Email Marketing

The “Secret” to 173 Sign-ups in 30 days

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Safelists don’t work.

I have heard this more than a few times.

When I posted my monthly safelist stats a few days ago I mentioned that I had received 173 new subscribers last month from all of the safelists and viral list builders that I use.  One of my readers found that hard to believe.

“Tell me how on earth did you ever recruit 173 people in one month on Safelists. You must have sent the Mafia out after them. In ten years I don’t think I got five. And of those only one ever did anything. What’s your secret?”

While I share most of this information freely and with more detail in my book Safelist Marketing Tactics I thought a quick summary of how I promote with safelists would be helpful.

1. I email every day.  Every day!  Or at least as often as I can.

2. I read other emails to earn credits… every day!

3. I use a lot of safelists.  Probably way too many.

4. I only use credit-based safelists.

5. I track my ads.  This tells me exactly which safelists are working for me and which ones are a waste of time.

6. I upgrade at the best safelists.

7. I promote something targeted to safelist users.  It probably doesn’t get more targeted than my ebook about safelist marketing.

8. I use eye-catching subjects.  I’ve studied what subjects other marketers use and I have tested dozens of my own to find out which emails get opened more often.

9. I personalize my emails.  I use the [FIRST_NAME] macro whenever it is available and try to include the name of the safelist in the body of the email.

10. I write short emails.  The goal is to just make them curious before they look at my site.

11. I promote unique splash/squeeze pages that I either made myself or had made for me.  Promoting a generic affiliate page is the best way to be ignored.

12. I use personal branding.  If someone sees my face long enough they may start to think I actually know what I am talking about.

13. I use autoplaying videos on some of my ads.  Why?  Because they work.

14. I use a rotator to show a variety of ads.  This is good for testing and can help you to keep your ads fresh.

If you are not using a rotator or link tracker you can get those at TE Toolbox.

As you can see there is no one “secret” to how I got 173 sign-ups last month using safelists and viral list builders.  It’s just a bunch of little things that add up over time.

There’s probably a bunch of other things I could be doing to improve my results more.  Anybody got some tips and tricks they want to share?  C’mon.. no secrets!

 Safelist Marketing Tactics
Click here to receive a free copy of Safelist Marketing Tactics

Sending HTML Emails in Aweber

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This had been bugging me for a long time.  I finally figured it out and thought it was worthy of a blog post.

When sending emails with Aweber you are presented with two boxes where you can put your email… one for html and one for text.  For years I have been just been using the text email option figuring that text emails are going to be the most accessible to the most number of people.

Aweber has a neat feature for tracking the number of times the links in your emails are clicked.  The problem with this is that it turns all your links into these big ugly tracker links that nobody wants to click.  I also like to include a signature in my emails with links to this site and my Twitter so those end up getting converted too.  But if you send html emails you can fix this!

Here’s how you do it…

From within the Aweber html editor highlight your URLs and click the “link” icon at the top of the editor.  Then paste your URL in the “Link Text” and “URL” boxes and click “Apply”.  This will tell Aweber that your URL is a link and it will also display it correctly when you turn the link tracker on.

For about a week I switched and started sending html emails instead of text emails.  The stats were great.  I could even split test and find out which headlines got the most people to open my emails.  However, sending only html emails boosted the spam detector up to 2.7 because apparently spammers are known for sending a lot of html emails with just an image and a link.  Not horrible, but not great either.

I finally found the solution in of all places… on the Aweber site!

It seems that the trick is to create your email in the html editor first and then copy and paste that email into the text editor.  You don’t have to worry about people receiving the same email twice.  Aweber will send both the html and text emails but the end user will only see the version that their email program supports.

So there you go.  Now you can send out your Aweber emails with all the fancy tracking features, your links won’t look like crap, and you can assure that your emails are being delivered to the maximum number of people.

Avoid These Common Email Marketing Mistakes

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Email marketing can be one of the most effective ways to promote your Internet business. It can be a little tricky though if you don’t know what you’re doing so it is very easy to make some common when you are first starting out. This can be very frustrating as it can cost you a lot of money while not generating any sales. Here’s a few common email marketing mistakes you should be aware of when starting your next campaign. Following these simple steps will make your marketing strategies much more effective.

Your readers always want to feel like they are a real person and not just a statistic to you. This is why it is important that you take the time to address each email you send personally. You will get a much better response if you avoid starting your emails with something like “Dear Customer”. Also, try not to use dollar signs in your emails. It can be a real turn off to your readers who might look at it as if you are only interested in getting their money.

Remember, you readers probably don’t have a lot of patience! Your email should jump out at them as soon as they open it. Put the most enticing information at the beginning with the rest of the details later on. They are much more likely to read your entire email message if you are able to get their attention right at the beginning. Also, each reader is going to be different. That includes their computer setup as well as the kind of email program that they are using. Don’t assume that every email send will be receive through the same email service you are using. You should test the receipt of your email on several popular email services to make sure it displays the way you want it to.

Confidentiality is also a very important issue to your readers. Always make sure that your email sign-up form contains a disclaimer that clearly states that you will not abuse their email address in any way. You will be amazed by how many people won’t sign up for an email promotion if this bit of information isn’t given to them. There are many rules and regulations out there regarding what can and can’t be done when it comes to email marketing. Make sure you are familiar with these rules before you start your next campaign. The often vary by country so if you are doing a global marketing campaign be sure to check the regulations for each area you are sending to. Failure to do this can lead to huge fines for your business.

Never make the mistake of thinking that you know what your readers want. If you really want to know then take the time to ask them. Be open to comments and suggestions that they give you. Letting them know that you are available to answer their questions or concerns is a great way to earn the loyalty of your readers. It is often very easy to sell something to someone but it is much harder to make them happy enough that they will come back and buy from you over and over again.

You don’t want a mailing list full of unhappy subscribers. The law requires you to provide a link where your readers can easily unsubscribe from your list. While you want to do everything possible to keep them reading your emails it is also important that you respect their wishes and remove them from your list if they choose to opt-out. They will become very frustrated if they keep receiving emails from you after they have asked to be removed from your list.

Email marketing can be extremely beneficial for your business if you remember to keep these common mistakes from becoming a part of your marketing plan.