Email - Maximise Your Reach

Have you ever made a phone call to another person and try to pitch your product? Email marketing can do it without the phones. When a person makes cold calls he or she should be prepared to face rejections - the same should be applied to email marketing. With low click-through rates of around 5-15% (click through rates are rates of people responding to your email) , prepare for lots of disappointment, but you shouldn't shun email marketing! You've definitely received many emails in your life, most of them unsolicited - you tend to not click and them ( you might even report them as spam! ). But have you ever read some of the emails that you found interesting? If you did , then so will millions of internet users out there who own email accounts! Before we charge head-on into drafting an e-mail marketing plan, be very aware of the risks involved - unsolicited email is a very sensitive issue - the recipient does not expect an email from you and if he/she finds it offensive, a report will be filed against you. Chances are you will be barred by your own mail servers from sending further emails. Not only that, you will also face consequences such as : - the loss of reputation - lower sales volume due to decreased confidence of the public - your Internet Service Provider shutting down your email account and also your website So, so stay on the safe side , avoid sending - emails with harmful content ( anything related to violence and sex must be refrained ) - emails with intention to deceive or cause misinformation - multiple emails to a recipient (this is considered spam) The benefits of email marketing should be clear to you by now - you'll have a large audience from which a percentage of it will respond positively to whatever it is you're offering to them. "But I don't know where to begin," you might say. For a start, it's best to get yourself aligned with a reputable company providing email marketing solutions. Some companies do price quotes, and some publish their sales plans on their website. But rest assured, you should allocate a budget of at least RM 500 to conduct an effective plan. The higher volume of emails that you want to send out per month, the bigger your budget should be. Some of these companies also provide optimization techniques - they'll give advice on your optimal email frequency (how often you should send out emails), how to improve the deliverability of your emails, and also provide you with a much needed basic marketing strategy. So you've already signed up with a reputable email marketing solutions provider. They guarantee you that your emails will reach the Inbox of your target audience. And you already have a huge list of people you're targetting - one group consists of your existing customers, while the other group does not have the slightest idea of what you will sell to them. Now you're going to compose your email pitch. To capture the attention of existing customers isn't a difficult task, but convincing second group requires more planning. You've only got one chance to make an impression , so it should be a lasting one.

A general on a battlefield is the person who can lead the army to victory. The email subject is like a general on a battlefield - without one you'll never be able to lead your army of products and services to victory.

Compose a very good email subject - make sure people would want to click on your email. A good method is to promise freebies to them - things like free cellphones or iPods are definitely going to make people want to read your email further. You could also touch on the emotional side of people - if you're selling handycraft for instance, you can compose subjects like "Bring this item back to your loved one" , or "When did you last buy your loved one a present?".

Assuming you've convinced people to click on your email subject - you're halfway through. Now you need a convincing pitch that has relevance to your subject and at the same time, tell them why they should consider your pitch seriously. Make it short, sweet, and limit the number of pictures that you want to place in the email (if people don't like slow loading websites, what makes you think they'd like slow loading emails?). Add a link to your website as clearly as possible. And try to be different - remember that these people have seen so many unsolicited emails these days that they can tell what's spam and what's not by simply giving a glance. Analyze other unsolicited emails and design the style of your email so as to not resemble theirs.

Lastly, always have a contingency plan - although the benefits are huge, email marketing is risky marketing. So you've got to have other forms of marketing as well - traditional, offline marketing should remain a viable option.

Wish you the best of luck with email marketing!!!

Why Forums Are Important

How important is having a forum on your website? Very important.

Just take a look at Cari.com.my - Malaysia's first search engine with over 27 million visitors per month. It's the place where people search for information and discuss the latest happenings. If Cari.com.my didn't have 27 million visitors per month they wouldn't be the biggest online community in Malaysia! Why is having a forum so important?

Communicating with your potential customers - let's say you're selling designer jeans and you've built an online community for that designer label. Need to promote your latest line of designer jeans? Do it through the forums!

Getting raw marketing data - almost all online communities have forums. At least that's how people communicate with one another. When people communicate, they use messages and it is from these messages that you can get your marketing information - you can know what people like and what people don't like.

Selling advertising space - once you've gotten yourself a thriving community - it's time to generate some side income by selling advertising space on your forums.

INCLUSION,you have nothing to lose, only everything to gain from forums

Getting The Word Out

In my research,it’s easy enough to start an online business, but the hard part is definitely getting the word out. And we’re talking about millions of visitors to your site per month.

Read on to learn a few tips that can come in handy for you!

1. You should have a registered website which can be your own or an affiliate to display your products or your services. Have a domain name that is relevant to your business.

2. A newsletter should be created to capture names and email addresses of the subscribers. The purpose is to build contacts and they are the candidates whom you will send sales offers to in the future.

3. Write articles in the newsletter to promote the your products and services.

4. Striking deals to link-exchange (i.e to let others link back to your site in exchange for you linking to them) can improve your website popularity.

5. Internet forums can be used as an effective marketing tool. Participate actively in these forums (by contributing, not spamming!) and remember to leave your signature pointing to your website.

6. By placing a banner add (or text links) , you are able to generate targeted traffic. But keep in mind the price for obtaining an advertising space – they do not come cheap on popular sites.

7. You can try advertising via Pay Per Click (PPC) search Google’s Adwords. Every time a visitor clicks on your ads, you’ll pay a small amount to Google, so it will not hurt your wallet too much.