Email Marketing A Plus? by:John Garrison

This along with backend selling are going to be your two biggest profit producers

. I have run an opt in ezine for 2 years now and it was probably the best marketing decision I have ever made. You can make tons of money from a good strong opt-in email list in a variety of ways. A list of people who have specifically requested to be on your list is one of the most effective marketing tools on the net.

Let me break it down to what you gain by having an email list.

- Credibility

This is a huge factor. Credibility can close sales alone. If you had a horrible product, a lousy sales letter, and huge credibility, you could still make loads of money. Now of course, you want to have a killer product and letter. This is just an example of how powerful credibility can be.

You can gain credibility with your opt in list in a lot of different ways. Here are a few:

-Share your knowledge with your list. You can write informative articles to give to your list and gain massive credibility.

-Give news about the topic of your list. Keep up with the net news and share it with your list.

-Give special offers. Make it to where your list is the only source that can access your special offer.

I do this all the time with discounts for my products. I state that only my subscribers are getting the discount and that is the benefit of being a subscriber of mine.

-Show you care. You will most likely receive questions from your list. Answer them as best you can. Help them with whatever they are doing.

There are tons of different opt-in lists that you can start to develop this credibility.

The most popular is an email newsletter or e-zine. A newsletter is simply a free article of something that is targeted to a specific audience, or some sort of news on a specific market.

You can accept advertising, talk about the net news, give famous quotes, or whatever. It is your list, do what you want, just be unique with it.

I run about 10 opt-in list:

a.. 5 customer lists

a.. 2 leads lists(where I offer free email courses)

a.. 2 email newsletters

a.. 1 updates list

I regularly send offers to my lists and always get orders from them. I always send free articles, news, updates, etc.. to them to keep them as faithful subscribers. It is simple to do this. All you need is a program like Mail Master Pro to h andle everything automatically and you are good to go.

*Marketing to your list.

If you are just starting out, then I would suggest you build up some kind of credibility before you start throwing offers in their face. Focus on getting subscribers and giving them free articles and such to keep them reading your emails.

An opt-in subscriber is pointless if he/she does not read your email. The whole point of your opt-in list is to get them to not only read your email, but to also take action. Whether you want them to click on a link, email an autoresponder, etc..

There are many different things you can do with your email lists, but I would suggest that you mainly try to stick to selling your product.

I have recently cut out most of the advertising in my newsletters. I used to sell classified ads for another little stream of income.

BUT, I noticed that every single(well, almost) free newsletter on the net offers the same type of classified advertising. So when I cut it out, and stuck to just giving fresh content and marketing my products, I ended up making much more money. So now, I only market either my products, or affiliate programs that I use myself. I still run a sponsor ad in my newsletter, but I do not sell it to anybody. It is either an ad for my product, or one that I have swapped with somebody else.

I also only run fresh articles. I usually write them myself, but when I don't, I will get somebody else to write me a fresh one. Try to stay away from articles that have been run in 15 other free newsletters across the net. If your subscribers see that they have already read that article elsewhere, then they most likely won't read it again in your newsletter.

When marketing to your list, I suggest to do only 1 of 2 things. Either start with your offer, or end with your offer. The other half will be your free content. I have done both and haven't seen a drastic change in responses from either.

You can start with your offer and then lead into your free article/content, or write articles that show the benefits of your offer and lead into your sales pitch. Or, of course, you can just write an article and leave your signature file at the end of it. :)

*Creating a followup email course

This is a good way to go if you do not have the time to put out an ezine. It consists of using an autoresponder to automatically deliver pre-written content that either has a link back to your site, or flows into your offer. The idea is to give a 5 day free course by email. At the bottom of each article is your ad, or offer linking back to your site.

When somebody subscribes to your course, they immediately receive the first pre-written report. The next day another free report goes out. I usually have 5 days worth of free content, then for the last 2 days, totaling 7 altogether, I have 2 full blown sales letters for the product I have been advertising in the 5 free reports.

You can of course advertise a different product in each followup email, but you get better closing rates when you focus on just one.

There are a few key elements you have to use when executing this technique:

1. Personalize with their name in the subject. You see, with a newsletter it is good to personalize in the subject of the email, but not extremely necessary because you always have the name of your newsletter in the subject and your readers will know what it is(that it isn't spam).

But with a free email course, you usually have the title of the report in the subject(or something to the effect) and it could easily be mistaken for spam and never even get opened. So when you use their name in the subject line, they know that it is not spam, and will be sure to open it.

I either lead with it being a free report: (if the subscribers name is Dave, it would look like) Dave, Here is Free Report #2 from ProductCreator.com

or use the title of the free report in the subject:

Dave, Discover How to Use Email Marketing Effectively

Personalizing email is always going to get a better response than not personalizing it. And with the software out there these days, personalization is quite easy.

2. Always have a simple way for them to unsubscribe. A link at the bottom of the email where they just have to click on it to unsubscribe is choice. You do not want to make your subscribers have to work to unsubscribe for the fact that they just won't do it. They will simple reply with "remove" in the subject which means YOU will have to do it.

So to have it completely automated and less confusing, make sure you have a clickable link in the bottom of each autoresponse for unsubscriptions. Most professional autoresponders and list managers have this.

3. Let them know that they will be getting another email the next day, or three days from now, etc.. I usually "sell" the next report. I tell them that this next report has XYZ benefit and try to get them to eagerly await it. This is so they don't unsubscribe from the report that they have just read.

You cannot please everybody, some people may not agree with what you said inthe report they just read, therefore they are going to unsubscribe right then and there, UNLESS, you "sell" them the next report.

I suggest you have some sort of follow up marketing system like this anyways. Even if you do not do it like I say above. I am sure you have heard that it takes the average person 7 offers before he will buy your product. So make sure you follow up as much as possible.

The ideal way to advertise in your followups is to start off slow and work your way into a full sales letter. You do not want to throw an ad right in their face on the first report. This makes it look invaluable to them and they will get the feeling that your email is just one big ad.

Here is a simple format you can follow if you are going to offer 5 free reports:

1. The first free report doesn't really have your advertisement in it, but rather your sig file.

2. The second report makes mention of how your product relates to what you just said(in the report) at the end of the report and links back to your site. Somewhat subtle.

3. Now you make another mention of your product and list some of its best benefits.

4. Do the same as the third report, but list a few more benefits and againhow it relates to the topics of the report.

5. Slowly change the article into a slight, somewhat hidden sales letter. You want to still be giving free advice.

6. Thank them for reading your reports, talk about the topic more, and move into a sales pitch.

7. Close 'em! If they haven't already bought by now, then make call to actions throughout this sales letter and try to get the order!

That is a system I have used to close tons of leads. You can setup something like this very quickly using something like Aweber or GetResponse. Use the product creation methods earlier in this course to come up with 5 free reports quickly.

Never ever use a free autoresponder to execute this technique. It defeats the whole purpose of slowly selling them with free reports. You flat out cannot sell from a free report instantly. Free reports draw freebie seekers who are not looking to buy(hence the name). You have to gradually get them interested in your product without blatantly pushing them to buy, which causes unsubscribes.

Every free followup autoresponder on the market puts their advertisement right on top of each email. So right when the prospect opens your email, BAM! they are hit with an advertisement. This isn't built for selling. This is no good. It also reflects the same unprofessional manner as using a free domain. You aren't going to make much money with a free domain, and you aren't going to make much with a free autoresponder.

I have been talking about the free course by email and free newsletters a lot because they work the best. They produce more opt-in leads and are easier to make money off of. Of course your most profitable opt-in lists are going to be customer lists. People that have already bought from you. I already talked about that in the backend selling section :)

At any rate, some sort of opt-in email list is vital to your success. So once you are ready to get the ball rolling and get a product for sale, decide which type of list you want to create and get to it! :)

About the author

John Garrison is a retired internet millionaire. Real Estate is a fun hobby for him . Check out his suggested site of the month here http://tinyurl.com/ywec84

roctonight@gmail.com

Email Marketing A Plus? by:John Garrison

This along with backend selling are going to be your two biggest profit producers

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