Are you publishing an ezine or offering an email course Are you talking with your subscriber through your ezine or email course If so what are you calling them
Hello John or
Hello friend or
Hello
If you want to feel the difference between the above three, stand infront of a mirror and call yourself with above three ways. Which one is more pleasing for you The same with your subscriber too!
What is personalizing of emails means
At the beginning of the emails instead of starting the message directly we will call the person by name like Dear John.
This is possible if you are sending email to one person or few people.
But here you are dealing with a large subscriber base...Some thousand emails...
So what to do
You need a Mailing list Manager that works with this feature. While you keeping subscription forms, you need to keep two fields. One for the First name and second for the email address. So your cgi script stores your subscribers name in the database.
If you sending emails to your subscribers, you have to put some code like [FIRSTNAME] or {fname} etc depending on software instructions. Then the script replaces this code with actual first name while sending the message. Pretty cool. Huh
Some cgi scripts that have these personalization features:
Mailing list Managers:
OK...Very convincing till now. Why should You personalize your emails
1. Calling your subscriber in the subject line of email increases the chances of opening your email. Their name in the email subjects attracts the eyes. So more chances of opening it.
I myself scan thru the all subject lines of emails. Certainly I feel like opening the emails with my name. But you should be careful with emails that carry virus to your computer. Some people send you emails with your name and attachments. This is especially common with free accounts like Yahoo, Hotmail etc,.
2. Once your subscriber opens the email there will be more chances of clicking other links in your ezine.
3. If you use your subscribers name before any special offer or exciting bonus, it catches his eyes. Leave an extra line above and below the name. So the name stands a little prominent.
4. When you contact other webmasters for link exchanges, joint ventures make a habit of personalizing the emails. It makes lot of difference.
5. You can use this personalization feature on your websites, membership sites, discussion boards etc. When the member logs on to your membership site, the script (usually the script uses cookies to display your members name) automatically displaces their names welcoming them.
TWO LAST NEVER DO IT tips: Some people write the message templates and copy and paste them in their email programms and send them to different people. These templates if has a name on it and you are sending it to a person with different name, it looks very very embarassing. So check the names before sending email messages.
Another is DONT misspell the names. Especially the person is from different country, you may not be familiar with those names. So check twice before clicking send button.
One last note...
Try experimenting by implementing different features in your ezines and see how the subscribers response and your expected results.
About The Author
Radhika Venkata - Subscribe to EbookBiz Magazine which is completely focused on ebook business and Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights every month!
Webmaster Resources: List Your product, ezine or web site free!
Dont be insulted. Dont take it as a personal rejection. But you can count on it happening without fail.
Each and every time you send a mailing to your opt-in list, a few of your subscribers will opt-out, meaning they will unsubscribe from your list. This doesnt necessarily reflect on the quality of your newsletter or your offers.
It may simply mean that the recipients inbox is so swamped with commercial messages that she cant find Grandma Sallys latest news from Tennessee.
Besides, if your opt-in system is healthy, working well, and gathering new subscribers as it should, this minor setback will not have much of an effect on your business as a whole.
On the other hand, your business will be best served if you take steps to minimize opt-outs as much as possible. While email marketing ethics demand that you keep the opt-out process simple, easy, and fool-proof, there are a number of things you can do to retain the subscribers that you have. Your goal is to prevent them from even thinking about clicking the unsubscribe link.
Here are a few suggestions.
1. - Strive to keep the content of your mailings fresh, interesting, and professionally formatted. Provide good information and other obvious benefits in each issue of your ezine or newsletter. Even solo ad mailings can be written to contain at least some educational value and useable information.
2. - Identify yourself in each mailing with a full signature line and URL to your website. Keep in mind that you probably are not the only marketer who is sending email to your recipient. Be sure that she can quickly and easily recognize your mailing, rather than mistake it for just another anonymous piece of junk email.
3. - Personalize each mailing with the recipients first name whenever possible. Most list mailing softwares will enable this by the insertion of a simple piece of code into the body of the message. While most receipients know that the personalization is mechanical, it still has a desired effect.
4. - Frequently manage and edit the subscriber names on your list for proper capitalization and other formatting problems. A personalized greeting of Hello jerry027 will not build much in the way of reader rapport.
5. - Resist the urge to over-mail, no matter how desperate your need is to generate sales. Practically anyone will be quick to unsubscribe when she finds her inbox being slammed daily with your email messages.
6. - Make every effort to answer any and all personal inquiries from subscribers within 24 hours. Believe it or not, this isnt a common practice with many online marketers. Some tend to reply only when they smell money. A prompt answer to a subscribers inquiry will not only demonstrate respect and consideration, it will set you and your business far above many others in the minds of your subscribers.
7. - Give, give, and then give some more. Of course, were not suggesting that you give away your products or your services on a wholesale basis. Yet you must be willing to give of your time, your effort, and your committment to quality.
While it should be made clear and evident to all that you are operating a business for profit, your obligation to your subscribers is to cultivate a win/win situation for all involved. When you are successful in that effort, very few subscribers will even think for a moment about clicking your opt-out link.
Dan B. Cauthron has been involved in direct marketing morethan 30 years. He offers FREE No Nonsense Marketing Advice and Tested Tools and Resources at:
Copyright 2005 - Dan B. Cauthron All Rights Reserved Worldwide