Email Marketing
Email marketing is
still one of the most powerful ways to build an online business, and yes, please sign up to my mailing list as we both know the phone will ring, you’ll forget to bookmark this site, and I’ll be lost in cyberspace amongst millions of other websites forever.
So why email? It’s not a secret, but is the most powerful part of an online marketing business, marketers want to establish trust and understanding to build a relationship with you, so that you feel comfortable buying through them, pretty much like you would with a local bricks and mortar store.
Email marketing is as close as we can get online, without having face to face contact to achieving this. You’ve probably heard of the term “the money is in the list”, no matter what new method of attracting traffic (visitors) to your site or what promotion you’re using, your email list is your potential customer base.
Your subscriber base should be, for the foreseeable future, one of your main priorities in building your business, otherwise you may experience a phenomenon where your site is gaining traffic but no sales. Think about how people buy, generally they like to look around, do some research, get a feel for what it’s all about, and then they may buy. It’s a process that the vast majority of customers go through for more than one reason, fear, searching for a better offer, the experience of looking, or just the need to think it over before pressing the buy button. If someone leaves your site, you have a lot lower chance of establishing a rapport, which is bad for both you as a vendor and the customer, as the internet is truly a huge, massive and confusing place.
Autoresponder what is it? In short it is a software system that enables someone to subscribe to your email list automatically 24/7, along with the option to unsubscribe at ANY time! This is critical as internet marketers are not allowed to email anyone without permission, and rightly so. The system enables you to set up email campaigns to your opted in list which may span several weeks or months. The first stage is setting up the sequence, once that is done the Autoresponder will send out the campaign automatically.
I strongly suggest using a professionally hosted solution, as it needs to be reliable from the start, from both hardware and deliverability of the emails sent. Some people try self hosting, but usually end up using a professional service, as it is just too complicated to self manage and one mistake can see you in trouble in no time.
I’ve featured here some Autoresponder services; these offer one of the most powerful tools in your possession for marketing on the internet, and giving you the ability to build trust and relationships that are required to be successful online. They all offer varying levels of functionality, but again everyone’s needs are slightly different. With that in mind all the companies are offering trials of their software to see if it meets your requirements, try them all and see which you like best.
Professional Autoresponders
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1ShoppingCart offer a full range of services for eCommerce solutions including a comprehensive Autoresponder system. The major advantage of using 1Shoppingcart is that when you expand, all the facilities for your ecommerce solutions are in one place. Currently 1ShoppingCart are offering a 1 month’s trial for $3.95 giving you a fair chance to look at the various features available to you above and beyond just the Autoresponders, so have a look and see if it fits in with your plans. Click Here.
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Aweber was founded in 1998, with a client list of over 75,000 it is a widely used, dedicated, and reliable email Autoresponder service for your email campaigns. Having a user friendly interface and wizard guides, they will get you up and running in no time. Aweber are currently offering a 30 day trial for $1.00 to navigate the systems features. Have a look and see if it meets your requirements. Click Here.
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iContact is another major player within the email autoresponder arena providing high level functionality for email campaigns, newsletter and RSS. They are currently promoting a 15 day free trial to experience the software for yourself, give it a go. Click Here.
