Email Evolution and Relevance of Email

Today when people open their email inbox they want to see emails from co-workers, friends, family members, and maybe their favorite stores. However, what they don't want to see is a bunch of spam filling up their inbox and wasting their day even if they would approach or enjoy the product or service you are marketing in these emails. As a result, for email marketers it is incredibly important to understand that the evolution of email had made it more important than ever to send relevant emails. If you manage to send emails that are truly relevant you have a much better chance of having them opened and read.

So, what this comes down to is knowing how often to send emails and what information to include in them to make them relevant. Individuals ignore emails all too frequently simply because the first five or 10 they received offered no benefit to them. So, they no longer take the time to read them or even open them for that matter. They are immediately deleted and never supply the message to the potential customers. This is not just a problem with unknown companies; it's a problem for companies that have lifelong customers that love their products. The problem is that if the email is not relevant or worthwhile it won't be read.

What is important is for companies that have customers on their opt in list to research what these customers have purchased in the past. Then, create emails based on their personal preferences and purchases. For example, one particular online shoe company will follow up with you one year after a purchase of a pair of shoes to provide the link and information on those shoes should you want to buy a replacement pair. That is a pretty good marketing trick because it plays on the purchase, the product, and even the size. Providing a link to the actual shoe with the actual size showing its availability is strong and a proper way to go about email marketing.

The email marketer will want to study the evolution of email to see where mistakes were made and how to overcome them and make their approach even better. It certainly is not easy to be involved in email marketing in an age when people want to do nothing more than hit the delete button if they aren't interested. However, finding ways to make the email relative whether it is free shipping, discounts, or their favorite items, will help with the entire plan to build business.

Brought to you by Aaron Goldberg. Aaron is an advocate for Interspire, a leading provider of email marketing software, content management software, ecommerce shopping cart software, and other web software solutions.

Free Government Credit Checks

In the United States, the Federal Government plays a key role in providing its citizens with free credit reports on the Internet. The Federal Government does so through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and its website (www.AnnualCreditReport.com). The difference between this website and other sites that offer free credit checks is that it does not require you to enter a credit card number, which can lead to identity theft.

As with other credit check websites, requesting a credit report will require you to provide your name, your address, your social security number and your date of birth. The FTC has also put up hotlines where people can request for their credit reports through the phone or by mail. The credit reports that will be provided by the FTC will also contain the four types of information (identifying, credit record, public record, and new debt), and your credit score that can be found on the credit reports of other websites.

Another feature of this service is that you can request for credit reports on a quarterly basis, which will enable you to monitor your credit reports and correct any wrong information that will be placed there without having to wait for an annual credit report. This will also ensure that your creditors will be provided with the accurate information as to your credit worthiness.

Although the free credit reports are not widely available to all residents of the United States, a system has been put in place to ensure access to most Americans in the near future. Given that the Federal Government has joined the effort in providing people with free credit reports, it can be expected that loans will be processed more easily because important information such as your accurate credit score will be readily available.

Free Credit Check provides detailed information on Free Credit Check, Free Credit Checks Online, Free Government Credit Checks, Free Personal Credit Checks and more. Free Credit Check is affiliated with Free Credit Report And Score.

Email Marketing - Three Keys Before You Hit Send

Unfortunately, the first word that pops to mind when many people mention email marketing is 'spam.' The junk mail of the modern era, spam is frequently held up as an abominable combination of inconvenience and social evil, with spam blockers and anti-spam petitions filling the news online and offline. Of course, this means legitimate email marketing campaigns can get lost as weary consumers indiscriminately flag all marketing material as spam just to keep their inboxes clutter free.

How then can a company that has a legitimate, creative idea for an email advertisement series avoid getting caught in the spam trap? There are three key steps good copywriters and marketers can take to set themselves apart and boost their message open rates.

A Cautionary Tale

Important campaigns usually succeed or fail well before they're ever launched - in the planning stages. Consider a recent and already infamous Intel advertisement. The advertisement had athletic sprinters lined up to race, a reasonable attempt to link the company's processors to speedy performance. It failed because these athletes all were African American gentlemen who appeared to be bowing to a tall, smug looking Caucasian businessman. This was a clear breakdown in the planning process. No one asked the fairly obvious question 'What could be wrong with this image?' Intel pulled the advertisement and publicly admitted the mistake, but the image remains as a vivid reminder that cutting corners in the planning phase can bruise your brand.

1. Lay the Groundwork

The lesson here is that simple research, like enlisting a test audience, can mean the difference between hit and miss. The same holds true for email advertising campaigns - research is vital. Just because you can send out 100,000 generic emails within a few minutes of setting up a campaign idea does not in any way mean you should. Strategic planning up front not only can save you time in the long run, it also can secure your results.

2. Know the Audience

Previous articles have referred to the phenomenon of audience-influenced brands. This is particularly true now that the Web has become so extensively accessible. People's opinions can catch public attention almost instantly, and word of mouth can spread across the entire world in a heartbeat. Whether or not you want the audience to control your brand is irrelevant; it can and will happen of its own accord, and you should be prepared for it.

Have you taken the time to really get to know your audience? There are thousands of Internet communities dedicated to every conceivable topic, hobby, interest, or fad and your product very likely falls into one of these. Visit these user forums, find out what people are saying, what needs are not being met, and what the general opinion is. Also, don't just mine for information, but participate in the discussion. Engage and learn how people think and what they want to know about things. This isn't a chore; this is an opportunity that businesses have rarely had in the past, a goldmine of information for any marketer to tap.

3. Kick up the Content

In many cases, businesses fail to treat email as a legitimate medium, although they're eager to take advantage of it. Disregarding outright spam, even some well-intentioned 'campaigns' amount to little more than a poorly organized message presented in a jumble of mismatched colors rather than a serious attempt at focused communication.

The content of the email has to be strong. The first line has to provide a good hook, the body has to get the core, essential details out quickly and effectively, and the end has to have a call to action (be it a purchase or a website visit). Take the time to craft a message that shows you respect the reader's intelligence, and put as much thought into the structure of the email as you would any other example of your best writing.

Once these three key elements are in place, consider a test circulation of your campaign before officially kicking it off. There is very little substitute for getting another pair of eyes to look over your hard work. They can spot unfortunate mistakes, call attention to strong points, and help you refine the process before the message is irrevocably out on the Web.

Enzo F. Cesario is a digital brand engagement specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat which employs Brandcasting, informative content and state-of-the-art Internet distribution and optimization, to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to e-commerce websites. To get the free Brandcasting Report go to Brandsplat.com or visit the blog at ibrandcasting.com

Free Stuff - Do You like to Receive Free Samples, Magazines, Trial Products and Full Size Products?

Do you like finding free stuff on the internet? If you are like most people you just said yes. I love free stuff. I have scoured the internet for years trying to find a good place to get free stuff. I don't want to waist my time going from site to site just for one tiny free sample. I had a good free site a few years ago I visited every day.

Then they got a new format and became like most of the sites you see out there. You would have to sign up for free offers, or do surveys. My time is valuable as I know yours is.

What if I told you there was a site out there where you could get tons of free stuff. Yes completely free. All you have to do is fill out your address form and you are on your way.

I know from experience. I heard from a friend about this site. I took a look and was impressed at the variety of stuff they had for free. I check everyday or every other day.
The site I found is awesome. They have a variety of special deals on their site. They have hot deals where you can get discounts on a variety of items. They also have contests on there I occasionally go and sign up for some.

The place I always check is under forums, and then hit free stuff. Scroll down and look for what you want.

This is a list of some of the things I have signed up for and received. I get about 15 magazine subscriptions per month. I have received many baby items such as formula, bottles, diapers, pull ups, bibs, sippy cups, and a baby book all of them free.

Sometimes there are links for free video games on the internet. Sometimes for free movies and music downloads. I have a kitten and recently got 2 trial packs of kitten food and a coupon for a 4 lb bag of Iams cat food. My kitten loves the free samples.

I have also received Swiffer dusters, Dove face wash, Dove deodorant, kitten chow, Pantene shampoo, Ganier frutis hair care samples, Secret deodorant, Tampax pearl tampons, Always clean pads, diapers, pull ups, Tylenol and hand lotion. A lot of the samples you receive are trial size. This is nice because you can really see if you like the product.

One of my biggest free find arrived in the mail yesterday. I did a 30 minute survey for a pasta company. I received coupons for 12 boxes of pasta and sauce for a whole year. I added up the value and it is over $40 worth of pasta and sauce. Not bad for 30 minutes of my time. I can use 1 pasta and 1 sauce coupon once a month. My son was very excited about that. He loves spaghetti night.

So check the site often you wont be disappointed. I mean who can't use some free things? Who doesn't want to save money? I know I do!

Visit Meal Ticket On Us for the best freebie site on the internet.

How To Set Up A Totally Free Direct Mail Program For Your Mortgage Business

Glad to see that this article caught your attention. You're going to love this amazing little direct mail mortgage marketing strategy.

This super simple idea will actually allow you to mail 500 or 1,000 or 10,000 or even more...postcards and/or fliers each week for free...all of this without you having to pay one single cent for postage. In fact, this idea is so profitable, that a number of mortgage professionals notified me that they replicated the idea multiple times and created their own lucrative direct mail companies outside of their mortgage businesses. Now that's powerful!

Forgive me for jumping ahead here. Let's start back at the very beginning and explore the details of this idea.

The most expensive part of a direct mail campaign is your postage. For that reason alone, you may not currently be using direct mail in your mortgage business. Your next most expensive item will be your list. The postcard might cost you a few cents apiece to print depending on your quantity. So that's almost nothing.

What all of this boils down to is that it's pretty tough to get a mailing out these days for less than 55 cents each or maybe 65 cents apiece. So that makes direct mail pretty darn pricey. So here's what you do to avoid paying postage, list rental, printing, and even make a profit using this idea.

First, you find out how many people live in your marketing area. What you want is the number of residences in your area. The post office will show you how to do a "Dear Resident" mailing. The post office will deliver your "Dear Resident" postcard very cheap if you are trying to hit every household in a certain zip code or set of zip codes.

If you'd like to personalize the carrier envelope, just look under the Yellow Pages under the category labeled "Mailing Lists," and you'll find a list of local companies that can help you. However, personalization is not a requirement. In fact, most loan officers that use direct mail address their offers to "Dear Resident." You'll also find this reduces costs substantially.

Second, let's say you find out that there are some 12,275 residences in the targeted area you want to reach. What you now do is approach other businesses that would also be interested in reaching these same people with a postcard advertisement. Ask these businesses if they would like to spend, say, 20 or 25 cents instead of 55 or 65 cents to reach a potential customer in their target market.

As a reminder, only approach businesses with this idea that are not competing with you and your mortgage business. There are tons of businesses willing to participate and a good letter promoting the concept will keep your waiting list constantly filled.

All of this sounds pretty simple, doesn't it?

Well, it is. In fact, the odds are good you already receive a mailing like this. There are a number of companies out there that will provide this service for you at a cost. They are called "card deck mailings." Just type "card deck mailing" into Google, and you'll see all kinds of companies come up in the listing that will do your card deck mailing for you. Better yet, when you receive your next mailing...call and check out their pricing. Your card will be ganged in with all the other merchants.

But here's the simple truth. You can save a lot of money my doing these mailings yourself. They are really very easy to do. There is something to be said for that old adage "If you want it done right, do you it yourself." You'll have total control of the process. And especially total control of who is getting your mailing. Very often, the "card deck" mailing companies hit to big a geographical area and include too many folks outside your marketing area. So, do it yourself so you can be certain you're only paying to reach those people you want to reach.

Also, you can gang together more than just postcards in an envelope. You can also gang fliers, letters and other advertising materials. Although I have seen some "card deck" mailings arrive in clear shrink wrap, plain old envelopes work just great.

But whether you do it yourself, or use a company that specializes in card deck mailings, this is a very cost effective way to advertise your business in your local marketing area.

But there is one key you need to be mindful of to make this kind of a mailing work for you. You need to make sure your mortgage message stands out from the other messages in your mailing package. Again, don't offer this opportunity to your competitors...only to those businesses that want to reach the same people in your marketing area.

Here's a great opportunity to actually make money in two businesses.

You'll make money in your mortgage business by promoting your company via your mailing...that is, with your own postcard or flier. And, you can make lots of money selling your direct mail program to your co-op mailing partners. Just mark-up the cost. A 15% mark-up or so to compensate you for your work and initiative is certainly reasonable, and you'll still be under pricing the big national "card deck" mailing services. When you get all your prices together, you may find that you can demand an even larger mark-up.

Start mailing your co-op mailings once a month, and then increase the frequency as you get your systems and procedures in place. I'm sure you can see that there is some great money to be made doing this. If you've got some guts and ambition, you can work this system to a point where you are mailing countless card decks and other co-op mailings per week with very little if any cash outlay. Your co-op mailing partners are funding the entire process and even paying in advance for the privilege of working with you.

I'll let you do the math here on what you could make with this idea if you just mark-up the cost a minimum of 15% to your co-op mailing partners. You may need to consider a part-time assistant early on to make this work for you. Of course, nothing will work if you don't work the plan. To get this system up and running will take a little initiative and some oomph on your part.

At the very least, use this little trick to conduct direct mail marketing campaigns for your mortgage business at no cost to you. It's not at all hard to find six or eight or ten or more businesses that will be more than happy to sign-up for the program and participate with you.

This is a great idea...drop me an email or give me a call...I would love to hear of your success with this program.

Tom Domin is the author of "101 Ways to Originate Mortgages" and publisher of "Tom's Mortgage Tips" a twice monthly Mortgage Newsletter geared for Mortgage Professionals. Put your mortgage career on the fast track and sign-up for FREE at http://www.MortgageMarketingToolKit.com/

Steal Back Your Ex Girlfriend Using Sneaky Psychology Tricks - She Will Never Know What Hit Her

In order to win back your ex lover, whether she is with someone else or not, you have to learn how to be sneaky. Even though getting back together with you may be the last thing on her mind, it is definitely the only thing on yours.

One key to steal back ex girlfriend is to make sure you communicate with this person in a way that she will not know what you have up your sleeve.

Appear to be moving on

One thing you must do to steal back ex girlfriend, is to live your life so that it appears to her and others that you are moving on with your life. Go out and have fun with family or friends.

Without rubbing it in her face, be obvious to her friends or family that you are moving on, the word will quickly get back to her.

Once she finds out you are forgetting about her and moving on without her quicker than she may have expected you to, this may bother her a little, or a lot. This method works, even if she has someone else. Humans tend to want what they cannot have.

Do not rub your happiness in her face

Whenever you do talk to her, be careful not to go on and on about all the good things you are doing with your life now. You just want her to know that you are happy. Although it will be easy to try to make her jealous by telling her you have someone else.

You will see that you will not need to mention you have someone else to steal back ex girlfriend, she may start to get jealous anyway. Just be sneaky about it, you do not want her to figure out that you are trying to get her back by making her jealous.

URGENT: Most vital tip of all!

If you want to win your ex back in less than one month, you need some effective tips that has worked for thousands of people from around the world.

This Free Report and e-mail course reveals some major secrets on how to steal back ex girlfriend in record time. For many people it takes less than one month.

17 E-mail Deliverability Tips for 2008

Email deliverability is a headache. We used to worry about the content of an email blast, and avoid spammy words like free or using ALL CAPS. But with the shift in the last few years towards reputation based SPAM filtering, email deliverability tactics have changed drastically. Now, instead of one isolated email getting stuck in the bulk folder, you risk damaging your long term sender reputation if you're not using best practices. Below, I've gathered some tips for ensuring your email makes it successfully to the inbox.

Join Feedback Loops: Feedback loops allow you to see who is marking your email as spam (so you can remove them). Some ISPs, like AOL, provide an easy way to join the feeback loop. For other ISPs, you may need to contact your email service provider to see if they can provide you with this information.

Remove Inactive Subscribers: Inactive subscribers are most likely to mark your email as junk. Sure, nobody wants to willfully shrink the size of their opt in list, but you have to think long term.

Consistent Timing: ISPs love it when you consistently send email on the same day at near the same time. Since spammers don't care, consistency is the mark of a responsible email marketer.

Use Consistent From Information: Be sure to always use the same from name and address. Changing the from email will require your subscribers to add each address to their address book in order to ensure deliverability. In addition, a consistent from name helps readers recognize your brand.

Use Double Opt In: Double opt in is a best practice required by many ISPs in order to be considered for
white listing. In addition, it protects your database from misspelled email addresses.

Unsubscribe Link at Top: Why at the top? Because if unhappy subscribers can't find it within a few seconds, they may hit the junk button instead, which damages your rep. Better to lose a subscriber than get a spam complaint.

Static IP Address: If you send marketing emails from your own server, always send from the same IP address. If you use an email service provider, find out if they offer a dedicated IP for an additional charge. If they do, it's worth it. Like shared web hosts, many ESP's group many clients under one IP address. In other words, what another company does with their email marketing can affect your deliverability. It's much easier to manage the reputation of one IP address rather than many.

Reverse DNS: Many ISPs perform a reverse DNS lookup, which checks to make sure the IP you are sending from is authorized to send from your domain.

White List Reminder: Encourage subscribers to add your email address to their address book or
white list. Some ISPs look at the number of times you are added to an address book as a sign of trust.

Get Authenticated: Email authentication is confusing as heck. There are a few standards out there that are not necessary competing. The Sender ID Framework uses a simple SPF record with your DNS Zone. Microsoft has a handy Sender ID wizard to help you create this text record for your DNS. In addition to Sender ID,
DomainKeys is another popular authentication method. Both methods help to both ensure deliverability and prevent spammers from spoofing with your domain.

Don't Worry about SPAM Words: Don't stress about using the word "free" or
occasionally putting all caps in the subject. I find these tactics to be successful and have no affect on delivery.

Remove Bounces: Be sure to remove all hard bounces that come back as undeliverable. Repeatedly sending to an invalid email will send off red flags with most internet service providers.

Reply to Challenge Responses: Occasionally, SPAM filtering software will send back a reply to your email asking you to confirm that you are a real person. Invest the 30 seconds or so it takes to do this for each challenge response you receive. Not only will it ensure that this particular
recipient receives your message, but it can improve your sender reputation as well.

Be Relevant: Nothing encourages spam complaints more than sending people stuff they didn't sign up for. If they signed up for a ezine newsletter, and you send them nothing but sales pitches, you're likely to get complaints.

Send In Spurts: Some ISPs have limits as to how many emails you can send to in a given period of time. If you're having trouble sending email to a particular ISP such as Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail, see if your email service provider gives you the ability to stage the email over a longer period of time.

Get Off Black Lists: MxToolBox offers a great tool to check if your email server is blacklisted. If it is, begin the process of contacting each of the the black list service and find out the process for getting your IP removed.

Get On White Lists:
Achieving white list status with the major ISPs is no small feat. If you're not
up for the challenge, consider uses an email deliverability consulting firm that specializes in this area.

For more
email
marketing tips and tactics, please visit the Palmer Web Marketing Blog.

Justin Palmer is the founder of Palmer Web Marketing, which offers eCommerce website reviews. In addition, Justin is the director of online marketing for C28.com, which sells T-shirts & clothing for Christians.