Use Email Advertising to Reach Thousands With the Click of a Key - And Not Spam Anyone
by Woody Shermon
The Internet offers a fantastic opportunity to send your advertising message to thousands of prime prospects for the cost of dinner. Email is everywhere and almost free to use. Radio, TV, and newspaper would charge you thousands of dollars to do reach the same number of people, and often without the ability to tightly target your best audience.
First of all, avoid the temptation to send your sales letter to an unsolicited list of addresses. Spam is the evil stepchild of the Internet. Even if you don't mind getting sworn at by customers, thrown off your ISP, or getting your web site nuked; keep in mind that spam gets very poor response. It is not unusual for unsolicited bulk mailers to send to 5 million and get less than five positive responses.
Opt-in email lists are much more efficient and cause none of the headaches. Firms like BulletMail.com and PostMasterDirect.com can send your message to lists of selected people who have asked for information on your topic. Success rates can be around 17% (incredibly high for any kind of direct marketing).
Email newsletters, or e-zines, are probably the best bang for the buck that the Internet offers. It doesn't cost much to put out an e-zine, so publishers pass big savings on to you. Ad rates vary from just a few dollars to around $70 to reach 300,000 to 600,000.
One of the best sites for choosing which ezines to subscribe to and advertise in is BestEzines.com. They rank e-zines according to subject (marketing, non-marketing, etc.) and offer a top ten list to choose from. BestEzines.com reads though hundreds of e-zines each week. They slice through the huge selection of e-zines to find the ones that will work best for you.
Finally, take advantage of all the free autoresponder offers that are available. Zinfo.net provides free "smart" auto- responders that can follow-up automatically with up to 10 emails. SendFree.com sends your classified ad across their big autoresponder network at no charge.
Woody Sherman is editor and publisher of OPPORTUNITY UPDATE, the three-times-weekly e-zine for both budding and experienced Internet Marketers... featuring the famous "5 For 10" Classifieds. For a sample, DeptR5@ShermanMedia.com. You'll also find a number of resources for the netrepreneur at Woody's website: http://ShermanMedia.com.
