Through e-mail, an net user that’s on the list will receive their updates through e-mail. If a promotional material piques their interest they’ll go to the web site to learn more or to purchase outright. For the site operators or owners, this is an opportunity to remind their list of their existence and parlor their wares. With the more web site* in the internet that proposes the same products or services in one way or the other, the competition may get pretty tight and it’s easy to be forgotten.

Back to my experimenting friend, he tried to determine which opt-in marketing schemes grabbed a person into begging for more. Some would send in very simple way, a few would very outlandish though there are a few that would just lie in between. The differences could easily be noticed and some have gotten the idea of an effective opt-in marketing scheme. He dubbed them effective as he felt like he just couldn’t wait to go their web site and learn more, the more persuasive ones even got him midway to reaching for his wallet and to his credit card before he realized this was only for an experiment.

Several companies and web site present their promotional materials in a wide variety of concepts. Each has their own distinctive style and designs, but more than the outline and the presentation, the content and the articles are what keeps the attention of your potential customer locked on to your opt-in marketing medium. Creativity is the key here.

From talking to many satisfied opt-in list subscribers and forums, I’ve learned of what is essential in opt-in marketing and what makes the subscribers begging for more rather than lining up to unsubscribe.

Keep your promotional materials light, creative and original. Several people are stressed out as it’s. Getting a stuffy business proposal instead of a light hearted email may just agitate them more. A warm friendly smile or banter is always more wanted than a dangerous business meeting or proposal. Though you do want your customers to take you and your products and services seriously, you also would like to show them that you know how to have fun.

Splash a few color in your e-mails as well as provide some photos and articles that may be related to you but show good news or good light hearted images as well. Offer a newsletter or promotional materials that will keep them in a light mood. Make your materials eye catching and grabbing that they wont be able to take their eyes of them. Pique their interests.

Have good content and article, even if it means investing in an experienced and professional copy writer to write them for you. An effective copy writer should be able to build trust between you and your customers. They should be able to establish your credibility in what they write. It must be informative but not too stuffy. Let go of the professional jargons and “talk“to your recipients.

A good article and content should be able to outline the profits of your product and services and why they require what you’re proposing. But don’t look to be overeager and too persuasive. It should be able to entertain as well as lead them to purchasing from you.

Your promotional materials should be clear. Don’t leave people guessing. You should lead them to you and not vice versa. Explain to them what they require to do in a manner that won’t be confusing. Try to anticipate also what your target client requires. Do your enquiry and information gathering, many web site* will be able to aid you with that.

Provide clear and crisp images of what you’re providing. If the people know what you’ve for them, they’re more probable to beg for more. E.g., if you’re selling a car, provide them photos but only enough to encourage them to go to your web site for more.

Copyright 2007 by My Personal CMO .com. All Rights Reserved.

As more hits is driven to your web site, you may entice many of them to subscribe to your mailing list or opt-in list. This is a list where in site visitors agree to be sent promotional materials such as newsletters, catalogues and such that could keep them updated about your web site or the corner of your web site. These promotional materials are sent via electronic mail to the members of the list in different time intervals.

When using electronic mail as the media of your marketing and ads, you eliminate the need for high prices. E-mail is free and if you may manage to make your own promotional ads you may also save a bundle there. With an opt-in subscribers list, you’re pretty sure that what you’re sending out is received, viewed and read by the subscribers and not just being deleted. They’ve signed up for service and have accepted in receiving it.

This means that there are constant reminders to your subscribers about all your products, new products and services as well as any promotions and special deals you’re having. There’s also the opportunity that they may be forwarded to other potential purchasers as they tell their friends and families about you and your web site.

Naturally you should be also aware that a subscriber may unsubscribe when they feel that they’re not getting what they require or expected. Be sure that they’re satisfied with your opt-in marketing schemes and keep them excited in receiving your newsletters and catalogues. Here are a few hints that may aid you build a list of eager subscribers.

Make your promotional materials interesting and fun. Try to use a little creativity but not too over artsy. Build around what your product or service is about. E.g.; if you’re selling auto part*, put a few pictures of what is new in the auto parts world, a new wing door possibly that may fit any car and make it look like a Lamborghini.

Try to explore what people are searching, these way, you stay one step ahead of them all the time and you’ll be their bearer of new tidings. They’ll be eager to receive what you’re sending them as they new you always have fresh and new things to share with them.

Write good articles that may be very informational but light simultaneously. If your subscribers enjoy your articles, they’ll go to your web site by clicking the links that you’ll be putting on your newsletter to read a few more. You may offer articles that may connect to many people. Be diverse in your articles. Put something humorous, then put something informational, then put something that has both.

Are you wary about this as you don’t like writing? No problem, there are a lot of professional and experienced article writers that may do the job for you for minimal fees. They know what they’re doing and may provide the need that you’ve for your newsletters, the money that you pay for your articles are going to be met by the many sign-ups and the potential earnings from the sales that you’ll get.

Make and send an E-book to your customers about anything that’s related to your business or web site. Use your knowledge and expertise in the field you’ve chosen to aid others who are similarly concerned. Propose this e-book for free. You may write about anything informational and helpful to your subscribers. E.g.; you may do manuals and guides in so many things. This e-book could be used as a reference for a lot of people.

Share this e-book with everybody, even other web site*; just be sure that they don’t change the links in the e-book that will lead people to your web site. If you require, you may always get a few people to write it for you just like your articles. Your investment once again will be covered by the great marketing this will generate.

Add e-coupons in your newsletters that will aid them avail to special discounts. Put a control number in your e-coupon so that they may only be used once. When people get discounts that may be found in your newsletters, they’ll be eager to receive your newsletter in anticipation of what you’re promoting next.

If your subscribers may get profits from your newsletters, they’ll be very eager to receive them. Just don’t flood your mailing list with mails so that you don’t annoy your subscribers.

Copyright 2007 by My Personal CMO .com. All Rights Reserved.

One of the disadvantages of traditional marketing is that it often lacks credibility. Why should someone believe you when they know you’re trying to sell them something? However, there are free or inexpensive techniques for gaining business-building, positive exposure through a number of channels that may not be occurring to you or that you may not be taking full advantage of.

1. Send out a press release to the media when your business opens, expands, diversifies, invents something or innovates a process, partners with another business or organization, hires, takes a position on an non-divisive issue, or sponsors an event or a worthy cause.

2. Suggest feature articles and news story ideas to reporters and editors concerning your field or area of expertise. Offer to be interviewed or to provide quotes for an article.

3. Make yourself available as a speaker at Chamber of Commerce meetings, professional associations, community groups, and seminars. Announce your speaking engagement to the press in the form of a news release, phone call, email, or post card.

4. Write a ‘Letter to the Editor’, but avoid taking a controversial position on an issue which could cost you clients. You don’t want to alienate people. Make it a practice to read the editorial pages to see what’s being written about.

5. Teach a class at the local community college or continuing adult education program. It’s a great way to increase your credibility, visibility, and acquire new clients.

6. Become a columnist. Speaking of credibility and visibility, if you can arrange with a print or online publication to run a regular column of yours, especially with a photograph and brief bio at the end, you’ll gain a lot of valuable, free exposure.

7. Word of mouth is the best kind of free and credible advertising. Keep focusing on providing exceptional service and going above and beyond what clients expect, and word of mouth advertising and new business from referrals is virtually guaranteed.

8. Write informative articles that would be helpful to your clients or prospects and post them on your web site. Let people know about the articles in every way you can think of: talk it up, add a one sentence blurb at the end of your outgoing voice mail or answering machine message, include it in updates of your brochures, flyers, business cards, print ads, and broadcast commercials. If you’re editing and uploading the articles yourself (as opposed to having a web designer or search engine optimization expert do it) make sure you liberally sprinkle the article with a few appropriate and repeated key words that would help Internet searchers find your articles. When choosing key words and phrases, think in terms of what a customer or prospective client would enter into a search engine when looking for the topic or service you’re writing about. One website where you can get a list of keyword phrases arranged by popularity (the number of times they’ve been searched) is at Overture.com . Click on ‘Visit the Resource Center’, then go to the Keyword Selector tool.

9. Invite people to sign up for your monthly email bulletin in which you can provide clients and prospects with news, helpful tips related to your business or profession, and new product or service announcements. Four recommendations if you do this: Don’t sign anyone up without their permission, assure subscribers that their email address and other personal information will remain private (have a publicize a privacy policy), tell people they can ‘unsubscribe’ from your list whenever they want to (immediately honor those requests), and avoid making people feel like they’re being inundated with your information and offers. For more information on the responsibilities of email marketers, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm

While marketing tactics that cost money are a necessary part of almost any strategy, make sure to get the most mileage you can out of techniques that are either free or extremely economical. Remember, even if your marketing budget is tight, there are still plenty of things you can do to increase inquiries, boost referrals, and expand awareness of the unique aspects of your business.

1. Email marketing

2. Lists

3. Opt in

If you do Internet marketing you should be doing email marketing. If you do email marketing you should be building one or more lists. If you are building a list or two they should be opt in. This just means that the person agrees to receive email from you.

If it is not opt in, or even double opt in, you could be accused of spamming. Do that enough times and you will be in danger of losing your list. I should know, it happened to me.

In the summer of 2003 I was using an autoresponder that claimed to email for customers with lists of over 1 million people. My list was made up of over 125,000 subscribers I bought 10,000 at a time. They all had a ISP, date and time stamp, so they were legitimate. I was protected, I thought.

Anyway I went away on vacation to Mexico and when I came back I had lost my list and my domain name. The autoresponder company had been shut down due to spam complaints from all of the members in total. OUCH!

So I went about building an opt in email list for marketing by getting my subscribers one at a time and making sure they confirmed they wanted email from me. I use AWeber for this and have not had one problem now in 4 years.

Here is what is great about doing it that way. I get a chance to sell 3 times.

1. On my subscription form

2. On my confirmation request email telling them to activate their subscription

3. On my thank you for confirming your subscription email

I like to offer a small bonus in the email requesting they confirm. There is so much junk mail that sometimes people just need a nudge to follow through and confirm.

And I even like to offer one more bonus on the thank you page and in the thank you for confirming email. Doing this builds some good will and keeps people from unsubscribing.

One other thing is to point them to your privacy page where you emphatically state that you hate spam just as much as they do. You will never share their contact information. I put this on my sign up form and again remind them of it in the request to confirm email. This will increase your confirmation rate for sure!

Another thing I like to do is spruce on the thank you page they get from AWeber. These are usually pretty cut and dried and people can get used to seeing it and clickin away before reading it. Liven it up a little with another bonus or a graphic or to. If you have a logo or a picture of yourself add it here. This just helps brand yourself, your company, and your product.

Finally when doing opt in email lists marketing make those first few emails you send really good. I mean so good that a person would be crazy for unsubscribing. If you have a blog post in it and get your list visiting it. If you email in html add some pictures, your logo again, affiliate banners, or anything to seem like your business is alive and fun to be around!

Hopefully this will make your opt in email list marketing more effective. As they say, the money is in the list and a quality one is worth the time it takes to build it right.

Several attributes account for the rise of email as a marketing tool:

Faster Prep Time

Depending on the campaign creation tools that you use, email marketing programs can be quick to create and may arrive in the customer’s inbox immediately.

More Flexibility

It is much easier and less expensive to create multiple offers and test various creative and copy schemes in email than in traditional “snail mail.”

Reduced CPM

Email messages cost only a few cents per recipient compared to traditional direct mail costs because email campaigns don’t incur printing or postage costs. Email costs range from $.01 to $0.25 for per message, compared about $1.70 to $2.00 for each item mailed in traditional direct snail mail.

Greater Acceptance

Some 73 percent of U.S. consumers say they prefer email as their method of contact with online merchants. (Virtually the same percentage also say they prefer rich-content media email – with graphics and typography – versus plain-text email.

Quick Response

Responses from recipients usually arrive within 48 hours rather than taking days or weeks via printed and posted mail.

Higher Response Rates

It is easier and more inviting for someone to respond to an email message than to pick up the phone or mail a response card. And email has a much higher average click-through rates (between 5-15%) than online banner ads.

Accurate Reporting

Electronic forms of delivery and response make tracking and reporting fast and easy. It is much easier than waiting weeks for responses and returns.

Email marketing can use a variety of tactics – including offers, coupons, contests, newsletters and other value-added links and information.

Those tactics can basically be divided into two types – permission-based marketing and spam.

Spam is the electronic equivalent of junk mail or that annoying telemarketing call during dinner. It is unsolicited and unwanted. Unfortunately for consumers, today spam represents 10% of all email.

In response to this invasion, email users have created inbox filters and dummy email addresses.

Permission emails are those messages that users have requested. This can take the form of newsletters, or a checkbox in the registration process on various Web sites giving the marketer permission to deliver product updates or other marketing information.

Forrester Research predicts that the number of solicited emails will grow to 250 billion in 2002. Permission emails have higher success rates than spam – both in terms of ROI and in preserving a company’s reputation.

Permission email can take the form of acquisition or retention email – that is, mailings whose primary objective is to prospect for customers or whose objective is to forge a relationship with an existing customer base. In 2000, some 57 percent of permission email dollars were spent on retention and 43 percent on customer acquisition.

There was a time when marketing directly to customers and potential customers was considered the poor stepchild of more sophisticated forms of advertising, and upscale businesses did not regard it as a viable, elegant solution to their marketing problems.

Savvy marketers soon realized, however, that mass direct marketing could provide immediate sales results, create a personal connection with customers, was more cost effective than billboard or display advertising when the object is to get immediate results, not just to create awareness. Perhaps most importantly, direct marketing lends itself to greater measurability and to testing variations in form and content to determine the best approach. Today it is universally regarded as one of the most effective forms of advertising.

Direct marketing can be any marketing method that takes the initiative aims to establish or maintain an immediate, one-to-one relationship with customers and prospective customers, rather than waiting for them to discover you in more general, impersonal forms of advertising.

Direct marketing is most powerful when it is used as part of a direct response strategy – that is, asks the recipient to take some immediate action – order a product, get a free gift, enter a contest, give a donation. Perhaps since the advent of the Sears catalog in 1893, the most popular and powerful form of direct response marketing has been via U.S. postal service.

Advent of eMarketing

But times have changed. Digital delivery is rewriting business rules and redefining direct marketing. The advent of electronic forms of communication such as email and the Internet have given marketers new and even more cost effective ways to become more focused and granular in their marketing efforts.

The rise of the Internet produced a gold rush not only in commerce, but in new expectations for online marketing. Many of those expectations were inflated: not all Internet marketing has proven to be created equal. Although successful while still a novelty, Internet advertising response rates are quickly eroding. Users are inundated with banner ads everywhere they go on the Internet.

While it is true that advertising on vertically targeted portals can produce better than average click-through rates, banner ads can be a difficult medium to achieve marketing goals.

Marketers looking for an effective way to reach customers online are turning to email. Email has quickly become a communication standard and the Internet’s most popular application. Both the number of email users and the usage rates are continuing to grow exponentially.

According to eMarketer, by the end of 2000, there were 96.6 million email users in the U.S. representing 43.8% of the total population of adults and teens. In an effort to realize the commercial potential of this powerful communication medium, U.S. companies spent $496 million on email advertising in 2000, a 177% increase from 1999.

Email is by far the dominant digital delivery application and is already used much more than traditional “snail mail”. Over 395 billion messages were delivered in the U.S. in 1999 as compared to 202 billion pieces of mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. Just one year later, in 2001, over 536 billion email messages were delivered – an increase of 35 percent in a single year – versus a growth in postal deliveries of less than 3%. In 2000, some 22 percent of email messages were commercial.