I was reading on the Aweber blog today that they just released a new feature for their autoresponder service. It has to do with the broadcast archive that’s available. I haven’t really used this feature very much mainly because it looked terrible and unless I put a link back to my site in the email it doesn’t link back to my site. here are a couple of screen shoots that I took from the Aweber blog to show you how this visually makes a difference.

Before

After

Now the old look vs the new look is 1000 times better. Here are a couple things that I really like

• Branding Elements added
• Reader Engagement in the Sidebar

These are great additions to the once very boring RSS feed of your emails. But as  marketer I look at things a little different. The biggest glaring thing that I see is inserted into the footer.

Don’t get me wrong I have no problem with them branding their own product. I do that all the time. After the excitement wore off of this new feature the problem I have is that I’m an affiliate of Aweber. And if someone reads my RSS feed and clicks on that link will I get credit?

NO…

There is no way of inserting my affiliate link in there **Hint: This would be a great new feature Aweber**

I’ve sent out promotional emails for them in the past. Put banners out on several sites that I have but this would undermine everything that I’ve worked so hard to do.

Can I just get a little help here!

[stepping off my soapbox now]

The other issue that I have is just a small one.

I love the branding elements so I can keep my messages consistent but how about a link back to my own website in the sidebar or header image?

Internet users have been conditioned to look for them there and the only thing that happen is they will remain in the archive. Since this RSS feed is actually hosted on Aweber’s site I can understand them not wanting to link back to my site….

Wait….

No I can’t. I am a paying customer and they are using my content to promote (very quietly) their email autoresponder service.

WOW! This is Genius. It’s like integration marketing in reverse. I wish I would have thought about doing that with my customers.

Wait… I do. But I actually ask them first.

Even though this is a great new feature these two glaring things make it a big turn off for me and I probably won’t be using it.

Anyway… Here’s a great video about the new feature from Aweber.

In this Aweber video they give you a sneak peak at their new web form wysiwyg editor.

It has some pretty slick features as you’ll hear the guys discuss what they are doing. I can’t wait to start using it myself.

*Links to Aweber are affiliate links. Yes I use the product and I have for years.

Your Email Marketing Working?

This is a question which is on the mind of all business owners who participate in an email marketing campaign for the purposes of promoting their business. In fact questions regarding the effectiveness of any type of marketing endeavor should be asked regularly to ensure the marketing efforts are producing the desired results. Asking these questions on a regular basis and continually evaluating the effectiveness of the email marketing campaign will help to ensure the email marketing campaign is working well and remains effective whenever changes are made to the marketing strategy. This article will highlight why it is so important to evaluate your email marketing strategy often and will also provide a few tips for evaluating your email marketing strategy.

Evaluating your email marketing strategy on a regular basis is very important because failure to do so may result in your efforts being essentially a waste of time. Email marketing may be a cost effective way to advertise your business but there is some time, money and energy involved in planning and executing an email marketing campaign. If the campaign is ineffective and nothing is done to attempt to make the email marketing campaign more effective your business is wasting resources by continuing to invest in this type of marketing strategy when it is not generating profit for your business or even interest in your products or services.

It is important to regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your email marketing strategy but it is even more important to set goals before you begin the process of evaluating your marketing efforts. This is important because without these goals it can be difficult to determine whether or not the email marketing efforts are effective. For example your goal may be to increase the number of sales you make per month. Evaluating whether or not you are generating more sales each month is a fairly simple process. However, if your goal is to generate more interest in your products you would use website traffic as opposed to sales to evaluate the effectiveness of the email marketing campaign.

Once you have determined how you intend to evaluate you progress you should be able to easily determine the effectiveness of your current email marketing strategy as long as this is the only marketing you are currently doing. This is because if you have more than one marketing strategy in use at once you cannot be sure which strategy is driving customers to make purchases or visit your website. When you decide to evaluate your email marketing strategy according to specific goals you should take care to ensure you are not currently running other types of marketing in conjunction with your email marketing effort. This will help to prevent confusion about which type of marketing is producing the desired effect. It will also help to prevent business owners from mistakenly believing email marketing is producing a desired effect when it is actually another marketing strategy which is helping to product the desired effect.

Customer surveys are very important for evaluating the effectiveness of an email marketing service provider. Asking customers how they heard about your products or services is an excellent way to determine whether or not many of your customers are being enticed to make a purchase based on your email marketing efforts. Additionally, these surveys can be used to obtain more detailed information about the email recipient?s reaction to the marketing management. Customers can provide valuable feedback about topics such as the layout and appearance of the email to the ease of readability of the content included in the email. All of this information can help a business owner determine how to design future emails to achieve a desired effect. Armed with this information the business owner can design subsequent emails which incorporate many of the qualities previous customers found to be useful and avoid qualities which were viewed as useless in the past.

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.

Aside from that, you also want to avoid 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 internet marketing strategy because of the low cost, many companys have seized the opportunity and have flooded many people’s e-mail accounts with promotional mail.

But, with an opt-in list, you avoid this annoyance because people subscribe to the list; 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. There may be times when an email account was provided when the real owner didn?t want to subscribe. bulk email marketing campaign.

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. 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 businessman and a legitimate site depends on your being a straight and true marketing strategist.

**Email TIP**

3 things to check when emailing your list

1) Take notice of your unsuccessful sends. These are the e-mails that bounce.

Bounced emails, also known as undeliverable messages, are those messages that, for whatever reason, were not successfully received by the intended recipient.
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 – email marketing campaign software ain’t easy!

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. One common mistake is when an N instead of an M is placed in the .com area.

2) Always provide an unsubscribe feature in your site and an unsubscribe link in your mails.

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.

3) 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.
Keep these tips in mind so that you can have a healthy relationship with your subscribers as well as be kept within the boundaries of what is allowed in sending mails to an opt-in list.

P.S. The email marketing software that I use is Aweber
BTW they have a free trial

When it comes to email marketing software there are tons of choices out there. Getting lost in all the technical jargon can be a nightmare if you are trying to do it by yourself. I was reading an article the other day By Neil Anuskiewicz on how to choose an email service provider that brought up some really good points on things you want to look for. He mentions 10 things specifically.

1. Private IP address
2. Customer support and training
3. Robust infrastructure
4. Good reporting
5. CAN SPAM compliance
6. List Segmenting
7. A/B testing
8. Free trial
9. No term contract
10. Pricing Plans

I have used a lot of ESP before over the years and here is a list of a couple of them out there now.

1. icontact.com
2. lyris.com
3. aweber” target=”_blank”>aweber.com (This is the one I personally use)
4. infusionsoft.com

**Help me build a list of good ESP’s comment on the one you use or think is the best**

Marketing Effectively With Email

Like any type of marketing, email marketing software involves a great deal of time and effort to ensure the marketing campaign is effective. This is important because an ineffective marketing campaign of any type is a waste of money and resources. Spending a great deal of time, energy and money into an email marketing campaign which is not reaching the members of the target audience and is not convincing recipients of the email to make a purchase or visit your website is not worthwhile. This article will discuss how to implement an effective email marketing strategy to ensure your business, financial and personal goals are being met.

One of the most important aspects of marketing effectively with email is to ensure your marketing efforts are reaching the members of your target audience. One way to do this is to ask former customers as well as potential customers to join your email distribution list. This will help to ensure the majority of members on your email distribution list have an actual interest in your products or services. This is important because you are much more likely to generate sales when you are marketing to this type of an audience than you would if you were marketing to a much larger audience without an interest in your products.

Another aspect of marketing effectively is to hire an experienced professional writer to draft the content for your emails, e-newsletters, email courses or any other methods you are using to email your message to potential customers. Having your content written can give you a significant edge over the competition if they are drafting their content themselves. The quality of your content is a reflection on your business and poorly written content with no substance will reflect poorly on your business.

Effective email marketing should also be written in a manner which will appeal to the target audience. If necessary you should conduct market research to determine demographical information for your target audience. This research may also determine preferences the target audience may have for receiving marketing information. This may include the type of language used, the format of the emails, the layout of the emails and even aesthetic appearance of the emails. Paying attention to these details can make the integrated marketing significantly more effective.

Finally, effective email marketing should not be viewed as spam. This is a difficult situation. In many cases an email marketing campaign software will involve distributing mass emails but care should be taken in these endeavors to avoid having these emails construed as spam. This is important because many Internet service providers include spam filters which apply algorithms to each email account to determine which messages are spam and which ones are legitimate. Emails which are deemed to be spam may never reach the intended recipients. Emails which may it through the spam filters may also be automatically deleted if the Internet user believes it looks like spam. For this reason care should be taken to ensure all marketing emails provide quality content, advertise only subtly and ideally are only sent to email recipients who have specifically requested information about your products or services. This will give you the best opportunity possible to reach your target audience and have a positive impression on them and hopefully entice them to make a purchase or visit your website.