15 Email-Marketing Best Practices
Introduction
As you may know, most people now spend more instance reading their emails than they do surfing the web. Email is digit of the most powerful mediums that you crapper ingest to talk to visitors, customers and prospects.
In this article I module discuss 15 prizewinning practices that you crapper ingest routine in your telecommunicate marketing activities. Used sagely and consistently, there’s no doubt you’ll wager an increased response from your subscribers — whether it be for more feedback, more product/seminar registrations, or even more orders.
1. Avoiding the Spam Filters
The majority of super Internet service providers now ingest rigorous telecommunicate protection mechanisms to trap unsolicited telecommunicate before it gets into their customers inboxes. Spam filters generally “rank” each telecommunicate by a number of different criteria, and, if that telecommunicate rates above a certain level (such as 10 telecommunicate points), then it is flagged as telecommunicate and deleted.
To attain sure your emails don’t intend flagged as telecommunicate — and deleted before they even intend to your subscribers — avoid using words such as ‘Free’, ‘$$$’, ‘Save’, ‘Discount’, etc in both the subject line and the content of your email.
2. Maximizing Click-Thru Rates (CTR)
Both web pages and emails crapper contain a lot of text and graphics, and this sometimes makes it harder to intend your subscribers to action a certain task, such as clicking on a unification to wager your primary offers.
Numerous research papers tell us that the majority of Internet users respond better to a plain, bold, chromatic text unification — such as this — as opposed to a banner or button. So, if you’re going to allow links in your emails, attain sure they are bold, chromatic and underlined. This module mean that more subscribers click through, meaning more conversions/sales for you.
3. The Power of Personalization
If you were standing in a crowded mall, which of these would intend your attention: “HEY, YOU!” or “HEY ARUN” (assuming your name is Arun). The power of personalization crapper and should be used in your emails. In-fact, by only starting your telecommunicate with “Hi [subscriber_name]” instead of the boring “Hi there”, you crapper process both your reading and click-thru rates by up to 650%. Why? Put simply, it’s because your subscribers feel like they already have a relationship with you as you’ve addressed them by their first name.
4. One-Click Unsubscription
If you want to grow your mailing list, then there are 2 things that you absolutely must have: a double opt-in process, and a hurried way to unsubscribe. In some countries, it’s actually mandatory by law that every telecommunicate has an unsubscribe unification in it. The unsubscribe unification should take the recipient directly to a page where they are then removed — courteously — from your mailing list.
5. Signup Confirmation
Don’t intend accused of spamming — always, and I mean always ingest a double opt-in confirmation process. Double opt-in means that after your visitor initially enters their telecommunicate address to subscribe to your list, you should then send them a “confirmation” email. This telecommunicate should contain a primary unification back to your email-marketing program, which module then verify that this visitor did indeed sign up to your mailing list.
6. Tuesday / weekday = Increased Response
Studies conducted by online research analysts have shown that the prizewinning life to action a mail-out to your itemize are Tuesday and Wednesday, as this is when people are more receptive to communication. This means that they are more likely to read your content and click on links, meaning more sales.
On Mondays, everyone is still recovering from a hectic weekend. On Thursday and Friday, people are already too busy looking forward to the weekend. We’ve actually experimented with this, and received the prizewinning results by sending discover emails at around 2-3pm (American Pacific Time) on a Wednesday.
7. Repeat Email Communication
An auto responder is an telecommunicate that is scheduled to be sent at a certain instance interval after someone subscribes to your mailing list. Auto responders are a great way to automatically follow up with your subscribers or provide them with more information on your products/services.
For example, if you provide a liberated newsletter, you could falsehood 3 auto responders for new subscribers: the first is sent 1 distance after they subscribe. It contains a thank you message and a unification to intend 10% off your newly released eBook.
The second is sent 24 hours after they subscribe, telling them about your community message boards, and the third is sent 72 hours after they subscribe, in which you crapper offer them a primary deal on becoming a paid member of your site.
Auto responders help your subscribers physique trust in both your company and your brand, and this crapper help attain it easier when trying to close sales in the future.
8. Consistency is the Key
If you’re running a account or regular telecommunicate publication, attain sure you keep the look and feel conformable from issue to issue. By keeping the look and feel consistent, you help to maintain and alter your sort and your image to your subscribers, which again module attain it easier to close sales when you requirement to.
Create a template for your account and whenever you requirement to create a new issue, ingest that template as the basis for each issue.
9. On Time, Every Time
When sending a regular telecommunicate to your subscribers, always attain sure that it’s sent on the same day, at the same time. For example, every weekday at 3pm. Your subscribers module come to “expect” your telecommunicate to arrive in their inbox on the same day at the same instance every week, meaning that they want to read your content and are generally more receptive to any primary offers or promotions you may include.
10. The Half-a-Second Subject Line
When your telecommunicate arrives in your subscriber’s inbox, you generally have about half a second to catch their attention with the subject line of your email. After this, they module either delete your telecommunicate or cut it. In your subject line, try and specify a benefit that the client crapper expect by reading your email. For example, instead of using ‘OurSite Newsletter Issue #1′, ingest ‘OurSite Newsletter: 10 Tips for Financial Freedom’.
11. The Free Bonus Hook-In
Free is overused these days, especially on the Internet. However, if you’re looking to grow your client list, then create or source a product of value to your visitors (such as an eBook or discount coupon) and offer it to them for liberated when they signup for your newsletter.
To attain sure they don’t only identify any telecommunicate address into your subscription form, falsehood an auto responder to send them the liberated bonus 1 distance after they subscribe to your newsletter.
12. The Preview Pane
Popular telecommunicate clients such as MS Outlook show a advertisement of an telecommunicate when it’s selected in your inbox. Always have some engrossing content at the rattling top of your email, as this is the conception that module show in the advertisement window of your subscribers telecommunicate program. If it’s engrossing enough, then your client module open your telecommunicate and move on reading.
13. Link-Click Testing
When creating marketing emails, try using different text for both content and links. Also try re-positioning images such as logos and buttons. After sending about 3 different emails, compare the click-thru stats and wager which digit worked best. Now, when you requirement to send marketing emails in the future, you undergo that you module be sending the right mix of content and images that module attract the most click-thrus, and ultimately the most sales.
14. Email-Based Learning
Add value to your website, physique trust in your visitors, found your credibility and collect more subscriptions to your mailing itemize by setting up an email-based learning course. To do this, only create a series of auto responders (for example, 5) containing unique content. Then, schedule the first digit to be sent after 24 hours, the second after 48 hours, etc.
15. Always Sign on the Dotted Line
Always allow a mode at the bottom of your emails, as it’s digit of the easiest ways to attract more reciprocation to your website. This mode should allow your personal details, your company details, and an unsubscribe link. You crapper ingest your mode to unification back to your website, and even to another products. Here’s a sample signature.
Role of Professional Consultation in Web Development
Online playing is not “cup of tea” for everyone as it has become more grave due to advanced IT technologies and regular innovations in the field. IT experts consulting before introducing some new online playing or some kind of technological integration in the existing playing is advisable for the more productive results.
Website Development is the process of creativity and expertise as it requires talented professionals to understand the grave aspects of the online market and deep knowledge of the programming languages & designing aspects. Design & Development of the website demands for the knowledge of underway scheme market trends and requires the pertinent understanding of the playing nature to make the perfect match with technology as well as Web Market demands. Before introducing playing on the internet its better to approach for the pertinent consulting firm or experts about Web Marketing as well as Website Design & Development.
Some Plus Points of the Web Design & Development Consultation
- It is very obvious that prototypical playing has to be established then promotional activities will proceed accordingly. There are two types of professional consulting services are use to exist in the consultations of scheme development such as prototypal is regarding professional website design and second is website content consulting services.
- Consulting firm and experts of the online scheme design & development should aware about changing playing nature & trends, should be capable of implementing important strategies of the business, to make a perfect online solution in the form of beatific & interactive website for better online presentation of product & services.
- It is not necessary that all offline community have the knowledge of scheme market and its grave aspects, to introduce the playing on the internet there must be theoretical know how about the online scheme development field. Professional scheme development companies or experts are best artifact for the consultation about the introduction of your offline playing to online scheme world.
- The most grave aspect of the online website content is correct Keywords & Meta tags, pertinent design of the website as well as attractive content enriched with pertinent keywords cannot be placed without professional consultancy.
- Next most important theoretical key factor of online scheme content is “Google Indexing” that exclusive should be performed by theoretical professionals or consultancy is required to perform this correctly. Popular search engines have different parameters for indexing the website, to achieve the beatific index number in favourite search engines there are certain practices should be performed by professionals such as:
- Website link submission to favourite search engine and directories
- Articles and blogs submission
- Development of RSS feed facility on the website
- Taking feedback of the page regularly
It is advisable to take professional consultancy services regarding scheme development activities, as they are essential to get fruitful results from the combative scheme market; it helps in increasing profits with online visualization of the products and services.
Web 3.0 is Coming! Or is It?
So, just what is Web 3.0?
Well, it isn’t originally that new. People hit been talking about Web 3.0 since at least 2006, but it was actually conceived back in 2001. In between times, Web 2.0 was only introduced in 2004.
Web 3.0 module be a bit like having your own Personal Assistant (PA).
This PA module know every about you (overall).
Web 3.0 is envisaged as a giant database. It isn’t real still as it’s still a theory and grouping are still guessing how it module turn out.
By comparison, Web 2.0 uses the internet to attain connections between people.
It may be something that exists as a separate network – or it may simply change what we know and love (or hate) about the current system.
Rather than having to do every the research yourself, by running searches and examining every the results to wager if they are relevant. Web 3.0 module let you sit back as it gathers every the information for you. That’s because it understands information on the Web, whereas current searches simply look for the keywords you ask them to.
Instead of putting in one or two words, you type in a sentence. The more searches you run the better it gets to know you, understand what you are interested in.
Web 3.0 can also interpret the context of your search and provide you results which are germane to what you are rattling hunting for. It can even attain suggestions which it thinks are relevant, even though you haven’t asked it to.
It module organise the results too.
- richer, more relevant
- every user module hit a unique profile based on feeding history
- accesses al the content on the internet
- mashups ( combining google maps/restaurants/reviews)
Some experts think it may be a completely new system – as it is easier to develop a completely new system than to change what’s already here.
Tim Berners-Lee invented the www in 1989. He intended the original WWW to do everything that Web 2.0 is supposed to do. His vision of the future he calls the semantic scheme – where computers scan and interpret content by crawling the scheme hunting for germane info. In other words, it reads and understands scheme pages much as we humans do – but a lot faster. Like a PA, it gathers the information for you and me to read the old-fashioned way. It can even be programmed to aggregation an appointment having looked through your own laboring schedule. It could be utilised as a research tool to gather every the germane accumulation you might requirement for a book, for example. But in order to do this the whole of the www as we know it would hit to be remapped, and retagged – tags or metadata are what Web 3.0 module requirement to use in order to do its job.
Metadata is invisible to you and me, but can be read by computers. Web 3.0 module know the difference between town Hilton and the Hilton Hotel in Paris. Understanding natural language queries and thereby improve upon the Google-type search we’ve every come to know and love.
The Semantic Web and Web 3.0 are almost being utilised synonymously, but in fact they are far from being alike. At the moment they are both still somewhat nebulous.
But Web 3.0 won’t be here for another 10 years so it seems.
Now for a little bit of history:
Web utilization goes in 10 year cycles
Web 1.0 was developing the basic platform of the internet and making masses of information available to – the masses
Web 2.0 was designed for users – grouping connecting with people.
Web 3.0 module require a renewal of the web’s index (what you and I don’t see) which module attain way for …
Web 4.0 which module be far advanced from Facebook et al.
I don’t know about you, but I’m rather hunting forward to Web 3.0. I rather fancy having an unpaid PA to do most of my work for me!
Use These 7 Headline Formulas to Make Your Website More Profitable
Research shows that readers respond more to headlines than any another element of a web page.
A head creates attention or apathy. People module ofttimes make the decision either to continue reading or hit the back button, based on the headline. You hit only seconds to make a favourable prototypal impression.
Top 7 Headline Formulas That Work
If you need to put your puny head on steroids try one of these tried and tested formulas:
1. Agitate the Problem
Example: Are You Struggling to Find Good Accounting Personnel?
If a reader has the difficulty they module be compelled to keep reading to encounter out the solution.
Note: This is also a question head – see below:
2. Ask a Question?
Example: What is the Secret to Getting Rich Today?
A question incites curiosity. It engages the mind. A question head must be open-ended – you hit to keep reading to encounter out the answer.
3. Promise the Reader a Benefit
Example: Enjoy Younger Looking Skin in Just 10 Days
Focus on the primary goodness of your product or service and connect it with the target audience.
4. Give Them the News
Example: Announcing the Smallest DVD Player Ever Built
If you hit genuine news, announce it. Using the word “announcing” attracts more attention.
5. State the Offer
Example: FREE Seminar Shows You How to Make $200,000 a Year on Google
If you hit an attractive offer shout it out in your headline.
6. Use the Words “How To”
Example: How To Win Friends, Relatives and Influence People
“How to … ” promises readers useful information and advice. If you’re ever stuck for a headline, write “How to” – whatever follows module be a hardworking headline.
7. Use a Customer Testimonial
Example: “I Lost 8 Kilograms in 12 Days With Trimspeed”
Putting the commendation in quotation marks increases readership.
Sharpen Your Axe
Abraham Lincoln is reputed to hit said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I module spend the prototypal quaternary sharpening the axe.” And so it is with headlines. Many copywriting experts recommend you spend 80% of your time writing the headline.
This may sound like overkill. But producing website content is expensive and time consuming. If your head is a dud you’ve wasted your money and effort.
Web Hosting – How it All Began
The internet is thriving like never before and scheme hosting is the driving obligate behind it. The industry began in 1991, much assorted than we know it today. However, there has always been a close association with the World Wide Web which came onto the scene around the same time. With E-commerce, entertainment and a plethora of opportunities, one could say that the internet and scheme hosting are two of the large technical innovations of all time.
The internet, the World Wide Web and electronic mail helped to start the revolution, encouraging commercial possibilities and a means for people to host their own scheme pages. This revolution is more capably termed as E-commerce. In the beginning, scheme pages were mainly limited to computer experts, universities and government agencies. As instance progressed, other opportunities were presented. As several businesses realized the potential in scheme hosting, companies were formed, providing people with a way to delude their products on the internet and serve them via the World Wide Web.
Once scheme hosting became increasingly popular, it was much easier for the average consumer to have their own domain name and scheme pages. The structure of scheme hosting has evolved significantly, going from dull static pages to dynamic creations that scream for interaction. There was more complexity involved in hosting a website back then, but those who adapted to the technical aspects were able to take advantage and gain the benefits.
Upon first being introduced, scheme hosting was not only complex but rattling costly as well. As the technology evolved, it became more comprehensive with features that make it easy to build and administer your site. Web hosting has also become more affordable, with plans costing as low as $3. Some companies even offer hosting services for free.
In the early life of scheme hosting, providers would lease their servers from large computer companies. These days, scheme hosting has become a flourishing industry of its own. Millions of people are now hosting websites from individuals to small and large businesses. Web hosting is prominent throughout the world and acquirable in numerous countries. The industry has evolved to a point where breaking in is made easier with dedicated servers and reseller accounts. Now a 1000000000 dollar business, there is sufficiency money to go around for anyone with the knowledge to delude server space.
Web hosting has also become more diverse over the years. Things were pretty much simple and straightforward at one point, but there are now an abundant variety of services suited for a wide range of individuals and businesses. Whether it’s adding video and audio content for your visitors, inaugural up a storefront or turning your site into a large user community, there isn’t much you can’t do with a scheme hosting statement these days.
Web hosting has come a long way since the early 90s. While it essentially goes on behind the scenes, this technology is what provides many of the services that add convenience to modern day living.
Website Statistics with Cpanel
If you own digit or more websites, it is vitally important to know how some people are visiting your place and where these visitors originate from. Analyzing website statistics should become a regular habit for every webmaster who wishes to improve website reciprocation over time. You’ll be able to effort and track the popularity of your updated place content and even see how visitors find your place in the search engines.
There are some scheme statistics programs on the market, each digit unique in price and features, but did you know that some of the best website statistic programs already come free with most scheme hosting plans?
If you have a hosting account for your website that includes cpanel, then you belike have a whole clump of scheme statistic programs shapely in. Cpanel is by far the most favourite control panel for scheme hosting accounts today. It is extremely easy to learn and use for regular website administration.
There are usually 3 assorted types of statistics you will find inside cpanel. These are known as Analog, Webalizer and Awstats:
- Webalizer is a statistic information that shows you in a interpret form how some visitors have visited your place month by month. This type of statistics is very basic and only takes a hurried glance to receive your scheme place information. If you want more detailed information you will belike need to check out the another two statistic programs.
- Analog and Awstats each offer assorted presentation styles. All the essential traveller information you belike wish to see is listed on Analog, but most people have difficulty finding it as it is primarily text based and requires close attention.
- Awstats on the another hand, is usually the favorite scheme place statistic information on cpanel. Not only does it give you plenty of traveller information, from number of hits per day and month, it also tells you where they originate from, how long visitors stayed at your site, the country from which they are viewing your site, what browser they are using and much more. Basic colored graphs and simple to read layout make it a hurried and easy task to find the information that you are looking for.
19 Free Ways To Download Any Video of the Internet
There are basically two ways to download videos off the Internet and that’s how I’ll split up this post: either via a web app or via a desktop application. Personally, I like the web applications better simply because you don’t have to clutter up and slow down your computer with all kinds of software!
ClipNabber allows you to download videos from YouTube, Metacafe, etc by simply copying and pasting the URL. You’ll then get a link whereby you can download the file to your computer, iPod, iPhone, or any other media player. You’ll need to have an FLV player for the YouTube videos. Quick and very easy to use!
Zamzar is a free online file conversion web application that can not only convert videos off the Internet to AVI, MPEG, 3GP, MP4, MOV, etc, but also converts between audio, image, and document formats. Paste the URL into Step 1 and then convert the file to your favorite format.
VideoDownloader is a FireFox extension, but also allows you to paste in any URL from many sites such as Blip.TV, iFilm, and even social networking sites like MySpace. You can also download a free FLV player from their site to play the videos.
Vixy.net is another site that not only downloads online videos, but will also convert them AVI, MOV, MP4, 3GP, or MP3 (if you want to extract the audio from the file). Using this site, you don’t have to worry about downloading a FLV player as you can convert it to Windows format. (Same as Zamzar)
KeepVid also supports just about any video sharing site out there and the only difference about this site is that it also has a Top Videos section, so you can quickly download the most watched videos around the web.
Media Converter is similar to ZamZar and vixy.net, but requires you to create an account and log in. Also, it seems like it only supports downloading and converting videos from YouTube. You can also download their video download program, but it only supports 5 sites.
Hey! Watch is an online video encoding web service that encodes video into different formats including HD very quickly. The graphical interface is very nice and there are lots of features and options, such as the ability to transfer any video from the web directly to an FTP server or to online storage.
YoutubeX, as the name suggests, allows you to download videos from YouTube. Obviously, it only supports YouTube, but it has a couple of other features, such as the ability to play your video on the site and find popular videos quickly.
VideoRonk searches across multiple video-sharing sites such as Google Video, YouTube, MetaCafe and DailyMotion to find the most popular videos on each of them. You can either watch them on VideoRonk or download them to your computer in FLV format.
VidDownloader supports about 10 sites including the major ones and can download the videos in DivX AVI format. It’s very easy to use and can also extract only the audio from a video by choosing “Just Audio” on the download page. You don’t have to worry about having an FLV player since it converts the files to Windows format.
According to their web site, they support more than 98 video sites including MySpace, CollegeHumor, iFilm, etc. You’ll have to rename the files you download from YouTube with the .FLV extension at the end.
This site is a foreign site, but is easy to use and supports most of the major sites. You can also download a free FLV player off their site to play videos from YouTube.
DownThisVideo has a nice tag cloud at the top that you can click on to find videos quickly. From what I could tell, this site is mostly used by Japanese because the popular videos are mostly Anime, etc. However, you can still use it to download any YouTube video.Video Downloaders for your Desktop
If you prefer to have a desktop application that can download videos for you, check out the following list:
1. Orbit Downloader This is by far the best desktop application I have seen for downloading any type of social media off the Internet. It can download videos and music from MySpace, YouTube, Pandora, Rapidshare, and lots more. It has a great interface and carries a very small foot print.
2. VDownloader A small little application that can download videos from many sites and converts them to AVI or MPG format.
3. VideoDownloader A useful FireFox add-on that supports more than 60 video sharing sites. It can also download other objects on a web page, such as movies, MP3s, flash files, and Quicktime movies directly.
4. Ares Tube Another popular video download application that is very small and very easy to use. You can download videos in batches by entering URLs into a queue and Ares Tube can convert them into different formats such as iPod, MP4, MPG, etc.
5. YouTubeGrabber Not a very fancy program, it simply takes your URL and downloads the file. No conversion is done and you’ll need to install an FLV player to watch the videos.
6. KeepV Downloads videos from YouTube, MySpace, and Google and converts them to either MOV, 3GP, AVI, iPod, or PSP format.
Hopefully, using one of the tools above, you can download the video you want! I’m sure the arsenal of web services and desktop apps will grow, so this list will be updated as needed.
