E-Biz Booster Blog

Welcome to the 27th edition of email marketing tips on October 27th, 2010.

As in the previous edition of this blog carnival I have exclusively handpicked the entries.

general tips - editor’s pick

Jordie van Rijn presents What is the marketing value of an “out of office” reply? posted at The Email Guide, saying, “Most of us filter them from the ‘real’ replies as soon as they come in. Or we even block the replies altogether. But that doesn’t do justice to the nature of that automated reply message. So what is the value of an out-of-office reply?”

John’s comment: The takeaway is, “Even out of office replies can provide valuable data and an opportunity to score points with your subscribers if you think outside the box.”

Ricardas Montvila presents Behavioural Targeting, meet the Audience. Audience, meet Behavioural Targeting. posted at Email Marketing News, saying, “Behavioural targeting email marketing has been in the headlines for some time now and there is a good reason for that. It works!”

John’s comment: A case study and practical tips included.

The E-Marketer Blog How Effective Is Sharing via Email vs. Social Media? posted at The E-Marketer Blog, saying, “In a statistic that has been backed up by other studies, including the August one by CMB, SocialTwist reported email was the most common channel used to share content.”

John’s comment: Reveals different patterns in social media and emails.

That concludes this edition of email marketing tips. Past posts and future hosts can be found on my email marketing tips blog carnival home page.

I have resumed the blog carnival in 2013. Now you can continue and read Edition #28 of my Email Marketing Tips.


Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: If you like this edition, check out the previous email marketing tips - edition 26, too.

Technorati tags: email marketing tips, blog carnival

Welcome to the 25th edition of email marketing tips on September 30th, 2010.

Oops, I am publishing this edition a bit late. However, I do and I will try to be more on time in the future. Thanks for all of your contributions.

Here we go.

general tips

Joe Revod presents Unusual Or Weird (Email Marketing Tricks)? posted at Internet Business Make Money Online With Welly Mulia.


Ian Lurie presents An 8-step E-mail marketing refresher posted at Conversation Marketing: Internet Marketing with a Twist of Lemon.

tools and services

Beth Ziesenis presents Paperless Post: Classy emails for thank yous and invitations posted at Cheapskate Freelancer, saying, “Thumbnail Review of Paperless Post. If you want your email to be noticed with the mass amount being sent out everyday, you have to do something different. Give Paperless Post a try. Sign up for an account and you get 25 free stamps that allow you to send a cool, attention-getting email as an invitation, announcement or thank you. Your recipient receives an elegant email with an envelope they click to open.”


Andy Hayes presents Email Marketing Jargon Explained posted at Travel Online Partners (TOP), saying, “It's not as complicated as it seems.”

That concludes this edition of email marketing tips. Past posts and future hosts can be found on my email marketing tips blog carnival home page.

The next issue is already online, you can read it here: Email Marketing Tips - Edition 26.


Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: If you like this edition, check out the previous email marketing tips - edition 24, too.

Technorati tags: email marketing tips, blog carnival

Welcome to the 23rd edition of email marketing tips on June 6th, 2010.

The carnival is back after having had some wild turbulence including this blog getting hacked three times during the last six weeks. I am traveling and the last thing I needed was someone taking out my blog. The guys from blogcarnival.com lost patience with me and simply deleted the 21st edition which I had almost prepared for being posted. Shame on them.

Luckily a friend stepped in. Thanks to Pat Doyle, who hosted the 22nd edition of email marketing tips on her blog. Update in Feb. 2013: Unfortunately the blog has disappeared. So that edition is lost forever.

Now let’ start with today’s content.

editors pick

John Jantsch wrote The Right Way to Buy an Email List posted at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing saying, "I’m am not talking about buying or renting so called opt-in lists from list brokers. I’m talking about offering something of value as a way to motivate someone to willingly exchange their email address with you in order to receive your offers and additional contact."


Nick Moore wrote Better Email Newsletter Sharing on Facebook and Twitter posted at Inbox Ideas: Email Marketing Tips saying, "Social media is a big part of the marketing world these days. Most net-savvy businesses have a presence on Facebook and Twitter. That being the case, we’ve found that people are always looking for ways to make their social media and email marketing campaigns work together."


Chris Brogan wrote Stop Adding Me to Your Email Newsletter posted at chrisbrogan.com — Learn How Human Business Works – Beyond Social Media saying, "According to sources, it’s not illegal to add my name to your email newsletter list if you’ve done some kind of business with me in the past. Evidently, this means that it’s perfectly fine to add me to your list if you’ve sent me an email. Ever. Because I’ve gotta tell you: I’m subscribed to a LOT of email newsletters that I didn’t sign up for, and I’m not very pleased with it. To me, it’s spam, whether or not that’s the legal definition."


Carol Ellison wrote 8 Email Marketing Tips posted at destinationCRM.com - The leading resource for Customer Relationship Management - from the editors of CRM magazine saying, "Experts provide commonsense advice about ‘one of the most powerful and yet one of the most dangerous mediums of communication.’"

general tips

GreatManagement presents Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Internet Scamming posted at We Build Your Blog, saying, "Anyone who surfs the web on a regular basis can probably remember the very first time they fell victim to an attempted scam."


Sheryl Owen presents Top 10 Reasons to Use Snail Mail posted at Change of Address.


That concludes this edition of email marketing tips. Past posts and future hosts can be found on my email marketing tips page.

Continue reading the next email marketing tips - edition 24.


Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: If you like this edition, check out the preceding email marketing tips - edition 20, too. Note: Edition 22 got deleted from the web. It was on a guest blog. Edition 21 was canceled.

Technorati tags: email marketing tips, blog carnival

Welcome to the twentieth edition of email marketing tips on April 7th, 2010.

We have a fine mix of submissions today so I did not add any external blog posts this time. Now it’s time to improve your email marketing campaigns. Let's begin.

This edition can keep you busy for some time. Here is how I want you to go about it.

• Get a piece of empty paper ready and a pen or use a fresh page in your journal.
• Draw a vertical line in the middle all the way from top to bottom.
• At top of the right column write the word “tip”, on top of the left column “to do”.
• Now when you read each article take a short note and most importantly write down what you will do as a result of that tip.
• Then of course do it. No excuses.

Today’s categories:

• strategy
• copywriting
• general advice
• tools and services

Browsing Tip: If not stated otherwise all links in this email marketing tips carnival edition will open in this window. Use the back button of your browser to come back here or open links in a new window or tab.

strategy

Jodi Kaplan presents How to Put Your Email Marketing on Automatic Pilot posted at Fix Your Broken Marketing, saying, “I promised to tell you how to market your services without lifting a finger. The secret…”

John’s comment: Solid advice! I suggest you sign up for her email class as well.

John W. Furst presents two articles at once. They go hand in hand: How Often Should You Email Your Subscribers and Are They Burning Their Email Lists?, saying, “The ‘old question:’ How often should I email my subscribers.”

John’s comment: My humble posts.

copywriting

→ Continue reading:

It has become hard to listen to and concentrate on a specific message which is buried in ever intensifying noise.


You as a marketer cannot blame people for being ignorant.


You only can blame yourself for being ignorant.

When was the last time you listened to the response you stimulated? Did you adjust your message, your timing, the channel, …?

It’s easy to be the pink elephant in the room — and I mean the opposite of a Purple Cow. If that’s what you wanna be, fine with me, but don’t drop your shit in front of my feet.


I just picked that up from the universe with my telepathic senses.

Something to think about.

LISTEN!

You probably don’t care about what I have to say. But don’t worry, I might give a damn about your message as well.

Do you have a clue what I am interested in right now?

Yours
John W. Furst

(*) Image credit: ©2007 by myklroventine/flickr. - Some rights reserved. - CC-BY 2.0

A business owner who publishes a monthly email newsletter asked me for advice. The business in question is a European based specialist for color trends and consults with designers in the fashion and home design industries. In this particular case, Carol, wanted to know how to increase the open rate for her newsletter editions. Her company publishes the newsletter once a month.

I think my response might be transferable to your business or website as well. That is why I thought I should share it with a wider audience.

The content and design of the newsletter I was giving the advice on is rather intriguing. However, it is a constant challenge to keep readers engaged and interested over a longer period of time. I gave Carol the following tips to think about.

5 Tips on how to engage your readers and increase your open rate

(1) Make it more personal!

Have an editor, a spokesperson write the newsletter in a colloquial tone. Introduce that character as a person with a back-story, and also address the reader on the personal level. An email is communication from one person to another. A newsletter should not be an exception.

→ Continue reading: