And one of the best strategies to employ in all of your email campaigns is the first name basis tactic. Whenever you write somebody about your product, you should not treat that somebody as just an email address. Keep in mind that you are actually talking to people. And these people have names. You always try to get your prospect names and use it in the greeting of the email and more preferably, in the body of your letter as well.

It is not a hidden fact that email campaigns are sent massively. This means that one single email message is sent to several thousand internet users at the same time. These letters are not unique. And your recipient knows that. But if and when they see their names especially integrated into the whole email, they’ll feel that the email is actually for them and them alone. That’s also when they start reading.

Don’t worry about the task ahead because you don’t really have to individually type the names of your recipient in each and every one of your emails before sending them. It’s a good thing that there are email managers and software that can do all of these for you. All you have to do is to construct an effective sales letter and specifically leave spaces for the names of your prospect for the program to fill. Your only job is to make a database of email addresses and the names of the people that own them.

If you use the first name of your clients in your letter, the power of your email ads are doubled. You will capture the interest of your reader right off. And your letter would seem unique and not created for the whole world to read.

But more importantly, using the first name of your prospects creates a certain level of connection between the two of you. And that’s the start of trust. You need to exude trust in order to gain sales. And the first name basis strategy is a good start.

8 Suggested Items to Include in Your Email Marketing Checklist

Goal List
List down the specific goals you wish to achieve with your email. Once you’re done creating your email, use the checklist to verify whether all goals have been accomplished or not.

Outline and Format
It never hurts to have a draft and outline to work with. The details in your outline must then be included in your checklist. Reviewing them will allow you to determine if all key points have been properly addressed by your email. Secondly, make sure that your preferred format is included in your email marketing checklist. In most cases, your email marketing format would usually include but isn’t limited to subject header, introductory paragraph, body, conclusions, closing paragraph, call to action, and miscellaneous details.

Email Address Validation
There’s no point sending out an email if there’s no one to read it. Hence, take out your opt-in list and consider sending a confirmation email to verify whether all email addresses in your list are still active.

Testing Procedures
Try to think of the various tests your email must be subjected to for quality control.

Monitoring Results
Include in your checklist a periodic assessment period for your emails. Compute the conversion rate, click-through rate, referral rate, and any other applicable statistics for your email marketing campaign.

Previous Mistakes and Concerns
Include in your checklist a list of things you did wrong or overlooked in the past email. This will prevent history from repeating itself with your current email. Next, if there are any issues or concerns which you had promised your customers to address on your next email, include them in your checklist as well. It will remind you to address them as promised when you are in the process of formulating your latest email.

Email Versions
Some of your customers may prefer a text-only email while others may prefer graphic-heavy emails. If you are creating more than one version of your email, all versions with the appropriate reminders should also be included in your checklist.

Link Checking
Finally, remember to double-check all links pasted in your email to ascertain that they are clickable and that they do redirect your readers to the appropriate and functioning pages.

Make sure you have your email marketing checklist with you all the time. Remember to use this for monitoring and evaluating every email you send.

However, even if you have painstakingly created a targeted email list, your emails are still susceptible to bouncing problems. An email will bounce if and when the intended recipient refuses or can’t receive the email at all. In cases like this, the message will go back to the sender with an error text signifying the reason the message can’t be sent.

But you can solve the problem of bouncing emails in just a few steps. However, this solution will only work for created email lists and not for bought email lists.

1. Put a proper sender’s name on your emails.
Email spam filters are always checking where the email came from before it can be cleared. If it can’t find the valid sender’s name in the proper fields, then it will be considered as spam. And as such, it will never find its way in the recipient’s inbox. It would stay forever in the spam folder until the come across it and take it out of there. And that scenario is not very likely.

2. Request your email subscribers to add your address in their contacts list.
If your name and email address are added to the contacts list, then the email filters that could bounce your message back would be avoided. It’s like giving your emails an exclusive entry pass to the inbox without having to go through scrutiny.

3. Double check the spelling and format of the email address you have on your list.
In the digital world, the worse mistake you can make is a human error. Make sure that you ask your prospects to retype their emails on the fields provided on the opt-in pages to be sure of an accurate address every time.

4. Provide for a confirmation link for subscriptions.
In order to make sure a real person had subscribed to your emails and not a robot, have your users check their emails and click the confirmation link provided therein. This way, you also protect your own interest. With an email confirmation process in place, you won’t be accused of sending unsolicited mails to your prospects.

This is the reason why email marketing still is the most effective way of promoting and selling a product. This also explains why a lot of internet sites desperately find ways for visitors to sign up to their site and give their email addresses to them for subscription. Now, you don’t have to wonder why people keep asking for an email address even if all you really wanted to do was to leave a very short comment on a blog entry.

Emails are very effective marketing tools. However, they only work if they are used the right way. First off, you need to have a big list of active emails where you’ll send your marketing materials. And no, it doesn’t just have to be a list of uncategorized email addresses. It has to be a targeted email address list. Targeted email addresses mean that the people owning the email address you’ll send your campaigns to are the type of people who are going to benefit from your product the most.

Squeezing an email address out of your prospect is not easy. Getting their permission for you to send marketing campaigns to them is another thing. If you are not too familiar in creating an opt-in page, it is best that you partner with another who is an expert in this field. This is one good email service to use. You can also partner with another site with a lot of traffic. Every time a customer clicks on the box that is related to your business or product, then you get their email address for promotional purposes.

Constructing the sales letter itself is quite a task. You need to make an email that is not only interesting but action oriented as well. Every promotional email is only given a maximum reading time of 5 seconds. So you have to capture your reader’s interest within 5 seconds or less. If your sales letter is not effective, then it will be deleted forever.

If you don’t have any talents in writing and copywriting, it is best that you hire an expert sales writer. This is another email service you might want to get for a long-term basis. Having a good writer on call will allow you to make as many new email advertisements as you might need.

Tallies for computing the conversion rate of your email marketing campaign must not, of course, include those which had performed the desired reaction but without the use or help of your email.

How to Compute for the Conversion Rate of Your Email Marketing Campaign
There are various online and offline software to help you compute the conversion rate of your email marketing campaign. Most of them are affordable and easy to use. Of course, you can always opt to hire the services of an Internet marketing firm to compute and monitor the conversion rate of your email marketing campaign as well.

How to Improve the Conversion Rate of Your Email Marketing Campaign
You now know how to compute for your conversion rate and let’s just say that the resulting figures aren’t as impressive as you want them to be. If so, here are a few things you can do to improve your conversion rate.

Validate email addresses included in your list.
Are all of them in working order? How about sending everyone in your list a confirmation mail to ensure that their email addresses are still working? If most appear not to be functioning anymore then that could be one reason why your conversion rate is so low!

Increase or improve payment options.
If sale increase is the desired action then take a good look at your payment options. Have you perhaps failed accommodating your customers needs with regard to payment options? Do you only accept cash payments? Maybe it’s time to accept credit card transactions and money orders?

Expand your market.
It’s possible that you’ve done all you could in your current target market and unless you’ve got a new product to introduce then maybe it’s time to pack your bags and find a new market. You could try a new location or age group. If it’s the former, make sure that you perform the necessary adjustments with your prices, terms and conditions, and lastly, your delivery options and charges.

Review your order process.
Could some of the links used in your order process be malfunctioning? This is another possible reason why your conversion rate hasn’t been improving. Review your order form. Are there any modifications you should perform?

Lastly, consider consulting an Internet marketing expert if your problems with conversion rates continue. Good luck getting your ratings up!

Avoid including attachments.
People nowadays are wary about opening attachments, especially when they come from a company they’re in contact with for the first time. Attachments, after all, are one of the favorite tools of hackers for infecting computers with worms, bugs, viruses, and other kinds of malware. If you have a lot to say, try compressing it to fit the body of your email.

Avoid using images.
Graphics of any kind require more time to download; time that your readers may not have or are unwilling to give. If you need to use images, make sure that they’re small enough for easy downloading. If they have to be large, on the other hand, make sure that they’re spliced to facilitate their display.

In the event that the images still don’t show up in your recipients email server then make sure you’ve got a textual backup ready to fill the gap.

Keep it short but sweet.
If you want to wax poetry about your products and services, you can do that on your own turf like your blog or website. You cannot however do that in your email campaign since you’ll be in your customers territory and not yours. Thus, they have the power to tune out or shut you off any time they want. You can prevent that by keeping your message short but sweet.

Make sure your email won’t be mistaken for SPAM.
Assuming that you’ve done the right thing and were able to obtain your customers email addresses with their consent, make sure you have their approval as well for contacting them before sending out your email advertisements.

Don’t forget to include contact details.
You could get so busy perfecting the content of your email advertisement that you end up forgetting providing your recipients with your contact details. If you make that mistake, all your hard work will be for naught! Make sure that your contact details include your business name, address, landline, mobile and fax number, email and website address. Lastly, make sure to place it in a highly visible area!

Have the end product tested and reviewed before sending.
Try getting a sample audience and see how they react to your email ad. If the feedbacks positive then send away! If the feedbacks are negative then its back to the drawing board. Just work hard on your email ad and you’re sure to come up with something good in no time!

Don’t Send Unsolicited Email
They won’t read it, and that’s best case scenario. What could be worse is that they’ll label your email as SPAM and you risk getting blacklisted by their email provider or have your account suspended or removed. And the worst thing that could happen is for your recipients to spread bad things about you, which you can’t really blame them for since you’re the one at fault. Yes, we know you had good intentions, but it’s just not enough. If you truly have nice news to share then surely you could convince them to give you their email addresses!

Do Build Your Email Opt-In List
Email marketing always starts with an email opt-in list. Opting-in signifies their approval of receiving emails from you. Now, you’re probably wondering how to build your opt-in list, right? First, you need to hook their interest: what could you offer that they’d want badly enough to opt-in to your list? This could be a promise to provide them valuable tips on your area of expertise or other freebies. You could give subscribers a preferential discount rate or some other privilege.

Do Subscribe to a Proper Format
Email marketing newsletters adhere to a general format. It all starts with the subject line: make good use of this. Make sure to call your readers attention, let them know that it’s not SPAM and that they did sign up for it. Lastly, make sure it contains the key topic of your email.

Next to this would be the salutations. Be sure to personalize your letter by addressing them directly and using your recipients name. Your introductory paragraph should be brief and detailed, the body of your email equally concise, and your closing paragraphs containing a summary and call to action.

Don’t Bombard Them with Emails
Consider contacting them on a weekly basis at the least. If, however, you think that what you have to say deserves daily contact then at least give your subscribers an option to receive your email either daily or in a digested form.

Do Offer Them a Chance to Unsubscribe
Lastly, let them know right from the start that they always have the option to unsubscribe. When you do, you’re also letting them know that you’re confident they won’t do that because what you have to share would be truly valuable to them.

Choose an email broadcasting vendor.
Unless you’ve got the necessary resources like time, money, knowledge, skills, and effort among other things to establish an in-house email broadcasting system, its much better to simply outsource your needs.

On choosing an email broadcasting vendor, there are five main factors to consider. Firstly, look for the company with the requisite expertise and experience in handling the kind of service you need. Secondly, choose an email broadcasting vendor that offers round-the-clock customer and technical support. Thirdly, look for an email broadcasting vendor able to offer you all the bandwidth you need so that it won’t slow down your own system. Next, look for a package that allows you to enjoy upgrades with minimum fuss and cost. Lastly, look for one that offers the best features at an affordable rate.

Prepare your email broadcast.
Upon choosing your email broadcasting vendor and paying for the package you’ve specified, you’ll probably be given your account details to activate your broadcasting system.

Once there, its time to prepare your email broadcast. Determine whether you’re sending a document or database type of email. Formulate your subject heading and content. Double-check the body of your email for spelling and grammar. Make sure that you follow the usual format for effective online reads: keep it short, simple, and powerful.

Revalidate the email addresses in your list.
Make sure that all the email addresses in your list are working. Secondly, make sure that your recipients are aware and accept that you will be using an email broadcasting system to contact them. If necessary, you could explain the reasons for such a decision and the benefits they’ll enjoy because of it.

Configure your broadcasting system.
Do you want it to be a one-time email or would you like a particular email to be sent periodically? Many email broadcasting software also allow you to merge your recipients first and last names for improved personalization. Some may also monitoring options to provide you the most important statistics with regard to your emails.

Test the system.
Use your own email address to see if the email broadcasting system works. Has all images been displayed fully and correctly? Did everything in your emailed database appear to be in order?

To avoid inconveniencing your customers, do make sure that you follow all the steps specified here before broadcasting your email!