If you sell online with your website, you know that once you have a customer, the real money is in helping that customer find more ways to spend money with you, over and over.

And most savvy online businesses have an upsell sequence built into their purchase process, which is great. But what happens once…

a customer has paid. How do you get them to buy from you again, and again?

Here’s what typically happens.

A customer comes to your website, buys whatever you sell, and then you hope and pray they like the product enough to come back.

But in my experience hoping and praying for repeat sales don’t do much.

It’s not your fault. It’s not because you aren’t delivering a great product or service.

The problem is, that without a reminder from you, people forget, even if they loved whatever they bought from you. It happens to me all the time.

Here it is a week before Christmas and I still have some shopping to do, and I haven’t even gotten an email note from the place I usually order coffee cakes from. It’s like they don’t care or even want my business – which I know isn’t the case.

The key of course is to have a proven strategy, ideally one that makes the customer feel special and is automated, to generate repeat sales.

Which is exactly what Zappos does. See the following email, below, they sent my wife today.

Subject: Your 1-year-old Not Your Daughters Jeans Sarah Boot Leg Classic Overdye

————-

Dear Sue,

One year ago, you ordered the following product from Zappos.com:

Not Your Daughters Jeans Sarah Boot Leg Classic Overdye  – Black -

We wanted to let you know that right now, your size is still available from Zappos.com. You can order the same product again by visiting:? (and their link to the product page)

Or, if you’d like to view our entire Not Your Daughters Jeans collection, please visit:? (and their link to the product collection page)

————

How clever is that?!

Just a simple reminder, a year later when the pants she ordered are starting to wear out, to pick up another pair.

And even though it’s automated, it’s personalized.

The key, of course, to making money, whatever you sell, isn’t the first sale, but the second and third, etc – the repeat sales.

Just copy the Zappos email idea and you could easily be making more money too.

Charlie

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Writing business emails is not as easy as 1-2-3.

In fact, it is a skill which takes more time, effort, practice and persistence than one can imagine.

You and I both know the importance of… email marketing. And how a single email can push sales through the roof (if done right), correct? But not all email “rules” are created equally…

For example, you can use a “proven” subject line that used to get high open rates (e.g. 35%) for somebody else, over and over again, and in your particular case, to pull-in a “tiny” 20% response (which in between us, it is the standard for most industry nowadays)

So what makes the difference in between your open rate and THEIR open rate?

It is the single most important yet often overlooked factor

1. The name you’re using to mail your database (what receivers will see in the “from” field)

Plus, 2. The email you are using for that particular mail out. ISP and mailing providers say that free email addresses like Yahoo, Gmail, etc. are not as good as your own ISP/hosting email provider. Moreover, a free email looks amateurish and cannot give higher delivery rates than a professional email would.

This is the first RULE of email marketing you should NEVER break if writing business emails like the pros is what you are after (and incredible responses will follow).

You see, email business writing is much like you and I having a conversation at Starbucks, or whatever place you go to eat, drink and have fun.

Let us pretend it is our first meeting. Just imagine. Your company just launched a product, and you are keen to tell the world about it. You have this chance, to share with me the news, someone who could open the gates to a flood of new orders and customers.

The problem is that you do not really know me. It is our first time talking. So, are you going to jump right into the “product” talk, or firstly, get to know me better, ask about my background and see if what I do is a good fit with your product profile?

I think you will have a better chance to make friends with me, or you will lose me, correct?

Then why 90% of the businesses out there act different in the online world. Why are their emails that robotic-sound like? That would be half the problem. The worst thing that happens, and I see this recur too often, is that these companies and the individuals working there do not take the time and put in the extra effort to get to KNOW, LIKE and TRUST their visitors, prospects and customers.

It pays off!

And you know what? The so-called “guru” marketers tell you that before you close the sale – you should get your customer to know, like and trust you! I teach the opposite: be the first to doing that. And they should reciprocate.

Never expect your customers to call you, do it yourself first! Never expect your visitors to join your list, provide free useful information in the first place, and they should join your mailing if they see (MASSIVE) VALUE in your content.

Nothing is for granted. Do not take your list for granted. And do not take your relationship with your list members (subscribers, clients, partners, affiliates, vendors, and so on) “as is”. Work on it; enlarge the meanings of doing business with you, and your company.

Expand the ways your client can and should be using your product or item. Teach them how.

Writing business emails has less to do with the actual typing or writing of it. It is more like talking to friends, colleagues and family members. Why? Because you and I like to be treated as human beings, always!

… And because when you are writing emails, there are hundreds of individuals reading your stuff, that they could (or not) share with others.

So you better speak to the person in front of the computer as like to one friend, not to a group of strangers. Keep emails short and fun (if possible; from time to time) and more importantly, make sure you DELIVER content they can use today (not next month) and achieve tangible results in their life, business, or both.

I should say that if you do not see any reasons to read the email you plan to send, nor forward it to someone else that might be interested then please, re-work your campaign. Polish that piece of data, until it shines friendliness and screams “win-win”.

I get too many emails that sound like spam (who cares if they are not?) and they get in the trash bin (if they survive the spam filters anyway) in half a second.

And too often the email proposal is nothing but a disguised (win-win) offer.

I am tired of it. What about you? How do you approach writing business emails? What will you do differently now that you have read this short article?

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Last Thursday I got a frantic call from a friend. He had launched a subscription membership site a few months ago and was seeing a lot of success. He’d done everything “right”.

He had a solid market niche that he was passionate about and was getting subscribers. But after a few months, he noticed…

a trend that he didn’t like – people had started unsubscribing to his list.

So I decided to subscribe to his list and see what I thought of it.

Here is my experience of subscribing to his community. See if you’re making these same mistakes with your email marketing.

1. You’re sending too many emails. It’s possible to get too much of a good thing. Sending your list frequent emails is often overwhelming. If you’re sending Daily tips, keep it down to a sentence or two that they go through quickly. A weekly email should contain helpful resources and links that save your readers time, money and effort and a monthly newsletter is usually a welcome summary of things they might have missed on your site.

2. Your emails are too long. This is a common reason for dropping off a list when EVERY email is a long sales letter. Limit long copy to landing pages and keep your emails short, sweet and to the point.

3. Your information isn’t relevant. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. People sign up for your emails because they are in the midst of a pain or frustration; they searched online and found you and signed up for information. Once you’ve solved their problem, they may not need to continue receiving that email. The solution to this is to have another, less frequent mailing that keeps your readers updated on what’s new and encourages referrals.

4. Your content is confusing. Be clear as to what the reader is signing up for. Readers unsubscribe when they think they are receiving one thing and experience something else. For example, if they signed up to receive a 7-part e-course and instead receive 7 sales letters, they will unsubscribe. If they signed up for quick tips, give them quick tips. If they signed up for an e-course, be sure to offer them educational information and don’t sell them throughout the letter. A simple call to action at the end for the full-course is enough.

Now let’s turn the tables and outline what readers LOVE in a good subscription. Readers love content that’s relevant to exactly who they are, what’s important to them and that gives them quick and easy solutions.

The first thing to do is to make sure that your information is well suited to the audience and their needs. Here are a few ways to make sure that happens:

• Create a focused landing page. Having a landing page with just one primary topic focus is an ideal way to make sure that your content will match the needs of your audience. For example, a landing page with the headline “How to Deal with Alzheimer’s at Any Stage” is very targeted to a specific audience with specific needs.

• Give them a choice. If you have more than one type of email that a reader can receive, let them choose which series they would like. Email marketing programs such as sWeber, Constant Contact or iContact all have flexible forms that give visitors the opportunity to categorize themselves or choose the information they want to receive.

• Keyword Research. Google’s keyword research tool is a great free resource. Enter the main word you are interested in and then look deep into the results for phrases that have large numbers of people searching for them but low competition.

Of course all of these ideas hinge on having good, high quality content. All the keyword research in the world will not make up for information that leaves your reader no better off than they were before.

When email marketing, create content that gives your reader the ability to actually DO something at that very moment and feel successful in checking it off their list and you will have loyal happy readers who refer your site to friends and family.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

I think I must have contracted with the devil, when I signed up to pay hundreds of dollars a year to my email service.

Despite my best efforts, and being faithful to all the rules about not spamming, it reached a point where every email I sent to my list was getting blocked… Read more >>

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

If you’re blogging, good for you.

Hopefully, the search engines are pulling traffic, including journalists, into your blog and your website.

But there’s something else you could be doing at least every other week to kick your marketing up a notch. 

Are you also sending either an electronic newsletter, or a simple email tip at least every other week? If you are using email marketing, you’re taking advantage of two of the strongest marketing tools on the planet.

But here’s the question that separates the wanna-bes from the true marketers at the higher level: Are you consciously promoting the blog in your ezine, and the ezine in your blog?

If not, you’re letting a golden opportunity slip through your fingers. Here’s why.

You need to tell all those visitors who arrive at your blog that you want their email address so you can send your ezine or tip of the week.

You also need to tell all your ezine subscribers what you’re doing over at your blog. Each week, in my ezine, I give you a list of headlines at my blog from the past week, with links.

Then, when you visit the blog, you might see the covers of my ebooks in the right margin. Or links to products that I promote with my individual posts.Think of it like this. The blog pulls traffic in. The ezine then pushes out your marketing message. That “pull/push” cycle of email marketing can really make things happen. Like sales. And a ringing telephone. People want to suddenly buy your consulting services or sign up for your next workshop.

A friend taught me all about the “pull/push cycle” of email marketing. And today, we both use it successfully. I picked Don’s brain for one hour on other ways he dovetails his blog with his ezine to boost the bottom line.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Which email broadcast system should you use to grow your business?

The answer depends on the volume of email you send. For example Aweber gives you the basic information on open rates and can track clickthroughs and it’s so easy to use that anyone can master it in a few hours.

It’s the email broadcast system I and most of the top internet marketers use.

Of course, if your list is over 100,000 and you want to be able to segment it based on which products your customers have bought, you’ll need a more sophisticated (read complicated) email broadcast system.

Infusionsoft is the top choice of some internet marketers because of it’s extensive capabilities. The only problem is that to get it up and running you’ll need to hire an expert, someone to program it for you and it could easily take months to get it up and running correctly.

If you’re looking for the ultimate in list segmentation and upsell and cross sell functionality, then Infusionsoft may be your best choice.

Other email broadcast systems include, iContact, Constant Contact, Autocontractor, 1Shoppingcart, and Getresponse.

Which email broadcast services are the pros using?

Here are the results of a survey done by a former client, Bruce Johnson.

1. Aweber
· Ray Edwards
· Jeff Johnson
· Joel Comm
· Jon Benson
· Jeff Walker
· David Frey
· Ramon Williamson
· Yanik Silver
· Steve Harrison
· Charlie Cook

2. Infusionsoft
· Rich Schefren
· Nelson Searcy
· John Jantsch
· Michael Port
· Dan Kennedy/Bill Glazer
· Ryan Lee
· Adam Urbanski
· Verne Harnish

3. iContact
· Andy Jenkins
· Anik Singal
· Brandon Burchard
· Frank Kern
· Russell Brunson

4. Constant Contact
· Harvey Mackay
· Bill Cates
· Emyth

5. Autocontactor
· Wishlist – Tracy Childers and Stu McLaren
· Kevin Nations

6. Kickstartcart/1Shoppingcart
· Tom Antion

7. Getresponse
· Eben Pagan

Of course, ultimately, it’s not which email broadcast system you use, but that you have one to start with and that you’re using it to grow your business.

– Charlie

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Social media, Facebook, Twitter — what’s the most effective, least expensive way to market your business or service? One of  the easiest and the most effective email marketing tools you can use is  your Autoresponder. What is an email Autoresponder, anyway?

An autoresponder is simply a message sent automatically in response to an email received or a web form filled in.  You’re probably familiar with one already: the autoresponder vacation message. You write it before you leave, and while you’re gone, anyone who sends you an e-mail gets your prewritten message sent back to them.

Here in E-Newsletter Land, the most important email marketing autoresponder is the “Welcome Message,” a message sent immediately to anyone who signs up to our e-mail subscriber list. The Welcome Message is one of the most important tools in our autoresponder: It’s an opportunity to welcome new readers as they take that first step onto our list.

Make sure your welcome email includes:

• An explicit thank you for subscribing to your email list

• A recap of what they can look forward to receiving every week

• The name, title and — if you want to get fancy — handwritten signature of an actual human being within your organization

• An invitation to send feedback

• An unsubscribe link (commercial e-mail marketing services, like Constant Contact, require this for legal reasons)

Simply put, the point of a welcome message is to offer a hearty electronic handshake to your new friends and it’s an easy way to crank up your email marketing.

Whatever you do, don’t simply send the uncustomized, default welcome letter that your e-mail marketing vendor provides. Give this all-important first message the same care in voice, content and design that you give the newsletter itself.

In my case, for example, I’ve now got it set up so that after the initial and immediate welcome letter, new readers receive:

On Day 2, an email that points them to my newsletter archive

On Day 16, an email that points them to my page of additional free resources

On Day 45, an email that demands cash. Ha, ha! I’m kidding. It’s an e-mail that asks how I’m doing and what else they’d like to see in the newsletter.

Bottom Line: New subscribers are like rich acquaintances. When they introduce themselves, welcome them with open arms, show them around, and pay them special attention in that first month or two of the relationship. Your email autoresponder keeps in touch for you, so you can turn that first meeting into a profitable long-term business relationship.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

I don’t know where you live (I don’t even know who you are). If you do, however, reside in Massachusetts, I know one thing: You went apple picking at some point during the last two months.

Unlike other laws which we don’t interpret quite so strictly – stopping at red lights, for example – here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, apple picking is not optional.

Don’t ask, I don’t know why either. But the fact is, come autumn, all permanent residents are obligated to load their children into a vehicle (preferably a minivan) and drive them to a place with the words “Pick Ur Own,” “Orchard” or “Farm” in the name. (Extra credit if it has all three.)

Don’t get me wrong… it’s not a bad experience. And if your children are more familiar with SpongeBob’s undersea home than their own backyard, it’s a nice excuse for visiting nature.

Financially, however, it’s no bargain.

Proponents argue that at $15.00 for a 20 pound bag, the cost per apple is well below what you’ll find in the supermarket. True enough.

What they never mention though, is that no human being ever needs 20 pounds of apples at any given time (particularly after you and your offspring have just spent two hours wandering the orchard, eating every apple in sight).

So you pays your money, you takes your apples, and you drive home, whereupon you jam them into the bottom of the refrigerator, awaiting the day when you will “make a pie.”

Yeah, right.

The problem, I’ve come to realize, is not that apple pies, or apple crisps, or apple sauce are all that hard to make. No my friends, the obstacle to a pantry full of apple-based treats is the need to peel and core the damn things.

And so they sit there, waiting for someone to come along and do the job. Or, more likely, to throw them in the garbage when you need to make room for your Thanksgiving turkey.

This year, however, things at my house were different.

The reason? My sister-in-law Kathie, arrived one Sunday afternoon with an old-fashioned apple peeler and corer. Not only was this thing efficient – I’m not religious, but I used the word “miracle” several times – it was fun too, and we had those things skinless and coreless in about 15 minutes.

Later that evening, and now stuffed with several slices of fresh, warm, apple pie, I got to thinking: Turning apples into pie is a lot like turning industry knowledge into E-Newsletters… in both cases, there’s an obstacle in the way.

In the case of apples, it’s peeling them. In the case of your E-Newsletter, it’s narrowing your industry knowledge (the apples) into a single, simple, sharp idea each month (the pie).

Because in my experience, the problem with most professional service E-Newsletters is not that the writers don’t know what they’re talking about or have the requisite experience. They do. But they wander around, and cover so much ground, that you, the reader, finally give up and get your pie elsewhere.

Bottom line: All day, every day, I help clients get their E-Newsletters written. And whether I’m writing it for them or simply offering coaching to them, we always begin by agreeing on what the point is. What’s the one message – the simple “aha” – that we want readers to walk away with this month?

Because believe me, if you can’t answer that question in one clear sentence, you’ve got a lot of apples, but no pie.

- Michael

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

You know what word I have trouble spelling? Oppossed.

See what I mean?

Same with curiculum, entreprenur and envionment, although I blame that last one on having lived in Boston for 25 years, a place where the letter “R” has never been welcome.

Happily, I’ve got a spell-checker in Word and a spell-checker associated with my e-mail. And with 98% of my written communications occurring between those two, for the most part, nobody knows about my spelling weakness (Shhh).

The truth is, it’s this kind of automation – online purchasing, cell phones, remote e-mail, PDF downloads, online backup, spell-check and others – which I find make the logistical aspects of running a small business so straightforward.

I don’t have a great memory to begin with, and as I’ve pushed “Mr. Systematic” out of the way and let the right side of my brain take over these past several years, I’d be lost without a whole bunch of prearranged processes running in the background.

Which is why I’m so excited about the concept of automated e-mail marketing messages – or “autoresponders,” as those who frequent trade shows sponsored by companies with oddly-spelled names filled with too many capital letters like to call them.

An autoresponder is simply a message sent – automatically – in response to an e-mail received or a web form filled in. The most common autoresponder is a vacation message: You write it before you leave, and while you’re gone, anyone who sends you an e-mail gets your pre-written message sent back to them.

Here in E-Newsletter Land, the most important autoresponder is your “Welcome Message,” a message sent immediately to anyone who signs up to receive your newsletter. Any e-mail marketing vendor worth its salt (and if you don’t have a salty e-mail marketing vendor, I suggest you get one) offers this feature. It’s an opportunity for you to welcome new readers as they take that first step onto your list.

Specifically, make sure your welcome e-mail includes:

• An explicit thank you for subscribing
• A reiteration of what your newsletter is all about and when they can expect to receive it
• The name, title and, if you want to get fancy, handwritten signature of an actual human being within your organization
• An invitation to send feedback

Simply put, the point of a welcome message is to offer a hearty, electronic handshake to your new friends.

Whatever you do, don’t simply send the uncustomized, default welcome letter that your e-mail marketing vendor provides. These tend to be as cool, bland and multipurpose as a brown paper bag, and will do nothing to enhance your brand or spread warm fuzzies across cyberspace. Give this all-important first message the same care in voice, content and design that you give the newsletter itself.

In my case, for example, I’ve now got it set up so that after the initial and immediate welcome letter, new readers receive:

• On Day 2, an e-mail that points them to my newsletter archive
• On Day 16, an e-mail that points them to my page of additional free resources
• On Day 45, an e-mail that demands cash. Ha, ha! I’m kidding. It’s an e-mail that asks how I’m doing and what else they’d like to see in the newsletter.

Bottom Line: New newsletter subscribers are like new employees in an organization (except they don’t steal office supplies). Welcome them with open arms, show them around, and pay them special attention in that first month or two of the relationship.

Whether you accomplish this in an automated fashion or in some other way, don’t miss the opportunity to start them off on the right foot as a (future) long time subscriber.

- Michael

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

If you’ve been receiving my posts for even a little while, I’m sure you’ve come to view me as a serious, thoughtful, dare I say… highbrow kind of person.

And while I appreciate your kind words (thank you), it will probably come as a shock when I reveal the following: When the Sunday newspaper arrives each week, the first section I read is the comics. In fact, and as long as we’re telling tales today, I should mention that there are weeks where the only section I read is the comics.

But wait, it gets worse. Because in recent months, it appears I’ve managed to corrupt my son, Evan. Now, he too is following in my intellectually curious footsteps by doing the same. Take a minute, I know it’s depressing.

And yet, there is one, small, silver lining within this storm cloud of 21st century unlearnedness… it gives Evan and me an excuse to have an in-depth conversation every Sunday morning.

Here, for example, is an excerpt from a recent father-son bonding interaction…

Me: “You know Evan, Monty was hysterical today, but I thought Doonesbury was way off. And as usual, I don’t have the slightest idea what Zippy the Pinhead was getting at.”

Evan: “Yeah, whatever Dad. See you later.”

Granted, some father-son conversations are more in-depth than others, but I think you get the idea.

In the course of our research, Evan and I have also uncovered one critical fact: The comics that they publish in the summer are decidedly less funny than those during the rest of the year.

Indeed, it’s as if the comic writers and newspaper editors of America have colluded to deliberately publish the weakest strips during the summer months, when fewer people are reading. Never mind WMDs, my friend – this is what I call a conspiracy.

And yet, my own comic paranoia aside, it does actually make some sense in the comic strip world. After all, why use your best stuff when people are less likely to read it? Why not just wait for them to return in September, and in the meantime, coast along with the near-reject material?

I mention this today, not because I’m using my own near-reject material in the summer, but to warn you away from applying this same logic to your E-Newsletter.

Because while it may work just fine in the world of print newspapers, it’s got one BIG problem here in e-mail marketing land: You’re always just one click away from a reader opting out… forever.

Here’s what I mean…

If you don’t like the comics in today’s newspaper, you don’t cancel your subscription. And even if today’s poor showing causes you to turn the page with a negative opinion of a particular strip, well, it will be right there next week and the week after that to possibly catch your eye again.

With e-mail, it’s one strike and you’re out. All a reader need do is click the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of the message and she’s off your list for good (assuming you’re a responsible e-mail marketer). In practice, that means you can never afford to sit back and publish a “throwaway newsletter.”

Some data for those of you less comically inclined: Every time I publish this newsletter, some (apparently insane) readers opt out. The last five newsletters had opt out rates of:

0.201%
0.248%
0.264%
0.204%
0.242%

Compare this to what happened last week. I sent an announcement to all of you regarding Blue Penguin’s upcoming birthday party. This e-mail, by contrast, had an opt out rate of .355%. Quite a bit higher.

Why the difference? There’s no telling for sure, but I’m guessing the extra opt outs were made up of people who didn’t realize that the invitation was from me (since it looked different from the newsletter); people who consider a birthday party event off target when what they signed up for was an “E-Newsletter on E-Newsletters;” people who hate ice cream; and other reasons I’m not even aware of.

The point is, every E-Newsletter you send carries with it the risk that someone will see something they don’t like, and opt out. Remember, some number of your readers are always near the edge – as e-mail marketers we literally hang by a single thread with every mailing.

Bottom line: The greatest number of opt outs will always occur (ironically) in response to your newsletter’s arrival; it’s the arrival that prompts action.

When you bring inferior content during the summer – whether that’s “no newsletter this month, have a great summer” empty messages, thrown together topics, or (worst of all) “reruns” of past newsletters – you increase the likelihood that more readers than usual will leave.

So you’ve got two content options during the summer. Either don’t publish at all (not a great choice, but at least one which causes minimal damage) or continue to give readers the best you’ve got, issue after issue after issue.

- Michael

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..