E-mail auto responders / Customer lists

[daniel226]

I signed up for an "e-mail autoresponder" account with AWeber.com for my own web site. Is there anyone out there that has experiance w/ e-mail marketing or can you direct me to a site where I can educate myself on the subject (more)?

I have had very little success so far w/ people actually joining my "newsletter", even w/ a "10% off your 1st purchase" incentive for signing up.
I'm changing the insentive by having a drawing once a month for a $100 Gift Certificate to get people to "join". Will this work?

If you've got experiance with this I would appreciate a responce.

Thanks,
Dan

[WealthStream]

You might want to take a look at http://www.opt-in-email-marketing.org. They seem to have some good info on this topic.

[Ravedesigns]

Hey Dan, and congrats on getting your newsletter setup!

Two questons for you though...just how are your promoting your newsletter, and what kind of information are you offering in it?

People are only going to sign up for newsletters if they think it'll benefit them in some way (like save them time or money etc...) and you really need to write copy that "sells" them on the benefits of signing up for your newsletter. If they think the newsletter is just for your benefit so you can send them more sales pitches in the future they won't bite - but if they stand to really gain something from it they'll be much more likely to sign up.

Also, it helps if you can offer a free whitepaper or eBook that appeals to your target market as a free gift for signing up to receive your newsletter. It doesn't have to be overly complicated, but even a simple 10 page guide that can benefit your visitors can encourage them to sign up for your newsletter.

Take a look at http://www.realworldtactics.com/ for some great ezine marketing resources, and notice the free report promised to you when you get to the site (takes a few seconds for the window to pop-up). Click on through and check out the sales page for Charlie's newsletter, and you'll see how to really sell a newsletter, complete with great testimonials and all.

Also, Take a look at http://www.ezinequeen.com/ for some other free resources and to see another great example of encouraging signups with Free Reports.

Hope this helps!

Steve

[HeatherID]

One of my favorite sites is www.clickz.com. It does get a bit in depth with segmenting lists, analytics of lists, etc, etc... but it has some good beginner info.

Also, www.emaillabs.com is commercial, but it has some good info on e-mail marketing.

As far as a particular promotion that would work, you need to do some audience research. Is your audience interested in saving time, money, or effort? or some combination of the three? Once you figure this out, you can create a promotion that really strikes a nerve to get sign-ups.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

Best of luck!
-Heather

[daniel226]

Thanks to all of you for your responces.
I will take a look at all of your suggested sites.