Email marketing is a huge facet of most online marketing campaigns. It’s one of the few “low-cost” marketing methods that can drive a tremendous ROI if done properly (Marketing Sherpa claimed in 2006 that email marketing will average a return of 17 times your cost for email marketing).

The great thing about doing email marketing is that’s its pretty straight forward to get started, and there are a lot of software solutions available on the market already for any price range (even free ones).

Before You Start Email Marketing

There is one very important thing you must do before you start an email marketing campaign – familiarize yourself with Can-Spam. Can-Spam is a law passed by the US government that places specific requirements on anybody that is doing email marketing.

In a nutshell, it requires that you clearly identify your email with your legal business name and physical business address. For most commercial mailers, this is done through a small paragraph at the bottom of their emails; however there are a few companies that will include this information in other places side as to the side or right at the top of the email. As long as the address is visible then it’s legal.

The next requirement is that your “from” field must be a real email address that you own. So you can’t just send out an email from some random account, you have to own the email address.

The third requirement is that you email subject lines must be accurate. You cannot legally send an email out that has a misleading subject line.

Lastly, and most importantly, there has to be a way for people to opt-out of your mailing list, and it has to be clearly visible in every email you send. This can be something simple like a message saying “Reply to this email if you no longer wish to receive it”, or it could be something more complex like a text link that takes the reader to an unsubscribe confirmation link on your website. Either method is acceptable as long as the reader can clearly see the method in your email (so no hiding it from plain sight).

Starting Email Marketing on a Low Budget

Email marketing doesn’t have to cost you thousands of dollars to get started, in fact there are several programs out there that are free and fairly easy to use. Most web hosting companies will even provide you with a free email list manager of some sort automatically through your hosting control panel.

However if needed, there are many options out there for paid email software, most notably being AWeber, one of the most popular email list managers around. For $20/month you can get a really good email marketing solution from AWeber, which has a lot of advanced features that the free programs don’t offer.

Once you have a software solution chosen and setup, you need to create a template for your emails. You can use a simple HTML editor like Frontpage to make professionally looking email templates (or better yet, Office 2007 has the feature built right into Word).

So now you’ve got your email software setup and a nice template to use for your emails. The next step is to start promoting your newsletter.

Newsletter Promoting is Easy

Getting people to sign up to your newsletter is usually pretty easy – and you can do it for free if you know what you are doing. One proven method is to post on forums related to your website with a signature link back to your website, specifically the page on your website that has the newsletter signup form. As long as you are posting useful content to the forum and not just spamming them, there’s a good chance your links will stay and people will eventually click on them and come to your website.

Another good method is to post comments on related blogs, as most blog comments allow you to list your website. If you post constructive comments on popular blogs, then chances are that it will drive some free targeted traffic to your website.

And a final tip for getting free publicity for your newsletter is to submit your website to free directories. These websites will list your website in a relevant category, which may drive some traffic. A good source is the Yahoo Directory, which has thousands of people searching it every day. It is possible to get listed for free in the Yahoo Directory, but it’s a lot faster and easier if you just pay the listing fee of $300 per year. Yes that is a bit steep, but it can be well worth it.

Besides, getting into a directory like Yahoo will also help your website rank higher in the search engines, which in turn will drive even more targeted traffic to your website!

Autoresponders are an essential component of any Internet Marketing business or Network Marketing business. Once you’ve researched autoresponders, selected a company that provides this service and set up your account, you can now learn the basic functions of autoresponders and how they can automate your business.

Here are the basic functions and benefits of autoresponders:

1) Once a visitor agrees to receive information from you by giving you their first name and working email address through your Sqeeze Page or Opt-In page, this information should immediately and automatically go into your autoresponder.

It will instantly follow-up with emails from your visitors, saving you tons of time if you had to do that manually with each customer.

2) Autoresponders live up to their name: they respond instantly to your customers’ inquiries, increasing your credibility with your visitors.

3) They also do more than just respond to emails. Use them to provide information about your products or services, promote special offers and discounts. Use them to advertise your business and build stable relationships with your customers.

4) There are different types of Autoresponders. You can purchase software, sign-up with a web-hosting company, or manage your emails through your own software.

You can also sign-up with companies whose sole business is providing autoresponder services. Go to Google to find a list of free autoresponder companies.

You may already be familiar with other popular autoresponder companies that charge a monthly service, such as aweber.com, getresponse.com, and iContact.com..

They all offer several levels of services so take your time to do your research carefully, as the reliability of your autoresponder is paramount to profits and a successful online business.

5) Autoresponders can send out an unlimited number of follow-up messages, sent at pre-determined intervals of time, for as long as you want.

6) To personalize your autoresponder messages, attach your signature, company name (if you have one), contact information, and a brief message.

If the body of the email is a sales promotion, your “P.S.” can direct your customers to take action now. Send them to a sales page, a Free Report, download for an eBook, etc.

7) Make sure your email program does not cut off your text!

Use your autoresponder to offer free courses, such as a 7 day email course about a topic you’re an expert in (or becoming an expert in.) Choose a topic or niche that precisely targets your potential customers.

9) Once you’ve chosen your subject, divide it into sub-topics. Each day your Autoresponder will send out a different sub-topic.

10) Make sure your first day is your Welcome message. Explain what your subscribers can expect to learn in the subsequent emails. Make it enticing and don’t tell too much.

Remind your subscribers you are providing free, good quality information that your target audience will find of great value.

11) With each lesson, include the number of the lesson, topic title, and information about your company and your products and services. End each lesson with some enticing sentences of what the subscriber can expect in the next lesson.

12) You want your readers to find themselves feeling eager to receive your next valuable email, whose content is helping them build their businesses. You will be perceived as a helpful adviser and friend, (and hopefully you will genuinely feel that way, as I certainly do with my subscribers), instead of just another salesperson.

In conclusion, Autoresponders are an effective, essential, and powerful marketing tool. They allow you time to focus on other important aspects of building your internet marketing or network marketing business.

They automate your Marketing campaign, allowing you to make contact with thousands of potential customers.

Studies have consistently shown it takes on average, seven contacts with a visitor before they make their first purchase from you. Imagine trying to make seven contacts with each one of thousands of visitors!

Obviously, an autoresponder is perhaps the most integral component of building and maintaining your online/internet business.

If you’ve reached the point of exhaustion trying to keep up with
answering the mountain of emails that threatens to bury you
alive every single day, you’re ready to learn about
autoresponders.

The bad news is that people expect prompt replies to their email
inquiries. However, unless you can figure out how to work
continual twenty-four hour shifts, or hire enough people to
constantly monitor incoming emails (while they’re eating up your
revenue), you have a problem. The good news is an autoresponder
is an inexpensive – or even free – method of quickly responding
to emails. What these programs do is automatically respond to
incoming emails as soon as they are received.

Emails are essential to your business for many different
reasons. Most importantly, these invisible email voices give you
their feedback about your website – for free! However, if you
spend all your working hours answering these emails, how are you
supposed to run your business? The answer is simple: use
autoresponders. Autoresponders are programs that automatically
respond to your emails without you so much as having to click on
your mouse.

There are a number of good reasons why you need an autoresponder
besides just answering your email. For example, autoresponders
can be used if you need a way to send information about your
services or products, price lists, or if there are repeated
questions asked across large numbers of emails. Maybe you want
to offer your site visitors a special bonus of some kind, such
as advice or relevant articles. All of this can be handled by an
autoresponder. Additionally, you can advertise your business and
then build stable relationships with your customers by using
autoresponders.

Autoresponder programs vary from software that runs with your
email program to a specialized script that runs on your web
hosting company’s server. This kind of script may use a web page
form or simply operate with your email account. This kind of
script is programmed to send out a standardized message whenever
an email is received. The message is sent to a particular script
or email address.

Some autoresponders can do more than simply send out
standardized messages. They can send out an unlimited number of
follow-up messages sent at predetermined interval of time. For
example, you can set your autoresponder to send out a new
message every day for as long a period as you desire.

There are numerous companies who offer autoresponders free of
charge. Your website hosting company often provides
autoresponders as a free service. If this is not the case with
your web hosting company, there are numerous companies who offer
this service for a small fee, or free of charge, providing you
attach an advertisement for their company to your emails.

To personalize your autoresponder messages, you can attach a
signature. Signatures in this case are much like business cards.
You can include your name, company, all your contact numbers and
addresses, and a brief message.

It’s a good idea to attach a signature to every email that is
sent out. This works as a repeated reminder of your business
identity every time a customer sees it. The more they look at
your signature, the more likely your company will spring to mind
when your particular service or product is needed.

You can create a standardized signature that every employee in
your business uses, or you can go wild, and let every staff
member create their own personal signature. Of course, like
everything in life, there are some rules and guidelines to
creating a personal signature.

Keep the length of your signature between four to six lines of
text, with no more than 70 characters in a single line. Make
sure that your email program does not cut off your text! The
content should include your name, your company name, your email
address, fax number, and any other contact details, such as 800
numbers. Lastly, always include a short personal message about
your company. It should be a subtle sell of your services or
your products, and possibly your company’s reliability and
longevity.

Another specialized use of autoresponders is to create courses
that you can then offer your site visitors for free. You must
choose a topic in which you are an expert and that precisely
targets your potential customers.

Once you have carefully chosen your subject, divide it into a
number of different sub-topics. Then offer your site visitor a
free 10 or 15 day course, each day offering a different
sub-topic. The first topic should always be a welcome message to
your site visitor and an explanation about what is to follow.
Your explanation should be enticing, getting the point across
that you are offering free, quality information that your target
audience will find of great value.

With every lesson, include the number of the lesson, the topic
title, information about your company and its services or
products. At the end, include a few blurbs about the next lesson
to entice the subscriber to continue on.

Make sure each topic is packed with essential and valuable
information, and leaves the visitor lusting to know more.
Otherwise, you may lose them in the very beginning.

Of course, you have to write up your course before you can offer
it. Once you have done this, and gone over the material
carefully, employing a professional writer or editor if
necessary, you must transfer your text to your autoresponder.

There are a number of free autoresponders you can use. Try
http:/www.getresponse.com, or http://www.fastfacts.net. Or go
onto Google and you will find a long list of free autoresponder
companies. Then sign-up for your chosen autoresponder. Once you
do, you will receive instructions as to how to set it up and
transfer your text.

Email is an excellent marketing tool; it is inexpensive and it
is fast. Use it to advertise your business by choosing your
email address carefully. Your website should contain different
email addresses for different contact requests. For example, use
info@yourdomain.com for information requests, or
sales@yourdomain.com for questions about sales. It’s a good idea
to set up one for the owner, such as president@yourdomain.com.
This presents your company in a personal, approachable light and
insures that direct contact is provided.

Autoresponders are an effective and powerful marketing tool,
allowing you to make contact with thousands of potential
customers. This is an invaluable asset considering how many
potential customers you usually have contact with before you
make an actual sale. Essentially, an autoresponser allows you to
automate part of your marketing campaign