"Building Success Online With E-mail!"
by A.T.Rendon
© Copyright 2002
All Rights Reserved
E-mail Is The Foundation of Communication Online!
You can communicate with people all over the globe in
just a few seconds and the cost, for all intents and
purposes, is virtually FREE.
That is why SPAM is proliferating at such a high rate.
E-mail marketing does work!
A recent survey of over 200 retail marketers found that
over 60% of those responding stated that they intend to
increase their budgets for e-mail marketing by an average
of about 20%.
Many of those surveyed have discovered that they can send
out notices to their customers via cost-effective e-mail.
They are saving themselves thousands of dollars and
e-mail appears to be having a greater impact than direct
snails' mail ever had for them.
Personalize Your E-mail!
Another KEY element that has been discovered about e-mail
marketing is that when you personalize your e-mail it
increases your response rate.
Think about it. Don't you find yourself reading e-mail that
is personally addressed to you?
Those "Dear Friend" e-mails will always fail.
They are not personal and the attempt to make them so
via the deceptive "Friend" cover only labels them for the
SPAM that they are trying to mask.
It is important to set up your database of e-mail contacts
with the e-mail address of the recipient and their first name.
In this manner, you will be able to send out personal e-mail
addressed to each recipient by their first name.
It is estimated that the click-thru ratio or the rate of response
to personal e-mail can be as high as 40% to 50%.
Response that high is worth getting personal about!
Set Up Your Own E-mail List!
So how do you acquire the e-mail address and name?
The simple way is to just ask for it.
You will be pleasantly surprised at how many people
will willingly give you their e-mail address and at least
their first name, which is really all that you need.
Your success will increase even further if you are willing
to give those leaving the info something of value, such
as a FREE publication, a FREE e-mail course, etc.
To set up the collection process, try using the simple mailto
format for collecting your info for your own e-mail list.
The advantage in using this format is that you will
know WHERE an e-mail request originates thus cutting
down on the false entries that can be generated from
a short web page form that only captures the IP address.
However you decide to capture e-mail and name info on
your web site, make certain that you display this request -
PROMINENTLY - within the first viewing area of your site.
Do NOT make it so that visitors to your web site would
have to scroll down the page to find where to submit
their e-mail address and name.
Doing so will cause you to lose potential entries
to your own personal e-mail list.
Another important KEY to requesting an e-mail address
and name from your visitors is the PLACEMENT of the request.
Not only should you display your request - PROMINENTLY -
within the first viewing area of your site, it should also be
located in the UPPER RIGHT section of the web page.
Trial and error has revealed that the UPPER RIGHT hand side
of your web page screen is the first area that the majority of
web surfers will view online.
Pop-Up Boxes Work!
While most of us can personally feel a hatred for Pop-Up Ads,
studies have proven that Pop-Up Boxes that merely collect
e-mail addresses and names are very effective.
Aside from all the problems facing the free flow of e-mail
around the Internet, e-mail's role as a communications
tool will only continue to grow, expand and gain in importance.
Learn to use it effectively in any online business effort
and you will surely reap the great rewards available to you.
_________________________________________________________
A.T.Rendon is an entrepreneur and published writer.
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