Six Ideas for Segmenting Your Email Lists
Author: Janine Popick
True story: every two weeks we send out a newsletter. One week I decided to go crazy. I divided our list by "Business Type." What happened? Each of the business types registered double the open rate than the generic newsletter...

Five Ways to Build Your Email List
Author: Janine Popick
Developing a mailing list can be quite a challenge. Building a list that has both size and quality is the ultimate objective. Here are some tips to help you grow your own mailing list and reach that gold standard.

Here Come the Holidays! 7Tips to Get You Ready Now
Author: Janine Popick
If your business is anything like ours here at VerticalResponse, you're pretty hectic from now until the end of the year. We've jotted down some ideas to get you thinking and acting now.

Your Email Campaign Launch Checklist
Author: Janine Popick
To avoid nasty email campaign mistakes we created an easy to use 10-step checklist internally here at VerticalResponse that we're happy to share. Never make a mistake again (or at least come close to never, no one is perfect...)

How To Write E-Mail That Get Results
Author: Cheryl Rickman
Your words and the way you present and convey your message are what counts when sending e-mails. It's all about what you say and how you say it. You need to: ensure your message is read make y...

16 Tips to Bounce-Proof Your Email List
Author: Austin C. Bliss
Keeping your email lists fresh is critical to the success of your online marketing and e-commerce efforts. In the early days of the Internet, the novelty of web sites and free e-newsletters made acquiring customers online all too easy.

Six Tips to Improve Email Delivery Rates
Author: WorkZ Staff
Use opt-in form instructions Provide clear, step-by-step directions that indicate how subscribers can guarantee delivery of your emails straight to their inboxes. After registrants complete an ...

The E Writing Bulletin...26 Ways To Spruce Up Your Newsletter!
Author: Leslie O'Flahavan
If you've been publishing for a while, your newsletter content mix may be static. Maybe each issue includes the same tired content: one press release, one Top Ten Tips article, and one News From Headquarters feature. Or maybe your newsletter is still relatively new, but in the hectic days of launching it you concentrated on building your subscriber list and graphic design, not content. If so, now is the time to take a hard look at your newsletter content.

Higher Response
Author: Janine Popick
Email Content - What's Up With Filtering? You have your great-looking email all set to go and you hit the launch button. What happens after that? Hopefully your email gets through to the intended reci...

Manage Customer E-Mail Communication
Author: Lisa Picozzi
E-mail offers your online customers their only chance to "speak to the manager" to get additional information or pursue resolution to a problem. Online shoppers expect people to answer their e-mail me...

How often should you email your recipients?
Author: Janine Popick
At VerticalResponse, we get this question all the time, should it be twice per month, twice per week, once per quarter? The truth is that we don't have a perfect answer to this question. What we do kn...

Email Marketing Best Practices
Author: Janine Popick
Whether you are new to email marketing or a savvy veteran, working for a company that sends 500 emails a week or 500,000, there are certain policies you should follow to optimize your campaigns. Call them the commandments of email marketing or call them best practices; here are 18 ideas to improve your delivery, open, and response rates. Your checklist for a successful email marketing campaign.

Five Simple Steps to Increase Sales with e-Newsletters
Author: Paul Nastu
E-newsletters are a great way to increase quality leads for sales teams and give a boost to your viral, word of mouth, and referral marketing programs. Here are 5 simple steps to create an e-newslette...

10 Quick Ways to Promote Your Web Techniques
Author: Merle
Think fast! If I asked you to quickly name ten things you could do to promote your Web Techniques, what would you say? If you're like most online entrepreneurs thinking off the top of your head, you w...

Does Your E-mail Pass the Blush Test?
Author: Leslie O'Flahavan
Sending an e-mail message that we regret is something we've all done. And we feel a bit of relief if the damage was contained and local. While something on the lines of sexual exploits broadcast by ...

Participate in Online Communities
Author: Andrew Dellon
The Internet is buzzing with e-mail; everywhere, potential customers are communicating with each other and sharing information about their experiences with various products and services. How does your...

Marketing a High-Budget Service Site
Author: Nicole Bishop
If your service site has over $5,000 a month to spend on online marketing/advertising, here are marketing channels that would work well for you. Directories and Search Engines Suggested allocation: 25...

Publish an E-Mail Newsletter
Author: WorkZ Staff
Producing a newsletter that's of interest to your target audience is a great way to build your lead database, earn new customers, and develop an "expert's voice" in your field. A newsletter can be an...

Writing Effective E-Zine Content
Author: WorkZ Staff
Writing for the Internet, whether for a Web site or an e-zine, is not like writing for print. A recent study that tracked eye movements of Web surfers has suggested that Web readers focus on text ...

Marketing a Low-Budget Service Site
Author: Nicole Bishop
You have a Web site for your service business. You have a max of $1,000 a month to spend on marketing. What do you do? The objective of your advertising efforts will be to get a direct, measurable re...

Retain Customers, Personalize E-Mail
Author: Rick Whittington
Maintaining relationships with your customers via e-mail is a valuable tool for the success of your Web site. And it can be wildly profitable. According to eMarketer.com, two-thirds of all e-mail mark...

That's Not Spam, That's My Newsletter!
Author: Jessica Albon
Copyright 2003, The Write Exposure For those of us who receive way too many unsolicited emails, Spam filters are a blessing. Switch to the publisher's side of the desk, though, and Spam filters can be...

Get in Gear Without the Latest Tools
Author: Michael Katz
I have a bias towards solutions that are homemade but functional, both off-line and online. When I was a kid, I had my bedroom rigged up so that I could open and close the door while lying on my bed a...

Adding E-zines to Your Marketing Mix
Author: Andrew Dellon
Utilizing E-zines Posting to Moderated Discussion Lists Purchasing Ads on E-Zines Using E-Zines as a Competitive Advantage Locating E-zines Any ongoing traffic-building program should include e-zine...

ABCs of Promotional E-Mail
Author: David Townsend
Of all the weapons in the e-mail marketing arsenal, promotional campaigns are among the most popular and effective. Here are the basic components of a promotional e-mail campaign and a few useful tips...

Set An E-mail Response Schedule
Author: WorkZ Staff
You can use auto-reply confirmation messages to set expectations of a considered response or order fulfillment, but you'll have to set a schedule for reviewing all customer correspondence to make sure...

Play It Straight With Your Customers
Author: Michael Katz
It has been more than a month since I last sent out my twice-monthly newsletter. That's a problem. Not only am I missing out on an opportunity to strengthen my relationship with my customers, I'm brea...

The Power of One (to One)
Author: David Townsend
E-mail has the potential to help realize the utopian dream of affordable one-to-one marketing. OK, I know that's somewhat overstating things, but what cannot be overstated is the current meteoric rise...

Five Tips for Email Excellence
Author: Dianna Booher
Five Tips for Email Excellence Strive For a Style Somewhere Between Stuffed-Shirt and T-Shirt Like our work clothes, the preferred writing style has become business casual. And just as the busin...

Pass or Spam? Take the Quiz
Author: David Townsend
Spam (also known as UCE, or "unsolicited commercial e-mail") is any e-mail message that an organization sends to a distribution list of recipients without their express consent. Now, this is where thi...

Confirm Receipt of E-Mail Messages
Author: Lisa Picozzi
To many Web users, a late response is worse than no response at all. But few companies have the time or inclination to answer each e-mail message as it arrives. Confirming the receipt of all incoming ...

Manage Customer E-Mail
Author: Jennifer LeClaire
E-mail is the primary connection between you and your customer. It offers the customer direct, fast, and reliable contact with your Web site. It can help you personalize the customer's experience, pro...

Ready, Set, Go: Your E-Mail Newsletter
Author: Einar Solheim
What's the best way to get your customers and interested Web surfers to remember you and your product or services? Sign them up for your company's e-mail newsletter. If you haven't started an e-mail n...

Reach Out to Customers Online
Author: Michael Katz
Take a look at your business. If you think you'd benefit from a base of more loyal customers who buy more often and at times of the day and week that benefit you, consider the story of my local car wa...

4 Building Blocks of a Killer Newsletter
Author: David Townsend
Want to generate interest in new products and services, and promote awareness of your brand? A newsletter is just the thing. In this column, I give suggestions for developing four elements of an effe...

Know When To Use Relationship Marketing
Author: Michael Katz
My phone rang last week with a call from a potential client, the vice president of marketing at a midsized bank. Here's how the conversation went. VP: We're looking for a company to help us launch and...

Follow E-Mail Netiquette
Author: Lane McCulloch
When you communicate by letter, you follow a certain ettiquette, including rules for formatting the letter and addressing the recipient. When you communicate by e-mail, you'll need to follow a similar...

Frequency Matters
Author: Michael Katz
I had lunch a few weeks ago with an old friend from high school. The last time I saw Nancy was 11 years ago; she was standing in the receiving line at my wedding. It was great to see her again, and ...

Q&A: Web Site as Door-Opener
Author: Joan Stewart
How long have you had The Publicity Hound Web site? Is it in its original design or has the site evolved into what it is now? About three years. It's still in its original design but I make frequent u...

Customer Service: Your Product Just Shipped!
Author: Andrew Dellon
Improvements to shipping over the last decade have greatly reduced the time it takes to receive an order. Consequently, customers have higher expectations — someone who ordered from you on Monday migh...

Avoiding the Spam Trap
Author: Alexander Brown
Spam has not only become troublesome because we all receive too much of it, but it's now a problem for legitimate e-zine publishers such as you and me. This is because the spam overload has driven m...

How I Made A Sale Without Selling!
Author: Shery Ma Belle Arrieta
Three weeks after I announced a free and customizable e-mail workshop I created, I received a rather bewildered and distressed e-mail from someone who signed up to take it. In her e-mail, she wanted ...

Writing Competitive E-Mail
Author: Leslie O'Flahavan
E-mail is a prized tool for the small entrepreneur. It allows you to communicate quickly and frequently with your customer. It doesn't matter that your competitor can afford a fancy logo and expensive...

15 Web Techniques Elements That Attract Visitors
Author: Catherine Franz
Certain components on a Web Techniques attract visitors and get them to linger more than others. Having the right combination is one of the basic keys to being attractive to visitors. Marketing Mast...

3 Iron-Clad Rules of Direct E-Mail Marketing
Author: WorkZ Staff
Early in her online marketing career, Juliana Moore sent an e-mail message to 200 people who received a free, information-packed newsletter from one of her clients every week. The client was appearing...

Developing and Delivering an E-Mail Newsletter
Author: WorkZ Staff
Producing a newsletter of interest to your target audience is a great way to build your lead database, earn new customers, and develop an "expert's voice" in your field. Most newsletters on the Web a...