How to Maximize the Power of E-mail

There is no question that E-mail is the most popular and powerful feature of the Internet. A great deal of attention is given to web sites (which are powerful in their own right), but nothing reaches so many so personally as simple e-mail.

By now you are probably quite familiar with the process of typing up a note to somebody, emailing it to them, and waiting for their rapid response. E-mail can be far more advanced than that without being very complicated. There are two major aspects of e-mail that we will talk about in this lesson:

(1) How to use e-mail in a big way to give a major promotion boost to your web site and business.
(2) How to handle the flood of e-mail response that will come your way.

Here are five simple methods to boost your e-mail power and more effectively respond to the e-mail you are getting.

1. Never spam. Sending unsolicited e-mail is the big no-no of the Internet. Anyone who sends out e-mail to someone they don't know or who hasn't asked for it, will soon be kicked off the Net by their Internet service provider. Spamming also generates a great deal of ill will for your business and more hate mail than you can count.

Fortunately, there is a good answer to the frequent question, "How can I reach a LOT of people with almost free e-mail?" Opt-in e-mail lists are made up of people who have ASKED to be on the list. For example, several hundred dog owners might ask to get all the e-mail available on raising competition poodles. There are many fine lists of people who are looking for a business opportunity, new products to promote their web site, or tips on how to make better investments.

Most opt-in list providers allow a one page sales letter. Make sure you go with a good, reputable opt-in service that keeps a record of the subscription e-mails for all their members. Invariably someone will forget they are on the list and complain that you have spammed them. A good opt-in service can put the dispute to rest quickly.

Here are a few good opt-in services:
http://www.postmasterdirect.com
http://www.bulletmail.com
http://www.bonusmail.com

Copywriter Al Bredenberg features The Direct Email List Source:
http://www.copywriter.com/lists
http://www.targ-it.com/

2. Use templates whenever possible. Once you have sent your sizzling sales letter to hundreds of opt-in prospects who are drooling over your offer, your e-mail box will fill up. Overnight you will have hundreds of eager customers- to-be wanting more details on your products and services including how to buy them. You will likely find yourself typing the same answers and info over and over again to different people. When you have written a good answer once, save it as a text file to your desktop. You can click the icon on your desk top, copy the document (highlight the whole thing, then press control c), and paste into your e-mail program (control x). Many of the better e-mail programs like Eudora Pro and Pegasus have simple ways for you to store often-used replies and easily paste them into responses when needed.

This use of templates can shave hours off your daily e-mail chores. You can get away from that "canned" feeling of a template reply by including a customized line or two at the top of the message. If Betty writes about ways to promote her new business, I start my reply with "Betty, thanks for the info on your new business. Here are some ideas that might help." Then I paste in my template reply.

3. Let autoresponders do your work for you. You can automate much of your e-mail by putting often asked for documents on autoresponders. These are simple online gizmos that send your information to anyone who mails to the autoresponder address. Put your price list on an autoresponder at pricelist@yourdomain.com and anyone who sends an e-mail to that address will automatically get your price list via return e-mail Most web site hosting packages include several to unlimited autoresponders.

If you don't have a web site or use a free hosting service that doesn't provide autoresponders, get up to 20 FREE at sendfree.com. SendFree was the first ad exchange for autoresponders. When someone sends e-mail to your autoresponder, your classified ad goes out at the top of somebody else's autoresponder. It is a great FREE way to spread the word about your web site and business.

4. Automate your follow-up effort with "smart" autoresponders. There is an old saying that you don't make the sale until the prospect has heard or read your info seven times. That is not far from the truth. Few of your customers buy on a moment's notice. Most have to see you, consider you, then decide to make the buy. All this takes time and multiple contacts.

Smart autoresponders send your prospect a second, third, fourth message spaced out over days or weeks. For example, your are receiving this course via our smart autoresponder system. Once you asked for this course, our autoresponders automatically sent it to you right on schedule without us having to lift a finger (if we weren't so busy we would be fishing somewhere and could say that we relax while our autoresponders to the work).

Here are some good free sources of smart autoresponders. Like all free services, these can sometimes get overloaded and let you down.

http://www.fastfacts.net
http://www.zinfo.net
http://www.getresponse.com

5. Now that you are doing all this e-mail marketing, you will hear from lots of people who want to receive your information. Once they make contact with you and request more information, it is OK to put them on your house opt-in list. Of course, you will take them off the list any time they ask. This list can quickly grow to hundreds and thousands of customers and prospects who know you and have a heightened awareness of the benefits of buying from you.

Many successful Internet entrepreneurs swear their house opt-in list is the most valuable thing they have. It can be used to move products and services quickly. Best of all, it was practically free to build and can be used over and over again to produce results at no cost.

Things you can do NOW:
Spend some time exploring the features of your e-mail program. A good simple free one is Eudora Lite available at http://www.eudora.com/. Try out the address book feature and especially the BCC field that lets you mail to a big group of people without any of them seeing each other's email address (good to keep them from getting unwanted junk mail from others on your list).

Think of several answers you give often or will give in the future. Write them up and save on your desk top, a disc, or in the template area of your e-mail program.

If you have enjoyed this straight forward advice consider our one stop e-commerce solution:

MASTER E-COMMERCE! Here's how to make money online with your new or current business. One Stop e-Commerce solution offered by JustWebit.com gives you hundreds of power strategies you can use NOW to supercharge your success on the Internet. Plus we give you a merchant account, shopping cart, secure server, web builder, domain name, and real time transactions.

NEXT in Lesson #6: "How to Build and Manage a Newsletter" You already know that having your own email newsletter is a major step toward fame and fortune. Few things work as well to build your business fast on the Internet. Here are the quick-methods for putting together your own newsletter and getting it in front of 1,000s of subscribers spam-free!

Need some tools to get your Internet Site automated so you can generate a cash income and still have time to enjoy life?
Contact Justwebit.com at 888-874-5200. We can help!

What's New

Find Out Who is Making Money on the Web!

Features