We live in a heavily wired and connected world today. With the spread of the Internet, a majority of businesses have moved to the online world. Gone are the days of the purely brick and mortar based business models. As the online medium grows and more people conduct business online, there are opportunities galore for marketing specialists to come up with new techniques and strategies to reach out to consumers. Opt-in mails represent one such new initiative or means that marketers can use to communicate with their target consumers online.
 
Opt-in mail is also known as permission marketing, where marketers ask e-mail of the visitors to their site to have the permission to send them information of products and services that are on offer. In opt-in mailing system, the company forms mailing lists of those who agree to or opt in favor of receiving e-mails from corporate entities. It is quite necessary for companies to gain specific permission from the recipient/s or else the mail is considered to be a spam*. When people permit marketers to send opt-in mails, they acknowledge the fact that the company could send updates, newsletters, e-mails and notifications about product or service offerings.

*SPAM: They are unsolicited emails that are being sent to many email address mostly using a software (an automated process) to market a product or service online. Please note that SPAM is illegal. You can read more about the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm

However, an opt-in email is perfectly legal, as the subscriber has given permission to receive the mail in his/her inbox as per the terms when they signed up. Also they can unsubscribe at any time they wish to.

If you are a marketer, you can effectively use opt-in mail as a strategy to spread the word about your brand, your products or services, thereby giving a boost to your sales. For instance, if you want to build your company brand, you can send specific and well packaged e-mails about your brand values and core company philosophy as part of your brand building efforts. You can also promote some contests and brand promotion activities via opt-in mails that can attract new and repeat customers to your business. One of the smart ways to attract a loyal set of customers is to offer significant discounts to those on your opt-in mailing list. This has been very effectively employed by various media and magazine companies that offer huge discounts to those who opt to get such mails.

The advantage of opt-in mail list participants is that these people already have some brand loyalty and identification with the company as they have agreed to be a part of the list. After all, people would not want unwanted mails or spam from companies they do not believe in, would they? So opt-in mail lists represent an almost ready set of consumers who can be persuaded with some effort, to take a look and try out goods or services that you are marketing. This is what repeat purchase and ‘up-selling’* is all about where the consumer either purchases more of the same product or buys units of other products that you have on offer.

*Up-selling is selling two or more products to the same customer(s) again and again. In fact up-selling is one of the most important factors why marketers try to get a subscriber base. Lets take an example. You have a product and you have sold it to thousands of people and most of them are in your opt-in list. Now if you want to launch a new product it’s easy. Just inform the thousands in your list and with a click of a button they know about your new product without even reaching your site. Since they are already interested in receiving mails and know more about your company it is possible that a percentage of them might buy your product. This way you not only make money but also know the first reviews about your product from your existing customers. You can use these as testimonials and sell even more products. Up-selling is easy if you have an opt-in list, else how do you inform most of your existing customers?

Opt-in mails are also very cost effective and you can easily maintain them. This does not need hugely expensive marketing campaigns and advertisement as you are just sending e-mails. Opt-in mailing list also gives you the opportunity to reach out to focused or targeted audiences, especially for products that are more specific by nature (like industrial marketing or specific interest products). When you send such mails, consumers can spread the word around to friends and relatives.

In brief, opt-in mailing list is the brand new and exciting facet of Internet marketing that you can capitalize on to promote your brand and achieve significant sales volumes.

Do you have an opt-in list? How do you use it?

Here is a fact – almost all “good” domain names are booked or are for sale at a very high price. People who want to start a business online are finding it very difficult to get a domain of their choice. Therefore what most people do is compromise with adding really ugly looking numbers or characters in front or behind their desired domain name. For example – 123keyword.com, keywordabc.com, keyword-someotherkeyword.com. You get the idea.

So how do you get a great domain name?

If a domain name you are searching is already bought by someone else, then you can backorder that domain and wait to see if the owner eventually leaves that domain and the domain expires.* Your backorder domain registrar will then try to “catch” that domain and offer it to you. Interestingly backordering a domain comes for free. But there may be a 3 day auction if two or more people are interested in the expired domain. The highest bidder gets the domain.

*A domain expires when the owner is not willing to renew the domain (pay the domain registration fee on or before the domain expiry date). Of course the owner has up to 3 months to re-register the domain. During this time the domain search will show “pending delete”. If she/he doesn’t pay even in the pending delete period – the domain is freed and goes back to ICANN and anyone can register the domain. However if there is a backorder, then an auction takes place.

There are many companies that offer backorder of expired domains. Some of them are Snapnames.com, Namejet.com and Pool.com.

If you have backordered, then be ready for an auction as good domains are being bought by domain name selling business people. Unfortunately these people sit on a lot of cash, and its really hard to beat them. They get the domain and sell it (not backorder) at 3x to even 10x the price.

However if you are the only person who has backordered, then you can get the domain for as little as $59.

If the domain is profitable, chances are the owner will keep renewing the domain every year. In that case what do you do? Some domain registrars like GoDaddy.com try to “negotiate” with the current owner on your behalf and try to buy the domain for you. However please remember that this is a very complicated process as a third party will try to contact the current owner and talk on your behalf. This can be costly too as you have to pay the current owner as well as commission to the broker.

This option is good only if you have a lot of cash and are willing to get the domain “at any cost”. Of course this is much faster way of getting a domain you want if it’s already bought and the owner is willing to sell. Most of the news you read regarding someone buying (or selling) a domain is because of this. And these run in the millions, even billions of dollars for really good domains and business. For example Google bought YouTube for $1.65bn. But if it’s a small business, you can get the domain in some thousands of dollars.

All these options are good if you have a lot of money and can buy a domain from someone else or can bid to get that excellent domain. Unfortunately if your budget is only $10 for a domain, you have no other choice but to invent a good domain.

One of the best ways is let your target keyword be there and combine this will a general word that goes well with the domain.

For example see my domain – WebMarketingArt.com. Web Marketing is my keyword (I can’t call it a target keyword as it’s extremely difficult to get good rank for Web Marketing – but it serves my purpose.) Combined with “Art” it makes sense and is memorable too.

So what you need to do is combine the main keyword and a general word to get an attractive domain.

Hope this article helps you in getting a good domain name. If you happen to buy a domain with the help of this article do come back and post in the comment. Looking forward!

Internet is one of the rapidly growing marketing medium these days. As a major part of the global population spend a lot of time online, it makes the perfect sense to go for online marketing. Though you can avail of various online marketing tools, the most commonly used tool is email marketing.

If you are still not sure whether email marketing is worth your money, these advantages of email marketing can help you decide if you want to invest in it or not:

• Simplest option: Accomplishing an email marketing campaign is very easy. You won’t need any extensive resources for this and can carry it out from the comfort of your home.
• Beyond geographical borders: Email marketing has a global reach. Irrespective of your own location, the targeted emails can reach any audience.
• Cost effective: Email marketing campaign can cut down your costs considerably. As compared to traditional marketing methods like print or direct mail advertising, such a campaign will need less time, resources and money.
• Interactive: You can get your prospects involved in the email marketing campaign by using interesting videos, graphics, music, games, quiz or whatever that you think will catch their fancy.
• Extremely personalized: You can personalize your emails to greet every prospect of yours. This personalized touch will make a mark on your targeted would-be clientele and help you create special bonds with them.
• 24×7 marketing: With an email, you can let your audience know of the offerings even when you are not online or have left the office. So, if you want your marketing campaign to work round the clock, email marketing campaign should be your choice.
• Targeted marketing: Using custom-built and prepackaged records, you can do targeted marketing. Rather than bothering all and sundry, you can send emails only to those who are likely to need your products, services or solutions. You may use various parameters like age, geography, nature of spending, income etc to select your targeted audience.
• Assessable results: You can evaluate the success of your email campaigns by using tools that let you measure how a person has landed up at your website, the path followed by a visitor after such landing, conversion rates, click-through rates etc.
• Unsubscribe or opt-in alternatives: As emails have opt-in as well as opt-out alternatives, you can select only those prospects who are genuinely interested in your products/services/offerings.
• Quicker response: Though you will receive maximum responses on the first day itself, the average time of response for your e-mails may vary between one to three days. On the other hand, it will require at least 7 to 12 days to get any response from your direct mail promotions. Moreover, it is more cumbersome to answer a direct mail as compared to answering an email.

Remember that a properly planned online marketing can bring a lot of profit to your business. So, start a targeted email marketing campaign today and enjoy the soaring profits. Perhaps your competitors are already reaping the benefits of it.
 
Just a note of caution: Make sure that you are NOT SPAMMING your list. You must mail only to those who have agreed to receive newsletters or emails from you (opt-in subscribers). Sending unsolicitated emails is a punishable offence. Your website may get banned or worse you may have to pay a hefty fine or go to jail.

Read the email marketing laws a.k.a The CAN-SPAM Act, before starting marketing.

Have you ever done marketing through emails?

Eye tracking is the procedure of finding where our gaze is located for a reasonable part of time. Many webmasters use eye tracking devices to find the areas of websites where the viewers look the most. Eye tracking is an eye opener for webmasters as they can see how the eyes of their potential customers bounce around the web pages of the site. It is a common yet wrong notion to believe that people read the content on web pages in an orderly manner. Rather, their eyes may move randomly while looking through the “About Us” page which is quite different in pattern when the same person takes a look at the “Order now” page, the “FAQ” section or uses the “Search” facility at the same site.
Watching how the gaze of a visitor moves across the screen, halting at some places and overlooking some other areas, can give some idea about which areas should be the main focus to convert leads into sales and increase the ROI (Return on Investment) thereby.

It is beyond doubt that eye tracking has a tremendous demonstrative value as it helps a webmaster to identify how their users behave. By having the knowledge of how users watch the screen while browsing through your website, you can get a lot of insight into users’ behavior and the areas of your site that you should target to increase the sales and bring more visitors.

To know about where the gaze of a user rests for a long time, eyetracking “heatmaps” are used. These heatmaps show the different areas of a website where the users looked the most. Usually, the areas colored red in the heatmaps denote the most watched areas of the website. Yellow colored areas point toward fewer fixations while blue areas stand for least-viewed part of the site. The areas of the site that haven’t attracted any eyeballs are generally marked in gray color. So, an eyetracking “heatmap” can give valuable information about which areas the viewers are watching the most after landing at your site.

Eye tracking can be used to evaluate various aspects of a website and the online business related therewith as you can have an insight about:

• branding
•  search efficiency
•  navigation usability
• design
• online advertisements, and
• several other components of the site

By using an eye tracking device, you may even analyze how your competitor site is faring as compared to yours. However, despite so many benefits, eye tracking has its own disadvantages. Firstly, eye tracking devices are expensive. In addition to buying the device, you will also need to spend money so that people can be trained to use it properly.  Secondly, an eye tracker may not work for everyone. Often people having long eye lashes or wearing contact lenses cause problem in the proper functioning of these devices. Lastly, results given by eye tracking devices are difficult to analyze as they vary from one site to another and depend a lot on other parameters that need to be taken into account. Nevertheless, the output offered by an eye tracking device can be extremely helpful.

Another problem is that in order to achieve statistical significance you may need to study the gazing behavior of lots of eyeballs to come to a conclusion. Nevertheless the recent days of modern web marketing is witnessing a lot of online businesses studying eye-tracking on their sites to improve their ROI. If done well this can increase the return on investments many times.

Have you ever used eye tracking on your website to study your visitors’ gazing pattern to increase ROI?