Niche Marketing Resources at NicheSearch.org

Have you been trying to figure out a niche for your business? Are there areas that your business would like to explore but haven’t had the resources to evaluate how successful it would be for you company?

A new organization is helping as a niche finder for your business to innovate new products and services for increasing profits.

Finding profitable niches can make or break your business. From the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, Apple computer is a master at finding niches and because of that they are considered by many to be always a niche player.

That may not be a bad thing either considering how well Apple has done over the last two years.

Email Analytics for your Newsletter Marketing

What are email analytics? This is the data you receive for your email or newsletter marketing. Analytics answer certain questions like how many people received your email? How many people opened up your newsletter? How many people clicked on your offer and purchased your product or service you were promoting in your newsletter?

This data can become very valuable because it will allow you to analyze the data you’ve collected and change your headline or promotions in future email newsletters to convert more people into customers.

For example, a best practice that email marketers will use is A/B testing the email subject to see which one will be opened by more people. The content of the two emails are identical except the headline of the email which the end user will see when it’s in their inbox. Which headline will more people open “Buy today at a reduced price” or “Save more money today only”.

I have my guess which one people will open more, but when you conduct an A/B test, you use data to make future business decisions for you.

When deciding which email newsletter provider you choose from business such as aWeber, Constant Contact, or VerticalResponse you’ll want to see what type of analytics they provide and which data points will be most important to your business.

This ends our week in exploring email newsletter marketing for small and medium businesses. If you have any future questions, please leave comments below. Otherwise, here’s to your successful email newsletter marketing in the future.

Email Sign Up Forms on Your Website

If you are going to use email marketing as a method to market to customers and prospects, you’ll have to have a strategy to collect email addresses from your site visitors or acquire those addresses from other methods.

Collecting email addresses from your site visitors is one of the most qualified email address you can acquire and it is also one of the most valuable. Whoever gives you their email address is telling you “Yes, please market your products and services to me” so they are already somewhat interested in what you have to offer and just need some more persuasion to purchase.

One method of collecting email addresses on your website is through a sign up form. This form can be as simple as just an email address or it can be more thorough and ask for more information such as name, telephone number, address, interests, or other qualifications that you want to know about your visitors.

You have to remember that the more simple the sign up form is, the more submissions you will receive. If you want to know more about your website visitor, you will receive fewer email addresses, but they will be more qualified. So you have to figure out a balance on how many email addresses you want compared to how much information you can collect.

You can use an email sign up form from vendors such as aWeber, Constant Contact, or VerticalResponse. They each have slightly different offers and you’ll want to see which one best fits your businesses needs.

Smashing Magazine has a great article about where to place your sign up form on your website so you’ll receive the optimal number of email addresses.

What is an Email Autoresponder?

An email autoresponder is an automatic method of contacting someone who has just set you an email or signed up for your newsletter on your website and is a great email marketing tool.

Why use an email autoresponder?

Why would you even want to use an email autoresponder? Well, if you want to give someone that just emailed you or signed up for your newsletter with some immediate information, you’ll want to use an autoresponder from a service like aWeber.

For example, once someone has inputted their email address and told you they want to start to receiving your monthly or weekly email, you’ll want to send them a thank you message and let them know when they will start to receive their newsletter.

Or another example is your customer service email address. If someone emails your customer service with a question, concern, or complaint you will want to have an email autoresponder send a message back to them that someone is handling the message, the time expected to respond to them, your company’s telephone number, and the hours of operation in case they want to call instead.

Email autoresponders are great for connecting directly with your customer or prospect immediately after they’ve contacted you. Setting up autoresponders are quick and easy and can be a valuable tool in building relationships with your customers.

Email Newsletter Marketing

This week we are looking at email marketing tools for small and medium businesses. To begin with, we have to understand what email newsletter marketing is and how it’s incorporated into your marketing plan.

What is email newsletter marketing?

Email newsletter marketing is one of the most cost effective ways to reach prospects and convert more sales for your products and services. Email newsletter marketing is the process of sending out a formatted email to your contact list using a service from company’s such as aWeber, Constant Contact, or VerticalResponse.

Why choose email newsletter marketing?

Here are some stats from the EmailStatsCenter.com:

62% of marketing executives surveyed say that email newsletters are tactics that are a part of their 2009 marketing strategy. - Datran Media “3rd Annual Marketing & Media Survey Results” (2008)

24%% of marketers rated Sending one newsletter to customers and another to prospects tests “very effective”. - MarketingSherpa “2009 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide” (Oct 2008)

49% of email marketers said their newsletter routinely justified themselves. - MarketingSherpa “Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008″ (2008)

How do you acquire email address for your newsletter marketing?

Typically, you will acquire email addresses for your newsletter marketing from your website. You want to collect these email addresses from people that are already interested in your business, your products, or your services. Online consumers specifically like newsletters that have discounts or special deals in them.

Once you choose your email marketing partner, you will be able to start collecting emails on your website and connecting with those potential customers or current customers to increase your sales.