eCommerce Email Podcast (MailerSkills)

Lots changing in the digital world, just giving some updates... some tips on email leadership and some upcoming news.

This might be a controversial episode, but in this I explain the golden goose many copywriters salivate over that isn't what it seems, how to avoid bad deals and how to manage the good ones for profit and success. Should you do a joint venture or rev share deal? Listen in and find out.

Things are shifting rapidly. We're seeing some challenges and amazing opportunities. Let's take this time to discuss how to stay strong, what you can do as an agency, a business etc. It's time to manage our mindset, look for opportunities and above else, keep mailing. In this podcast I discuss one important reason why we must keep mailing and stay positive.

Vanessa is the author of The Email Empire and in this call, I dig into how she got into her line of work, success stories, struggles and some of the methods and approaches she uses for Email Marketing.

Drew is a professional copywriter who works with marketing agencies, international businesses, local and online businesses to increase sales.

He has a real passion for getting under the skin of your ideal prospect and selling them… especially via direct mail and print, but also online…

When he’s not creating new sales angles and writing persuasive copy to increase conversions, he’s learning the tricks of the trade in raising a newborn girl

In this episode:
- How to get people's attention
- How to persuade people
- How email compares to direct mail
- Secrets to writing amazing headlines
- A secret from a copywriting expert
- Closing methods (getting the sale)
- What you should never do in email.. and more!

I thought I'd take a quick moment to peak into some cold emails being sent out, discuss subjects that work, re-engagement subject lines and stuff that it takes to get higher open rates.

I also discuss the impact relationship has on email open rates.

On today’s show we have Kevin Polley - Founder of the marketing firm Mutual Advantage in the UK and owner of the software ARP Reach. Also the CEO and founder of Wordpress webhost called TheHostingShop.co.uk.

Now, ARP Reach is a piece of software you can install on your own web host for sending email, setting up autoresponders etc.

It can be installed on a smaller web host or in the Amazon cloud, or on a custom server and allows you to manage your OWN reputation and your OWN marketing without the heavy hand of ESP’s like Aweber, Infusionsoft etc.

Kevin - Before we dig into the meat of today’s chat, tell us a bit about yourself and how you found yourself the owner of this amazing technology?

Tell us a little bit about what you like about ARP and what you feel it’s advantages are?

Questions I asked Kevin:

- How long have you been managing email systems?
- A while back you told me about this gentleman that’s score dropped really low… (no names needed) how low did it actually get?
- What types of things did you do and how long did it take to fix?
- What are some best practices people can take away?
- How do you feel about the 4 most common reasons we install ARP for?
- What's the future of ARP look like, and can we give anyone a sneak peek?


Curious about ARP Reach? You can just go to www.ARPReach.com or contact kevin@mutualadvantage.co.uk, to learn more!

Thanks Kevin, You’ve been awesome!

Adrian Savage, founder and creator of WeDeliver.email shares his amazing story of creating a slightly controversial and edgy solution to a regularly whispered out problem. Inboxing with Infusionsoft! We talk large lists, results and... even if you're NOT on Infusionsoft, we talk tools and strategies to reaching inboxes, testing your authentication and more in this VERY candid interview.

Your system side

- List hygiene
• Responding instantly to unsubs
• Optin confirmation strategy
• Removing or suppressing the unengaged
• Removing hard bounces immediately
• Removing soft bounces after the 3rd bounce • Master suppression list
- Engagement monitoring
- DKIM and SPF
- Properly formatted HTML
- Careful wording selection (spam assassin)
- Equal image to text ratio
- Monitoring abuse@ and postmaster@ addresses
- Volume and consistency
- Obey the law (can spam act)

Off your system factors
- Blacklists
- Accreditation programs
- ISP feedback loops
- ISP whitelisting

Last episode: we talked about affiliate marketing, and how to not annoy your subscribers...

Introduction:
Special guest… Trainer, fitness coach and nutritionist, Neerjie… She’s also a distributor of some top notch meal replacements and she has an earth shattering story we’ll get to near the end of the show, so stick around!

Current episode: Ultimate Story
Why…
From camp fires to office cubicles, stories (the juicier, more authentic, ugly and raw and truer the better) transfer better than anything….
They’re a part of the human experience and we visualize them and remember them…

Neerjie; Anything to add to your thoughts on the power of stories?

Method of the ultimate story…

Put a man in the jungle, introduce conflict get him out

Bullet proof formula from Broadway to Hollywood:


Core elements of a KILLER story:
-Characters
-Challenge
-Motivation
-Setting
-Obstacles
-Closing

How does this relate to email or marketing.
I know, it’s obvious, but this part might spike some wild great ideas for you!

What if you made a FAKE made up story about your product in the hands of your customer?

Sound like something a trustworthy company would do? Maybe not, but that’s exactly what the Wall Street Journal did with the letter that was mailed millions of times from the 1970’s to the early 2000s. “Two young men, they were very much alike, one subscribed To The Wall Street Journal….”


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Next episode teaser: SPAM BOX AGAIN! Low open rates? :(

What they are
Emails that promote someone else’s products or services for a commission

Why do them
Contests
Relationships
Temporary cash

Why they destroy relationships

How to do it the right way…

Write it yourself
Use the PAS (Problem, Agitate Solve) and recommendation approach
Be honest, it’s an affiliate program
Segment your list, people who click the 1st email…

This podcast is sponsored by FunnelTracker, if you’ve got a webinar, email system, landing page system and website all using different software, and you want a 1 screen dashboard, check it out.

Today’s topic:

First, what’s a STARVING market… A group of people searching for a solution to a problem and not finding any relevant solution/results.

Why should we care?

Fact is, you can have any advantage you want…
But if people aren’t actively hunting, worrying, stressing about this thing...

Ok so first, how do we find people looking for it, and how do we check results.
We’re going to cover different ways to do your research.

Outline:

Google Adwords, 7Search, WordTracker
Phone ideal target customer interviews
Survey Funnels
Book reviews
Question sites (Yahoo Answers, Quora, Google Answers)
Facebook Groups
Online Forums
(cause based) Change.org
Front end quizzes
Startup Tools

Curious for more? Join www.FindAStarvingMarket.com

As a guy who's helped people grow email lists to over 400,000... I can truly speak to the shift I've seen in the last 8 years of what works and what doesn't. Whether you're a newbie or an expert, there's something here in this podcast that will shake your current knowledge and methods of lead generation and list building.

Episode outline:

First, for newbies let’s briefly set this up.
What’s a newsletter
What’s an opt-in box
How do they work?

- What’s not working very well anymore (that used to)
- timer based popups (shows after 8 seconds)
- footer opt-in boxes (bottom of website)
- Sidebar opt-ins with free ebooks
One page landing pages with no content
Exit pop opt-in boxes that show up when you try and leave (bait n’ switch?)

What’s HOT right now…

Content unlocks
Content upgrades
Advertorial pages (editorial style story lines)
Webinars & software
Quizzes..

What should your subject line say? Is the subject line the ONLY thing that controls massive open rates? If you want some secret tools, insider tips of when to send email and how to get more eyeballs on your content, don't miss this short and info packed episode of Email Expert Podcast!

Need more people ordering your product, visiting your webinars or opening your emails? Perhaps what you're missing is this one key ingredient. Teachers just love to give you a complete lesson, but.. In this thought provoking teaching, Daniel Deyette explains why you might want to leave people unsatisfied on purpose! Fact is consumers will love you for it... Want to know why? Tune in!