Author(s) : Unknown

E-mail seems like a terrific marketing tool — until you think about all that spam clogging up your own inbox. But of course YOUR message isn’t spam. So how do you use e-mail to market without becoming a spammer? Done properly, e-mail marketing is highly effective. E-Mail Marketing For Dummies can help you send your message to the inboxes of the world while observing professional standards, improving your deliverability, and executing your e-mail marketing strategy in line with current laws. You'll discover the secrets to creating professional and inviting e-mail messages, locating receptive respondents, tracking the results, and finding out whether your program is working. You’ll be able to: Combine e-mail with other marketing media Develop a winning strategy, build a quality e-mail list, and find success Comply with anti-spam laws Set reasonable objectives Decide whether to use an e-mail service provider Brand your e-mails Build relationships with your customers Increase your “open” rate and find out who’s actually opening your e-mails Use e-mail to improve search engine optimization And if you’re not a bona fide, pocket-protector-carrying geek, this book is perfect. It’s written for business people who need to get return on their time as well as their marketing efforts. Whether you read it straight through or dive right into the part you need most, E-Mail Marketing For Dummies is all about using e-mail to help your business prosper. E-Mail Marketing For Dummies 5 About the Author 7 Dedication 9 Author’s Acknowledgments 9 Contents at a Glance 11 Table of Contents 13 Introduction 21 About This Book 22 Conventions Used in This Book 22 What You Don’t Have to Read 22 Foolish Assumptions 23 How This Book Is Organized 23 Part I: Getting Started with E-mail marketing 23 Part II: Mapping Out an E-Mail Marketing strategy 23 Part III: Constructing an Effective Marketing E-Mail 24 Part IV: Delivering and Tracking Your E-Mails 24 Part V: The Part of Tens 24 Icons Used in This Book 25 Where to Go from Here 25 Part I : Getting Started with E-Mail Marketing 27 Chapter 1: Adding E-Mail to a Successful Marketing Mix 29 Fitting E-Mail into Your Marketing Strategy 30 Applying Basic Marketing Principles to Your E-Mail Messages 33 Reaping the Benefits of E-Mail Marketing 41 Taking Advantage of E-Mail Service Providers 43 Chapter 2: Maximizing Revenue with E-Mail 47 Increasing Revenue with Repeat Customers 47 Lowering Your Costs 54 Chapter 3: Becoming a Trusted Sender 59 Minimizing Spam Complaints 60 Complying with Spam Laws 64 Enhancing Your E-Mail Professionalism 67 Deciding When and How Often to Send 71 Part II : Mapping out an E-Mail Marketing Strategy 79 Chapter 4: Developing Objectives 81 Coming Up with Broad-Based Objectives 81 Narrowing Your Objectives in Six Steps 87 Organizing Your E-Mail Content into Themes Based on Objectives 94 Staying Focused on Your Objectives 100 Chapter 5: Building a Quality E-Mail List 103 Where and How to Collect Contact Information 104 Deciding What Information to Collect 109 Offering Incentives to Increase Signups 115 Asking for Permission 118 Building a List with List Brokers 124 Part III : Constructing an Effective Marketing E-Mail 127 Chapter 6: Designing Your E-Mails 129 Determining the Proper Format for Your E-Mail Campaigns 130 The ABCs of E-Mail Layout 137 Making the Most of the Preview Pane 151 Branding Your E-Mails to Enhance your Image 155 Chapter 7 : Creating From and Subject Lines That Get Noticed 161 Getting Acquainted with E-Mail Headers 161 Filling Out the From Line 163 Using Your E-Mail Address for Identity 166 Writing a Subject Line 167 Chapter 8 : Including Text in Your E-Mails 171 Choosing the Correct Font and Style 172 Including Headlines 178 Using Longer Sentences and Paragraphs 180 Using Text Links 182 Adding Navigation Links 186 Including a table of contents in your e-mails 187 Including Web site navigation links 189 Linking to Files in Your E-Mails 190 Linking to video files 191 Linking to sound files 192 Linking to document files 193 Chapter 9 : Including Images in Your E-Mails 195 Choosing a File Format for Your Images 195 Don’t Embed: Referencing Your Images 196 Deciding Which Images to Use 198 Photograph 198 Created art 200 Text images 204 Image combinations 206 Placing Images Properly in Your E-Mails 207 Positioning single images 207 Positioning multiple images 208 Placing images in multiple columns 210 Making Your Images into Links 211 Chapter 10: Making Your E-Mail Content Valuable 213 Making Sure Your Offers Are Valuable to Your Audience 214 Sending Valuable Offers 216 Creating content to promote something 216 Cashing in on coupons 217 Including incentives 219 Using giveaways 219 Making gains with loss leaders 220 Extending urgent offers 221 Writing an Effective Call to Action 221 Constructing a call to action 221 Calling for specific actions 223 Combining multiple calls to action 233 Giving Your E-Mail Content Inherent Value 234 Creating content to inform your audience 236 Adding tips and advice 237 Providing instructions and directions 238 Putting in entertaining content 238 Including facts and research 239 Mixing and Matching Value and Relevance 239 Combining different types of value 240 Matching relevance to value 241 Finding Help with Content Creation 243 Part IV : Delivering and Tracking your E-mails 245 Chapter 11: Tracking Your E-Mail Campaign Results 247 Understanding Basic E-Mail Tracking Data 247 Calculating your bounce rate 249 Calculating your non-bounce total 249 Calculating your open rate 250 Calculating your click-through rate 252 Tracking Non-Click Responses 253 Tracking in-store purchases 253 Tracking phone calls 254 Tracking event attendance 255 Tracking e-mail replies 256 Chapter 12: Maximizing E-Mail Deliverability 259 Managing Bounced and Blocked E-Mail 259 Dealing with hard bounces 261 Dealing with soft bounces 262 Reducing blocked e-mails 263 Reducing Filtered E-Mail 266 Establishing your sender reputation 266 Understanding automatic content filtering 268 Understanding user-controlled 269 Keeping Up with Advancing Technology 272 Chapter 13: Capitalizing on Clicks and Other Responses 275 Evaluating E-Mail Click-Through Data 276 Using click-through data to target your e-mail offers 277 Using click-through data for intelligent follow up 278 Using click-through data for testing your offers and calls to action 279 Tracking and Analyzing Web Site Visitors 280 Looking at your landing page 280 Following your Web site visitor's click path 283 Measuring your conversion percentage 284 Measuring your return on investment 286 Going Deeper with E-Mail Surveys 287 Planning your survey 287 Creating an e-mail survey 291 Using E-Mail to Extend Your Online Presence 294 Using e-mail to enhance search engine optimization 294 Combining e-mail and RSS marketing 295 Using e-mail to enhance your blog 296 E-mailing to mobile devices 297 Part V : The Part of Tens 299 Chapter 14: Top Ten Worst E-Mail Content Blunders 301 Excessive Punctuation 301 Long articles that seem to never end and keep on going while saying basically the same thing over and over again 302 Unfamiliar From address 302 Click Here links 302 Distracting images 303 Boring subject lines 303 Links that surprise the reader 304 Unfamiliar advertising 304 Repetitive messages 304 Cluttered layout 304 Chapter 15 : Ten E-Mail Marketing Resources 307 EmailTrainer.com 307 EmailStatCenter.com 307 Email Sender and Provider Coalition 308 FTC spam site 308 Email Experience Council 308 Email-Marketing-Reports blog 309 Eyetools 309 Spam Arrest 309 Community home page, ConstantContact.com 310 Stockxpert.com 310 Appendix A : HTML Primer 311 Headings 311 Paragraphs 312 Text Treatment 312 Bold 313 Italic 313 Underline 313 Horizontal rules 313 Numbered lists 314 Bulleted lists 314 Fonts 315 Font family 316 Font size 317 Color Values 317 Color names 317 Color numbers 318 Color Definitions 319 Text 319 Background color 320 Basic Links 320 Web addresses 320 Images 321 E-mail addresses 321 Locations within pages 322 Non-HTML resources 322 Basic Tables 323 Creating a simple table 323 Creating a table-based page 324 HTML Entities 326 HTML Elements 327 HTML Attributes 330 Appendix B : A Sample E-Mail Portfolio 333 New Subscriber Templates 334 Sign-up link 334 Sign-up form 334 Welcome letter 334 Subscriber Maintenance Templates 336 Change of profile request 336 Change of profile confirmation 336 Subscription reminder 337 Newsletter Template 338 Promotional Templates 338 Promotional offer template 339 Event invitation template 339 Announcement Templates 340 Press release template 340 Announcement template 341 Holiday greeting template 341 Procedural e-mail 342 Survey Invitation Template 342 Index 343

Send your message to the inboxes of the world

Develop a winning strategy, build a quality e-mail list, and find success

Done properly, e-mail marketing is highly effective. This book tells you how to use e-mail marketing properly and effectively so that no one sees you as a nasty spammer. You'll discover the secrets to creating professional and inviting e-mail messages, locating receptive respondents, tracking the results, and finding out whether your program is working.

Discover how to:

• Combine e-mail with other marketing media

• Comply with anti-spam laws

• Set reasonable objectives

• Brand your e-mails

• Build relationships with your customers

• Increase your open rate

Introduces a series of effective and proven strategies for designing, launching, and conducting an e-mail marketing campaign that can increase sales and promote a product or brand reputation, with tips on how to build a list, send the right message, avoid sending spam, track results, and work with the latest technology. Original. John Arnold shows would-be e-mail marketers how to conduct effective campaigns - and avoid crossing the line into spam. Topics covered include: building a list, determining the proper message format and frequency, creating effective messages, tracking results and steering clear of spamming techniques