e-mail marketing

I’ve read some articles recently that claim that free downloads don’t work anymore to get email addresses from visitors. I’ve just seen proof positive that those people are wrong.

Again, I reference Roelofs Remodeling because it is such a fresh example. As part of his online marketing campaign, I created a series of ebooks for Roelofs. He gave me the planning questionnaire he usually goes over with potential customers to help them narrow down what they really want for their remodel.

Using it as a model, I contracted Lisa Drew of Lyrical Biz to create a series of impressive looking ebooks that people could download by simply giving their name and email address.

Boy, there is just no limit to how important anchor links and anchor tags are. I could write an entire article on the importance of anchor tags but for now, let’s just go over some of the essentials so you begin using them

I’ll bet your first question is, “What the heck is an anchor tag?” And your second question is, “what’s so damned important about anchor tags?” I’ll tell you right now. Anchor tags can be used for several things:

This one is really a no-brainer. Every day you hear about security breaches and stolen information. Kinda makes people leery about giving you anything these days. Even just an email address.

So if you have a privacy policy on your website, at least those who are nervous about giving out their name and email address to get your boffo e-book or fabulous white paper have a place to learn about what you are doing with their information. And it’s just good “cover yer butt” policy.

I am working on a website right now for a gentleman who owns a remodeling business. Most of his clients are pretty high-end. And he doesn’t see the need for having a privacy policy. Yet he wants people to give him their email address and name in exchange for an e-book of forms and advice for planning their renovation.

#1 Make sure someone proofreads your copy.

There’s nothing more distracting than misspelled words in your copy. And nothing says “I do sloppy work” more than bad spelling or bad editing. The first thing your reader will think is, “What kind of job would this person do on my projects?”

#2 Don’t overwhelm or underwhelm your readers.

I don’t know how many people have told me that nothing bothers them more than getting on someone’s email list and then getting something from them every week! However, the inverse can be just as bad. If you send your eNewsletter or eZine out too infrequently or sporadically, people won’t remember you and delete or unsubscribe your newsletter. Monthly is pretty much the standard.

If you send out email newsletters or even just emails to business associates or clients, the last thing you want is for your email to wind up in the junk file, sight unseen. To prevent that from happening, you need to know a little about how spam filters work.

How spam filters work
Spam filters get more sophisticated every day. However, they haven’t reached the level we would call “expert”. For that reason, they operate pretty much the same way a human does who needs to do a job but hasn’t developed his or her own expertise.