Network marketing tactics for e-mailing

Spam folders can be a roadblock, and lots of people claim they won’t read it … but this marketing your network marketing business via e-mail continues to generate sales.

According to a recent survey by Epsilon, 84 percent of e-mail users said they click through to read more about offers that had messages relevant to their needs. More than 70 percent said they bought because of an e-mail network marketing offer, and more them 50 percent forwarded e-mail messages about a product or service on to others.

Personalized e-mails get better responses

Electronic communication is fast, cheap and — when personalized — is highly effective as a marketing tactic. An example is an e-mail addressed to a person by first name in the e-mail subject area and the persons name included in the body text of the e-mail. One study showed that personalized e-mails generated 43 percent more click-though to a web page, 43 percent fewer unsubscribes and more than 400 percent more sales.

Improve your response rates even more by letting people know in the e-mail subject area as well as in the opening text of the e-mail the reason you are writing to them. People are busy, so get to the point of your message right away, whether it’s letting them know about a special savings, a bonus incentive, or an event in their area. After you’ve made your reason clear, remind the reader of who you are and your previous relationship with them.

Send e-mail only to those people who have given you permission. When someone asks to be removed from your list, respond immediately. Don’t get pegged as a spammer. You can lose your site and face criminal charges if found to be in violation of the iCan Spam Act.

Hints for e-mail success

• People get fewer e-mails in the afternoon, so yours will have a better chance of getting read when sent then.
• Avoid cramming your whole marketing message in a single e-mail. Make your note only as long as will fit in single frame on the viewer’s screen. Include a link to a web page with more details.
• A study by Lyris Technologies showed that e-mails not getting through to inboxes had less to do with spam filters and more to do with the content. A big factor in whether e-mails got through was heavy use of images, which causes spam scores to go up. ISPs block incoming e-mails when users complain, so it’s critical that you keep your message relevant, simple, and clean.
• One study showed a higher number of sales when an e-mail offer arrived on Friday.

Make your signature count

One of the most overlooked yet opportune ways to promote your network marketing offer is exploiting the bottom of your e-mails in an area known as the e-mail signature. It’s free ad space … and it works. Most e-mail management programs allow you to create a variety of e-mail signatures that automatically appear at the conclusion of your e-mail message. This area is like the P.S. of a letter — and it may end up being read more often than the body of your e-mail. Create different signatures for different categories of communications, like a special message for distributors and another for prospects. Include a persuasive testimonial by a satisfied customer or research study.

Autoresponders are automated e-mails, programmed to deliver immediate or scheduled replies to anyone who sends an e-mail to the autoresponder address. E-mail autoresponder addresses appear just like any other kind of e-mails. For example, someone sending e-mail to [email protected] could receive a programmed welcome message from you. which could link to a web page with a promotional offer.

Autoresponders help you leverage your time by automating the process of answering commonly asked questions. Autoresponders go out immediately and the receiver gets it as fast as he receives any other e-mails.

Autoresponders can include a series of messages. For instances, you can program an autoresponder series to deliver a mini-course in how to save on legal expenses for your small business. Or, you can deliver issues of a newsletter via an autoresponder series.

Autoresponders are easy to set up. Providers allow you to create messages, schedule their delivery time, send the e-mails, and provide links for those who wish to stop receiving (opt out) your announcements. You can also view and export your list of subscribers.

Many web hosts provide autoresponder services for free. If yours does not, there are free and paid autoresponder providers. A disadvantage of using a free service is that these services make their money by selling advertising to others whose message is included on every e-mail that goes out from you. This means your prospects see someone else’s product offer as well as yours.

Although using a free service may be tempting, you’ll get better response by delivering only your own messages. A paid service can cost anywhere from $10-$50 per month.

The daily double

For almost any topic, you can probably find plenty of interesting information you can break up into bite-sized nuggets of wisdom, which can go into an autoresponder series to deliver “daily tips” to your customers, distributors, or prospects. Not only will these tips help your contacts, you add to your own knowledge by doing product and market research and accumulating data that can be incorporated in your other marketing approaches.

Take any useful content (that isn’t copyrighted) about your product or its ingredients and benefits. Your tip-of-the-day (or week) series can be a free service or you can charge for a year’s subscription. Daily tips help your customers and distributors find out more ways to use a product than they knew about before. Invite subscribers to submit their own network marketing product tip stories and credit them by name.