After you build up a substantial number of subscribers you will notice that many of them don’t open your messages. Once you verify that the emails are being delivered to their IN box and not the SPAM folder, you need a strategy to get that open rate up.

If you see a noticeable decline after a particular email gets delivered, open that message and see what it’s doing that may be turning your readers off.

Split test some subject lines, improve your from field and be sure you’re offering content that’s worth your reader’s time and attention.

After all that, you may want to design a recapture program to see if a targeted effort can improve your open rates.

Stephan Webster at  iMedia Connection  has published a step-by-step guide for planning and executing a recapture program. In his article, you’ll discover:

“One of the most cost-effective email marketing programs is outreach targeted to recapture the interest of disengaged subscribers. These are customers who subscribed to your email list but lost interest, and stopped opening or clicking your emails. They’re still on your list and receive email, but they’re no longer purchasing from you.”

And he revels his “Recapture program recipe” including how to:

1. Define “inactive subscribers”
2. Establish baseline statistics of their email (email service provider) and site (web analytics) behavior
   1. Click and open rates
   2. Conversion rate
   3. Revenue per mailing
3. Generate an email list of inactive customers
4. Send recapture offer email
5. Measure response
6. Feed results back, repeat

If you’ve got a substantial number of subscribers who aren’t even opening your emails any more, hop on over to: iMediaConnection and plan a recapture program PDQ!

Email marketing, like any other business process, requires that you make a plan, gather the resources and implement. Then you go back and evaluate, make changes and re-evaluate.
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Part of your plan must be how often you send emails and with what type of content. To begin implementing your plan you’ll formulate an opt-in strategy and produce the initial content.
As you execute, remember one of marketing’s cardinal rules: “Don’t Be Boring”.
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If you haven’t opted-in to my list to get the “Email Marketing Wizardry Guide”, now would be a good time to do that (New Flash to your right). The guide gives you “5 Fun Ways To Engage People Via Email”.
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Or you can follow Seth Godin’s list of how to get people to read your blog (edited by me for email):
• Be topical… write emails that need to be read right now.
• Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
• Break news.
• Be timeless… write emails that will be readable in a year.
• Be among the first with a great email on your topic,
then encourage others to comment on the same topic.
• Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
• Announce news.
• Write short, pithy emails (sometimes).
• Encourage your readers to pass it on (forward to a friend links)
• Don’t write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids – unless that’s what your business is about.
• Write long, definitive emails (sometimes).
• Write about your kids, your pets and your spouse – as they relate to business.
• Be sycophantic. Share resources.
• Include polls, images meters and other eye candy.
• Coin a term or two.
• Do email interviews with the well-known in your market.
• Answer your email.
• Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
• Encourage your readers to subscribe.
• Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
• Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
• Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
• Highlight your best emails on other blogs.
• Point to useful but little-known resources.
• Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current readers–like gadgets and news.
• Have relevant ads (on the blog) that are even better than your content.
• Run no ads (in your emails).
• Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
• Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
• Invent a whole new kind of interaction.
• Mail on weekdays, because there are more readers.
• Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don’t bore your readers.
• Post on weekends, because there are fewer new emails.
• Don’t interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
• Dress your emails and blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting.
• Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
• Don’t promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader’s attention.
• Be patient.
• Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
• Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
• Write in English.
• Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
• Don’t be boring.
• Write stuff that people want to read and share.
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Remember too, that while the backbone of your program can be set up on an autoresponder like: timely, relevant broadcast emails will need to be part of your plan. Make someone on your team responsible for monitoring news and producing email content that’s applicable to your market.
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Next – upping the value of FREE email, for you and your readers
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As I’ve discussed before, there are 3 elements to training your contacts to respond to your messages: Content, Frequency and Value.
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You set the tone of the relationship with your sign-up procedure. .
If you’ve offered quality content relevant to their concerns, they’ve had a positive first impression and will (often) keep opening and reading your emails – as long as you remain consistent in your frequency and the value you provide.
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Email marketing operates under the same principles you’ve learned in personal and business relationships: You’ve got to give before you get. Maybe you’ve heard BNI say “Givers Gain” or as the Golden Rule “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.
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Online, we encounter two types of marketers: the givers and the greedy. Long term success belongs to the givers but, you’ve got to know when to ask for a response. This is why many email marketing programs favor the short intro paragraph with the read more link to a blog post.
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Just be sure following the link gets the reader what you promised – great free content relevant to their interests. After they consume that, they’ll take a look around and that’s where you may “Get”.
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Next up: Frequency – be there for your subscribers without devoting your life to sending emails.
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Rules for Email Marketing Succes

Your open rate, once you’ve avoided the SPAM folder and being edited out via the FROM field, is won or lost at the SUBJECT line.

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Just like an ad’s headline, the email subject line’s job is to get the reader to take a look at the next line. With email it’s even harder because they must click on the subject line and open the email before you can hook them into reading.

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One technique novices and pros alike use is copying or swiping proven headlines from direct marketing campaigns of the past. I’ve got a free report that includes over 100 of these headlines, just enter your email and confirm the request and you’ll have a swipe file of headlines to edit and use.

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Another proven method is to refer to news events – celebrity news works particularly well in most markets.

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And giving valuable content, relevant to your readers, for permission to email them later is a winner too.

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But, every market is different and the best way to get your subscribers opening your emails is to know them and talk to them like a trusted friend. This requires testing, tracking and studying your results.

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As a side note, take a look at what your email looks like in several of the most popular email readers. See where your subject line gets cut off and what portion of your message header appears. Be sure you’re taking advantage of this space to get your subscribers opening and reading your messages.

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Next up: Training your readers to respond, or not.

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The start of a new year is always a good time to review what we’ve done in the past and make some changes. If you’ve been lax with your email marketing, now is the time to make a plan for 2010 and get busy implementing it.

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Your  #1 resolution has got to be “DO IT” and do it consistently.

Put the process of brainstorming ideas, researching, writing, editing and sending emails to your prospect and client bases on your daily/weekly/monthly schedules.

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Close behind is learning what your list responds to. Schedule reports and take time to analyze your key metrics. Look at:

• The open rate.

They can’t respond to any of the content id they don’t open your email. The critical elements for getting your emails opened include:

• Time of delivery:

Many people find an early morning delivery during the mid-week is the most effective but your market may be different. Resend the same email to those who don’t open it at a different time and day and see how that affects your open rate.

• From or Sender Field:

Numerous studies have revealed the critical importance of the from field. Many receipients (you, perhaps?) edit their IN box first based on who the email is from.

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Make sure you have clearly identified your emails as from a trusted friend and you’ll get opened, at least initially. Congruency between the list they signed up for and the FROM they see will also help avoid SPAM reports. If you’re gathering names from written forms or online sign-ups, let them know what the from field will say when they get an email.

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And third, the Headline or Subject Line.

This is a more involved subject so we’ll cover subject lines in the next post.

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If you’d like to be notified when the headline post is live, please subscribe to our RSS feed (upper right) and/or our email list, also to your right.

Questions about email marketing? Post a comment and I’ll respond!

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I know it’s predictable but it’s so appealing to use the start of a new calendar year to vow to make improvements, so here goes!

In  :

I’m gonna send more emails.

• Add more emails to my AR sequence and
• Send more broadcast emails too.

I’m gonna survey my list and find out what they want this year.

I’m gonna try some new ways to attract more prospects to my email lists:

• Pay-per-Click
• Social Media contests
• Better enticements to join my lists.
  • How about my new Email Marketing Wizardry Guide over to your right?

Generally, I intend to participate in conversations with more people via email (and social media) this year.

What about you?

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Sign-up for my Email Marketing list and see if I follow thru on my intentions!

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As you may of guessed – I love to read.

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So I’ve decided to add book comments and reviews.

Ones I find helpful in figuring out not just marketing and the internet but life in general too.

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I’m starting with one I plan to read ASAP;

Have you already read The Drunkards Walk? I’d love to read your comments.

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My daughter read us parts of it over Christmas and it proved thought provoking and disturbing. Maybe even makes “common sense” obsolete.

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I’ll update this as I read through it – I’m going to Kindle this one since I doubt the graphics are integral to the stories.

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Jan wk 1: Yes, I got it on my Kindle. The problem is that whenever I take it out to read in public, someone invariably asks me about the Kindle. I’ve taken to looking unapproachable while reading so I actually get some reading done!
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Jan wk 2: I know a lot more about the history of mathematics now and a bit about how we misunderstand probability. I think this will really help me make better decisions.
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Jan wk 3: My husband still won’t admit that Marilyn was right – he’s in good company!
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You know you’ve got a product or service the world needs – you just need to find your 1,000 raving fans, right?

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With the millions (billions?) searching Google everyday, you figure there must be a thousand or so who would jump at the chance to be on your list… you just have to find them and lure them in.

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One by one at networking events and from referrals is going to take a lifetime so why not try paying Google (or Yahoo or MSN/Bing) to send a few your way?

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If you’ve used AdWords you know just how powerful – and dangerous – pay-per-click advertising can be.

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So, while I don’t recommend small business people use it regularly without a lot of time to monitor it and learn how to make it pay, you can build a targeted subscriber list with a focused PPC campaign.

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Step 1 – for anyone new to PPC (or who’s tried and failed on their own):

Get Perry Marshall’s Google AdWords “Bible” (yes that’s my affiliate link)

If you don’t have $50 to invest in this resource, don’t even consider messing with AdWords (Yahoo and Bing are less risky but offer less rewards).

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Step 2 – Clearly define your objective and define what a successful campaign will look like.

How much is a new prospect worth to you?

How much time and money are you willing to invest in each subscriber?

Establish a calendar and interim goals.

Add the time to set-up and monitor the PPC account to your schedule or hire someone to do it for you (a good one will save you more than their fee).

The key to a successful list building campaign is the pre-planning.

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Once you have some objectives, figure out what you can offer prospects for their email and contact information.

You’ll want something that appeals to a wide audience but specific enough to get your target market. It needs to be your best stuff. It’s good if it’s hard or time consuming to find online. If it solves a problem for your prospects you’ve got a winner.

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How do you figure out what they need? Ask them.

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Send your PPC traffic to a survey and reward them generously for their input.

Building a targeted responsive list of prospects is the start of all the most successful businesses and private practices.

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There’s no better time to start using email in your marketing efforts than… NOW

Before you can worry about which style works best for your list or when’s the best time to email your prospects, you have to just get started

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But once you’ve got a few messages in your AutoResponder series and a few people on your list, it’s time to get tweeking your program.

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Aweber provides the best tools for measuring the responses you’re getting. You can see who when and even where your readers are and which links they felt compelled to click on.

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Not sure what they want now? Run a survey and let your readers tell you.

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Based on the measures and surveys, you can modify and improve your email auto-responder series which will lead to more sales and more profits.

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So, you got into the IN box and got their attention – congrats!

Getting the click thru

But what you do now that they’re looking at your lovingly written email determines if it’s all worth it or not.

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There are two schools of thought on email content.

One says the click thru to a “money page” is the only way to make it pay off.

The other says providing relevant content in the email builds loyalty and trust and that is what leads to long-term success.

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Both work – you gotta find which one works for your list.

Yeap, back to the old split test.

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But when in doubt, or when you’re just starting an email list, I’d say opt for the content rich approach. Give them enough to make opening your next email worth their while.

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Then add a freebie sweetener after serving the main dish.

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Wanna Marketing With Lee freebie?

Click on the “Free Reports” tab above and just ask!

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