Is It Too Late For Email Marketing?
Copyright © Charlie Page
 

There seems to be a growing sentiment on the Internet that email marketing is in big trouble. Only this morning I read one report that claims that "95% of email marketing messages" won't be deliverable in the near future. Every day we read new, and increasingly intense, articles about how Habeas will put us all out of business.

Yet in the face of what is undeniably a troubling situation, I know people who have only started marketing via email (primarily using ezines) in the last few months and are prospering.

Given these two seemingly opposite pieces of evidence, I wonder if it's time to revisit the basic tenets of successful email marketing? In that light, I offer these five ways to succeed with email marketing in any environment.

One. Understand that it takes work. If there really is an automated way to spend a few hours a week working at an online business and make big bucks I respectfully ask to see the proof. Feel free to email me with the details, but only if you are personally making over $200,000 a year. ;)

The Internet provides a wonderful opportunity to anyone willing to work, learn and apply the skills they gain. It's also the fastest way short of Las Vegas to go broke if you are looking for a quick buck. Like any business, look at your online business as a long-term venture and you will do well. Which brings us to point #2.

Two. Commit to quality. Want to know the absolute, #1, surefire way to beat the spam filters at their own game? Produce information that is so valuable that readers will take action in order to receive it and notice when they don't receive it.

It's all too easy to blame filters for non-delivery when in fact readers don't take what we say seriously because we don't stand out from the crowd. We, as email marketers, have an obligation to produce content of such high quality that readers clamor for it. Doing this is actually quite easy if what you have to say is relevant to your reader's life and comes from your heart. Commit to quality and the marketplace will reward you.

Three. Be personal. I've spoken to so many people over the years that said "I'm not a writer so I can't produce an ezine (or write an article, or a sales letter, etc.)" But once I see what they have written I'm shocked by their insight, desire to succeed and skill. Some of the best ezines I've ever read wouldn't hold up to an examination by a fourth grade English teacher ... but they changed my life by teaching me something. Do that, change their life and teach them something, and your email marketing will be well received.

Four. Be flexible. I can't recall a time on the Net where being flexible was more important than now. If spam filters are killing us we must learn to adapt. We must be informed. We must adapt. We must overcome. If our email does not get through we must find a way to get the message to readers another way. If readers want HTML we give it to them. If they want weekly editions vs. bi-weekly, we meet that need. You will never go wrong meeting the needs of your readers. Which leads to point five.

Five. Know your readers. Readers are individuals, just like you and me. Great email marketing is a lot less about using pithy wording and making an emotional appeal that it is about knowing and meeting the needs of your subscribers.

The good news is that subscribers love to interact. They love to tell you about their needs dreams and desires. The more you listen the more you can meet those needs and make the profits you seek.

Is it too late to begin email marketing successfully?

No way.

Use the five suggestions above as a platform and begin to build your email marketing business today. Just like the story of Chicken Little, there will always be those who claim the sky is falling. Don't let them dissuade you from acting.

Commit to quality, be yourself and provide a product or service of value. Combine those things with a little "sweat of the brow" and you simply cannot help but doing well.