Internet Marketing Techniques To Use

My last entry was about Internet marketing techniques to avoid so this one is about the opposite, things you should do. Email marketing isn't a great way to get new contacts or clients, however it is an excellent way to build and maintain relationships with clients/contacts you already have. Building a solid list of contacts involves adding suggestions to your printed marketing materials for people to register to receive some kind of valuable information from you via email. Everything you print should have something on it about receiving more information via email and ask readers to sign up on your website (this gets visitors to your site and also makes it easy for readers to sign up). After you get people on your contact list the following techniques will help maximize the return you receive through your email marketing efforts.

Track Where New Sign-ups Come From - The more you know about someone on your list the better you can target messages to them. People are more likely to open, read, and take action on something they have an interest in.

Segment Your List - Break the list up into groups based on interest so you can target people with specific messages based on their interest

Analyze Statistics Data - If you use a professional email marketing system and you should be, they track all kinds of data from who opened an email to what links they clicked on within that email. Make sure you look at this information and use it to target clients, figure out whether or not bad contacts are in your database and remove them, or to quickly notice problems getting through spam filtering systems at companies (multiple contacts at the same organization bounce).

Keep Emails Short - The shorter and easier to read your information is the better. People use email because it's quick and easy so your message should be quick and easy. Don't put too much information in an email or you risk it being deleted. Sometimes you might get some opens in your analytics that are actually useless because the recipient opened the email but immediately deleted it because the message was too long, not very well organized, or of no interest to them. I usually like to keep all emails in the 3 to 5 paragraph range. Providing links at the end of each paragraph to additional information on your website is better then posting an entire article or explanation within the email.

Don't Over-use Graphics & Pictures - I try to only put up a header graphic, and 2 to 4 small pics inserted into text or in a column on the left or right hand side of the main body of the email. Make sure the email size is small to prevent getting flagged as spam and to also make it easier for recipients to open the email (some people have their anti-virus and adware filters set up to scan emails so if you send a huge email it will take a long time for them to open it and they may decide to delete it instead of waiting).

Use The Spam Checker - All professional emailing software has a spam checker that will analyze your message and rate it on a scale of 1 to 5 or something similar of how likely it is to be flagged as spam.

Email marketing techniques are ever-changing so it's important to keep up on the latest best practices. Email marketing will never stay the same so don't get comfortable with current practices while ignoring new trends and changes. Adapting the techinques above and keeping up on new trends will maximize the value of your emailing investments and campaigns.