How to e-Mail Market

The e-Mail Marketing Campaign

You’ve got a list. You’ve written some great content. It’s designed and published. Before you click the send button, use this checklist to ensure you’re on target.


Are the sources of all e-mail addresses in your contact list apparent?
If you don't know where the contact information came from, how can you be sure that you have permission to market to the e-mail address? If your e-mail is reported as spam, you need to be able to defend yourself against accusations from federal and provincial privacy commissioners.


Does your list contain many duplicated e-mail addresses?
If so, you may be sending multiple messages to the same people, and destroying the trust and good will that e-mail marketing works so hard to build.

Are your messages CAN-SPAM and PIPEDA compliant?
If you are sending messages to US contacts, those messages must comply with the governing US legislation (CAN-SPAM). In Canada, your messages must comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). If you fail to do so, you risk the wrath of both federal and provincial privacy commissioners.

Do your messages look like advertising?
Traditional, one-to-may advertising is inappropriate in the one-to-one medium of e-Mail Marketing. e-Mail Marketing's purpose is to build on the initial relationship created when your prospects give you permission to market to them. Your e-mail messages should acknowledge this relationship and seek to build on it with each new communication.
Because people use the Internet to search out information actively, they tend to ignore what they perceive to be Marketing hype. Your e-mail messages should provide the information and references they are looking for, rather than pure advertising pitch.

Are your messages heavily laden with graphics?
If so, they might be causing your readers some frustration, or they might not even be getting through their spam filters. e-Mails that are constructed as one large image take more time to load than predominantly textual ones, which can be frustrating for the recipient. Since no text appears while the image is loading, your message may be reported as spam before the contact even sees it. Many spam filters, such as SpamAssassin, place a high spam score on e-mails that have a large image to text ratio. Therefore, the chance that the message will be trapped by a spam filter is increased.

In addition, text rendered in an image does not print as clearly as real text, and requires more memory.

Are your messages personally addressed?
Unlike traditional advertising, e-Mail Marketing is a one-to-one medium. The contact's Inbox is his or her private domain. Addressing contacts by name makes a message appear more personal, and contacts are less likely to report a message as spam if they believe there is a reason for them being on the list (i.e., if they are addressed personally, they will believe they must have subscribed at some point).

Take a free test drive of BetterMail.ca, a comprehensive, do-it-yourself e-marketing system. In addition to powerful e-mail sending capabilities and incredible ease of use, you get flexible site integration tools to make complex forms and surveys on your web site and in e-mails easily. Real time reporting, full customization and assurance that your e-mails are actually delivered through our relationships with major e-mail providers (AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) complete the solution to deliver e-mail marketing confidence and power.

How to publish an e-Mail Campaign

PUBLISH YOUR E-MAIL CAMPAIGN
How do you publish an e-mail campaign that engages your prospects and pulls in sales?
You need two things: content and design.

CONTENT
Many business people don’t believe they are good writers or have anything important to say. For the first concern, you can hire a writer. For the second concern, you can do simple research and come up with great new ideas and produce a compelling e-newsletter.

1) Scour the Internet for ideas.
2) Ask your clients what matters most to them, what they read, and what topics they want to know more about.
3) Read relevant magazines to see what they are writing about.

Many believe educating their prospects will turn them into clients. Not so. In your e-newsletter you don’t have to do unpaid consulting. You must provide some good advice but just enough to tease them into wanting to know more. Teach them something new but don’t try and teach them everything. Be brief.

Here are some ideas to get you started on content:
· Articles on a topical item
· News
· Tips
· Best practices
· Regulations
· Links to articles
· Links to resources

DESIGN
You’ve got great content, now you need to package it with a great look. Should you, your web designer or an outside professional be creating your e-mails? Should you use e-mail templates? The answer depends on your budget.

BetterMail.ca is a comprehensive, do-it-yourself e-marketing solution. In addition to powerful e-mail sending capabilities and incredible ease of use, you get flexible site integration tools to make complex forms and surveys on your web site and in e-mails easily. Real time reporting, full customization and assurance that your e-mails are actually delivered through our relationships with major e-mail providers (AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) complete the solution to deliver e-mail marketing confidence and power.

CANADA: SPEAKER SEARCH

Speaker's Gold is looking for 3 of the most talented speakers to speak at its client appreciation event in October IN FRONT OF MEETING PLANNERS AND CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS.

TALENT SEARCH
DATE: June 21
TIME: 7 - 9 pm
LOCATION: Trinity St Paul's Centre, 427 Bloor St W
CRITERIA:
1) No more than 10 paid speaking engagements (+$1,000) in past 12 months
2) Deliver a 3-minute motivational speech
3) 2 referrences/ testimonials
4) DVD or video is optional

Register at Speaker's Gold or call 416-532-9886

Developing Your e-Mail Marketing Contact List

Developing Your e-Mail Marketing Contact List

What’s the best way to grow your e-mail contact list? If you attend business networking events, with all those business cards being handed out that’s probably the perfect place to get e-mail addresses, right?

Maybe. For your e-mail marketing message to work, it must be wanted. So “yes” you may add new contacts to your list but ONLY IF THEY FIRST GIVE YOU PERMISSION.


For e-mail marketing to work, it must be permission based.

How do you get permission?

The key to successful networking is to have a meaningful discussion about how each of you can help one another. Keep in mind, your e-mails may be a way you can help someone so ask if they would like to subscribe.

Whenever you receive a business card, ask permission to jot down some quick notes so when you get back to your office you remember what to do.

Back at the office, go through the cards and add new subscribers manually.
Here are some other great ways to add people to your lists:
1) For your first email, it’s acceptable to send out your e-mail to your existing contacts with a permission notice on top: "You received this e-mail because you're an associate of ABC Business. To unsubscribe, click here."
2) Call prospects lists and ask permission to add them to your list.
3) Automate the sign up process through your web site. e-Mail services make it easy to set this up on your web site.

Your e-mail list is gold.

To reach the full potential of e-mail marketing, you need to take good care of your list:
· Keep it up to date
· Ensure you have permission to send emails
· Grow your list
· Comply with Internet Marketing best practices

BetterMail.ca is a comprehensive, do-it-yourself e-marketing solution. In addition to powerful e-mail sending capabilities and incredible ease of use, you get flexible site integration tools to make complex forms and surveys on your web site and in e-mails easily. Real time reporting, full customization and assurance that your e-mails are actually delivered through our relationships with major e-mail providers (AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) complete the solution to deliver e-mail marketing confidence and power.

20th ANNUAL YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR AWARDS

Our 20th annual Young Entrepreneur Awards are coming up again, so if you know a YEA -- (Defination: between 19 - 35 years, must have 2 yrs of active business experience and must own at least 20% of the business) let me know. They don't need to be a BDC client to submit an application.

They can win an all expense paid trip to Winnipeg to receive awards during National Small Business Week, as well as gaining national exposure for their business.


If you know of anyone let me know and I will forward their information in!



Shelley Baker
Business Development Bank of Canada
Account Manager, Mississauga North
Tel: (905) 803-5582

LEAD TORONTO: 8100N printers awesome price

A number of 8100N printers have just been removed from the office network of a large company, the machines are in working condition (network system pulls). Remaining toner quantity is not guaranteed but has a 20000 page capacity at 5% coverage. All parts are available for purchase through HP, although I might able to get extra cartridges for a discounted price. This machine is completely Microsoft XP compatible as well as 3.1, 95, 98, 2000, NT4.0, , MacOS (8.6 to 9.X). At this time 26 are available and the Deadline for orders is midnight Tuesday May 8th,2007.

The HP LaserJet 8100N is the high-volume, versatile printer with unsurpassed performance, reliability, and value. With a low cost of ownership for medium to large printing environments this printer would be an excellent investment for your busy workgroup or office. Reaching print speeds of up to 32ppm with 1200 dpi resolution, the 8100N delivers quality and dependability. As a standard feature, this model comes network ready. Features·
1200 x 1200 DPI Image Quality (FastRes 1200) · 32 PPM (17 seconds first page out) · Wide Format (11.7" x 17.7") · Network Ready (10/100 BaseTX) · 16 MB Memory (expandable to 208 MB) · Connects Via Parallel and Fast Ethernet · PostScript Level 2 Emulation · Environments: Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 2000, NT4.0, XP, MacOS (8.6 to 9.X)

CONTACT: Gary Cox, Upgrade IT Computer Solutions, sales@upgradeit.ca
647-891-4884

NEED TORONTO: WOMEN IN SKILLED TRADES

Wo-Built Inc, a construction company (www.wobuilt.com ) whose mission is to help women enter and succeed in the building trades is looking for the following help:

1) Contact information for women who are already working the building trades and who would want to talk to us about working on our projects and be mentors for any students or apprentices.

2) Contact information for persons who might know about federal or provincial funding for for-profit companies to establish training programs that would help women.

3) Contribution to our Information Forum, a vehicle that provides women (and men) with a voice in the construction industry. We welcome comments and building industry related educational and informational articles. The topics may include design, construction and management related issues or a person's experience. http://wobuilt.blogspot.com


Please contact us on info@wobuilt.com or on (416) 402-2679. Thank you"

Nominate women entrepreneurs today!

2007 RBC CANADIAN WOMAN ENTREPRENEUR AWARDS

July 20, 2007 is the deadline to nominate women entrepreneurs for The RBC Canadian Woman Entrepreneur Awards.

Awards are presented in five categories: The Deloitte Start-up Award, The Intel Innovation Award, The RBC Momentum Award, The Bell Trailblazer Award and The Energy Savings Group Lifetime Achievement Award.

Minimum Requirements: Candidate has owned and operated a profitable business in Canada for three full years as of May 31, 2007 (not a franchise), earns her primary income from it, and is responsible for its day-to-day operations. For more details on the Awards eligibility criteria visit www.theawards.ca

Nominate an outstanding Woman Entrepreneur you know, or nominate yourself!


Nomination forms can be found online at www.theawards.ca

For information - visit www.theawards.ca or call 416-923-1688 / 1-800-354-3303

e-Mail -- a More Powerful Marketing Tool Than Your Web Site

The Internet is changing our economic order. Those who embrace it will prosper, and those who don’t are missing out on one of the most powerful sales and marketing tools available.

e-Mail marketing is more powerful than your website. Aside from spammers, who abuse the medium, email is well received.

If you’re not e-mail marketing, usually it’s because you are unsure about how to do it or whether to do it.

If you are uncertain about whether to email market, perhaps you believe it’s too complicated or too time consuming. Many mistakenly believe their customers don’t use e-mail or wouldn’t want to receive e-mail from them.

If you are uncertain about how to go about it, it’s really quite simple – only three steps to follow.

1) Build an e-mail list. If you already have a list but are worried it’s too small, you need to learn how to build a much larger and responsive e-mail list. It’s best to ensure it’s a permission-based e-mail list, as well.
If your list is under 100 contacts, you can probably manage it on your own. When it tops 100, get an e-mail marketing service that with tools to ensure your e-mail gets past spam filters.

2) Manage your e-mail database. Set up properly, an opt-in e-mail program allows people to sign up automatically and makes it easy to keep contacts current and send out hundreds, thousands, and more with the click of your mouse.

3) Design and publish your e-mail campaign. If you have difficultly designing and publishing your e-mail campaigns, consider having your web designer or other professional create your e-mails. Another route is to use e-mail templates.
Once you get these issues addressed, you will find e-mail is an essential part of your marketing mix. e-Mail becomes the energizing force that attracts the correct audience to your website. E-Mail pushes out to your prospects and customers taking your message to your audience.

Inexpensive, e-Mail allows you to conduct marketing, branding, research, education and sales follow-up. Your message gets widely read and more frequently encountered, and supports people in taking action, driving traffic back to your website and making your phones ring.

BetterMail.ca is a comprehensive, do-it-yourself e-marketing solution. In addition to powerful e-mail sending capabilities and incredible ease of use, you get flexible site integration tools to make complex forms and surveys on your web site and in e-mails easily. Real time reporting, full customization and assurance that your e-mails are actually delivered through our relationships with major e-mail providers (AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) complete the solution to deliver e-mail marketing confidence and power.

MAY SPONSOR

BetterMail.ca, a do-it-yourself e-marketing program, is the Exclusive Sponsor of BizNetworkNews.com for the month of May.

BetterMail.ca allows you to build a database and publish html emails with ease. Because of its simplicity, affordability, and reliability, BetterMail.ca has published and delivered BizNetworkNews.com since its inception almost 5 years ago.

Unsure whether e-mail marketing is right for you? Or want to tap into your database but are uncertain about how to begin a campaign? Test BetterMail.ca yourself for free and see what it can do for you.