. Make sure that you run a test first, sending each lesson to yourself. This will allow you to see what your email students will see when they sign up!

One program you may want to check out is linked below:
Squeeze Ninja - Ultimate List Building Software

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Do Not Let Your Potential Customers Forget About You

Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying each person's need for information quickly!

But, after you've delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most Internet marketers, you don't.

When you don't follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him. Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn't receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.


Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?
Following up with leads is more than just a process - it's an art. In order to be effective, you need to design a follow up system, and stick to it, EVERY DAY! If you don't follow up with your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in a timely fashion, then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.

Consistent follow up gets results!
When I first started marketing and following up with prospects, I used a follow up method that I now call the "List Technique." I had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had specifically requested information about my products and services. These prospects had already received my first letter by the time they requested more information, so I used the company's latest news as a follow up piece. I would write follow up newsletters every now and then, and send them, in one mass mailing, to everyone who had previously requested information from me. While this probably did help me win a few additional orders, it wasn't a very good follow up method. Why isn't the "List Technique" very effective?

The List Technique isn't consistent. Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have "big news".

List Technique messages don't give the potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question. He can't make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care that you've just moved your headquarters?

List Technique messages convey a "big list" mentality to your potential customers. When I used to write follow up messages using the List Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone I knew! I should have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted to know more about my products.

What follow up method really works?
Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

First, you'll need to develop your follow up messages. If you've been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn't have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.

The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect's mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!

Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn't yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn't the right color or doesn't have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it's unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don't want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!

Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors'. You will make the sale!

Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don't want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.

Following up effectively seems complicated, but it doesn't have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up - don't you want to be one of the few to get it right?

You may also be interested in: The List Building Formula

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The Copy You Place In Your Emails Is Very Important

Want to double or triple the number of new leads and customers you generate each month with your emails? Try focusing your Email campaign with copywriting techniques.

Copywriting in Emails is the art of using attractively written content focusing around a service or product to sell. A tool used to tempt the reader by making the items for sale seem attractive, desirable and at the same time beneficial. Copywriting is often described as a play on words where the best and the most persuasive campaigns win.

Whenever you email someone, you’re basically trying to sell a point. So what better way to communicate than with the language of copywriting in your Emails.

The secret is to balance the right blend of benefits and features in your Email marketing copy. Here are some tips to try in your next email marketing campaign.

1. Pack a powerful headline punch. Check top magazine article headlines of the day to see what’s working best. Tailor yours accordingly.

2. Draw readers in with a great lead opening. Look to top articles in the news for ideas. And reach out and grab your readers in a similar fashion.

3. Keep the main message focused on no more than 3 main benefits your product or service offers the reader. Present credible info, not hype. And include testimonial when possible to back up claims.

4. State your proposition in a personal way, since the focus is all about the customer...i.e. write in the “You” form, not “he or she.” And talk about them or things that they can relate to.

5. Focus on customer benefits. People like to save money, join in and be a part, learn more, earn more.

6. Offer multiple selling points in bullet form. Write them from customer’s point of view & reflect their needs.

7. Thoroughly describe the product. Give the customer all the information they need on the product or service in order to make a well educated decision.

8. Create a call to action. Tell the customer what to do  exactly, step-by-step.

9. State your unique selling position to differentiate yourself from competition. For example, tell why your product is better than the competition’s.

Go for the gusto in selling your email messages with sound copywriting techniques. Sell your audience on reading more, navigating on your site and communicating in some way to show they got your message.

You may want to check out the link below:
Mega Money Emails

You may also be interested in: The List Building Formula

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Building A Potential Customer List With Emails

E-mail marketing is an easy, effective, and affordable way for today's businesses to reach their customers and grow their own businesses.

For example, a newsletter allows you to develop interest in your company while demonstrating your expertise and depth-your biggest assets as a small business. Sending an e-mail newsletter keeps your company in the mind of your growing network. Plus, good e-mail newsletters are frequently forwarded to friends of the recipient, thereby growing your network even further.

So, how do you get started?

First, figure out what interests your audience. Listen to them. What do your customers ask you about when you discuss your business? Chances are, for every customer who asks a question, there are ten others with the same question.

Observe what your customers actually read. The fabulous thing about e-mail marketing is that everything is trackable. Once you get started, your reporting results will tell you which articles interest your readers.

You can also give your readers an easy way to provide feedback, so you learn even more about what interests them and what they would like to hear about.

Give away a little bit of free advice to help your readers. Give people something to think about. You don't need to be the world's expert on a topic. Just be your customer's expert. Give them something that could be helpful to them.

Every newsletter should have short features or quick info-nuggets. You could even give them a way to see other articles that you found interesting online. Keep a file of article ideas and getting started will be easier.

Organize your contact database and get permission to add contacts to your mailing list. Then begin collecting new contacts with permission. No one likes to be added to a mailing list without his or her knowledge, so tell people you plan to add them to your e-mail newsletter list and let them know they can unsubscribe at any time.

Next, find a marketing service that's a good fit for your business. A good e-mail marketing service will provide list management services (opt in, unsubscribe, dedupe, etc.), newsletter templates (HTML formatting, table of contents and more) and mailing, delivery and reporting functions.

Using the right service is inexpensive, easy to use, and will ensure that you look highly professional when you send out your newsletter.

An e-mail newsletter is an investment that pays off and it doesn't have to be a full-time job.

A monthly newsletter is desirable but a quarterly one can be a great way to get started. Once you're in a rhythm, your e-newsletters will practically write themselves.

You may also be interested in: The List Building Formula

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