Article Categories

»	Arts & Entertainment
»	Automotive
»	Business
»	Careers & Jobs
»	Education & Reference
»	Finance
»	Food & Drink
»	Health & Fitness
»	Home & Family
»	Internet & Online Businesses
»	Miscellaneous
»	Self Improvement
»	Shopping
»	Society & News
»	Sports & Recreation
»	Technology
»	Travel & Leisure
»	Writing & Speaking

Reprint Article Code

Category: Articles » Internet & Online Businesses » Email » Article » Article Code

Increase Your Returns With Opt-in Email Advertising

The amount of marketing that takes place online is increasing exponentially, leaving marketers scrambling for ways to get noticed. Email marketing has become a sophisticated field, consumers are getting more savvy, and regulations are starting to govern what you can and cannot do. The days of buying a list of a million email addresses and blanketing the Internet are over. "Spam" never was very effective, and it's even less so now. Click-through rates for unsolicited email are abysmally low, you are likely to receive angry responses from consumers, your ISP may shut you down if too many people complain, and ... read more

Article Title:

Article Body:

Opt-in email marketing, also known as permission-based marketing, involves sending your message to recipients which have expressly stated a desire to receive information about products or services related to your particular offer. In many cases, consumers agree to receive advertisements related to something that interests them, in exchange for something of value, such as a discount, free gift, or informational newsletter.

There are two ways to go about permission-based marketing; you can build your own opt-in list, or you can purchase one. Either way is effective. Targeted, opt-in email messages receive response rates of anywhere between five to 15 percent, while conventional banner ads usually yield only about one percent. Spam yields only a tiny fraction of a percent. Internet entrepreneurs who use personalized messages always get better results.

Alternately, you can create your own opt-in list. The most obvious place to start is with your existing customers. Offer them a discount on future purchases in exchange for agreeing to receive your promotional messages. Also, create something of value to draw in new customers. For example, suppose you sell rare coins on the Internet. Create a well-written weekly newsletter that coin collectors will enjoy reading. Offer free subscriptions for anyone who agrees to receive your promotional email marketing messages. Don't stop there, though. Consider every point where there is customer interaction as an opportunity to sign up a new member to your list. Provide an opportunity to opt-in with customer orders. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, ask for email addresses at the point of checkout.

Growing your own opt-in email list will take longer, but your results will be excellent. Some marketers optimize their results by using both techniques. Creating your own opt-in list does require a bit of technology. If you have a very small list, you can start out simply by adding each subsequent subscriber to the "BCC" list on your email client, but this will get cumbersome as your list grows. You will want to eventually invest in an email list management program. This is a piece of software that helps you to manage your email list, and it will include features such as the ability to handle bouncebacks, automate the subscribe and unsubscribe function, and personalize each message. The software should also have a tracking and reporting function, to allow you to keep track of your success rates and other important metrics.

If you choose to buy an opt-in list, there are many quality vendors that you can work with. Do a little research ahead of time, and find out how they acquire their email addresses: do they offer an informational newsletter or something of value in exchange for permission to receive ads? Ask about frequency--an overworked opt-in list is just as useless as a spam list. You will do better with a list that is highly targeted. Find a list vendor who can provide you with email addresses of people who have indicated interest specifically in what you have to offer. The list may cost a little more, but your returns will pay off in the end.

Author Bio:

Some other recently published email articles

Sending Email Courses With Autoresponders by Dan Hartnett
Offering freebies to your website visitors is one marketing method that will guarantee a lot of sales. Free home study courses that can be delivered by email are very ...

Email Marketing by Vinay Choubey
Email marketing is one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to maintain and enhance customer relationships and deliver a measurable return on your marketing dollar, especially when you choose an email marketing service provider with ...

Good Email Advertising by Lance Brown
I thought it might be good to talk about a few of my likes and dislikes about email advertising.I have ...

Building opt in list - effective internet marketing plan by Eugenijus Sakalauskas
Would you like to find out what those-in-the-know have to say about list? The information in the article below comes straight from well-informed experts with special knowledge about list. Building opt in list and affiliate ...

Building a Highly-targeted Opt in List: When Money Lies Beneath the Lists by Eugenijus Sakalauskas
When most people think of targeted list, what comes to mind is usually basic information that's not particularly interesting or beneficial. But there's a lot more to ...

5 Tips To Help You Profit From Your Email List by Daryl Campbell
The money is in the list. If you come across an internet business no matter the size without an opt-in list chances are they are not making a lot of money. ...

Publisher Guidelines

You may reprint this article electronically in your newsletter or on your website, free of charge.

If you reprint this article from our site, then you must keep everything intact. This includes the articles title, author name, articles body, authors bio / resource box, the links contained within the article, all copyright notices and the link pointing back to our site. All links within the article must also be made active / hyperlinks.