Common Mistakes - Email Marketing

Using opt-in lists instead of relying Spam is vitally important. Spam must be avoided it at all costs, as it puts at risk your sales, your reputation and your business.

So, do not use your autoresponder for spamming. Doing so can cost you your account, result in fines, shut down by your ISP, and land you in jail. It's a serious matter.

The reason you want a smart autoresponder is to expose your sales message more than once to your prospects in order to create trust, credibility and believability. So, don’t abuse the trust you work hard to create by using Spam.

Spamming is Like a Drug

Relying on Spam is like pursuing an elusive lasting high. If it works (and it won’t for long), it only brings a small cash infusion in the short term. You will be forced to remain unknown. On the other hand, building an opt-in list of eager, highly targeted prospects allows you to continue to market freely and in the open.

As you know, using responsible email marketing to grow your business can save time, fatten your bank account and give you an astonishing return on investment. Instead of using spam, start a legitimate opt-in list of targeted prospects, and then turn them into life-long customers by consistently keeping in touch with them. Spammers usually don't care if the people who receive the message are really interested or "not" in their offer.

The best way to protect against complaints is to build an opt-in email list and sending email to only those people who asked for it.
Four ways to using your autoresponder that can kill your business:

1. Never email a list of non-targeted email addresses chosen at random.
2. Never buy lists of email addresses from unknown list brokers or suppliers.
3. Never email a contact unless you have his/her permission to do so.
4. Never share your own opt-in list with others.

Save Time, Effort and Money!

Building an opt-in list has a number of advantages, including:
• It allows you to send offers to a group of people who know you, expect your emails and want to do business with you.
• Achieve greater sales, even from a small list, since it is targeted (and will get through most email filters since your newsletter is added to the recipients' "white lists").

• Not upset anyone since they have given you their permission to email them, as well as not get in trouble with service providers since no one is complaining.

• Not waste time, money and energy on buying and setting up email cloakers, spam-friendly servers, fake email accounts and useless bulk email software.

Above all, you can avoid wasting time by constantly looking for a new ISP (and moving your website from host to host) because your last one closed your account.
 
Treat your subscribers well
Minimize complaints by making things as easy and as transparent as possible. In other words, tell them what they will get from you, how often and how easy it is to stop messages at any time. And, adding a privacy policy on your website or near your web form will increase the likelihood of getting people to join your list. Here’s an example:
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PRIVACY POLICY: Your email address is safe with us. We promise never to sell to or share with anyone, for any reason, your personal contact information.
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A more complete privacy policy web page will include the following:
• What information is being collected
• Why the information is being collected
• When that information is being used
• Who will be using (or accessing) that information
• Where the information is actually stored
• How to remove or modify that information

So, make your opt-in list safe and secure for both you and your prospects.

Keep it Personal!

You should also personalize your email messages as much as possible because personalization increases trust and confidence and more importantly, it shows that your message was voluntarily requested. Personalised messages gains readers’ attention dramatically increases readership. Whether your message is a plain text message or HTML, you can easily add personalization tags in the message: like the reader's name, address, email addresses or even website.

For example, you can put the reader's first name in the subject line. Studies show that this will increase the chance of the email being read. You can also personalise the message content, which gives the reader content that's relevant to them, and also gives your message a more trustworthy and credible "feel."