Direct E-mail Marketing
Do's, Don'ts, Tips, Tricks, and Traps

All right, you have this great product to sell, and you've got yourself a spanking new Web site to sell it. Now, you sit back and wait for the orders to pour in...

To your great surprise, the only people to even peek at your site are you, your family, and a couple of your friends. Now that you have spent time and money to get your Web site, you naturally expect some return on your investment. So, you decide you have to market your site and let the world know all about it.

• Why is your site unique? Take out your pen (or keyboard) and write down why people should visit your site. Use the AIDA (Attention, Information, Desire, Action) technique to cover all of your bases.
• Where and how to publicize your site: Choose a segment of readers and target it, using an attractive pitch. Find Web sites and newsletters that target your audience and trade links or ads ; join feedback forums (discreetly); and subscribe to mailing lists and newsgroups that cover your area of interest.
• Sign your work: Develop a short, sweet, polite signature to use on the Web that lets readers know who you are and what you do.
• Press releases and search engines: Send press releases to interested newspapers and other publications; submit your site to search engines.
• It's not Spamtastic: E-mail can be great, but avoid (like the plague) sending unsolicited, unwanted e-mail in an effort to attract business.

The first step is to start thinking of what you feel is unique about your site and put it in writing. Why would people want to visit your site and not any of the dozens of other sites your competitors have put up? A marketer would call this your USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

Work the entire thing into a short, clear note, preferably less than a page in length. If you feel something has to be covered in greater detail, include a link to an appropriate page on your Web site.

When writing, use what's called the AIDA strategy.

• Attention: The first part of your write-up grabs the readers' attention.
• Information: The second part gives them information.
• Desire: The third part makes them desire your product.
• Action: The fourth part spurs them to action making them reach for their credit card and buy your product.

Now, you've reached the halfway stage: You have a product to sell, a Web site to promote it, and a fantastic write-up. The next half of the marketing process is to find out where and how to publicize your site.

Segment, target, and fire!

Use the STP process: Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. This is, in essence, a simple concept.

1. Divide and conquer: Divide the people you can reach into segments based on various criteria (say, employed women between 25 and 35 who live in your city's suburbs).
2. Segment and Target: Decide which segments are likely to be interested in buying your product. Target your promotions to these segments, concentrating your efforts on them.
3. Make your pitch attractive: Position your product so it is attractive to these segments. This means you have to customize your presentation to make sure it will appeal to the target audience. For details, read the brilliant book Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout, the originators of this concept.
4. Trade links and ads: Find other Web sites and opt-in e-mail newsletters and see if you can trade links or e-mail newsletter ads. This can be the single most effective thing you can do if you find sites and lists that are focused to people who will be interested in your products or services.
5. Talk back: Maintain a feedback form and a "tell a friend" form on your site, encouraging visitors to send in comments and tell friends about your site. Include some freebies to attract your user (say a mouse pad or a 10% discount for the best comment you receive).
   
   Make sure you it's clear to people that they're signing p for your list. Make sure to include a clear privacy policy, even something as short as, "We never share your name or e-mail address with anyone." If you do share or sell your lists, include a checkbox that allows visitors to say they don't want any promotional mail from anyone else.
   
   Don't send e-mail to people who haven't asked for it. That's called Spam, and it can do you more harm than good. Ignore the Spam  you get offering to sell you a million e-mail names for $20—just take a $20 bill and light it with a match. That will probably do you less harm.
6. Get on the Liszt: Now, start identifying the various mailing lists and newsgroups that are relevant to your site and are usually read by your target audience. Liszt  is a great search engine for mailing lists and DejaNews for newsgroups. Subscribe to the most popular ones, sit tight, and read them for a while, till you understand what's going on. Don't post anything as yet.