Mastering Email Marketing

Affiliate marketers depend upon having their marketing emails opened, read, and acted upon. Unless those three things happen, the affiliate marketer will pretty much be out of the affiliate marketing business.

If you are formatted your email correctly and it is readable in all email programs, then you just need to be certain that you have done everything possible to encourage the recipients to:

Open the email: The subject line is one of the two determining factors of whether an email is in fact opened or sent unopened and unread to the deleted mail file of the recipient. The first factor is who the email is from. Since the recipient opted into your list, it is fair to assume that they want to get email from you. The second factor is the subject line.

Most autoresponders allow 50 character long subject lines. Only the first 25 or less have any real value. You must use those 25 words to entice the recipient into opening the email to see what you have to say.

Personalize the email in the subject line. Your autoreponder will allow you to do this. "John, you can save money and get a free gift!" is much more effective than just, "You can save money and get a free gift!" So first, personalize your subject line.

The word, "free" has been maligned but don't believe everything you hear. People like free. Everybody likes free....poor people, middle class people and maybe especially rich people.

There are other words that have proven to be effective in subject lines as well. Ease or easy, magic or magical, are some of them. You must use some mystery and some tease in your subject line, in order to get the recipients to open them.

Read the email: Once the recipient has been convinced to open the marketing email from you, the next trick is to get them to read what you have to say. The problem is that most computer users do not in fact READ anything. They SCAN. So it is up to you to get them to actually slow down and really read what you have to say.

The email must be interesting. If you can start with a story....and I'm not talking about a novel...I'm talking about a two line story, you can get their attention. "Bill thought of himself as a loser until he tried our product." This is a story.

You must include bullet points in order to make your marketing email easy to read. You don't ever want to include large blocks of text. Short simple bulleted points that list the advantages that your product can provide will make it easy for the recipients to see the important facts as a glance.

Act on the email: Once you have convinced the recipients to open and read your marketing email, the next step is to get them to actually act on your suggestions you have made, (i.e. buy what you are selling).

The first thing you need to do is to make the link for ordering your product or service easy to see. Remember to never word-wrap links. All email programs don't deliver email with word wrapped links. All the recipient will see is the word...the link will not be included.

The second thing to do is to either make the offer for a specific limited time (midnight on Thursday, November 30th) and not just say "limited time" or to limit the offer to a specific number of people (this offer is limited to the first 200 applicants) and not just limited space is available.

Common Mistakes People Make when Writing Promo Emails:
There are at least as many ways to do a promotional email wrong as there are ways to get it right. One of the first mistakes that affiliate marketers make when writing their promo emails is that they...

Lose sight of the objective: The ONLY objective of a marketing email is to sell the product or service that you are promoting to the members of your opt-in list. Every word of the email needs to be directed at realizing that one objective.

See their list as email addresses: An opt-in list is much more than a list of names and email addresses. It is a list of people! Real, live, human people are what make up your opt-in list. You must market your product or service to humans and not email addresses.

Fail to provide themselves with the right tools for the job: If you are painting a room, you need paintbrushes, paint rollers, drop cloths, etc. If you are send promotional emails, you need the right tools for the job, as well.

Use weak and ineffective subject lines: Most auto responders allow you to use up to 50 characters in a subject line. The first 25 of those characters are what stands between the marketer and an email that actually opened and read. (The second 25 should be left on the table.) If marketing emails are deleted without being read, they are totally useless. Writing powerful, attention-getting subject lines that inspire recipients to open your marketing emails is an ability that needs to be developed to a high degree of expertise.

Effective subject lines are short, to the point, have a tease quality and never promise more than what will be delivered in the attached marketing email.

Use all capital letters: The use of all capital letters in any kind of email is the equivalent of shouting or yelling at a person that you are having a real world conversation with. It is rude and completely unproductive. Don't yell at the members of your opt-in list. All capital letters do not draw attention nor convey excitement.

Use a lot of exclamation points: One exclamation point at the end of a sentence means that the sentence is an exclamatory one. Multiple exclamation points at the end of a sentence are another form of yelling and they do not denote added excitement. They are taking up valuable space in your marketing email and maybe even irritating the recipients.

Never use bullet points: It is a known fact that people don't read marketing emails word for word. People scan marketing emails. Marketing emails need to be easy to SCAN. The use of bullet points makes it easy for recipients to easily identify the important information that is contained in the email. You should always use bullet points for the main points that you are making in your marketing email.

Make their emails too long: Marketing emails should be short. They shouldn't have a scroll bar and they should only be 300 to 400 words long. They should never contain large blocks of text. It won't be read.

Fail to use the P.S. line effectively: The P.S. line(s) of a marketing email appear last but they are as important as the first word of a marketing email. The P.S. line needs to be used to hit the most important aspect of the email again or as a tease for an upcoming email.

Email marketing is a critical element for any successful internet marketing. Take time to learn these specific tips and they will pay you back 100 fold!