Copy contact list from Microsoft Outlook (2003 or 2007) to Gmail Account:

1. Go to your Microsoft Outlook, open File>Import and Export.

2. Select “Export to a file” and click “Next”.

3. Choose “Comma-separated values (Windows)” and click “Next”.

4. Locate your contact list and click “Next”.

5. Assign a name to the file and save it. The file will be saved in .csv extension.

6. Now log in to your Gmail.

7. Click the “Contacts” on the left pane and subsequently select “Import” at the top right corner.

8. Click browse to locate the .csv file that you saved earlier.

9. You can click “Import” to start importing your contact. Of course you can add these imported contacts to a new group and you can name the group as well.

10. Once the importing process is completed, you will be indicated with the number of contacts added, merged or ignored if there were duplicates.

Copy contact list from Gmail Account to Microsoft Outlook (2003 or 2007):

1. Go to Gmail contact page, click to the “Export” at the top right corner.

2. Choose the list of contact that you want to export. Check the item “Outlook’s CSV format (for importing into Outlook or other application).

3. Click the “Export” button. The exported file will be named as “contact.csv” automatically. Click the “Save” button to save the file.

4. Now go back to your Outlook. Go to File>Import and Export>Import from another program or file. Click “Next” to proceed.

5. Choose “Comma-separated values (Windows)” and click “Next”.

6. Browse for the file created from Gmail. At the prompted Windows, you will be given options to deal with the duplicate entries. You can allow duplicates, replace duplicates , or do not import duplicates.

7. Click “Next” to proceed. Choose the destination folder, e.g. Contacts under Personal Folders for your account, verify the action, and click Finish to complete the whole exercise.

Source: http://www.mydigitallife.info/

There are a just a few simple steps. First, you’ll need to decide on the FROM and the TO email addresses. If the FROM address that you’re choosing isn’t a real one, make sure that the domain name (the bit after the @ sign) is a real one. If it’s not a real one, it almost certainly won’t work.

For the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll be sending from bush@whitehouse.gov to dummy@anysite.com.

Second, you’ll need to find out the mail server that your recipient is using.

	Click Start, Run, enter “CMD”, then presss OK. In the window that comes up, type nslookup -q=MX anysite.com
	Go to Applications, Utilities, and choose Terminal. In the window that comes up, type nslookup -q=MX anysite.com
	Bring up your favourite shell, and type nslookup -q=MX anysite.com

There will be a lot of information on the screen – all you need to look for is a line that talks about a mail exchanger. If there are several, pick the one with the lowest “preference number”.

anysite.com        MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail.anysite.com

Now, you’ll need to connect to this mail exchanger using telnet. This is the same for any PC, but Vista users may not have it installed by default. When you’re ready, type:

telnet mail.anysite.com 25

Press enter, and after a short pause, you should see a welcome message from the server.

Ok, so now you’re connected. You need to enter the following information – press ENTER at each new line. You won’t be able to press backspace to delete a mistake, so you’ll need to type everything correctly first time!

HELO whitehouse.gov

This tells the mail server that we are “whitehouse.gov”.

MAIL FROM:

This tells the server who is sending the mail.

RCPT TO:

This tells the server who to deliver the mail to. At this point, if the recipient doesn’t exist, you may see a warning message (but not always).

DATA

Hello dummy@anysite, I managed to send a fake mail all by myself!.

Dont forget that last dot. When you’ve done that, and pressed enter, simply enter QUIT and your mail should be delivered.

There’s a little bit more to it, of course. You’ll need to enter proper “headers” if you want the mail to look more believable. After doing the DATA command, I’d recommend pasting in the following “headers” to make sure it looks realistic when viewed in Outlook, Hotmail, etc.

Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007 12:49:13 +0100 (BST)From: George W Bush To: Poor Sod Subject: Fake mail

Hello dummy@anysite, I managed to send a fake mail all by myself!.

And that’s all there is to it.

Source: http://www.hungry-hackers.com/

In this post I’ll be sharing 10 tips you can use to tame your email. You’ll learn how to handle your domain email with Gmail, organize your incoming messages, process your inbox in batches, communicate quickly and manage the contacts effectively.

1. Handle your domain email with Gmail

One of the best things about owning your own domain is that you get to have an email address like me@mydomain.com. Unfortunately, most email clients that come with your hosting account look and function like they were released in 1999.

It’s actually possible to send and receive emails via your me@mydomain.com address through Gmail, and the process for doing so is quite simple.

1. Create a Gmail account for your site.
2. Head to your current client and forward all your incoming email to the Gmail account.
3. In your Gmail account, go to Settings –> Accounts. Under ’send mail as’, click ‘Add another email address’. Enter the details for your me@mydomain.com account.
4. Complete the verification process.
5. Make your me@mydomain.com address you default for ’send mail as’.
6. And you’re done.

2. Create useful labels and folders to keep you organized

Not every email is as urgent as the next, though it can be difficult to keep track of those you need to answer quickly. Develop a labeling system that helps you get things done. Tag your most important emails with ‘Reply ASAP’, or an equivalent. Less urgent tasks can be marked ‘To Do’, while the least urgent ones can be tagged with ‘Later’.

I also think it’s important to archive as many emails as you can. If you’re using Gmail, it’s not like you run the risk of running out of space, and it’s worth it in case you need to retrieve details or contact someone again in future.

To make retrieving emails easier I’d suggest removing immediate action tags like ‘To Do’ and replacing them with tags for the purposes of archiving (when you’re done with the email). If it’s correspondence with another blogger, tag it ‘Networking’ and archive it. If it’s to do with guest-posting, tag it ‘Guest-Posting’, and so on.

3. Process emails in batches

A simple way to increase your productivity is to turn off auto notifiers. It’s simply not necessary to check email constantly throughout the day, and doing so will regularly interrupt more important tasks. After receiving thousands of emails I can safely say that I’ve never received one that couldn’t wait 12 hours or so.

Process your inbox in batches. Make it once or twice a day, and try to get your inbox down to zero. This will allow you to plow through the rest of your productive tasks without constant interruption.

4. Read it, answer it

Many people have the habit of reading all the emails before actually replying to them. Sometimes they might even wait a couple of hours before getting back to these previously read emails.

This method is ineffective for several reasons. First of all you might forget about some emails altogether. Once they are marked as “read” on your inbox, they will get mixed with all the others that you have already replied to.

Secondly, this process will also consume more time, since you will probably need to read each email a second time before remembering what you will need to say in the reply.

What would be a better approach? Simple, whenever you read an email, answer to it right away.

5. Keep it short

This benefits you and the person on the receiving end of your email, particularly if that person is busy like you.

• Cut out unnecessary words and sentences.
• Address the essential: not everything warrants a response.
• Use paragraphs liberally. It’s easier to read, and makes your email more approachable.

6. Keep it sweet

• Greet the correspondent by name.
• Use a smiley if appropriate.
• Sign-off with your name. It can change the tone of your email, and only takes a second or two.

7. Re-read once

You can go back and edit typos in a blog post or article, but you only get one chance with emails. It’s important that your meaning and expression is clear, especially when making pitches or networking with other people.

Also, remember that spell checking is not enough. Typos and mistakes that form other valid words (e.g., lose and loose) will not be corrected by the spell checker. Proofreading is key.

8. Build an address-book for networking

• Add other bloggers.
• Add people you have worked with.
• Add people who have skills you might need.
• Add people you might be able to call a favor from.
• Add social bookmarking friends and power-users.

9. Use bridging emails

I’d like to meet one web user who hasn’t spent time composing a thoughtful email, only to have it completely and utterly ignored. In most cases, the receiver has a good excuse, but that doesn’t change the way we feel (mainly because we never heard said excuse!).

In other cases, someone you’ve emailed might eventually get back to you, but only a few weeks after you categorized them as a snob who ignores their emails and pledged never to visit their blog again.

A quick and simply solution to ensure people never feel this way about you is to use a bridging email for queries and requests you won’t be able to answer for a while. Send them a sentence saying you’ve received and read their email, but don’t have the time to answer at the moment. If you know when you might be able to answer, provide a broad timeframe. A few days? A few weeks? A few months?

Taking a few seconds to acknowledge their email can mean the difference between leaving a positive or a negative impression, even if you never find the time to answer. Readers appreciate that you’re busy. The main thing is that they don’t feel completely ignored.

10. Create a dedicated signature

Make sure that your signature contains functional links. It might be a link to your blog, website, or online portfolio.

Blog readers are so used of having their emails ignored by busy A-list bloggers that they’ll half expect you to do the same. Proving them wrong with a polite response can leave them delighted and feeling very positive about you. Your signature should effectively capitalize on this positive feeling.

Source: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/

They say that if your web site has a bad opening headline you’ll loose over 50% of your visitors in the first few seconds after they arrive at your home page. Headlines are the most important part of a web page, but what constitutes a good headline?

In today’s article I’m going to list the top 12 best direct response headlines ever created. How do I know these are the top 12 headlines ever? Simple. I read this article. I’ve written quite a few headlines over the last few years. Some worked and some didn’t. The headlines below have sold hundreds of millions of dollars of products over the last 50 years, and best of all you can adapt each of these headlines to suit your own business.

1. “They laughed when I sat down at the piano – but when I started to play!”

This is *the* most popular headline of all time. It has been used in direct marketing to sell millions of dollars worth of products, but what is it about this headline that makes people keep reading?

I think it’s the anticipation. As a reader you ask yourself “well, what happened when he sat down at the piano? Did they like what he played? What song did he play?”. This makes you want to keep reading to see exactly what “they” did when “he” started to play the piano.

Can you use anticipation to build curiosity in your headline?

2. They grinned when the waiter spoke to me in French – but their laughter changed to amazement at my reply.

Again, the use of anticipation. “What was her reply?” you ask yourself. “If they didn’t think she could speak French, then what country was she from?”. When I see this headline I picture a group of mature aged women sitting around at a fancy restaurant with a waiter by the side of the lady who replied in French.

How can you use visual imagery to create a killer headline for your web site?

3. Do you make these mistakes in English?

When I was writing our most recent newsletter I decided to give this headline a try. “Do You Make These Mistakes When Attracting New Clients?” is the headline I chose. The headline is followed by a paragraph about our web master secrets email course.

I think when you see this headline you immediately ask yourself “What mistakes is he talking about? What if they are costing me and my business money?”

This headline is easy to flip and use for business. Can you flip it?

4. Can You Spot These 10 Decorating Sins?

Similar to headline #3, this headline provokes thoughts of embarrassment. Obviously this headline would’ve been used in craft magazines targeted to female homemakers, but what you do you think the inner monologue of a reader would have been when she saw this headline?

“Decorating sins? I’ve spent so much time decorating the family home. I hope I haven’t committed any of these decorating sins. Let me read on just to make sure.”

What “sins” might your potential customers be committing? Can you use this headline on your web site or in an article?

5. How a “fool stunt” made me a star salesman

The “How” headline pulls really well because it sounds more like the introduction to a story rather than a headline. People love reading stories and when I see a headline like this I say to myself “Hmmm, a story. I don’t really like salesmen but I wonder what the stunt was that made him a star”.

How can you use the “How” headline to make your ad or web page sound like a story? Being a PHP developer, I might use it like this: “How crashing a web server made me a star web developer”.

6. How a strange accident saved me from baldness

The same as headline #5. I think to myself “How can an accident save this guy from going bald? Is he crazy? This sounds like an interesting read, let me skim over the article”.

7. Who else wants a screen star figure?

The “who else wants” headline implies the theory of social proof. “Who else” means that other people already have what’s in question (in this case it’s a “star figure”). This headline also implies that just by reading the content of the article, you too can have a star figure. This gives the copywriter plenty of time to “warm you up” in the body of the article so that you’re ready for the sales pitch a few paragraphs after the headline.

Make this your next headline: Who else wants [insert the benefit of your product here]?

8. Who else wants a lighter cake – in half the mixing time?

The same as #7 with a clear benefit – half the mixing time. Implies social proof and if that doesn’t work the benefit acts as backup.

9. Free to brides – $2 to others

Headlines with “free” in the title don’t really work anymore, but you could flip this headline in another way. This headline is strictly targeted to brides, making them sound in a class of their own, as opposed to “others” who have to pay $2 for whatever the article is promising the bride for free.

10. Free to high school teachers – $6 to others

The exact same format as headline #9. Use this headline and just plug in words relating to your industry:

[Low price] to [your target audience] – [High price] to others

11. Announcing the new Ford cars for (year)

“Announcing” is an authoritative word and immediately removes the visitor’s skepticism that the headline could be for an advertisement. “New” also piques the interest of a lot of people as in most cultures it’s generally acknowledged that the people with the newest [product] are trendsetting individuals and not followers.

12. Are You Ashamed of Smells In Your Home?

This is a binary response headline. You either answer yes or no. If you answer yes, then the headline gets your attention and you continue reading. The trick with this type of headline is to make it a question that the majority of your readers will answer yes to.

Which question will the majority of your web site visitors answer “yes” to?

Conclusion

You’ve just read my thoughts on 12 of the top 101 headlines of all time. Next time you’re adding a page to your web site or writing an article, why don’t you try incorporating one of the headlines mentioned above? You never know which one will trigger your customers into a buying frenzy

By Mitchell Harper
http://www.interspire.com

According to a recent MarketingSherpa.com survey, 40% of email marketers said testing changes to just their subject line had a high impact on their return on investment (ROI). 45% said subject line changes accounted for a medium ROI and only 15% said that testing changes to their subject line results in a low ROI.

For every email you send you’ve got room for no more than 50 characters in your subject line, and today I’m going to share with you 10 tips that we use to increase the open rates of our email campaigns.

1. Test the subject line – Take a look at email campaigns you’ve sent in the past. Which subject lines worked the best and gave you the highest open and conversion rates? You might find that for a particular topic there’s a general trend or subject style that resulted in higher open rates.

2. The subject of importance – Try and put as much important and relevant information into your subject lines as possible. For example, if you’re sending out an email about a special offer make sure the product name and details on the offer appear in the subject line in a clear and concise format such as “$40 off ACME Widget Until – Today Only”.

3. Personalize the subject line – If you have details about your subscribers then use them in your subject line to get their attention. A subject line containing the subscribers first name ALWAYS out pulls one that doesn’t.
   

4. Avoid spam keywords – Most email servers automatically filter out any emails that contain spam keywords in their subject line – Words such as free, stock, ebay, password, mortgage, etc all trigger spam detection software so keep them out of your subject lines at all times.
   

5. Trigger curiosity – The best way to improve your open rates is to pique the interest of your subscribers. A compelling headline that entices them to open and read the contents of your email can do wonders for your conversion rate. I’ve been thinking about headlines that trigger curiosity, and if you can work this one into your email campaign I’d like to hear the response rate: “Hi [First Name] – I have a question for you.”.
   

6. Make the offer clear – If you’re making a special offer to your subscriber then be upfront and include it as part of your subject line. People love bargains and special offers so let them know about it before anything else.
   

7. Emphasize the benefits – We use this technique for our newsletters. We always use the format of “Interspire Newsletter – [Benefit]“. In our case, benefit is always the title of an article contained in the newsletter, such as “Interspire Newsletter – 10 Tips for Better Subject Lines”. It works every time
   

8. Copy what works – Why not take some of these and use them in the subject line of your next email campaign?
   

9. Easy identification – Make sure your subscribers know the email is coming from you. Deceptive subject lines can confuse people so always try and including your company name in the subject line. Also, make sure you set the “From” attribute of your email to include your name and your companies name, such as “From: John Smith <john@acme.com>”.
   

10. Exclaim nothing – Avoid using excessive punctuation at the end of your subject lines. Google bans punctuation from AdWords ad’s for a reason – too much hype can annoy and confuse people.

Well there you have it – 10 tips for better subject lines in your next email marketing campaign. If you have any tips you’d like to share feel free to post a comment below.

Is your domain’s IP address blacklisted?
The first thing you should check if you feel there’s something suspicious about your deliverability rates is your domain’s IP address against spam black list databases.

These databases store the I.P address of domains that have been known to spam. ISP’s and email administrators can use this data to block further emails being sent from that domain. In some cases, someone may have used your IP address to send out spam emails, or your emails may have been reported as spam even though they weren’t.

If you’re unsure what your domain’s IP address is, simply open up a command prompt in windows (start menu -> run -> cmd.exe) and type in ping www.domain.com. You should see something like this:

Pinging www.domain.com [203.213.97.61] with 32 bytes of data:

Your IP address is contained inside the brackets (in this case the IP address is 203.213.97.61).

Once you’ve obtained your IP address you can start checking it against the different black list databases. I’ve supplied some of the more popular ones below:

http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml

http://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/

http://www.mail-abuse.com/cgi-bin/lookup

http://www.spambag.org/query.html

You can find a more comprehensive list by clicking on the link below:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Abuse/Spam/Blacklists/

If you’re IP address isn’t found on any of the lists, then great. If it is you can try to contact your ISP and find out if you can get a new IP address. You can also try contacting the owner of the blacklist site to get your IP address removed from their database.

Watch your attachments
Many people don’t realize that the type of attachment you send with your email can cause different spam filters to block your email and even go so far as reporting your I.P to a black list database.

You should avoid using script or any type of attachment besides PDF. Many corporate mailboxes as well as virus filters block attachments that end in .exe, .avi, .swf, .zip, etc.

Make sure your server is configured for reverse DNS lookup
Reverse DNS lookup, originally designed as a network troubleshooting tool, has become an import tool in the fight against spam. When an Internet mail server receives an email it receives an “SMTP” greeting. This SMTP greeting is how the 2 servers communicate with each other when sending and receiving emails.

In this SMTP greeting, the sending server identifies itself as mail.domain.com with an IP address of 10.1.1.1 (for example). The receiving server can now do a reverse DNS lookup, to see if the IP address actually matches the domain name. A lot of spam servers won’t match and so the receiving server can mark this as one failed test on a list of many to indicate if the email is indeed spam or not.

Most reputable hosting companies should already have this configured, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. If your server is not configured for reverse DNS lookup, then be very wary of sending legitimate bulk email from that server.

Don’t send bulk emails using the BCC field
Some of us using our favorite email client (such as Microsoft Outlook) tend to send mass emails using the BCC field. That’s okay if you’re forwarding something of interest to your friends or co-workers, but don’t ever do this when sending your newsletters.

Using a BCC field is another trigger for spam filters that you want to stay away from. Instead, your email program should send just one email to one subscriber at a. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking it’s a good idea to send your newsletter to 200 subscribers using the “CC” and “BCC” fields.

Keep your lists as clean as possible
Honor all unsubscribe requests (your email marketing software should generate an unsubscribe link for all emails you send) and process bounced emails frequently. Sending to email addresses that have bounced repeatedly can result in a blacklisted IP address. You want to make sure that each bulk email you send does go out to legitimate, working email addresses.

You should also make sure your abuse@ and postmaster@ emails are valid and working. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has recommended these email addresses for complaint spam reporting and you may receive emails from users or ISP’s if they have a complaint or spam report about your mailings.

Let your subscribers know when your emails are coming
If you offer a subscription to your newsletter from your web site then tell each and every subscriber exactly when to expect your newsletter. For example:

“We send our newsletter once a month, usually around the 20^th, so make sure you keep an eye out for our next issue!”

Also, if someone has subscribed for your newsletter and only your newsletter, don’t go sending them special offers and other unrelated emails unless you’ve told them to expect to receive them. For example:

“When you join our mailing list we may occasionally send you special offers for our products and services, but don’t worry – every email includes an unsubscribe link if you change your mind.”

Use double opt-in lists
I’ve mentioned this in my previous article but once again to make your mailing list as clean as possible always use double opt-in strategies. That is, when someone signs up they should receive an email which contains a link they must click to verify that they do indeed want to be on your mailing list. This stops illegitimate email addresses from being added to your mailing list.

Let subscribers update their details
If I switch jobs or change my email address, I should be able to come to your web site and change my newsletter subscription from me@oldjob.com to me@newjob.com using a simple “modify details” form. By allowing your subscribers to do this, you reduce the number of bounced emails and keep your subscribers active much longer.

Conclusion
Improving email deliverability is one of the toughest tasks for any email marketer. While this list is by no means complete it can dramatically help to improve your email deliverability and hopefully your click thru rate and bottom line. Until next time, best of luck in your e-marketing efforts!

He sees a form on your site asking if he’d like more detailed information, and so he fills in his name and email address. Within seconds an email is sent to John with a short summary of the benefits offered by your book and a couple of useful tips he can use right away.

A few days later, John receives another email that goes something like this:

“Hey John, I know you’re quite busy, especially with the holiday period coming to an end, but I just wanted to get in touch with you to let you know we’ve got a special coming up for that ‘How to win at poker’ handbook you’ve always wanted.”

John’s forgotten that he’d been looking to buy a book like this and this email reminds him that he needs to improve his game. John adds buying the handbook to his “To Do” list and goes about his daily business.

Another few days later, John receives another email; again, reminding him that the special is about to end alongside another juicy tip that’s in the book. John realizes he doesn’t have much time now, and goes off to purchase your “How to win at poker” handbook.

Every email sent to John was automated. You didn’t have to wait for him to subscribe, you didn’t have to personally address John, nor did you have to send him an email every few days.

The example above shows how a series of auto responder emails can be used as a powerful “hands off” marketing tool for your web site.

Now, take a few minutes and think to yourself, “How can I use auto responders on my web site?”

No, seriously. Stop and think. This simple exercise could easily add another stream of revenue to your web site that you didn’t know existed.

But I don’t sell anything online!
Auto responders can work for ANY business. You don’t need to be selling something online for them to work. For example, let’s pretend you have a hair styling business. You cater towards young men looking for a modern, attractive hair style. Part of your service includes helping them select a hair style that greatly enhances their facial features and gets them the compliments they’re after from the ladies.

On your website, you setup a simple form, something like: “Guys, get the hair style that’ll get you noticed. Free email report shows you how.”

Once John’s filled in the form, he gets an email with a summary of tips about the type of hair style suited for men with different features. It also mentions that you’re an expert in this field and your salon regularly helps men go from dud to stud in less than an hour.

A few days later, John receives yet another tip — this time on how washing his hair with a different shampoo can lead to different results. John starts to see how much of an expert you are, but also how much he’d rather just pay someone to take care of all this for him. He hasn’t got much time now since he’s started killing those poker sites. And so off he goes to call and make an appointment at your salon.

What else should I know?
The content in your auto responders need to be useful. Whilst including marketing hype purely about your product and services can work if there is a strong interest, you’ll usually need to provide relevant tips and information to keep your subscriber engaged and ready to pull out their wallet when need be.
You should opt to use autoresponder software that offers personalization, which includes the ability to address John by his first name, as that greatly increases response rates.

Finally, you should TEST your auto responders. Make sure they aren’t trapped by spam filters, make sure the subscribers are receiving the auto responders in the order they’re meant to be and so forth.

Armed with this new knowledge, you should be able to add an additional stream of revenue that could do some serious boosting to your profits. Some online businesses use this single marketing strategy as the sole way of getting new clients. They do this because it works!

Now, have you decided how you’re going to use auto responders for your business?

It is an inexpensive and very targeted means of promotion in comparison to television commercials and advertising in print publications. At the same time, newsletters are an effective and — unlike spamming — respected method of marketing.

The e-newsletter playing field is democratized in the sense that both small and large businesses can both send effective, professional looking newsletters. Follow the steps outlined in this white paper to ensure that your e-newsletter is up to scratch and the best that it can be.

Why Choose an E-Newsletter?
Make sure you know what an e-newsletter is, and type of content belongs in it before you decide to choose one as a means of marketing.

Readers don’t want to see information in an e-newsletter that they can find on your website, so make sure your newsletter offers the reader a reason to read. Include current information and updates on your company or any future developments and projects that are being planned (give them a sneak preview), advertise discounts for new products just for subscribing and include articles relating to your field of expertise.

The “Personal” Touch
Effective newsletters should always contain a personal touch, mainly to appear in-touch with your reader and his/her needs.

It is important to let your personality dominate the newsletter so that it doesn’t present itself as yet another mediocre sales blur. Make sure you capture the first name of your reader so that you can address them by it. There’s nothing worse than getting a “Hi there” when you should really be getting a “Hi John”.

Create a feeling of community to let your readers know that their opinions and views really do count. Correspondingly, encourage readers to be an active member of yout community by allowing them to contribute with feedback on featured articles and even make contributions to your newsletter themselves.

It is imperative that you study who your target audience is. Find out what topics will interest your readers by placing surveys on your site or in your newsletters and follow up with related information in future editions. Encourage readers to send your newsletters to friends who may be interested by using a ’send this newsletter to a friend’ feature.

Your newsletter will attract people who possess similar demographics to your existing subscribers. It’s important to research and outline who your members are and what they want – regardless of whether your subscriber list is small or large – that way you can optimize your newsletter to be both useful and relevant to your audience.

Don’t Over-Do the Sales Pitch
E-newsletters are great resources for cross selling and up-selling your products and services, yet while most newsletters contain some advertising, be careful not to go overboard.

This becomes even more prominent if you plan to include third part advertisements. Readers almost certainly don’t subscribe to newsletters to receive what they will essentially consider as junk mail. If you over-do the advertising then your newsletter is no more than Spam, and the unsubscribe link is sure to ensue.

Look and Feel
It’s a good idea to extend your branding efforts to your newsletter. If customers associate your website with a good product or service and subscribed to your newsletter through your site, then it would be beneficial to keep your branding efforts prominent in your newsletters too.

For members that have not yet transacted with you, your newsletter is definitely a good way of subtly introducing them to your brand. Additionally, make sure your newsletter is easy to navigate and contains no broken links.

Present your information in small paragraphs with links to more information if necessary. That way, you can place more detailed information on your site and readers can click on the relevant links that catch their attention to read more.

Legitimate Email Marketing – the Respected Alternative
There are a few steps that you will need to follow to ensure your newsletter does not seem invasive. You need to accommodate for subscribers who are wary about receiving newsletters by providing them with an unsubscribe link.

Unsubscribe link - It’s important that your subscribers don’t feel like you’re making it difficult for them to unsubscribe. If you do hide your unsubscribe link or act evasively about presenting a clear unsubscribe link, then you are portraying yourself as sly and ambiguous – a good way to lose subscribers.

At the same time, you should ensure that the unsubscribe request is actually honored and the subscribers is taken off the list immediately.

Multiple lists - If your subscribers belong to different lists, it is important that you specify which list they belong to and make sure you do not email the same subscribers repeatedly about unrelated products.

It’s also important that you take the time to offer tailored e-newsletters to specific lists so that you present readers with more customized information. It’s important to remember that people sign up to for newsletter because of the value perception — more commonly known as “what’s in it for me?”.

If the information in your newsletter tries to cater to too many different subscriber lists then the line between being informative and junk mail becomes very blurred.

Conclusion

Most businesses have an e-newsletter — regardless of whether they are a one-person business or a large corporation. Unlike posted newsletters, print publications and other hard copy methods, e-newsletters add a lot more dimension to your marketing efforts, including cost-effectiveness, timely sending, dynamic design, content, presentation and easy feedback.

Newsletters help your company touch base with both existing and potential customers — they are not designed for long drawn out articles, but rather short, informative snippets of information that make some level of impact.

Sharpen your e-newsletter for your readers and make sure you keep optimizing it for both present and future subscribers by enhancing the sense of community and personalization. The positive difference that an effective newsletter can make, will do wonders for your business.

Introduction
Email marketing, as many of us know, can be a powerful, inexpensive method of reaching our most active potential or existing customers. It can boost not only our direct sales, but also our credibility and referrals.

One of the major benefits of email marketing is that email is free, but obviously this is the same reason why spam has become so popular and so frustrating. With spam comes spam filters and with spam filters comes the blocking of legitimate email.

In this article I’ll try and describe the basic steps that can help reduce the number of emails you send out that get blocked by spam filters — hopefully resulting in a more rewarding marketing effort.

The right selection of words
Many spam filters work by analyzing the email based on its content and the words used. Many words — such as free, sex and so forth — are very heavy spam trigger keywords. Your priority should be to avoid such words while keeping your newsletter as professional as possible.

Later in this article I will show you a technique that I use to help me detect words that could trigger spam filters that I may have missed.

Pay attention to your formatting
When formatting your email, keep it simple and professional. Excessive use of different colors, fonts, sizes, images and so forth will result in a higher spam filtering rate. Keep your email as clean as possible, and try to stick to a maximum of 2 or 3 different font types and sizes. Overly large sized fonts will surely add to an email being flagged as spam, as will too many images (or not enough text).

Try and use a short and simple stylesheet rather than using font tags excessively. Most spam filters don’t appreciate a multitude of font tags and inline formatting, and the more primitive filters can’t detect stylesheets so they will not penalize as easily.

Consistency is king
Use a template if you plan on sending newsletters consistently. This will make sure that all your newsletters look and feel the same. It will also add a touch of professionalism and branding to your newsletters.

Whilst not directly affecting spam filters, this will enable your readers to distinguish your newsletter instantly, thus not reporting it as spam accidentally. Some spam filters work by querying a spam server, whereas others report individual emails as spam. If your email gets reported as spam, then more than likely multiple spam filters will flag your email.

Being consistent with your timing of the newsletter also helps. For example, if you send a newsletter once per month (I personally don’t recommend you send out any more than this, unless you’ve got something really interesting to say), then aim to send it out at the same time, on the same day each month.

Once again, your potential readers will learn to expect your email, adding professionalism and often improving open rates, also reducing accidental spam flagging as well.

Always use Double Opt-in
Always make your mailing lists double opt-in. This means that when a user subscribes to your mailing list, they will be sent an email with a link that they must click on to confirm their subscription.

This is very important because many people can accidentally enter an incorrect email address, or even the email address of someone else on purpose. When that person receives a newsletter they did not subscribe to, they will assume they have been spammed, and your newsletter (and possibly your web server) will be reported as spam.

Unsubscribe and Contact Information
Every newsletter you send out should contain a way for the reader to unsubscribe. Not doing so is illegal in some countries and is an instant sign of spamming. You should also display your contact information (Phone, Fax and Address) clearly, as this greatly increases confidence in your email and your company, as well as conforms to spam laws in the United States. Contact information also allows a potential customer to contact you if need be.

Test,Test, Test
The key to avoiding spam filters is testing. The first method of testing I use is to send the newsletter to multiple email accounts with existing spam filters. For example, I have a Gmail (http://www.gmail.com) account and a Hotmail (http://www.hotmail.com) account that I make sure I send my newsletter to. If the newsletter ends up in the junk folder, then I’ve got some work to do.

I also have a couple of email accounts with different web hosts that have spam filters in place. In particular, they mostly use spam assassin — a popular piece of spam filtering software. Spam assassin is useful because every email that it flags as spam is given a report and a list of why that email was considered spam.

I also have a local spam filtering application called No Spam Today! for Workstations, that runs a local copy of spam assassin on my PC. It acts as a very close replica to the same software used on thousands of servers world-wide. By sending myself copies of the newsletter No Spam Today! — using the spam assassin checking techniques — gives me feedback as to why my email may have been flagged. If I’ve used words or formatting that I shouldn’t have, or if I’ve included too many images, etc.

Conclusion
Avoiding spam filters when sending out legitimate newsletters can be a time consuming effort. However, as your mailing list grows, it can also be a very beneficial exercise. I’ve watched open rates of just 2 to 3% soar to a massive 50% and over, simply by applying the techniques described in this article.

In conclusion, I hope that you’ve found the above tips useful and I wish you luck with your email marketing endeavors!

Introduction
As you may know, most people now spend more time reading their emails than they do surfing the web. Email is one of the most powerful mediums that you can use to talk to visitors, customers and prospects.

In this article I will discuss 15 best practices that you can use everyday in your email marketing activities. Used wisely and consistently, there’s no doubt you’ll see an increased response from your subscribers — whether it be for more feedback, more product/seminar registrations, or even more orders.

1. Avoiding the Spam Filters
The majority of large Internet service providers now use rigorous spam protection mechanisms to trap unsolicited email before it gets into their customers inboxes. Spam filters generally “rank” each email by a number of different criteria, and, if that email rates above a certain level (such as 10 spam points), then it is flagged as spam and deleted.

To make sure your emails don’t get flagged as spam — and deleted before they even get to your subscribers — avoid using words such as ‘Free’, ‘$$$’, ‘Save’, ‘Discount’, etc in both the subject line and the content of your email.

2. Maximizing Click-Thru Rates
Both web pages and emails can contain a lot of text and graphics, and this sometimes makes it harder to get your subscribers to perform a certain task, such as clicking on a link to see your special offers.

Numerous research papers tell us that the majority of Internet users respond better to a plain, bold, blue text link — such as this — as opposed to a banner or button. So, if you’re going to include links in your emails, make sure they are bold, blue and underlined. This will mean that more subscribers click through, meaning more conversions/sales for you.

3. The Power of Personalization
If you were standing in a crowded mall, which of these would get your attention: “HEY, YOU!” or “HEY JOHN” (assuming your name is John). The power of personalization can and should be used in your emails. In-fact, by simply starting your email with “Hi [subscriber_name]” instead of the boring “Hi there”, you can increase both your reading and click-thru rates by up to 650%. Why? Put simply, it’s because your subscribers feel like they already have a relationship with you as you’ve addressed them by their first name.

4. One-Click Unsubscription
If you want to grow your mailing list, then there are 2 things that you absolutely must have: a double opt-in process, and a quick way to unsubscribe. In some countries, it’s actually mandatory by law that every email has an unsubscribe link in it. The unsubscribe link should take the recipient directly to a page where they are then removed — courteously — from your mailing list.

5. Signup Confirmation
Don’t get accused of spamming — always, and I mean always use a double opt-in confirmation process. Double opt-in means that after your visitor initially enters their email address to subscribe to your list, you should then send them a “confirmation” email. This email should contain a special link back to your email-marketing program, which will then verify that this visitor did indeed sign up to your mailing list.

6. Tuesday / Wednesday = Increased Response
Studies conducted by online research analysts have shown that the best days to perform a mail-out to your list are Tuesday and Wednesday, as this is when people are more receptive to communication. This means that they are more likely to read your content and click on links, meaning more sales.

On Mondays, everyone is still recovering from a hectic weekend. On Thursday and Friday, people are already too busy looking forward to the weekend. We’ve actually experimented with this, and received the best results by sending out emails at around 2-3pm (American Pacific Time) on a Wednesday.

7. Repeat Email Communication
An auto responder is an email that is scheduled to be sent at a certain time interval after someone subscribes to your mailing list. Auto responders are a great way to automatically follow up with your subscribers or provide them with more information on your products/services.

For example, if you provide a free newsletter, you could setup 3 auto responders for new subscribers: the first is sent 1 hour after they subscribe. It contains a thank you message and a link to get 10% off your newly released eBook.

The second is sent 24 hours after they subscribe, telling them about your community message boards, and the third is sent 72 hours after they subscribe, in which you can offer them a special deal on becoming a paid member of your site.

Auto responders help your subscribers build trust in both your company and your brand, and this can help make it easier when trying to close sales in the future.

8. Consistency is the Key
If you’re running a newsletter or frequent email publication, make sure you keep the look and feel consistent from issue to issue. By keeping the look and feel consistent, you help to maintain and strengthen your brand and your image to your subscribers, which again will make it easier to close sales when you need to.

Create a template for your newsletter and whenever you need to create a new issue, use that template as the basis for each issue.

9. On Time, Every Time
When sending a regular email to your subscribers, always make sure that it’s sent on the same day, at the same time. For example, every Wednesday at 3pm. Your subscribers will come to “expect” your email to arrive in their inbox on the same day at the same time every week, meaning that they want to read your content and are generally more receptive to any special offers or promotions you may include.

10. The Half-a-Second Subject Line
When your email arrives in your subscriber’s inbox, you generally have about half a second to catch their attention with the subject line of your email. After this, they will either delete your email or ignore it. In your subject line, try and specify a benefit that the subscriber can expect by reading your email. For example, instead of using ‘OurSite Newsletter Issue #1′, use ‘OurSite Newsletter: 10 Tips for Financial Freedom’.

11. The Free Bonus Hook-In
Free is overused these days, especially on the Internet. However, if you’re looking to grow your subscriber list, then create or source a product of value to your visitors (such as an eBook or discount coupon) and offer it to them for free when they signup for your newsletter.

To make sure they don’t simply type any email address into your subscription form, setup an auto responder to send them the free bonus 1 hour after they subscribe to your newsletter.

12. The Preview Pane
Popular email clients such as MS Outlook show a preview of an email when it’s selected in your inbox. Always have some interesting content at the very top of your email, as this is the part that will show in the preview window of your subscribers email program. If it’s interesting enough, then your subscriber will open your email and continue on reading.

13. Link-Click Testing
When creating marketing emails, try using different text for both content and links. Also try re-positioning images such as logos and buttons. After sending about 3 different emails, compare the click-thru stats and see which one worked best. Now, when you need to send marketing emails in the future, you know that you will be sending the right mix of content and images that will attract the most click-thrus, and ultimately the most sales.

14. Email-Based Learning
Add value to your website, build trust in your visitors, establish your credibility and collect more subscriptions to your mailing list by setting up an email-based learning course. To do this, simply create a series of auto responders (for example, 5) containing unique content. Then, schedule the first one to be sent after 24 hours, the second after 48 hours, etc.

15. Always Sign on the Dotted Line
Always include a signature at the bottom of your emails, as it’s one of the easiest ways to attract more traffic to your website. This signature should include your personal details, your company details, and an unsubscribe link. You can use your signature to link back to your website, and even to other products. Here’s a sample signature.