Ignoring Bouncebacks Can Ruin Your Email Success

If you use email, chances are you have seen a "bounceback" message in your inbox. You get one whenever you send an email to someone and then — for whatever reason — their server rejects the message.

The "bounceback" message usually contains the original email you sent, as well as an explanation as to why the message was rejected.

There are two types of bouncebacks you need to know about:

Type #1: Hard Bouncebacks

A hard bounceback occurs when you send a message to an email account that no longer exists. The account has been closed for some reason, so the mail server that hosted the account will send your message back, notifying you of this change.

Hard bouncebacks are particularly common when you send mail to free email accounts with providers such as Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo. That’s because many people use these free accounts as a secondary or disposable account for random newsletter subscriptions and such.

When the volume of email to their free account gets too high, people often shut it down, create a new one, and move on.

But unfortunately — if they forget to send you their new address — you’re stuck with an email address that no longer exists!

Type #2: Soft Bouncebacks

A soft bounceback occurs when you send an email to an account that is still valid but is temporarily unable to receive email. The most common cause of soft bouncebacks is when an email account is too full or the server that hosts the account is temporarily down.

Why You need to Manage Your Bouncebacks

Because soft bouncebacks are generated when an email account is still valid, you don’t need to remove them from your email list. Where you want to focus your attention is on hard bouncebacks.

In order to maintain the highest deliverability, you need to constantly remove hard bouncebacks from your email list.

If you continue to send email to addresses that are no longer valid, the ISPs (Internet service providers) that previously hosted those addresses may consider you a spammer — and block ALL the email you send to any other email accounts they host.

For example, let’s say I have 1000 @yahoo.com addresses on my email list and over a period of 6 months 100 of those email accounts are closed and become invalid.

If I still continue to send email to those invalid accounts, Yahoo will assume that I’m a spammer sending unsolicited email to random accounts — and they will block any emails I send to the 900 remaining valid accounts.

Ouch!

The process of managing your bouncebacks is called "list hygiene." In order to get the highest amount of email delivered to your subscribers, you want to stay on top of your list hygiene and remove email addresses from your list as soon as you get a hard bounceback after sending to them.

Automate the Process

As your list grows, you’ll want to invest in some software that will help you categorize and manage your bouncebacks.

Most email software packages or services provide this feature. If yours doesn’t, then it’s probably time to upgrade!

Don’t Forget to Follow up and Get the New Address!

If you do get a hard bounceback from a previous customer, be sure to follow up with them via phone or even snail mail to get their updated information.

All your customers are valuable and you don’t want to lose a single one from your list! The time you invest getting their updated email address is typically time well spent.

Remember, this is just one step in maintaining a clean email list that gets the best deliverability. For an in-depth look at how to get the absolute highest deliverability and response from all of your email campaigns, click here to continue: www.marketingtips.com/emailsecrets

Happy Emailing!

Derek

Start an Internet Business

The Proven System to Help You Grow a Hugely Profitable Internet Business… Without Breaking the Bank!

One of the questions I get asked all the time is "Derek, how do I start a successful Internet business?"

My response? There is a very specific sequence of steps you NEED to follow to guarantee your success.

How do I know?

Because it’s the exact same sequence of steps that my team and I have used to grow from a one-man company to a team of over 100 Internet marketing experts… generating more than $60 million in sales!

Over the years, my team and I have continually tested this system, and have proven its effectiveness over and over again.

But this system hasn’t worked only for us… Since IMC opened its doors in 1996, we’ve seen a staggering number of real, everyday people follow these steps to earn life-changing incomes with their Internet businesses. And the numbers keep growing exponentially!

Anyone, from newbie to seasoned Internet marketer, can benefit from going through this proven series of steps. No matter where you are in your business, it always pays to revisit the basics and make sure you’re doing everything possible to grow your business to be as good as it can possibly be.

Read on to review this proven eight-step system - and discover how simple it is!

Step #1: Find a hungry niche market - BEFORE you decide what to sell

Most marketers make the mistake of looking for a "hot product" to sell when they’re first starting out online - and they end up choosing a product before they determine whether there’s a market for it. And this is the reason the majority of Internet startups fail!

The fact is, most people do NOT go online to buy. They go online looking for information or to solve a problem.

What you need to do is find an untapped niche market: a group of people who are going online to solve a common problem, but are not having any luck finding a solution.

By doing some simple research, you can discover EXACTLY what these people are looking for - and then figure out a way to give it to them. That way, you KNOW you’ll have a market that’s eager to buy your product - before you even know what it is!

Once you’ve found a hungry niche market and come up with a product that will satisfy their wants, it’s time to write your salescopy…

Step #2: Write compelling salescopy that draws in your visitors

Without a doubt, the most important part of your website is your salescopy. It’s the only contact most of your visitors are going to have with your business - so you have to make sure it does the job of a top-performing salesperson.

A lot of people don’t feel confident about writing. But don’t worry! Writing salescopy is a "science," not an "art" - there’s a specific formula to follow that will lead your visitors smoothly through the sales process.

You need to focus on how your product or service will solve people’s problems or make their lives better. Think like a customer: "What’s in it for ME?"

A few key things to remember when you’re writing your salescopy:

• Include a headline and subHdrlines that are packed with benefits
• Build credibility with testimonials
• Offer a strong guarantee
• Pile on the bonuses
• Don’t forget to ask for the order! Never assume that your visitors will understand what you want them to do on your site - you have to TELL them, and then make it easy for them to follow through with their purchase.

And remember: You want your copy to emphasize the BENEFITS of your product, not its features. What’s the difference? Features TELL, benefits SELL.

Say, for example, you’re selling low-energy washing machines.

Feature: They use less electricity than conventional machines.

Benefit: You save money with every load!

Do you see the difference? You want your visitors to have a clear idea of how your product is going to help improve their lives - because that is what’s going to convince them to make a purchase!

Step #3: Design a winning site that converts visitors into buyers

Yes, it’s true: You should only start building your website once you know what you’re going to sell and have written your salescopy. That way, your site design will facilitate the sales process, rather than get in its way.

The most important thing to remember when designing your sales website is KEEP IT SIMPLE! You only have 10 seconds when someone arrives at your website to grab their attention - otherwise, they’re gone, never to be seen again.

Some important tips to keep in mind:

• Choose a plain, sans-serif font (like Arial or Verdana)
• Use black text on a white background
• Make sure your navigation is clear and simple, and include a sitemap
• Avoid using cheesy or distracting flash or audio (using video and audio is OK so long as it supports, rather than distracts from, your message)
• Make sure you include an opt-in form to collect visitors’ names and email addresses - offer something useful, like a free subscription to a monthly newsletter or a free report that’s loaded with useful information

Whether you decide to teach yourself a bit of HTML and design your site yourself, or hire a web designer to do it for you, your goal is not to confuse your visitors, but rather to draw them in and lead them step by step through your sales process.

Make it EASY for them to purchase, and they will!

Step #4: Use the ‘Net’s top search engines to drive tons of targeted traffic to your site

Now that you’ve got your site built, it’s time to start selling. But how do you get traffic to a brand-new site? The answer: search engines!

Over 90% of Internet users start with free search engines when they’re looking for information online, so you want to make sure your site ranks as high as possible in their listings.

There are two ways to use search engines to drive traffic to your site: Using pay-per-click (PPC) programs like Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing, and getting ranked in the "organic" search engines. You’re going to want to start with PPC, as it’s the best way to start driving IMMEDIATE traffic to your site.

Once you have some paid traffic coming to your site, and you’ve figured out which keywords are performing best, you’ll want to optimize your web pages for those keywords so that your site starts showing up in the organic search engine results as well.

Step #5: Tap into secret sources of cheap (and even free!) traffic

As an online marketer, one of your most important assets is your reputation. People need to know who you are, and why they should trust you!

So how do you "spread the good word" about you and your business to the far corners of the Web?

Easy! You can:

• Give away free, expert content! Write a series of short, informative articles packed with useful information and tips, and submit them to online article directories. Include a brief bio and a link back to your website at the end of each one.
• Issue press releases about your business. This is a great way to announce a new product, or report on exciting developments in your industry - and it’ll drive traffic back to your site.
• Become an active expert in industry forums. Find out where your target market hangs out, and share your knowledge with them by posting knowledgeable replies to their questions… and remember to include a link back to your site in your signature!

Sending all this great information out - with your name and website URL linked to it - will also help you get a better ranking in the search engine listings, since every site that posts your content will link back to yours. Search engines LOVE inbound links from relevant sites, and they will reward you accordingly.

Step #6: Use the power of email marketing to keep in touch with your visitors… and turn them into buyers!

I hear it all the time: email marketing doesn’t work anymore. And when I hear that, I just laugh… because it’s not true AT ALL. In fact, according to PostFuture, 82% of online buyers have made at least one purchase in response to an email promotion.

It takes an average of four to seven contacts with someone before they will be comfortable enough to buy something from you, so you need to stay in touch with your visitors and build a relationship with them.

Email marketing is the ideal way to do this. You can show your subscribers you really know what you’re talking about and make them feel comfortable enough to make a purchase.

Plus, you can stay in regular contact with your existing customers and keep them informed of new products you have to offer!

Step #7: Grow your business by selling new products to your existing customer base

It’s a little-recognized fact that at least 36% of people who have purchased from you once will buy from you again IF you follow up with them. That means one-third of your customer base is just waiting for you to offer them something new!

You have already cultivated a relationship with your customers - you have put in the time and money to get their attention, establish credibility, and close that first sale. That’s by far the most difficult part - not to mention the most expensive!

(Think of all the planning, advertising, and promotional activity that goes into getting those initial sales… )

But once you’ve acquired those customers, you want to develop their "lifetime value." An old marketing adage says that 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your customers.

This means backend selling and upselling are your best bets. You can:

• Offer products that complement their original purchase
• Send out electronic loyalty coupons they can redeem on their next visit
• Include an offer for related products on your "Thank You" page
• Sell affiliate products that complement your product or service
  

By staying in regular touch with our customers and letting them know about new products we have available, we were able to increase our revenues by over 30%!

Step #8: Harness the power of affiliate programs for hands-free traffic… and sales!

Once you have a profitable business on your hands, you should always be on the lookout for new ways to grow it. And one of the best ways to do that is to launch your own affiliate program.

Affiliates are people who promote your products on their web site for a cut of the selling price. Every time they send you a buyer, you pay them a commission.

With an affiliate program, you have the power to exponentially increase your income. Think of it… You don’t have to go out and spend any money on advertising because your affiliates do the advertising for you… and you only pay them when they make a sale. You can’t lose!

Increase your revenue by 714%

Would you like to increase your revenue by 714% overnight?

We did, using a simple, but effective marketing Internet strategy: tweaking your headline!

Writing a compelling headline is an essential marketing Internet strategy for effective online selling. And by making just a few small changes, your site could be pulling drastically higher sales.

Surprised that your headline has such a huge impact?

Consider this: It takes most people just 10 seconds to decide whether they want to stay on your site a little longer or leave it forever!

That’s 10 short seconds to grab your visitors’ attention…

And a compelling headline is the most effective Internet business strategy for the job. In fact, your headline is the most important aspect of your site copy.

Let’s look at a real-world example that illustrates just how much of an impact a simple headline can make…

John Edward is a commodity broker who arranged for two-thirds bank financing on gold purchases. In other words, if you wanted to buy $10,000 worth of gold, you would only need $3,333 in cash, and the bank would finance the rest. His headline read:

"Buy gold with two-thirds bank financing!"

This headline, accompanied by good ad copy, made thousands and thousands of dollars every month. Because he was making $10,000+ a month, he was initially pretty happy and didn’t consider that he might be able to improve on his success… a HUGE MISTAKE!

John snapped out of his trance and decided to test some other headlines. He ran a few different ones, and each one pulled a little better (about 10%). However, about three weeks later, he ran this headline:

"If gold is selling at $330, send me $110,
and I will buy all you want!"

Well, this headline increased sales over 500%! All those months he was making $10,000+, he could have been making $50,000+. And this is just one example of how important a good headline can be!

There’s no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. Creating an effective headline is one marketing Internet strategy you DON’T want to ignore.

(Check out our best-selling Internet marketing course salesletter for another example of a compelling, effective headline.)

To make YOUR next headline the Internet business strategy that performs by 500% or more, make sure it includes these five proven salescopy techniques:

Try these out when you write your next headline — and see for yourself how this marketing Internet strategy can dramatically increase your sales.

If you’re currently not making ANY sales, however, you might want to go through our "site-health" checklist to identify areas of your site that need work — so you can find YOUR most important Internet marketing strategy.

It might be that you just need more site visitors. (Without traffic, your headline won’t be able to work its magic.) If that’s you, read about the absolute fastest Internet marketing strategy for getting your first visitors to your site — without breaking the bank.

You can also create your advanced strategy marketing Internet plan for attracting even MORE targeted traffic to your site.

For more information on maximizing your "headline" Internet business strategy — and to learn our foolproof 12-step formula for writing salescopy that SELLS — check out our best-selling Internet marketing course.

The "Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet" lays out our proven 8-step system for starting and growing a profitable online business on a shoestring budget… the exact system we used to generate over $60 million in online sales!

How to boost your Google rank with free links (Hint: It’s not just all about PageRank!)

You can expand your link network by getting FREE links from other sites.

This process is a little more time consuming… but the links you’ll get will definitely be worth it. (Not to mention all that extra traffic thanks to your improved search engine ranking!)

But before you set off in search of free links that will propel your site to the top of the search engine results, here are 5 things you need to consider:

Pay attention to PageRank — but don’t live or die by it!

When trying to find sites to link to their site, most people tend to look for ones that have a high PageRank.

(PageRank is a function of Google’s toolbar that supposedly measures the importance of a given website.)

However, all this focus on PageRank has resulted in many people looking ONLY at PageRank when evaluating possible linking sites. They also spend a lot of effort trying to improve their own PageRank — without stopping to consider whether their actions are helping their actual ranking in Google’s listings.

And that is not a good thing.

The fact is, no one is really sure exactly how much Google takes PageRank into account when calculating its natural search algorithms.

For example, sites with very little PageRank can be found at the top of the search results, while sites with a high PageRank are languishing on the fourth or fifth page… or even lower!

On top of that, it’s hard to tell exactly what PageRank uses as its criteria to measure a site’s "authority."

Government sites such as FEMA, the IRS, and the FBI all have a PageRank of 8 out of a possible 10. Yet I can’t imagine there’s a more authoritative source of information on the IRS than the IRS itself!

Finally, PageRank "addicts" should know that unscrupulous webmasters can steal another site’s PageRank and use it to manipulate their own PageRank numbers!

(In fact, this is what lots of shady "link sellers" do — they sell links based on their PageRank, but often that PageRank has been artificially inflated!)

So while you should still pay attention to PageRank, it’s certainly not the only thing you should look at. You need to consider what the actual rank of that site is, and how well its content relates to the content on your site.

(More about that in a moment…)

Looking for links from a commercial site? Make sure its products are complementary

There’s no point in trying to get a link from a site selling something that has no relation to your business! You need to look for commercial sites that sell things that go well with your product.

If you sell the cola and I sell the glasses and ice, it could be the beginning of a beautiful joint venture relationship that provides great value to both your customers and mine.

Look for web pages with content that’s closely related to the content on your page

I would argue that this is just as important as a site’s PageRank, if not more so.

You want your links to come from pages whose content is as focused on the content on YOUR page as possible.

It’s not just a matter of getting links pointing from another site’s homepage to your homepage! Try to go deeper and more specific than that.

If you sell used tennis rackets and you find a site that talks about tennis topics in general, try to get a link on a sub-page that talks specifically about tennis rackets.

And if it talks specifically about used tennis rackets, even better.

Also look for web pages that have content related to your product or service, even if the site itself doesn’t have any real relation to your business.

For example, if a popular blogger who typically writes about her daily life writes a post that directly relates to your product in some way, ask her if you can get a link on the page that has that particular blog post.

Or maybe a general information site has an article that relates to your product. THAT’S where you want your link — right on the article page itself.

Links from general information sites can still be valuable, provided they’re heavy traffic-sites with a great search engine rank.

But in general, it’s more effective — and in many cases, much easier — to try and get a link on a web page whose content directly relates to your own, even if that site is lower down in the search engine rankings and doesn’t get the same volume of traffic.

Is this a good page for a link? Consider it from the user’s perspective

When you’re debating whether a web page is a good link source, think about it from the perspective of the visitors to that site.

They’ve come to a page, and on it they see a link to a site they’ve never heard of before. It’s got intriguing anchor text and it’s embedded in content they’re interested in.

Now… if they click on that link, are they going to be happy?

If they don’t find what they expect to find — based on the content of the page that led them there — they’re going to be disappointed, and they’re going to leave.

And they’re going to think less of the site that sent them there.

So if you’re going to try and get links from other sites pointing to yours, make sure the people who click on that link are going to find something valuable to them!

Offer them free information — maybe something they can download, like a free report. Because if you don’t send them to a page that makes that click truly worth
their while, you’re just gaming the system.

When you ask for links, emphasize what’s in it for THEM

The days when you could email people and ask, "Please link to me" are long gone.

When you approach other sites owners to ask them to link to your site, what you’re really asking is for them to share some of their traffic with you.

Smart website owners are jealously protective of their traffic. They’re not going to share it with just anybody. The sites they recommend reflect back on them. If they tell people to go to a low-quality site, their visitors aren’t going to like them very much for it!

That’s why you need to emphasize the benefits of linking to your site — both for their visitors and for them.

How will you provide value to the visitors they send you? Are you a great source of information? Will your product help their visitors solve a problem you know they’re experiencing? Do you offer something the other site owner simply can’t provide — something you know their visitors want?

That’s what you need to tell them in order to convince them to link to your site.

Never forget: when you ask for a link from a site, you’re essentially borrowing that site’s credibility, and you need to be respectful about that.

Building a network of free links definitely takes some time… but you have to remember the benefits…

Not only will you enjoy the indirect benefit of better search ranking and the traffic it’ll bring you, you’ll also get the traffic sent directly from the links themselves!

And all that extra traffic will make all your efforts worthwhile.

[Ed. note: Andrew Mallory is one of our top Internet Entrepreneur Club experts.]

Increase your conversions by 39% with this simple Internet marketing strategy

If you’re not thanking your customers, you’re missing out on an easy Internet marketing strategy that could increase your sales by 39%–or more!

Adding complementary "upsell" offers to your thank-you pages is by no means a new strategy, but it’s just as effective now as it was six years ago. According to Marketing Sherpa, 39% of their newsletter subscribers take advantage of one of the opt-in offers they put on their "thank you for subscribing" page. (That’s compared to 40% in 2001.)

This really confirms what we’ve been saying all along. Upselling your customers at the point of purchase is a KEY Internet marketing strategy for growing your business.

Why is upselling so effective?

Well, by the time a customer sees your thank-you page, they’ve already made the decision to trust you enough to buy something from you… so encouraging them to make a second purchase is a relatively easy sell.

So make sure you take the time to say "thank you" to your customers–and let them know what other great products you sell–and they’ll thank you by taking advantage of your offers!

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