Business Can Succeed With Email Marketing

 Email marketing is not a new concept by any means, but several businesses are still not embracing this marketing concept as well as they should be. There are several worries that come along with email marketing, such as:

- Won't my emails be treated as spam?

- Is it a waste of time?

- In the end, is it going to help my business that much?

Some businesses are going to say that the time that is devoted to email marketing is not worth it for them, that the profits they may earn from this do not even start to pay for the time that they invest. The truth is that when it comes to marketing, most studies have shown that email marketing does better than other marketing methods, including the use of social media. This does not mean to dismiss the other marketing methods, as a healthy marketing plan is one that utilizes various marketing techniques to complete the marketing goals.

How Email Marketing Works

It is best to think of email marketing just as any other marketing method, minus the use of a printer, paper and ink. Emails can be sent that have what would normally be sent in the mail as postcards announcing a new sale upcoming, a new item or even giving coupons to valued customers. The route in which they do this is to collect email addresses from current customers and potential customers. The best route to do this is to have a collection area on your website. For example, a call to action box that allows customers or potential customers to sign up for email offers. This allows you to legally obtain the email address and use this to send email marketing material to.

There are companies out there that are providing bulk email lists. However, there are dangers to this that need to be discussed. You need to understand that you can only send emails to those whom you have permission to send this email to. Thus, buying email addresses is not always the best alternative. Keep in mind that the US has a CAN-SPAM Act, enacted in 2003, that spells out what a business can and cannot do in email marketing.

Understanding the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

There are a few rules to keep in mind when sending email marketing materials:

A) Always ensure that your subject line relays what you are writing about and is in no way false or misleading. For example, a good subject line would be: Exclusive Sale for Loyal Customers Only 7/5! A misleading subject line would be: You have won $100!

B) Also ensure that the To and From are labeled accordingly, you need to ensure that your name or business name is represented so that readers can see who sent the message

C) At the end of the email there has to be an opt-out link. You must give readers the option to quit receiving your email marketing messages if they so choose.

D) All email communication that is sent as an advertisement has to include this information in the communication. In addition, there needs to be a physical address of the company listed in the email.

Businesses who are found to be guilty in abusing marketing strategies via email can be fined up to $11,000. Worse, they can lose the right to send email or even lose the right to have a website for the infraction.

Types of Email Marketing

Almost anything can be emailed to customers or potential customers. For the most part, businesses that utilize email marketing can be put into one of three categories:

1. Promotional Emails: These emails are meant to show any promotions that may be ongoing, and are meant to encourage a customer to buy a product or to keep buying products due to the sale/low price.

2. Regular communication: These emails are meant as a way to stay in touch with customers. It is basically a way to reach out and keep a customer as your customer, thus inspiring brand loyalty.

3. Advertisement emails: These are similar to promotional emails, though they can be sent as a postcard type of email that is colorful, has sparse information that simply says the advertisement. For example: 20% off online purchases: Today Only!

How This Will Help You

It is simple: email marketing is a way to reach current customers and find new customers! There are 5 important aspects that email marketing can help with:

1. Email Marketing can increase the sales that you are seeing.

2. Through email marketing you ensure that your business is always on consumers minds.

3. With the use of email you are helping to ensure that customers are repeat customers.

4. This can help to establish that you are the business to turn to for a certain product or service.

5. You are building and maintaining relationships with customers through sending emails.

Starting Email Marketing

There are several programs out there which are designed to help get your email marketing program off to a great start. But, first you need the email addresses. One of the best methods for this is to have a way for customers to sign up for emails from your business. A great way to do this is to have a sign up form on your website. Another method is to collect these email addresses when purchases or orders are made for this purpose.

Aggressive Marketing Tactics

 Are They Mandatory for Your Success?

Today's topic is network marketing old school - or aggressive marketing tactics - versus online or the new way of doing things.

I've been watching some online seminars and they talk about the best way to do network marketing, because it's a people business, is to go out and meet people, as in face-to-face. And they still talk about your relatively 'warm market.'

So if you have a friend who has a friend who's having some money problems, you get that friend to take you to his friend's house so you can pitch your business.

That's an aggressive way of marketing your business. I call that the "Amway" way. The reason I say that is that way back, when I was 16-17, I was involved with Amway for a very short time.

It's also the way you would pitch any type of network marketing company, whether it's Tupperware or Princess House, Avon, any type of marketing business - you're supposed to go out and meet people. You're supposed to talk to your warm market, 'hound' your friends and family.

I look at it a different way. Those are still effective marketing strategies if you're a social butterfly, if you're an aggressive marketer, if you love talking about business.

You can also do this if you're involved in different offline groups, for example a book club, a knitting club, etc., and you meet up with the group once a month locally. Or if you're involved with your Chamber of Commerce so you go to the picnics and events and you share your business.

And that's all fine and good.

Effective Marketing Strategies Based on Old School Methods

I look at this way. There's another 'old school' method that can be transitioned to online. And that is, back when there used to be things called 'Pen Pals.'

You write a letter, put it in an envelope, you stamp it and mail it out, and you build a relationship with people through written word, through the mail.

And every once in a while if you had the time or even the money, with the cost of long-distance phone service back in the day, you would have a phone conversation once in a while. Or maybe once or twice a year you'd meet somewhere locally.

Once you've built that relationship, you start talking about your business and what you do.

Transition that online and you have email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, hangouts, chat rooms. So you can build a successful online network marketing business using online marketing strategies.

It can be done.

Are You Housebound?

If you are housebound, if you're in a home and you don't get out much to talk to people and build relationships, the online way is the best way to go.

You always want to build that relationship first before you pitch the business. Let people know what you do, what you're about, how you do what you do. You may not even have to tell them 'I'm with X company.'

Just talk about how you're working a business online, that you're blogging, you're doing videos, using different online marketing tools that make marketing easier than they would have been 30+ years ago.

Back 40 or 50 years ago there wasn't even an Internet or personal computers and you had to do everything by writing. And I wrote all the time. I was always writing - I had a journal, I wrote song lyrics.

And back then I joined a couple of MLM companies and the way they taught marketing was so aggressive. Some people have that personality type that they can go out and push their business with aggressive marketing.

Use Online Marketing Strategies that are Right for You

But you need to use the types of marketing strategies that are comfortable for you and also what's easy to teach someone else to do, and you can teach them to do it online.

You don't have to go to Chamber of Commerce picnics and meet-ups. You don't have to do that.

I just want to express that in my opinion, you do not have to do that in order to succeed and build a lucrative income. It's not mandatory to your success.

You will hear the top marketers - and I follow these people because of their other marketing tips and techniques, mindsets and opinions.

But when it comes to the opinion that you're not going to build a successful business unless you're constantly picking up the phone and calling so many people a day, you're not going to build a successful business unless you go out and meet people every day, I personally don't believe that.

It may take me a little longer to build the same kind of business as a more aggressive marketer would, but that's my way of doing things.

So I wanted to get this out there for people who think like I do, because those are the team members I want on my team. If you like going out and pushing the business using more aggressive marketing tactics, that's cool.

But if you like using online marketing methods more and as your primary source of marketing, then those are the people I want to talk to because I can teach them easily how to do what I do.

Duplication - It's Not That Hard

What I do is not difficult. In fact, I haven't mentioned my business once in this whole video. I don't need to. If people like me and trust me and they want to know more about what I do, there are links below the video, and they can follow those and go to my blog and see what I'm about, check out other YouTube videos.

What I teach is duplication. And I also want to market in a way that is not in-your-face, money-money-money, because if you do what you love, people will join you because they'll find out it's not that difficult.

No, you're not going to make $1000 in your first 24 hours unless you're super aggressive and you get 50,000 leads and they all sign up and they all stay with it.

But the kind of people that I want on my team are not people who are going to go, 'Oh, gee, I didn't get my $500 in the first 24 hours so I'm going to jump ship and go somewhere else.'

And I think a lot of the online marketing today is geared towards the lazy, fast people who don't want to work. They don't want to actually have to do something. They want everything on autopilot. They want things that are 'done for you.'

Well, what are you going to do for yourself? You're not promoting or branding yourself. You're promoting a system. You're promoting a program that has nothing to do with your personality and how you work the business.

Digital Marketing Agency

 Online business has hit an all-time high globally, as major and minor companies are creating their own websites and trying to cater to the Internet public. Marketing online is vastly different from offline marketing as the rules and regulations of attracting consumers differ hugely. This is where a digital marketing agency comes in and ensures that online marketing, from creation of websites to ensuring that they excel in search engine rankings, is available to clients as a whole package. Without the help of a digital marketing agency, it is not possible for companies to enter the online market and emerge successful.

The primary benefit of hiring a digital marketing agency is that these agencies are experienced and understand the online world of marketing. Since there are major differences between the online world and the offline world of marketing, gathering professional help for the better performance of a website is highly recommended. Digital marketing agencies have experts on their board who understand what a particular client website contains and how it can be marketed digitally. From keyword heavy content to social media marketing, all options are available and it is up to these agencies to implement these options as per their understanding.

Search engine optimization is the biggest benefit of hiring a digital marketing agency. Marketing online serves no purpose unless people regularly visit a company's website and go through its features and products. Competition in the online market today is mostly about securing high rankings in search engines. Securing high rankings in search engines automatically translates to popularity of the website as well as increase in consumer awareness. A digital marketing agency is well aware of all this and hence can be trusted with the responsibility to increase a website's search engine rankings. They know how to go about it and whether they should take a content related approach or publicize the site via social media, is up to them.

A digital marketing agency also understand that in today's age of flashy and tech-heavy websites, a company can never achieve the desired search engine rankings unless is website is up to the mark. A digital marketing agency also often acts as a web designing organization and designs the websites for its clients. It knows that depending on the content, how a website is to be designed so that what people are looking for in the site can be easily found. From the home page to the page dealing with the features of the company's products to the page about the history of the company, all are available on the website. It is up to the digital marketing agency to put together these pieces in a manner that will be appealing to regular and new visitors of the website.

Since constant presence on the social media is highly necessary for a company to be successful in online marketing today, an internet marketing company ensures that they are able to provide full social media marketing strategies. It is important not only to have Facebook or Twitter pages for companies but also ensure that those are active. Sharing regular links to the company's website and its new products, features and news are a must for every digital marketing agency. They also encourage active interaction between people and the company via social media pages. This helps the company understand their consumers and what the consumers look forward to from the company. Automatically, this gives the company a great chance to improve its search engine rankings.

For companies which are beginning their innings new in the online marketing world, it is highly beneficial to hire a digital marketing agency with proper experience. In that case, it is the company which will have all the experience and will be able to guide the client on how to improve search engine rankings. Clients can give the content and the layout of the website, but it is up to the digital marketing agency to make a site that will ensure that proper consumers are drawn to the site. Digital marketing agencies come across all sorts of clients and they know how the success of a website is achieved. So being dependent on them is actually beneficial for a company, especially the ones who have just begun.