10 Tips to Immediately Optimize Your Email Marketing Campaigns

It's common knowledge that email marketing is one of the most powerful ways to make money on the internet. Developing a strong relationship with your subscribers is tantamount if you want them to purchase what you are promoting.

Studies show that people are more likely to buy from someone they know and respect. It's also known that most consumers won't purchase until the seventh or eighth email contact. What does that mean to you, the internet marketer? Well, it means that if you want to make a sale through your email list, you need to have a very strong series of messages loaded into your autoresponder.

These messages must be a balanced mix of promotion and high quality content delivery. Too much of one or the other will prove ineffective. If you give away too much information, the subscriber won't need your product. If you sell too hard, the customer will get turned off and unsubscribe. So, how do you find this balance? Well, it takes experience, and lots of trial and error.

Here are 10 tips that will help improve your email marketing campaigns immediately:

1. Use a newsletter format. In my experience, autoresponder messages that are set up in the form of articles or newsletters work much better than ones that have several sentences of content and then your link. You should structure the messages to work in chronological order. For instance, your series should be a seven or eight part course on the subject of your niche, and they should all lead up to the final email which makes the hard sell.

2. Subscribe to other lists in your niche. You should always subscribe to several other lists in the niche that you are promoting. It's important to see what kind of content others are giving away so that you can get an idea of what's effective.

3. Avoid a "spammy" appearance. You should avoid using all capital letters and the word "free" in the title of your mailer. Also, avoid repetition. Repetition is very indicative of sales copy.

5. Always use the subscriber's first name. You should always first names in the "To" field and again at the very beginning of the email. This gives the appearance that the email was written strictly for that individual. Most autoresponder software comes with a formatted template that automatically adds the subscriber's first name with a click.

6. Keep it short and sweet. Don't ramble. Get your point across and give the subscriber quality information, but don't use unnecessary text just to lengthen your message. Email messages that are more than 250 words can seem overwhelming, and the subscriber will probably not read them.

7. Give detailed instructions. Tell the subscriber what you want them to do. A great idea is to encourage the subscriber to forward the email to their friends. Always include a link at the bottom of your email where others can sign up to your list. This way, if the email is forwarded, it can result in new subscribers.

8. Proper Formatting. This is something that is very important. Although many autoresponders offer fancy templates, it's not a good idea to use them. Many email programs don't read HTML, and a template can appear like a jumbled, confusing mess. Keep it simple. If you have to use a special template, always provide a non-HTML version of the email as well.

9. Always test your message first. This seems like common sense, but many people are so busy they forget about it. Send the email to yourself first. If one or more of the links aren't working, you've just wasted time and energy. It also looks bad when your links don't open or give an error message. Even worse, if there is a similar link out there, you may end up promoting someone else's website to your list. I'm sure they won't mind, however!

10. Assess your "open" and "click" statistics often. After you send a message, wait two days and then analyze your stats. Pay careful attention to your email open and click-through rate. The industry standard is between 5 and 15 percent. That means that if you sent out 100 emails, 5 to 15 people should have opened them and clicked the links inside. If it is considerably less, you need to change the structure of your messages.

Although some of these tips may seem elementary, they are extremely important. These fundamental aspects of email marketing often mean the difference between several sales and none.

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