Terri

In my last article I gave you a template for hooking the reader’s attention. It’s important to reiterate that the purpose of the first sentence is

simply to get the reader to read the second sentence.

Not surprisingly, the purpose of the second sentence is to get the reader to read the second paragraph. If we can get the reader to read the second paragraph then we have a good chance that they’ll go down the entire slippery slope of readership and read the entire letter.

If the focus of the first sentence is to raise a potential problem that the reader may be facing, the goal of the second sentence is to expand on that problem. There are a couple of ways we can do this.

The first is to focus on the reasons why the problem occurs. In some instances the problem that you’re communicating is well understood. It’s been around for a long time and everyone acknowledges it’s an issue. Thus simply stating that you too understand the problem, won’t earn you much credibility in the eye of the reader.

What will enhance your credibility is briefly communicating why the problem exists. Now I realize that every company is unique, and it’s impossible to communicate the exact reasons for why a problem exists with anything close to 100% accuracy. However, if you’re marketing to a specific niche (which you should be) then there are going to be some common reasons that are shared across companies within a particular group.

By communicating the reasons for why the problem exists, you will demonstrate that your understanding of the issues are deep rather than superficial. An approach I use is the following:

Although the problem is well understood, the underlying issues are often not so readily apparent. For example in many cases we find that the key contributors to this problem include: (A, B, C)

When you create the three bullet points make sure you keep them short and concise. Remember that at this point in the relationship building process what we are tying to do is to raise enough interest so that the reader will do what we want them to do once they have finished reading the letter.

In other situations the challenge may be that the problem you raised in the opening sentence just isn’t seen as “all that big a deal.” If that’s the situation, then the second sentence needs to focus on why this issue is important. The way I do that is by communicating what is likely to occur if the problem isn’t addressed. The key at this stage is to strike the right balance. You want to raise real consequences of not addressing the problem, while not going overboard and sounding like Chicken Little.

I like to use a bullet point approach for listing the consequences. The bullet points can be set up with a simple statement such as; Unfortunately, the consequences of not addressing this issue can include…

If we’ve done our work correctly, at this point we’ve got our reader’s attention. This is the point when we want to shift the focus of the content to What Do We Want To Reader To Do When They Finish Reading The Letter? This is where we make the reader a very compelling and specific offer, which is designed to move the relationship building process to the next step.

And that will be the topic of my next article.

.About the Author:
Mark Satterfield is the creator of the Gentle Rain Marketing System: How to Generate a Consistent Flow of New Clients. Quickly & Easily. With No Cold Calling. Find out more:

http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/product_bootcamp.html

Most companies are just not customer focused in their advertising and marketing.

It’s almost always about themselves, how long they have been

in the business, how many branches they have, how many awards they have won, how organized they are… They actually think that all these would make people into customers. The truth cannot be further from this.

People really don’t care about hearing about you. You must make them see how you can benefit them. Remember WIIFM - What’s in it for me?

You really need to sneak your way into your customers’ head and speak to their needs, their wants, their wishes, their dreams, their fears, their desires.

You must then offer them benefits, and show them how your products and services can help solve their problems, achieve results they only dreamt about, take away pain that they might have been feeling in a particular area.

Another problem in most advertising is that people are selling the wrong things when they should be selling benefits.

Most people simply talk about features of their products and services, eg. Comes in an elegant box, Has 100 moving parts, Handmade by craftsmen. All these features do very little to sell.

You really have to show your customers how all these features is going to benefit them.

Whenever possible, you should also sell them the benefits they are going get from your products and services, and push them hard repeatedly in your copy and marketing.

How much time they would save?

How is it going to make their life easier?

How much money they can save in the long run?

Most people are not very adventurous when it comes to promoting their products and services.

They are usually constrained to a set type of sales copy or ad that they feel is appropriate for their industry and end up just like everyone else in that industry.

The question then becomes why would a customer even notice you among your competition. You should really aim to interrupt and demand attention from your customers.

Being different, brutally honest and in your face will make you stand out from the crowd. Avoid advertising based on facts and logic but rather promote and advertise based on emotion, your customers’ emotion.

Being enthusiastic in your copy sometimes to the point of over the top strengthen your chances of your customers registering your messages emotionally. People attach emotions to the thoughts they have, so you need to grab them by their emotion.

You need to get people to focus emotionally in order to get them to pay attention to what they have read.

People buy based on emotion, then justify it based on logic. We buy something we want, then justify and rationalize our decision with explanations in our mind.

When writing your sales copy for your products and services, you should reach out to people, appeal to their emotions, make them want what you have to offer and justify it with the rest of your copy.

Most importantly, have the guts to make a call to action at the end, which is the close. Remember the advertising formula AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.

It is also of great importance that when you get to the call to action and the close, you take your customer by the hand and tell them exactly what you want them to do so they do not have any doubts on what they have to do. “Fill Up This Form And Mail It To This Address With Payment Of $97,” Call Bill At 123456789,” “Click The To Checkout Button Now,” “Send $97 To This Paypal Address Now.”

You have to walk them through as if they are a child, telling them exactly step by step what they need to do. At this point, if they are ready to buy, they will be waiting for your direction, and it’s really your responsibility to do it well.

Failing to do so will result in losing sales that you would otherwise have gotten.

.About the Author:
Jo Han Mok is a frequent guest and featured speaker at Internet Marketing bootcamps and conferences on subjects such as copywriting and Joint Venture Marketing. Visit his website to find out how he can help you turn mere words into cash!

http://www.MasterWordsmith.com

Postcards are perhaps the least expensive way of reaching a
large number of people with your sales message. Although they
have their drawbacks, they

are cost-effective at attracting new
customers. But only if you follow some simple rules that
professional direct mail copywriters follow.

Grab their attention on Side A

Side A is the side with the picture on it. One beauty of a
direct mail postcard is that your prospective customer does not
have to open it. There in the morning mail is your sales
message, seen by all. So make sure you put something on Side A
that arrests the attention of your prospect. Here are some ideas:

1. a wacky photograph 2. a photo of your product in an unusual
setting 3. an outrageous (but true) claim 4. your unique selling
promise stated in a clever or intriguing way 5. your prospect’s
problem (the one that your product or service solves), stated or
presented in a compelling way

The only goal of Side A is to arrest attention and stimulate
interest. OK, so that’s two goals. You must motivate your
prospect to turn your postcard over to read the other side. So
make sure Side A is arresting and interesting but does not tell
your whole story.

Sell them on Side B

Side B is the one with the address and postage stamp. Here you
create desire and motive your reader to take action. You do not
have much real estate upon which to give your sales pitch, so
stick to your strongest benefit. Describe in clear, compelling
language what your reader gets by buying your product or
service. You don’t have enough room here to say enough to make a
sale, so just sell the next step.

Ask for the next step, not the order

The next step these days is often for the prospect to visit your
website. That’s a great use for a direct mail marketing
postcard: driving potential buyers to a special page on your
website (called a landing page) where you give the entire dog
and pony show and give prospects a convenient way to part with
their money, if I may put it that way.

The next step may also be for the reader to call you, or to
visit your business. Both good uses of direct response
postcards. So make sure you say enough, and in a strong enough
way, on this side of the card to motivate a potential buyer to
lift the receiver or start heading in your direction. Which
brings us to your offer.

Make your offer irresistible

All direct mail pieces should contain an offer. The offer is
what you dangle in front of prospects to motivate them to take
the next step in giving you their business. What you are selling
and what your offer is are two different things. For example,
using direct mail, banks promote credit cards. That’s what they
are selling. But to persuade you to act today they extend you an
introductory and time-limited interest rate of only 2.5% (some
conditions apply, of course!). That’s their offer. Their offer
must overcome inertia. And so must yours. Make sure your
postcard features a strong offer. For more information on
crafting effective offers, read the many articles I’ve written
on the topic, found at my website.

.About the Author:
Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter. Sign up for free weekly tips like this at www.sharpecopy.com.

One of the first things I do with clients is determine their relationship with the post office. Why? Because in order to be an effective marketing

organization, they will need to get pretty cozy with them. I admonish you to shake off the image of our mail system as being anything other than a highly reliable and valuable strategic business partner. After all, they help to deliver your message to a targeted group of prospects in an inexpensive way. And these prospects will buy depending upon the right message. Think of your mail carrier as a kind of sales director and the letters as sales sentinels without the downside of having to pay benefits.

Direct mail has been and remains the marketing champ for efficiency. It is still the most cost-effective tool for creating and maintaining interest as well as gaining valuable information to re-use in other marketing media. In terms of return, you need to determine how much a sale is worth to you over the lifetime of the client. Let’s say for widgets, that it’s $3000 over 5 years. In one year, by writing say, six letters to them to create the dialogue, you’ve spent 75 cents times 6 which is about $5. $5 in acquisition costs compared to $3000 in value of the client. can you beat that? Even if you factor in all the mailers in that campaign with no one else buying, you’re still probably ahead.

Whether you’ve never used mail to market your business or you’ve tried and done poorly, I encourage you to pick it up again, plan, modify and learn until it works for you. Direct mail is a tactic that you need to be patient with. It might not bring results in the first couple of tries, but as long as you’ve identified a good list and your message is sound, it will pay off. And after you’ve seen good results from it, you’ll work this method into your marketing efforts permanently.

Get to know the costs: the supplies, the printing, the postage, the delivery times, and the specific results. Try different copy to different groups on your list. Tinker with it, try different things. Call a few prospects on the list for feedback. This is how you remove the guesswork out of your marketing efforts!

Once you get calls or inquiries from the mailers, you can use that message in your advertising and the results should be similar.

Again, be patient with direct mail. Expect to send out six different pieces to someone before you get a response. And send out different types of copy to them each time, such as newsletters, postcards, or press releases. Include yourself in some of the mailings to get an idea of what and how they’re receiving. The bottom line is that you act similarly to them…that is, you’re probably not going to call until you see the name and the offer several times. Be steadfast, and after some time, you’ll be sold on the mail as well.

.About the Author:

Scott Campbell owns Impact Marketing, Inc out of Atlanta, GA. He installs a marketing system, called the “Ultimate Marketing System”, into small businesses and practices in the Atlanta, GA area.

Learn more about Impact Marketing and its solutions here at http://www.impactyourcompany.com.

It’s a proven fact that mail order marketers can increase sales
substantially by offering their customers a credit card option.

Some marketers

enjoy increases of 10% to 30% in sales when they
get up with a Visa/Mastercard merchants account. Others have
reported increases up to a whopping 100%, or even more!

If all of your sales are made by mail, you can expect to up your
total sales by at least 10%, and more likely 15% to 30% simply
by offering the credit card option. If you plan to use the
telephone a great deal as a marketing tool, offering a credit
card buying option could double or triple your sales.

Credit card buying is seductive. Many people like the option of
buying something today that they won’t have to pay for until
later. Also, most consumers tend to spend more using their
plastic, than when they’re writing a check, or paying cash.

REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD BECOME A CREDIT CARD MERCHANT

There are many good reasons why you can benefit from securing
credit card merchants status. Here are some of them…

* People with credit cards are more affluent than those without
plastic. They can afford to spend more money. * They tend to be
better “credit risks”, if you want to sell “open account.”

* Overall, they buy more by mail than those without cards.

* You cannot effectively sell from commercials on radio or TV
without offering credit card purchasing. Visa and Mastercard are
by far, the cards most consumers have.

* They often will make credit card purchases even when they are
short on cash, and/or when their checking account balance is low.

* You can sell on installments, obtaining permission to charge
the buyer’s card on a monthly basis.

* You can ship goods with the secure knowledge that payment has
been secured before shipment is made.

THE PROBLEM

By now, you’re probably convinced that accepting credit card
orders is a darn good idea. But how can you obtain credit card
merchants status? Truth is, it’s not always a piece of cake. In
recent years banks have been playing hard-ball with many
business people, especially anyone doing business by mail. It’s
the same old story, a handfull of mail order crooks have almost
totally screwed-up a good thing for honest dealers. The major
credit card companies have told the banks to be very, very
selective in issuing merchant accounts to mail order sellers and
home business operators.

Because a few scum-bags have ripped off some banks, and run off
with the money, your local friendly banker may not be too
“friendly” when you tell him you want a merchants account. It
has become increasingly more difficult for mail order sellers to
secure a merchants account, and if you only sell by mail, but
also do consider setting you up for Visa and Mastercard
processing. That happens to be reality…but always remember
WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERE MUST BE A WAY! In this special
valuable report I’m going to cover some of the best way to
obtain your merchant’s status.

THE BEST WAY TO OBTAIN YOUR MERCHANT ACCOUNT

Although your banker may have already told you that they
“cannot” accept you for a merchant account, the simple,
unvarnished truth is that he/she can. Visa and Mastercard do set
some rigid guidelines for their affiliated banks to follow, but
ultimately the banks must approve or disapprove each
application. Excuses concerning “doing business by mail”,
“operating a home-based business”, “not having a long business
track record”, are just that-excuses! A somewhat polite way to
tell you “no”!

Could a mail order businessman, (books, home-study courses,
etc.) but how also conducts his business exclusively in his home
get a Merchant Account? Fat chance of him getting a merchants
account. Right? Wrong: He happily processes credit card orders
for his customers will full knowledge and cooperation from his
bank. How did he do it? He never stopped asking for what he
wanted.

When his own bank refused to even consider him for a merchant
account, due to the fact that he was in mail order, and also
doing business from his home, he beat path to several other
banks.

The first four banks he visited also said “no”, (2 were large
institutions, 2 mid-size), so he decided to try some smaller
banks. Guess what? The very first bank he went to said “Maybe”.

They asked him to transfer his account to their bank, so that
they could “monitor” it for six months. He told the bank
official that he would consider their proposal, and the
proceeded to another small bank one block up the street.

He liked what the second small bank said. They said “Yes!” All
he needed to do was establish a checking account with them and
maintain a modest $1,000, business checking account balance.
This he quickly did!

He is not unique. But he was very persistent and kept asking for
what he wanted, and you must also. Probably th two best ways to
get a merchant account are: (1) Keep pestering your own bank
about granting you charge card privileges, until they agree to
do so.

(2) If your bank outright refuses, make a list of all banks in
your immediate area, putting some special attention on small
banks. Next, get out a pair of your most comfortable shoes and
get to it! Ask…Ask…Ask..Ask.. Ask! You have nothing to lose,
and much to gain by being persistent, and by constantly asking
for what you want (that’s good advice in all areas-business and
personal) of your life!

CREDIT CARD MERCHANT ALTERNATIVES

If you absolutely have no success in obtaining a merchants
account from a local bank, you should consider the alternatives.
Here are some of them…

***Ted Nicholas, best known as the best-selling author of “How
To Form Your Own Corporation Without A Lawyer For Under $50.00″,
has established a small business organization entitles
“Entrepreneurs of America.” Membership is $50.00 per year. This
organization intends to offer reasonable rates on credit card
processing to their members. For more information write to:
Entrepreneurs of America, 2020 Pennsylvania Ave., Suite 224,
Washington, DC 20006. Phone: (800) 533-2665.

*** The Late Howard E. Welsh is the founder and director of the
fast growing National Association of Publishers and Mail Order
Dealers. His association has many exciting programs to help
small order tabloid publishers and small mail order dealers
succeed. Just prior to printing this report, For more
information, write: NAPOD, 12 Westerville Square, #355
Westerville, Oh 43081.

***If you sell books, manuals, magazines, or forms of “paper and
ink” products, you may wish to join the American Booksellers
Association (ABA). This is the No. 1 booksellers professional
association in the United States. In addition to many other
benefits (National and regional conventions and trade shows,
educational programs, etc.), members also can have their credit
card orders processed through the ABA’s Merchant Service
Discount program. Write to: American Booksellers Association,
122 E. 42nd St., New York, NY 10168.

***Barry Reid, owner of the Eden Press, has advertised that he
can help mail order marketers obtain credit card processing.
Write: Eden Press, Box 8410, Fountain Valley, CA 92728.

***Mountain West Communications of Colorado offers a business
telephone answering service that handles inquires or orders.
When you subscribe to their service, they can also process your
credit card orders for you. Write: Mountain West Communications,
P.O. Box 216, Hotchkiss, CO 81419. Phone: (800) 642-9378.

NEVER GIVE UP!

Although this special report gives you various sources that
might be able to help you with your credit card processing, the
main message of this report is “NEVER GIVE UP” Never take “NO”
for a final answer. Keep asking for what you want! Those who
keep asking and seeking, usually obtain what they want

.About the Author:
Find great information for getting a Merchant Account.

http://www.merchant-account-setup.info

Business-to-business lead generation is one of the few times in
life when you should start at the end and work backwards.

Before you write

a single line of copy or design a single
element of your direct mail package, sit down with the sales
people who close the sales. Find out when and how they get
prospects to sign on the line that is dotted, and work backwards
from there to discover what you need to do to capture the
attention of these prospects in the first place and get them
into your sales funnel.

Here are some questions to ask the sales team:

1. What makes a prospect buy? (Is it price? terms? guarantee?
after-sales service? quality?)

2. What customer objections will endanger a sale? How do
salespeople overcome these objections?

3. Do prospects need a lot of information before making a
decision?

I am assuming that your clients’ B2B buying process (and your
sales process) consists of more than a few steps. Usually, it
looks something like this:

* Identify need

* Gather information on solutions

* Establish specifications

* Request proposals or quotations

* Interview top suppliers

* Make short list of suppliers

* Check references

* Test sample or demo product

* Select supplier

* Negotiate terms and price

* Sign contract

* Make first purchase

* Evaluate performance

* Make repeat purchases

* Remain loyal to valued, long-term supplier

* Drop supplier and start over again

Your goal with every direct mail lead generation mailing is to
figure out where prospects are in their buying cycle and to
target them there. The thing to remember in all of this is that
your goal in a multi-step, complex buying process is not to
close the sale but to move the prospect to the next stage. Here
are some ideas:

If prospects are at the needs-identification stage, offer them a
white paper or similar document that describes the customer
problem that your product or service solves.

If prospects are gathering information on solutions, offer them
a series of case studies or success stories that demonstrate why
your solution is superior.

If your sale involves many stakeholders, consider mailing a
different direct mail package to each person who influences the
buying decision. In complex high-tech sales, for example, you
can target the CIO (offer ROI benefits), the CFO (offer
cost-cutting benefits) and the IT manager (offer scalability and
ease of integration benefits).

In many B2B lead generation efforts, you will need to mail or
contact leads more than once before you generate a response and
have a chance to qualify them. That’s why starting at the end
makes such good sense. You’ll know how many steps you need to
take to reach the sale, and how many times you need to mail each
prospect (and what to mail) to turn them into a customer.

.About the Author:
Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter. Sign up for free weekly tips like this at www.sharpecopy.com.

1. Personal Unlike an advertisement in a trade publication,
which can be read by anyone, your sales letter arrives at your
prospect’s place of business

as a piece of personal
communication from your mind to his. Also, unlike any other
medium, direct mail can be personalized (Dear Mr. Smith) and
customized to each reader (”As an IT manager, you know that . .
..”), showing your prospect that you know about him by name and
understand his business in particular.

2. Cost effective Advertising by its very nature is expensive.
To reach a lot of people, you need to spend a lot of money.
Direct mail, on the other hand, only targets the prospects you
want to reach. Instead of pitching your product to a huge
audience of potential buyers, you aim your sales message only at
prospects most likely to buy.

3. Breaks through the clutter Your ad can easily get lost among
dozens of competing ads in a trade newspaper. Your sales message
is also easily forgotten on radio or television unless you
repeat it many times, which is expensive. But a simple letter,
addressed to your prospect by name and arriving on her desk in
the morning mail (which she must open), cuts through the media
clutter and gets her attention.

4. Measurable ROI Direct mail is one of the best mediums for
measuring the return on your marketing dollar (or pound or yen).
Simply code your business reply cards, and count how many return
to you in the mail. Then calculate how many of those replies
generate a sales meeting or a sale. Now you know
immediately–and exactly–how effective your mailing has been.
Direct mail numbers never lie.

5. Predictable One advantage of knowing the success rates of
your past mailings is that you can predict the success of future
mailing. If you mail the same package with the same offer to a
similar group of prospects at the same time of year, you can
predict how many responses you will receive, and how many of
those will translate into sales.

6. Can be improved through testing Because you can measure your
direct mail results, you can also test your mailings. Test one
package against another, one list against another, one offer
against another, and you’ll discover what works and what fails.
That way you’ll spend your marketing dollars where they are most
effective (without relying on guess work or hunches).

7. Immediate General advertising builds brand awareness. Sales
brochures inform. But a direct mail letter asks for action now.
So if you need to generate sales leads, and don’t have time to
wait for your ad to appear in “IT Buyers Quarterly,” send a
direct mail letter and wait a week or so for a response

.About the Author:
Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter. Sign up for free weekly tips like this at www.sharpecopy.com.

A brochure is like a walking saleman for your daycare centre. It tells your target customer all about your daycare centre. However, some daycare owners

are put off by the high cost of producing one as they are under the impression that it should be produced by professionals. And for a small business, that can be quite daunting. However, producing a brochure can be quite a breeze if you know what to do.

For the copy of the brochure, you can easily do it yourself once you know what you should put inside it. Before we start writing, we first need to understand who you are writing the brochure for; i.e. your target audience. As a daycare owner, your target audience are the parents who wish to put their child at a daycare centre. Some of these parents feel guilty or worried about leaving their children with strangers. Your job is of course to ally their fears and reassure them that their precious little ones are in good hands.

Next, you need to decide what size you’d like your brochure to be; A4, A5 (A4 folded into half), DL (A4 folded into 3 parts), how many colours (will it be 4 colour throughout or 4 colour on the cover and 1 colour on the inside) and the number of pages.

Now you are ready for some copywriting. Here are some information you should consider putting in your brochure.

1. Introduction (How you are different)

Write up a nice and short introduction about your daycare centre. Let the audience know how your daycare centre is different.

2. Mission / Core values / Philosophy

As providing daycare services is a delicate profession, the core values and goals of the daycare centre are probably something which you’d like to communicate to the parents to let them know that their child is in good hands.

3. Pictures of children at play

Add photographs of the children doing different activities in the brochure. Include one on the children at play, one of the children during lessons and one of the children engaging in some interest activities. If possible, include pictures of celebrations such as Children’s Day, Teacher’s Day or graduation. If you are a new business, you may consider getting stock pictures.

4. Programme / Curriculum

Other than caregiving, parents will also be interested to know what’s included in your curriculum. Therefore, list down the subjects that your daycare centre is offering such as art and craft, language, music and drama, etc. And if you are offering other electives such as piano lessons or computer lessons, include that in as well.

5. Quotes / Testimonials

Quote and testimonials lend credibility to your daycare centre. Solicit for quotes from the parents to be included in your brochure. You can choose to have them write their own quotes or you can write it and have them endorse it.

6. Schedule

Include a schedule of the daycare centre’s daily activities so that the parents can have a rough idea of what their child will be doing at your daycare centre.

7. Rates

Include rates and charges. Some owners may not like the idea of publicizing their daycare charges, so it’ll depend on your preference. Personally, I feel that it helps to qualify your customers.

8. Contact details

In your contact details, list not only information such as address, telephone and email but include a map as well. It will be useful for parents who wish to visit your daycare centre. And don’t forget your website address, if you have one.

Now that you’re done with the copy, you are ready to work on the design on a publishing software. You do not need a professional designer. There are many publishing software that can do the job for you. A good example is Microsoft Publisher. There are many nice templates for you to choose from.

Have fun!

.About the Author:

For more essential information and resources on starting a successful daycare business, please visit www.setupadaycare.com

Delivering email newsletters and sales messages to opt-in
subscribers and customers is getting more exasperating—and more
expensive—by the

day.

Delivery rates for email have gone through the virtual floor.
According to MarketingSherpa, one out of every six people who
asked to be on your mailing list won’t receive your email
newsletter or marketing message because a spam filter blocks it
by mistake.

Why you’re just not getting through to them As
you probably know, the challenge you are facing is primarily
spam filters, electronic and human. And no wonder. Consider
these sobering numbers:

• 10 out of 12 messages reviewed
  are considered spam (Postini.com)
• average users receive
  42 unwanted sales pitches a day (Jupiter Research)
• 70%
  of all email messages will be spam by 2007 (Radicati Group)

Your emails fail to reach your subscribers for three basic
reasons. Either the email is blocked by the subscriber’s ISP or
enterprise firewall (in which case it never gets delivered), the
email is blocked by the subscriber’s spam filter (in which case
it gets delivered but is never seen) or the email is deleted by
an irritable subscriber with an overzealous delete-key-finger
who does not recognize your “From:” address or mistakes your
email subject line for something unwelcome.

But take heart. There are some tactics you can employ today to
increase your email deliverability scores and reach your
newsletter subscribers and customers with the email messages
they have asked you to wing their way.

1. Hire someone to monitor your mail Your most
expensive option is to retain the services of a third-party
vendor to monitor your email deliverability. For a fee,
ReturnPath.net, PiperSoftware.com, Deliverability.com,
DeliveryMonitor.com and other companies will seed your mailing
list seeded with hundreds of email addresses from a variety of
domains. When your email arrives, these firms record the time,
count the number of emails that escaped the spam filters, and
generate a report that shows deliverability scores for each ISP.
These reports help you notice which ISPs are blocking your
messages or only allowing a few to get through before blocking
the rest. You can take the steps needed to improve
deliverability.

2. Test your email messages for spam before
sending The above companies and a host of smaller
software firms let you run your email message by a spam filter
before sending. They search for “free,” “buy now” and other
words that trigger spam filters. That way, you can see if your
message is likely to be flagged as spam somewhere enroute, and
tweak where needed to improve your score before hitting Send.
Try the free service at www.ezinecheck.com.

3. Make sure your ISP is not on a blacklist
Spammers may have abused the servers of the autoresponder or
listserver service that you use. As a result, the major ISPs may
have blacklisted or blocked emails from these servers. To
discover if you are blacklisted, find the IP address of the
email server and do a spam database lookup at www. DNSstuff.com
or www.OpenRBL.org.

4. Slow down your email send rate Some ISPs set
a threshold for how many emails you can send during one session.
If you exceed this threshold, their software flags you as a
spammer and blocks the remainder of your messages. One way
around this wall is to send your messages in small bursts, say
200 at a time, with a pause of a few minutes between bursts. The
other solution is to host your list on a reputable listserver.
The more popular ones include Constant Contact, AWeber, Topica,
and GotMarketing Campaigner.

5. Send your email when it’s most likely to get
read If you send your message to businesses on a Friday
afternoon, chances are that your recipients won’t check their
email until Monday morning. Your message will be buried way down
the list with a ton of spam ahead of it (assuming the
recipient’s inbox is sorted by date). The most recent messages
will get the attention, and your message will likely get
overlooked or deleted in the rush to start work. The open rate
for email is strongest within the first two days of delivery.
Then it drops off a cliff.

6. Mail on the best days Online marketers have
discovered over the years that B to B emails are read most often
when they arrive on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, around
noon. Mondays are too busy. And Fridays are too close to the
golf course.

7. Use the right email service Choose a
reputable service provider who is respected by the major ISPs.
They will work on your behalf to keep you off blacklists and
deliver your messages on time.

8. Help subscribers change addresses In every
email message, tell your subscribers where they need to go to
change their address or modify their subscription. You’ll reduce
the number of bouncebacks you receive each mailing.

9. Use creative copy tactics to circumvent spam
filters Spam filters block your e-newsletters and
marketing messages in a number of ways, and one of them is
looking for words that are found in most spam. These include
perfectly legitimate words and phrases, such as “free,”
“opportunity,” “multi-level marketing [OK, that one is
debatable],” “compare rates” and “free installation.” Most of
these words you can get around by employing a thesaurus. Instead
of saying “free,” say “complimentary,” or “no charge.” You can
also disguise the word in some way (free becomes free~, or
fr*ee), although you must tell your subscribers what you are
doing beforehand.

10. Get your subscribers to whitelist you When
your subscribers opt-in to your list, immediately tell them to
add your sending email address to their whitelist or “allowed
senders” list so your messages are never blocked by the
subscriber’s spam filters.

11. Use a distinctive, predictable subject line
Include a phrase in every subject line that shows at a glance
who you are and what your message is about. Subscribers get used
to recognizing each message from you. For example, one popular
e-newsletter includes the phrase “DM News-iMarketing News Daily”
in every email subject line.

12. Welcome new subscribers immediately As soon
as someone signs up for your e-newsletter or opts-in to your
list, send them a welcome email. Immediately establish a
connection between their opt-in action and your email that
confirms their membership.

13. Make your email welcome message look like your
sign-up form Help new subscribers to recognize you in
their inboxes by branding your online sign-up page and your
welcome email with the same colors, images and typography.

14. Send from the same domain that signs them
up The domain in your welcome message and subsequent
messages should match the URL of the webpage that subscribers
used to opt-in to your list, otherwise they may not recognize
you as the sender and delete your message by mistake.

15. Use the same From: address Keep your From:
address constant. This helps subscribers who have added your
email address to their whitelist or “allowed senders” list.

.About the Author:
Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter. Sign up for free weekly tips like this at www.sharpecopy.com.

You’ll be encouraged to know that the art of writing effective
fundraising letters can be learned. I learned it. So can you.

Successful fundraising

letters share a number of things in
common. Once you know what these things are, your letter is
already half-way written. Before I share what they are, let me
explain what I mean by a “successful” or “effective” fundraising
letter. I mean a letter that generates a gift, certainly, but I
also mean a letter that builds upon the relationship you have
with your supporters. You can easily craft a guilt-inducing
letter that brings in a donation for now but repels a donor
forever. Successful fundraising letters take the long-term
approach, knowing that donors need to be nurtured and educated
over time.

So here are some things that all successful fundraising letters
have in common. Include as many of them as you can in each
letter you write.

1. Is personal
Effective fundraising
letters sound as though they are written by a human being, not
an institution. Unlike grant proposals or special events, they
are person-to-person pieces of communication. With the exception
of a phone call, fundraising letters are the closest thing that
you can get to a face-to-face meeting with a donor.

2. Is conversational
Again, unlike grant
proposals and charity auctions, effective fundraising letters
read like a conversation (though admittedly a monologue) between
two people. Wouldn’t you agree that good letters involve the
reader? Like you, I believe that effective letters involve the
supporter in the message whenever possible without sounding
contrived.

3. Is addressed to a person by name
Don’t
send form letters to make friends. Friends don’t mail form
letters. They send personal letters. Letters addressed to their
friends by name. My wife never sends me a letter that begins,
“Dear Friend.” Neither do my friends. I realize that
personalization costs more. But personalization is the right
thing to do. And it boost response, which is a bonus you get for
doing the right thing.

4. Describes the case for support in human
terms
The best fundraising letters translate
institutional needs in terms of people, not programs,
remembering that people give to people to help people. So
instead of saying “we need $10,000 for our general fund,” a
savvy fundraising letter says “our soup kitchen aims to help
over 100 needy toddlers this Christmas Eve, and your gift today
will make that possible.”

5. Is donor-centred
The best-received
fundraising letters say “you” more than they say “we.” As Jeff
Brooks, senior creative director at the Domain Group, says,
“Donors are interested in you because of what you help them do.
You are their agent in their personal mission to make the world
better. That should be the topic of all your fundraising. Not
the inner workings of the organization. Not the accomplishments
of notable others. Not the need for raised consciousness or
philosophical buy-in.”

6. Asks for the gift
I’ve read letters
that were so high-pressure that I kept my donation in my pocket.
And I’ve read others that were so vague that I wasn’t sure if
the sender wanted my gift–or expected it. In the fundraising
profession, we say that if you don’t ask, you won’t receive.
Which is a true statement most of the time, because sometimes
you’ll receive gifts unsolicited. But with a fundraising letter,
you need to ask for a donation, and more than once in the
letter, if you expect to cover your costs.

7. Educates donors
The best fundraising
letters leave donors better-informed than they were before they
opened the envelope. They give donors more reasons to support
your cause by describing how your organization helps its
constituents, how a donor’s past gifts are changing lives, or in
other ways reinforcing your case for support.

8. Appeals to the heart
Donors give to
causes that win their hearts and their minds, usually in that
order. Good appeal letters stir feelings of compassion, mercy,
empathy, altruism and more so that the donor identifies with
your cause on more than a cerebral level.

© 2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this
article online and in print provided the links remain live and
the content remains unaltered (including the “About the author”
message)

.About the Author:
Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter. Sign up for free weekly tips like this at www.sharpecopy.com.