Profitable Email Marketing Strategy

A Profitable Email Marketing Strategy That Authors Can Bank On

Internet marketing covers a lot of different areas. From website design to search engine optimization, online marketing is necessary to have a successful business on the internet. One of the most important aspects of it is having a solid email marketing strategy.

Perhaps you are already doing some email marketing. If so, then you are far ahead of all of the businesses who don’t do it. Whether you do it now or not, and no matter to what degree you are doing it, having an effective email marketing strategy is absolutely vital to your business reaching its full profit potential.

Email is one of the most basic things computer users use on a regular basis. This means even if they don’t do much else, they at least know how to check their email. To be sure, there are a lot of people that get connected just so they can send and receive email. Being able to tap into that is key to internet marketing.

What makes a profitable email marketing strategy? In short, it’s getting people to agree to receive messages from you on a regular basis. The reason that this is so important is that it gives you a captive audience to market to repeatedly. The people on your email list don’t have to remember to visit your website to check if you are running a special offer. Nope. All they need to do is see your message waiting for them in their in-box.

At the very least, you should get the email address of everybody that buys from you online; just make it a part of the purchase process. Current customers tend to make up the most responsive lists for future mailings. They have already bought from you, so they are more likely to buy from you again, assuming you have met their expectations.

However, you know as well as anybody that not all visitors to your site are going to buy something. In fact, it’s safe to say that the vast majority of them won’t buy anything at all when they visit your page. That’s just the way the math works out. But does that mean you should just let them go and hope they come back in a buying mood some other time? Of course not! And that’s the other way an email marketing strategy can improve the bottom line of your business.

Give non-buyers a reason to sign up for your email list, too. (If at all possible, have a separate list for buyers and non-buyers.) Just because they weren’t ready to buy this time, doesn’t mean they won’t be ready the next time you send out a mailing to them.

Finally, remember that every mailing you send out should provide value of some kind. You can send out informational pieces that relate to your product, or you can send out sales pieces. But offering value is absolutely necessary to having an effective email marketing strategy.

6 Winning Keys To Business To Business Email Marketing

There are a lot of myths about online marketing. Now a few misconceptions may not matter all that much if they were harmless, but when it comes to your money, then it’s always better to be well-informed.

Some of the worst, most damaging myths out there revolve around business to business email marketing. With that in mind, here are some things you should be aware of before running your next email campaign.

For successful business to business email marketing, you need to know your customer, get to the point of your campaign, remember who the message is for, ask for their business, don’t be tricky to get them to open your email and track your result.

Let’s look at these 6 tips in more detail for business to business email marketing

1. Know your customer. The more you know about your customer, the better. What are their problems? What are their current solutions? How can you help them? What do you know about their business?

All of these questions need to be answered before you send a company an email message. First, you need to make sure they are a good customer for your offer. Second, it shows respect and they will appreciate that you know something about who they are.

2. Get to the point. Imagine you are meeting with your prospective customer at their place of business. You may start with a bit of small talk, but you wouldn’t linger on it. In other words, you can start your business to business email marketing with a friendly tone, but you also have to stick with a no-nonsense approach at the same time.

3. Remember who the message is for. Yes, you are sending out the email to generate profits for your own business, but the message it contains is for the person receiving it. In other words, you have to be very clear about how your offer benefits them.

4. Ask for their business. One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to business to business email marketing is not being bold enough in closing the deal. You don’t have the benefit of making your presentation in a face-to-face setting, so you need to be clear and direct in what you want the reader of your message to do.

5. Don’t use trickery to get them to open your email. Sure, you may get them to open your message, but you will have done so through dishonesty. That will kill the sale before you ever get a chance to present your offer. You also need to bear in mind that there is a fine line between being clever and being deceitful; make sure you don’t cross it.

6. Track results. When doing business to business email marketing you should keep track of and measure everything you can. When you sent out each message, to whom, what the subject line was, the body of the email, open rates, click-through rates, how many previous messages you have sent, and so on.

You can use any and all of this data to refine your sales message and improve your results over time.

In today’s world, mastering the art and science of business to business email marketing is one of the most important keys to success. It’s relatively inexpensive, especially when compared to traditional forms of advertising, and it can give you a very robust return on your investment.

Use the above 6 tips to have more success with your business to business email marketing

 

4 Ways To Build Your Reader’s Trust Quickly

Building Reader’s Trust

The quickest way to build reader’s trust is to be transparent. Offer great value with your products and services and have a consistent communication channel, usually by email, to allow readers to get to know and like you. The more your expertise shines, the more you can build reader trust.

While some businesses have developed many barriers and protections to keep their e-mail accounts spam-free, authors should encourange treaders to subscribe to their emails that promotes their products, services and their site.

Why are authors different. Firstly they are in the business to customers (B2C) arena which requires a bit more intimacy than business to busiess (B2B) field. Business relationships tend to more professional, some might think stiff.

B2C relationships tend to want to know more about what author sites are offering and what can be beneficial for them. They expect to get be kept posted on what they are interested in and what are new in the market or field they have chosen. Authors are good at uploading new books.

Sometimes books are not enticing enough though. They need a little show through clever marketing. Giveaways are ver attractive to B2C readers.

To maintain these kinds of customers; the basic element needed by authors to get reader’s trust. When your customers trust you they will reward you with their loyalty.

Many reader list owners have gone to great lengths in protecting their email accounts from spam mail.

Some free-mail internet providers and internet service providers offer spam protection while there are also some internet based companies that screen your mails for you.

With an opt-in mail list, the mails you send containing your promotional materials such as newsletters, catalogs and marketing media will go through.

Your intended recipient will be able to read and view what you have sent making it a successful transfer of information. The key here is that the reader has opted-in.

This is the basis of permission based marketing. A reader gives an author permission for them to be emailed by the author because they’ve completed the opt-in form. They want to hear from the author. They like the content they email because it’s valuable.

To build a good opt-in list you need people to trust you, for a faster and quicker build up, you need to get your opt-in subscribers to trust you quickly.

The faster you build your opt-in list the faster word about your site and company gets to be spread. The bigger the scope of your opt-in list the more traffic you get, spelling more profits.

4 Ways To Build Your Reader’s Trust

Give your best content away free

Getting the trust of your clientele shouldn’t be so hard especially if you do have a lvalue giving author business.

Getting your customers trust should be based upon your expertise. Readers rely on authors who know what they are talking about.

Garner all the knowledge and information about your writing and giveaway your best content.

While some people subscribe to the notion you should charge for your best content, I follow leaders like Neil Patel and Gary Vaynerchuk and subscribe to the ‘give your best content away FREE’ stance.

Be Knowledgeable

Show (don’t tell)  your clients that you know what you are talking about. Provide them with helpful hints and guidelines that pertain to what you are selling.

Talk about what makes a good crime fiction book if you are a crime author. Show readers what characteristics make good characters in romance books.

You don’t have to be a big time author to make use of an opt-in list. If your customers see you as someone who knows what he is doing and saying, they will trust you quickly.

The best thing you can do is to start immediately to build your list. Don’t wait until you hit the ‘big time.

Provide a money back guarantee or book returns

Be customer centric. Not everybody will love your product or service. That’s natural. Provide guarantees. Don’t hesitate. Give the refund immediately.

The more satisfied customers you get, the bigger probability there is that they will recommend you.

Generally, people will trust someone they know, when that someone recommends you then you’re a shoo-in.

They will go to your site and check it for themselves and be given a chance to experience what the others have experienced from you, so make sure to be consistent in the service you provide.

Opt-Out Option

Another tip in getting a customer to trust you quickly is to provide them an escape hatch. In fact it’s mandatory to have an ‘unsubscribe’ button in your emails.

Show them that you are not there to trap them. Keep a clean list that would enable them to unsubscribe anytime they want. Provide information on how to unsubscribe from the list.

Guarantee them that they can let go of the service when ever they want to. Many are wary that they may be stuck for life and would have to abandon their email accounts when they get pestered with spam.

 Conclusion

The  quickest way to gain the trust of your subscribers is when you are recommended by someone they trust. Trust builds your reader list. Trust builds your author business.

Trust builds your profits. There’s just one more thing to build trust; do it quickly.

4 Crucial ‘Must Do’s’ To Build Your Reader Tribe

As an authors the most crucial thing you must do is to have your own reader tribe.

Having an author tribe is the best asset , besides your books, that you’ll own.

Building your reader tribe requires consistent effort over a long period. The list should be bought organically, inviting readers to join your mailings. You should never buy a list. This is one of the quickest ways to be labelled a spammer.

Let’s explore the 4 most crucial ways to build your reader tribe.

 Create A Greate Opt-In Form

Put up a opt-in form in your site. Place it also throughout your content or blog articles. Visitors don’t always come in via your home page. They may find you via a blog article.

A good form for subscribing to an opt-in list is not hard to do. Just write a simple short statement about how they would like to see more and get updated about the site.

Then there should be an area where they could put in their names and e-mail address. This web form will automatically save and send you the data’s inputted. As more people sign in, your list will be growing.

Turbo Charge Your Opt-In – Build A Lead Magnet

Giveaway valuable content in exchange for their email address to grow your reader tribe.. This can take the form of:

• a free book
• a free report
• a checklist
• templates
• free call
• video course

Valuable Products And Services

Provide good service and products. A return customer is more likely to bring in more business. Even then and now, a satisfied customer will recommend a business always.

Word of mouth and recommendations alone can rake in more business than an expensive ad. As your clientele roster grows so shall your list. With more members on the list, the more people will get to know about what you have new to offer.

Maintain A Clean List

Keep a clean and private list. Never lose the trust your customers have entrusted you. If you provide e-mails to others and they get spammed, many will probably unsubscribe to you.

Remember, a good reputation will drive in more traffic and subscribers as well as strengthen the loyalty of your customers.

BONUS Tip – Giveaways To Grow Your Reader Tribe

This is in addition to your initial giveaway. It could be in the form of a monthly giveaway like free signed books, eReaders, Amazon gift cards, Starbucks coffee vouchers and so on.

I use King Sumo to facilitate all my giveaways.

But Wait There’s More – Quizzes

Quizzes are fun. Most people like to play a quizz, but it must be short and offer good value.

A great quizz to use on your site leads readers to give you key valuable information that allows you to better serve them. In turn they receive specific content related to what they want.

The Last Bonus Tip – Reader Swap Lists

Get together with mutual authors within the same genre and offer to promote each others content to their respective lists. This is a great way to grow your tribe.

3 Email Marketing Mistakes For Authors To Avoid

When you decide to have an opt-in list, it is not just a matter of sending your subscribers your promotional newsletters or catalogs.

There are many things to consider in avoiding many complications. While there are so many ways you can make people subscribe to your list, there are also some things you must do to avoid subscribers from wanting to get off from your list.

Simply to have a thriving email reader list, don’t spam, don’t always be hard selling and don’t send non valuable content. Lets look at these ‘no no’s’ a little deeper.

Don’t Spam

Aavoid any problems with the law and your internet service provider or ISP. There are now many laws and rules that are applied to help protect the privacy of the internet users from spamming and unwanted mails.

With the popularity of the electronic mail as a medium for marketing because of the low cost, many authors have seized the opportunity and have flooded many readers e-mail accounts with promotional mail. Bad move. You almost surely will get reported.

An author opt-in list  can overcome this annoyance because people subscribe to a list because they want to receive the newsletters and promotional materials.

They have consented to being on the list by subscribing themselves, just don’t forget to put an unsubscribe feature everytime in your opt-in list so that you avoid any confusion. Sometimes an email account is provided not by the real owner and didn’t want your information.

Maintain A Clean List

It is essential that you keep your list clean and manageable. Arrange it by using the many tools and technologies available for your opt-in list.

A clean email reader list will increase your deliverability and improve your bounce rates. Opt-outs will also be low. In turn your email service provider will reward you for adopting such strategies.

Do not worry; your investment in this marketing strategy is well worth it with all the coverage you will get which will likely be converted into sales then to profit.

Keep yourself and your business out of trouble and potential run-ins with the law and the internet service providers. Keep your operation legit and clean.

Your reputation as a legitimate author and a legitimate site depends on your being a straight and true marketing strategist.

Here are three things to avoid when emailing your reader list.

Watch your bounce rate

Take notice of your unsuccessful sends. These are the e-mails that bounce. Bounced emails, also known as undeliverable messages. They are messages that, for whatever reason, were not successfully received by the intended recipient. There are a couple of reasons as to why this can occur.

There are bounces that happen or occur because the server was busy at that time but can still be delivered in another time.

There are also bounces because the inbox of the recipient is full at that time.

There are those bounce messages that are simply undeliverable ever. The reason for this is that it may be an invalid email address, a misspelled email address, or an email address that was abandoned and erased already.

Manage your list by putting markings on those that bounce. Erase an email account from your list so that you have an accurate statistics and records as to how many are actually receiving your mail. You may also want to check the spellings of your email addresses in your list.

Unsubscribe Link

Always provide an unsubscribe feature in your site and an unsubscribe link in your emails. When someone in your list files a request to be unsubscribed, always take that request seriously. If you don’t take them off your list and keep sending them your e-mails, you are now sending them spam mail.

When you are reported as a spammer, you and your business can get into a lot of trouble. You can be reported to the authorities and maybe blacklisted by many internet service providers. You will lose a lot of subscribers this way and many more in potential subscribers.

No unwanted material

Do not provide pornographic or shocking and disturbing content in your newsletters. It is hard to decipher the age of the recipient and many complaints may stem from these. Controversial issues also are to be avoided to not be branded by your subscribers. Stick to the nature of your site and business.

BONUS – Deliverabilty frequency

There’s no right or wrong answer. The frequency of when you deliver your content to your readers depends on what that list wants.avoid sending to your reader list

Sometimes it might only be once a month. Other readers like weekly updates. And there are those who love daily emails. These tend to be business minded people (authors build an author business) rather than casual fiction readers.

Conclusion

If you keep your list as a platform where good value content is delivered, you’ll not only maintain a good reader list but grow it as well.

Don’t always be sending sales material. Add value to your reader’s life.

Don’t be a spammer. Ensure that members of your list actually subscribed to be on that list. If they unsubscribe, DO IT! No ifs or buts. Don’t try to hang them in; just let them go.

Never send offensive material. List list is not about you. It’s about your readers. Give them what they want.

Adopt these simple tips and you’ll have a thriving author opt-in list.

3 Fast Ways To Build A Profitable Author Opt-In List

The Author Opt-In List

You finally realize that you need a good author opt-in list. After reading countless articles and sought expert advices and have read many success stories of people creating a small fortune with opt-in lists you finally decide to have one of your own.

Then it happens, you think you have known everything there is to know about opt-in lists and have followed their advices to the T and you still weren’t able to make a profit.

Author Opt-In Lists Yhat Fail

In fact, you may be losing money. You maybe hiring writers to help you out, or there are some expenses incurred, even if you have a big list, but only a very small percentage actually buys from you, your still losing profit. You’ll realize this after a few months when you see your statistics and sales figures. How can you fix this?

So what could have gone wrong? Why have other authors succeeded where you have failed?

The most common mistake is that you dived straight right in.

No plan is your first problem. You chose a topic where you think could be quite popular and would earn you money.  This just not the case. Just because you wrote to people from the list doesn’t mean they are going to buy instantly.

You didn’t do any research, in particular keyword research.

Keyword Research

Discovering what people are searching for is crucial for any business including your author business. Your business needs to be built around what people ACTUALLY want; not what you THINK they want.

I use two easy and free methods to discover what people are searching for.

a) Ubersuggest.com
A great free tool from Neil Patel that allows you to enter a keyword or keyword phrase into the search box and the top 100 choices appear including the volume of searches and their long form additions.

eg Author branding
How to build an author brand
Author branding for beginners

While long tail variations may have less volume, you will have an easier path to rank for these terms over the major keyword phrase you originally entered. Add these long tail phrases together and you’ll end up with considerable search volume. This is a great way to add to your author opt-in list.

b) Alphabet Soup Method

Simply go to the search bar on Google and type in your keyword; lets use author branding again.

Then after the term add the letter ‘a’.

A drop down list of the current search terms will appear. eg author branding article, author branding agency, author branding affiliate and so on. Usually about 6 or 7 suggestions drop down.

Do this for every letter in the alphabet. eg ‘b’ might show up author branding book, author branding best methods and so on.

By using the alphabet method you’ll usually create around 150 red hot, currently searched terms on Google. Boom!

A successful opt-in list requires preparation and planning. You must target who will be on your list, offer the right product or service THEY want and continue to serve that list as it grows.

Here I will offer more advice, for those who have started an opt-in list and have failed, you can rejuvenate your failed venture. For those who are starting, here are three quick and easy ways to build a profitable opt-in list.

3 Quick Ways For An Author Opt-In List

1) Get your customers to trust you and your products first. Just launching your opt-in list would not make you an expert and a believable selling author.

Put out many articles first before you start an opt-in list. Write about the topic you know and have started and used for your site. Use forums first to gain knowledge about your customers, about their wants and needs and target those wants and needs.

Join forums from other sites as well. Provide expert advice and recommendations. Build up your goodwill first, then you will be able to start your own opt-in list. You can build a base as well with other forum users. You can ask them to join your list. Friends are always good customers. Put up a link in your signature box to your site so that they may be able to see what you’re business is all about.

The fact is the money will only come in when the consumers and subscribers believe and trust in you. They want a product or service that could be a good exchange for their money. People are not going to buy something out of your recommendation if they don’t know you.

2) Find a product or service or build your own that people want and need. Although it may not be your forte, if you provide a service and product that you have researched and learned about well, you can develop moving forward. Invest your time, effort and money in what readers really want, not what you think they may want.

Do your research well and you will see the profits come in. Also provide your subscribers with promotional material that they could actually use and refer to others.

3) Make friends with other opt-in list users. This is basically beneficial especially if it is someone who has already launched a successful opt-in list.  Engaging with your readers so they can like, know and trust you will build your author opt-in list and make it financially rewarding.

Experienced opt-in list users adopt the high engagement method. This doesn’t mean always selling something to your list. Build trust and the sales will follow.

Building a profitable opt-in list don’t just happen overnight. There is much preparation and effort to do. Author opt-in lists are built from scratch, as your list grows, you should also maintain the quality of your list. Keep it organized and manageable. Get or hire help if need be, just make sure that your subscribers are happy and satisfied and they will be willing to buy from you.

Conclusion

Having an author opt-in list  is crucial if you want a financially successful author business. It allows you to build trust with your readers through engaging content. Give them exactly what they need. Add value to their reading experience.

Savvy author know to not always be selling. Give great content to your readers and sprinkle in a call to action for them to buy every now and then.

Continue to grow your list. It’s the greatest asset  (besides your books) that an author will own. And remember you only ‘rent’ followers from social media channels. They own the followers and not you. Build your own author opt-in list!