Writing a good and attractive e-mail for permission marketing

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We believe an e-mail should promote, excite, educate ande Using permission based e-mail is one of the most powerful promotionaltools available to any Internet business. What makes an e-mailsuccessful? We believe an e-mail should promote, excite, educate andentertain.
Our peers might disagree, they say that an e-mailshould only promote. We think promotion is an essential part of anOpt-In e-mail but should not be the sole component.
In this article, wewill talk about the important components of a successful Opt-In e-mail.Those components include: * How to create urgency. * What type of promotional vehicle you can use to create urgency.
* Content that excites, educates or entertains your customer.A direct e-mail should be content driven, with an offer. The offer needsto create urgency and that urgency needs to relate to an expressed needthat the customer has.
To create urgency, you need to have a time limitassociated with the offer. Your offer may be any of the following:1.
Discount on products or services2. A value added purchase3.
Discount on complimentary services4. SweepstakesWe have listed the types of promotional vehicles you can use, in theorder that Western Consumers prefer.
Recent studies indicate themajority of on-line shoppers prefer a discount on products or servicesover any other type of promotional vehicle.1. Example of a discount on products of services: "Receive 10% off on this product if you purchase before October 15th!"This is a discount on the service or merchandise, with a defined timeframe.
The customer must make a purchase within that time frame, inorder to take advantage of the discount. If you choose this method, makesure your on-line shopping system is programmed with the new price anddiscount.
Do not give the discount after the defined time frame expires(ex: October 15th). The consumer must believe their window ofopportunity is a limited time frame and they will not receive thediscount unless they purchase within that time frame.
2. Example of a value added purchase: "Purchase this item before October 15th and receive a similar orcomplimentary item for free!"This is a great strategy to use, if you have a new item you would liketo introduce to your customers or if you have an old item which youwould like to eliminate from your inventory.
The customer has to believethere is good perceived value to the "value added item" or else therewill not be any urgency created and your promotional e-mail will beunsuccessful. This type of promotional e-mail offer, can be verysuccessful but usually is not as successful the preceding method.3.
Example of a discount on complimentary services: "Purchase our product or service before August 15th and receive a 10%discount on your next airline ticket from China Air!"This type of promotional e-mail can limit your costs of running apromotion, but they are harder for the consumer to redeem and they mightonly target a small segment of your Opt-In list. The first two optionsare probably more appealing to the larger part of your customer base.
4. SweepstakesWe all have seen sweepstakes offers on the Internet, so we won'tprovide an example here.
Sweepstakes can create incentive foryour customer to purchase, but they usually do not create urgency for alarge segment of your list. Offering a free vacation or trip might bevery appealing to you, but is this offer going to cause your customer tomake a purchase today.
If you decide to offer a sweepstakes, make sureyou monitor your incremental sales that are generated. You might findthat you only marginally increased sales vs.
your regular monthly sales.You have decided the time frame of your offer and what you want tooffer. It is time to write your e-mail! When writing your promotionale-mail, make sure you are trying to reach the broadest crosssection of your Opt-In list as possible.
As we stated earlier, youre-mail should promote, excite, educate or entertain.Make sure your e-mail opens with an offer to unsubscribe. Many companieslocate their unsubscribe notices at the bottom of their e-mail.
You showyour customers a great deal of respect, if you offer them theopportunity to unsubscribe at the beginning of your message. You alsoquickly eliminate customers that are no longer interested in yourproducts of services.Have the promotional portion of your e-mail as the next part of yourmessage.
This is where you make your money. If you have four items orservices to promote, include them all.
Make sure you provide a directlink in your e-mail to the spot in your web site where the customer canpurchase the promotional item(s). Do not make them go to your home pageand navigate your web site to find the promotion!The third component is to excite, educate or entertain your customers,by providing them with third party information that you have found onthe Internet.
If that information comes from a web site or web page,include that URL, so the customer can quickly access your information.If you excite, educate or entertain your customers, they will recommendyour Opt-In list to others and your unsubscribe rate will besignificantly lower than other companies that only promote theirproducts. In summary:Using Opt-In e-mails for promotional purposes is one of the mosteffective and most affordable advertising strategies available to anyweb entrepreneur.
Make sure that you promote, excite, educate orentertain and your Opt-In list will continue to grow and so will yoursales. Article Tags: Promote Excite Educate, Promote Excite, Excite Educate, Create Urgency, Value Added, Time Frame, Promotional E-mail, Opt-in List, Make Sure Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .