Email Service Providers

Q: Adam from Manchester, U.K., sent in this note:

“I am having a hard time figuring out how to deal with a high percentage of people who come to my web site, signup for my e-zine but never confirm their email address. Sometimes this is as high as 60% of total subscribers. Since I am using the recommended double opt-in process, I don’t know what I can do to have most of my subscribers confirm their address.”

A: Actually, Adam is not alone in this. I have received messages from several subscribers that are experiencing the same problem.

Let’s first examine why this is happening. When I visited Adam’s web site, and subscribed to his e-newsletter I noticed that after clicking the submit button, I was taken to a generic web page, provided by his Email Service Provider (ESP). The page simply said “Thank you for subscribing.”

Please read the rest of this article on my email marketing consulting blog, or leave a comment or ask a question here.

One of two Email Service Providers that I use and recommend is MadMimi. Their deceptively simple email editor is the easiest-to-use I’ve found after testing a dozen or so email service providers over the years.

Recently, MadMimi added a cool feature that all of you social media fans will simply love: the ability to add a set of icons that link to your favourite social networking sites, such as Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook. Just pick the sites you use regularly and Mimi will place specially designed icons to the bottom of your emails automatically.

These are the sites currently supported:

MadMimi is still free to use for as long as your list is under 100 subscribers! Try MadMimi today!

Check out also these related articles on my Email Marketing Blog:
Cool New Tool for MadMimi
MadMimi Brings the Fun Back to Sending Email “Blasts”

In times of recession, most small business owners tend to do the wrong thing: trying to save money by cutting back on their marketing spending. I hope you’re not one of them, and that you know that we must promote our businesses all the time, even when times are great, but even more so in tough times.

Well, I can say I’ve never been busier, and I’d like to share some of the secrets of how I got myself booked solid for the next several months!

Join me for a 3-hour training seminar in Oakville and learn how to

► Build an Email List
► Create Effective Email Campaigns
► Get More Clients

Did you know that Email Marketing has the highest ROI over all other marketing channels?

In my seminar I will teach you:

How to Build an Email List of Contacts and Subscribers

• How to use your web site or blog as a lead generator
• What you need to sign up visitors to your email list
• Secrets to generating traffic to your web site, or other online presence
• How to entice visitors to sign up to receive more information from you

How to Easily Create Effective Email Newsletters and eFlyers

• Follow up with automated and semi-automated messages
• Learn about auto-responders, e-newsletters and email flyers
• Find out about the technology needed to deliver email marketing messages
• Learn how to prepare email campaigns yourself

How to Make More Money with Email

• You don’t need an e-commerce site to make money with email
• How to take credit cards, e-cheques and money transfers online
• Find out the hidden potential in your business – any business
• Learn how to create products or services to sell online
• Finally reach your business goals in 2009 – regardless of the state of the economy

What Do You Get?

• 3 hours of coaching, tips, strategies you can use immediately
• You will create your 1st email newsletter – bring your laptop!
• Ask any questions you might have in Q&A sessions throughout the seminar

Bonuses:

• bonus CD audio+PDF presentation of my Email Marketing Tips and Strategies for Solopreneurs a value of $27 on its own
• Chance to win 50 Tips on Growing your Business Online 2 hours+ videos and eBook package valued at $47
• Free online Email Publishing Account – use it as long as you want to grow and manage your list
• Enjoy complimentary refreshments: hot coffee, tea and muffins!

For more information and to register now visit: iBizAcademy.com/Oakville-Apr-2/

Want proof?

See what other small business owners have said about my training courses!

This is an off line method of building your list, but you will be driving traffic to your web site, where your prospects can sign up. You will achieve best results if you can find a newspaper or magazine whose readership is your target market. For example, if you were a matchmaker you could place a classified ad in the “Personals” section of your local newspaper.

Bonus tip: Start small (i.e. cheap) to polish your ad, then work up to display ads which are more expensive.

Make sure you track the effectiveness of each of these marketing techniques. I recommend you use ad-tracking software, which allows you to assign a unique “ID” to each article, listing, or classified ad. This way you will be able to track your subscribers, see where they are coming from, how many are converting to clients, etc. This kind of information can help you eliminate marketing strategies that do not work, so that you can concentrate on the ones that do.

If you’d like to add ad-tracking features to your existing Email System Provider, I recommend HyperTracker.

With co-registration, you advertise your ezine along one or more other advertisers. A prospect can then sign up for one or more ezines at the same time.

You can set this up as a joint venture (free) with one or more ezine publishers or use a co-registration service (paid).

If you go the JV route, you will have to set up a custom script on your own web server, and your JV partners would do the same. There are many options available to you, simply search the web, or have your web master set it up.

If you’re not technically inclined, or do not have the time to look for JV partners, I recommend you use a co-reg service. In a day or two you can add hundreds of new subscribers to your list!

Simply put, you sign up with a service provider who then places your ezine ad on their web site. You sign up to buy a certain number of subscribers. I use ListBuilder and GetSubscribers (the latter only works with GetResponse, a highly-recommended Auto-Responder and Email Service Provider).

A few tips on how you can get visitors on a shoestring.

It will take some time to generate results, but you’ll be smiling knowing you’re not spending a dime on these techniques. Of course, if you need immediate results – say you’re having a promotion or sale – your must use other tactics, such as pay-per-click advertising (PPC).

1. Join on-line forums and communities.

The great thing about them is that you can target a certain demographic that you are looking for. You can discuss about lots of things about your niche. With on-line communities and forums you can build a reputation for your company. By sharing your knowledge, you will establish yourself as an expert in your field, and people will start to trust you.

2. Publish an e-newsletter, or ezine.

Write articles to share your expertise with your target audience. Make sure at least 50% of the content in your ezine is useful information, not devoted to promoting your services or products. If you make it really interesting, more people will sign up for your newsletter and recommend it to other people. The more people who sign up for your newsletter, the more people there will be that will go to your site. A simple 300-word article once a month will do wonders!

You will need to sign up with an Email Service Provider, such as Constant Contact, GetResponse, 1ShoppingCart and AWeber. Service costs range from about $10 per month, which could bring thousands in new revenue. Actually, you can host a web site and an ezine for $15 a month – peanuts compared to what it can bring to your business!

3. Trade links with other sites.

You don’t have to spend a cent. All you have to do is reach an agreement with another business owner. With exchanging links, the efforts both sites do will benefit both sites. Best policy here is to trade links with sites that are somehow related to yours, e.g. a photographer might share links with a graphic designer and a copywriter.

4. Write articles.

If you publish an ezine (but even if you don’t) reuse the articles and submit them to article directories. They will be found by people that have an interest in your product/service. Writing articles that provide good service and knowledge will position you as an expert.

There are many article directories where you can post your articles. When people find interest in your articles they are very likely to visit your web site as well. Make sure you include a link to you site and a brief description of your company at the end of the article (this is called a resource box). Here’s a list of highly-ranked article directories.

5. Write keyword-rich content for your web site or blog.

Most search engines look for the keywords and keyword phrases you use on your site. You can hire a professional copy-writer, or you could also write your own copy, but you have to write content for your site that is highly informational and relevant to your field of expertise.

Generally, internet users use search engines to find what they are looking for. Nadica, my ‘trouble-and-strife’, as my Cockney friends would put it, looks up recipes, finds a B&B that accepts both dogs and kids, which would be close to impossible without a search engine.
With the right keywords used throughout your site, you could get high rankings in search engine results without the costs of pay-per-click.

All of these methods will drive highly targeted visitors to your site. All it takes is a bit of effort on your part, and patience – so build it and they will come.