Here’s a prime example of what you don’t want to do. I once subscribed to a travel writer’s newsletter which I ran across in another newsletter’s feature article. I clicked through and found a few items of interest, so I signed up for their newsletter. First of all, I soon discovered this website sent a ‘newsletter’ on almost a daily basis, which was far more than I cared to receive.

Then, I started receiving additional emails from this site, telling a story of how so and so just returned from a trip to Costa Rica, writing a story accompanied by the photos they took on their trip and promptly selling it to a travel magazine. The story was but a couple of paragraphs, which was not especially interesting or informative and a thinly disguised lead-in to the sales pitch that followed. The gist of it was that for a mere $3000, I could attend their next workshop and learn all the tricks of the trade.

After a week or two of perusing the newsletter, it became obvious that they had no information of value. A short editor’s note, telling me what she’d been doing that day, was always followed by a long and pushy sales pitch. I canceled. This is the epitome of bad email advertising. Don’t take this approach. It’s a loser.

Now let’s take a look at how to construct an email advertising campaign that does your website traffic and income good. You know the value of an e-newsletter, but as mentioned earlier, the successful email marketing campaign requires finesse. Just as on your website, your newsletter demands quality content. If you don’t provide information your readers can use to increase their knowledge, or which is simply entertaining, you’re fighting an uphill battle. A single, quality feature article in every issue is a great start to building a loyal readership, some of whom will forward it to a friend, perhaps resulting in a new subscriber and potential customer.

When doing email advertising within a newsletter format, your ads should not comprise more than 10% of the total content. This translates to about 2-3 ads per issue. If you have a particularly outstanding offer, you might put it up front. For example: ‘This week I ran across an amazing deal that I wanted to pass on …’ Then tell them why. Use a review style and keep it short and sweet.

If you use the ‘special offer’ approach, use it judiciously and don’t overdo it. It’s got to be truly special, time dependent and worthy of sending in a separate email. If the offer doesn’t meet this criteria, your credibility will suffer. Readers won’t even open these after a while.

One effective email advertising technique is to intersperse ads within freebies and resources at the end of your newsletter. You make this section a regular part of every newsletter, under a title such as ‘Freebies, top picks and resources’.

Follow these do’s and don’ts of email advertising and see if you’re not well rewarded!

Personalize it.
Rather than starting on an impersonal note with Dear Customer, make it more personalized by using their first names. As for the rest of your email newsletter, remember to directly address your customer. Using their first names once in a while would also be a nice touch.

Also, make sure to configure your email newsletter software to send birthday greetings to your subscribers. Although it’s a programmed action, subscribers will still appreciate the thought behind it.

Be careful about making assumptions.
Misassumptions can make you end up addressing your customers incorrectly. If you are introducing a new product in your next newsletter, should you write in with the assumption that they’d be automatically receptive to your new product? Would they have prior knowledge about it already? Exert time and effort in researching about your subscribers to be able to address them properly.

Know your target market.
Be sure about your target markets demographics. If you thought your products appeal best to adults and wrote your newsletter accordingly, what would happen if your subscribers turn out to be teenagers? You would have lost them right away once they see the formal tone of your letter or the topics you’ve discussed and which they can’t relate to.

Always use a respectful and courteous tone.
It doesn’t matter what kind of target market you’re addressing. It never hurts to be respectful and courteous. This doesn’t mean you’ll have to address them by Sir or Madam all the time but opening your letter with pleasant salutations could be a nice touch. Issue your call to action with courtesy rather than stating it as a command.

Take care with how you write.
Capitalization helps in providing emphasis, but they can also be interpreted as shouting or talking down to someone so make sure you use it appropriately. Be just as careful with punctuation marks and underlining.

Get feedback.
Lastly, is there any better way to know how to properly address your customers than asking them yourself? You can do this by conducting polls, surveys, or behind-the-scenes research. Be careful though. People can be pretty tough when it comes to giving feedback so don’t take it personally. Use it instead to further improve your public relation skills. After all, what the customer wants, you try your best to provide!

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.

Make your subject line brief, detailed, and powerful.
Try keeping it to four or five words. Anything less might not completely deliver the message while anything more than that could lessen the impact of your emails subject line. Subject lines can take various forms. You may turn it as a teaser that’s meant to intrigue your readers, an announcement that’s meant to make your readers sit up and take notice, a question to make them ponder, or simply a greeting that’s just meant to make them open your email with a smile.

Don’t be afraid to insert first and second person pronouns.
Pronouns like I, you, we, our, and us makes your email more personalized and less like a plain marketing copy. It also establishes a relationship between you and your readers, and puts them in a more receptive mood with regard to your message.

Use headers.
Use headers to make it easier for readers to get the gist of your email and convince them at the same time that your email is worth reading from start to finish. As for creating headers, just use the same tips and guidelines provided for creating your subject line.

Keep paragraphs short.
As mentioned earlier, email newsletters are generally skimmed so you should keep your paragraphs short and focusing on one topic at a time. If the article you’re basing your email on contains long paragraphs, don’t be afraid to break them down into several short ones.

Have your email proofread and checked for plagiarism.
You and another person, preferably someone qualified, should proofread your email newsletter before sending it to your readers. Double-check spelling and grammar. Be sure you’ve got all your facts straight and the flow of thought is orderly and cohesive. A professional editor or proofreader will also let you know if there are unnecessary paragraphs to be cut out.

Lastly, use plagiarism-checking software to ensure that there are little, if any, similarities between your work and the article you’re basing your email newsletter on, never mind that you’re discussing the same topic. If your work passes then congratulations for a job well done!

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!