Email Marketing

There are numerous ways to market your website via email. We'll talk about the most effective methods.

Your Own Newsletter

Your own newsletter or e-zine can be an extremely effective method of marketing to your customers. You can offer an informational newsletter, updates, events, coupons, special offers etc. The possibilities are endless. If you are an expert in a certain area and offer free information, tips or advice, people will more likely sign up to receive your newsletter.

Ways of making money with a newsletter include sponsor ads and classified ads. You can also make recommendations for other resources or products available on the Internet and use an affiliate link to send your readers there. If they buy, you get a commission on their purchase. One of the best ways to generate revenue with your newsletter is to offer exclusive deals or coupons to subscribers. You should always make sure to include plenty of links back to your website, this will help to generate more traffic for your site. Since your subscribers came to your site and signed up to receive information from you, they are already interested in what you offer, they are ready made buyers! Be careful not to fill your newsletter with too much advertising though, some people will be annoyed and you may get a lot of people opting out!

If you will be offering an informational newsletter or e-zine, don't fill it with too much advertising. Remember that people can unsubscribe and trust me, they will if they get a bunch of ads and little useful information.

It is important to distinguish a newsletter/e-zine from an update list. An update list will mainly be made up of people who come to your commercial website and want to receive updates on your website, special offers, sales, coupons etc. These people will obviously not be expecting information but promotions from your website. Don't send them ads for other sites if they wanted ads from you, you should use an update list to sell what you offer only and to generate traffic to your site.

A professional informational newsletter should be sent out on a regular basis and conform to a certain basic schedule. For example, if you say your newsletter is weekly, then make sure you send it out once a week.

In closing, when people give your their email address, they are trusting you... do not violate that trust. Make sure you note in your newsletter that you do not sell your mailing list to anyone else and most importantly, make sure you give clear instructions as to how to unsubscribe from your list.

Creating a newsletter is easier than you think with the many free templates available online that you can use as a basic format and layout tool. Here are some good free template sites:

OSSWEB - This site will allow you to enter information into form fields and it will build you a great looking newsletter to send out! Very nice way to start your newsletter for beginners.

A1 Marketing Newsletter Template - A nicely formatted template that you can cut and paste. Creates a very clean and organized newsletter.

Newz2me Templates - Offers a number of templates for different types of newsletters.

Here is some cool free software to help you create your newsletter:

eZine Assistant

Newsletter/E-Zine Advertising

Another form of email marketing is purchasing or trading advertising in other newsletters/e-zines. This is a way of getting highly targeted leads for your website since there are thousands of newsletters that offer advertising and sponsorships. There is surely one or two or a hundred that cater to your target market. Here are some great sites where you can find targeted newsletters to advertise in:

E-zine-Directory - Lists e-zines by category.

E-zine Universe - Lists e-zines by category.

Opt-In Email Advertising

Yet another option for advertising via email is to purchase a targeted email ad campaign to an opt-in list. Opt-in simple means that the email addresses are "safe" to send to since the person has "opted" to receive email from the company for certain subjects. This is a painless way to advertise via email to highly targeted prospects, but can also be very expensive.

Spam!

Spam is the word used for any unsolicited email. This means we have not asked for or signed up to receive this email. Someone got your email address from a posting in a newsgroup, FFA or other ad or on a website and added your email address to their mailing list without asking permission. Whatever you do, don't use SPAM to promote your business. It will not only reflect poorly on you and your business but it could also get you into trouble with many ISP's and on the receiving end of some irate emails from the people you have spammed. Don't do it!!! Spamming can HURT your business, not help it.

Email Marketing Software

There are many programs that can help you manage your mailing lists and send out your mailings, here are some of the best:

Group Mail Free & Pro - A fantastic, easy to use program that makes it simple to import and export your email lists and send out your messages. Tons of options, yet not overwhelming. My personal choice for sending out my updates. There is even a free version of this program you can use.

Fairlogic WorldCast - Another free bulk mailer program. Also very good.

Email Marketing Services

You can also hire someone to manage your mailing list for you. Using a service for this can be expensive but certainly worth it if your mailing list is large enough.

Google's Email Marketing Company List