Web Advertising: How To Increase Traffic By Offering A Free Course
One web advertising strategy that can help you become popular and improve your credibility is to offer a free course inany appealing subject of your choice.
Email Builds Brands
Email - today’s preferred business communication tool - provides you a simple, powerful, affordable way to develop, manage and maintain relationshipsas well as sell products and services. Let’s briefly examine how permission-based email marketing positively affects:
Viral Marketing with Your Signature File
Computer viruses are usually a bad thing. They can compromise your security, delete necessary files, and give your PC trouble. Viruses reak havoc quickly often because they are forwarded via email and eventually reach thousands of computers.
Personal vs Professional Life Email - Dont Squander Your First Internet Impression
My first email address was with compuserve.com back when you could only have numbers for an email address. They then allowedus to have letters as well on prodigy so I switched internet service providers or internet content providers as they arebetter known to us geeks. My next stop was with the number one provider AOL and my name became an extensionof my love for jazz music and I have had that email address ever since. I also have a yahoo.com emailaddress that I use strictly for its Spam filter and free virus protection software that is built into the website. Freeemail addresses are great and I suggest you take advantage of their many no cost features. But I only use themfor personal reasons. The main reason I don’t use them for business is because I refuse to give the free emailservices anymore free publicity and not get anything in return.
Why Do Marketers Lie in their Emails?
Coming as I do from a direct response and direct mail background, I’m familiar with the various copy lines used toencourage people to open envelopes.
A teaser line. An offer. A time limited deal. There are numerous ways to increase theopen rate of an offline direct mail piece. Some are straightforward, some are compelling, others are plain feeble.
But I don’trecall ever having received a piece of direct mail that had an outright lie printed on the envelope.
And I don’texpect to. Why would a company do that? If the lie is revealed the moment I open the envelope, then thecat is out of the bag. The company can’t be trusted. I would never buy from them.
In my experience, companiesin the offline world are smart enough not to put their brand and reputation at risk by over-stepping the mark withtheir ‘come hither’ copy lines.
But this doesn’t seem to be the case in the online world.
A colleague of minerecently received a B2B email with the subject line:
Fw: Please help - unable to reach your IT person
Of course,nobody had tried to reach any IT person. It was just a sneaky lie written to increase the open rate. Andit succeeded. The email was opened. But after a few moments it became apparent that the company had lied. Hello delete button.
But whatif my colleague had responded? What if he had been interested in the service being offered? What if he wanted tocreate a relationship with the vendor but, at some moment, while browsing his inbox, he came to realize that the openingline to the relationship, that first ‘Hello’, was just a lie?
The low cost of email has created two layers ofmarketers. The first layer comprises legitimate companies who would stay clear of lying in their subject lines.
The second layer ismade up of the smash-and-grab marketers, who will do anything to take your money before you have had time to thinkthrough your decision.
This may all seem obvious. After all, you and I would never lie just to get an emailopened, would we?
I mention it for two reasons. First, because I have received emails from legitimate companies that come horriblyclose to lying in their subject lines.
Second, when companies enter into partnerships or affiliate relationships, they often lose control ofhow those partners promote their products or services. Which is why sometimes you see a legitimate company being pitched in avery crude and misleading way.
The bottom line is to remain aware of the damage that dishonesty does to your brandand reputation.
Nick Usborne is a copywriter, author, speaker and advocat of good writing. You can access all his archived newsletter articleson copywriting and writing for the web at his Excess Voice site. You’ll find more articles and resources onhow to make money as a freelance writer at his Freelance Writing Success site.
Whats on YOUR Subscriber Thank-You Page?
When I coach my clients on how to get more business from their e-zines, I’m delighted to see that they spendtime on creating content that builds a relationship with their readers. But I see many of these publishers overlooking thevery beginning of their valuable relationship with their subscribers. For example, the “thank-you” page. If I sign up for youre-zine at your site, where am I taken afterwards? I hope it’s not a page that only says something vaguelike “form received” or even worse, nothing, leaving me wondering whether my signup was successful. Create a thank-you page wherenew signups go to right after they complete the form. On this page, be sure to:
Example: “Thank you for subscribing to [E-zine Name Here]!”
For example, do I have to watch my e-mail inbox for a confirmation message? This is ESPECIALLY importantif you use a double opt-in process that requires me to reply or click on a link in that e-mail inorder to complete my sign-up. If you don’t point this out on the thank-you page, there’s a chance that I’ll assumethe e-mail I receive is just a welcome letter and won’t open it.
Include yourphoto and signature if you can. Being personal helps me feel like I know you, and remember this is important becauseI’m more likely to BUY from those I feel I know and trust.
This fast-forwardsyour relationship with your subscribers by already making them feel like you care. Something like this will do: “I’d love tohear what topics YOU would most like to see covered in upcoming issues of [E-zine Name Here].” Put your e-mail addressright on the page and make it clickable.
You can also insert an automatic subject line in the link suchas “ezine_idea” by forming your link like this: mailto:yourname@yourwebsite.com?subject=ezine_idea. When someone clicks on that link, it will automatically create an e-mailaddressed to you with the subject line “ezine_idea.” This will help you keep these requests organized on your end.
Why not give them a discount on one of your products orservices right there? For example, you could say, “I know you signed up for my e-zine to get great tips on[subject matter here]. Wouldn’t you like to get started right away? My [book, special report, teleseminar etc.] will walk you throughthe entire process, step by step. And if you act right now, I’ll give you a 10% discount. Cl1ck here tolearn more.”
No, that wasn’t a typo. Find one or two other publishers whose targetmarket matches yours but who aren’t direct competitors, and cross promote each other on your thank-you pages. This process is alsocalled “co-registration.”
The copy might read, “Don’t miss these other two e-zines that I read regularly and highly recommend!” Thenfollow with brief descriptions and sign-up instructions.
Several publishers I know with very large lists share that this method hasbeen one of their best ways to gain subscribers faster on a regular basis. And your new subscribers will be happyto consider whatever other resources you recommend.
Remember, You’re Laying the Foundation
Email Marketing and Web Communication: Ten Key Tips to Get Your Messages Read
There’s an old saying ‘Manners maketh the man (or woman)’ and this still applies in the 21st Century, even though everythingnow seems to happen twice as fast.