Congratulations to Anthony Acquaviva, currently named the AWesomest team member at AWeber by popular vote. Anthony’s been working here for almost 1 year now and digging every minute of it. When he is not fully immersed in AWeber goodness, he spends time with his lovely wife and neurotic Shi Tzu. He also likes to solve [...]

The summer of 2011 ended on a string of serious notes for those of us in the Eastern United States: an unusual series of natural disasters, followed by the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. For email marketers, this has raised the question, “If you’re sending email into this region, how should you adjust your marketing?” A [...]

Thursday, Yahoo! released an email visualization tool. Updated every second, it shows the volume of email being delivered through Yahoo! users across the globe. Click on the map, and it’ll zoom in to a breakdown of emails in that area (with all emails anonymized). Keep clicking, and it’ll display fascinating facts about Yahoo!’s user base. [...]

As you know, the key to responses to your email marketing offers is a careful balance of helpful, relevant, interesting, entertaining, all-around saintly emails, written with the right audience in mind and tested for optimal performance. Now, we could do the marketing-blog thing and throw that advice at you, wish you luck and go check [...]

Your from line is your branding in the inbox. It sparks instant recognition of your business. And since it’s the very first thing subscribers see, it may be the biggest factor in getting your emails opened. So hopefully you don’t just swap from names without blinking an eye. Hopefully you blink several times while you’re [...]

Email marketing is much easier and more effective when all the information you need is in one place. What if you had one source that analyzed all the techniques that were working for over 1,000 of your fellow email marketing professionals? Enter MarketingSherpa’s annual Email Marketing Benchmark Report. It’s one of the top resources for [...]

When you spill the proverbial milk all over a marketing email, it can be tempting to hold your breath, cross your fingers and hope no one notices. And since your audience is behind computer screens elsewhere, you probably won’t see many reactions (especially if they’re not on Twitter). They’ll certainly notice some things; they may [...]

AWeber’s customer support offices will be closed on Monday, July 4th 2011 for the Independence Day holiday. As always, we’ll be keeping an eye on things to address any critical issues. We’ll be here on Saturday the 2nd and Sunday the 3rd from 9:00AM until 5:00PM EDT to answer your questions by email and live [...]

Yes, email marketing can do a lot to get the word out about your business.

But as a business, you’ve got quite a lot of other irons in the fire. And you’d like them all to get hot.

We know that. We also know that when you do well, we do well. So we hunted up a few little articles that, alongside email marketing, can help you get your business to sizzle.

The 100 Rules for Being an Entrepreneur

Some of this will shock you. Some might upset you. But it’s straight talk on what it really takes to get your business off the ground, from a guy who’s launched several, so it’s all valuable.

You don’t have to agree with every point, but each is worth a moment of thought.

We suggest putting your favorites into your own list. Then you can pull it out whenever you need inspiration – or a reminder of how to stay sane amid all you have to do.

Small sample: “Depressions, recessions, don’t matter. There’s $15 trillion in the economy. You’re allowed a piece of it.”

Google Wonders – Is This Place Still Here?

I

n an effort to keep search results accurate, Google Maps now highlights listings for businesses it suspects might be closed. Searchers who stumble on those listings have a chance to set the record straight.

If your business has a physical location, you may want to search for your listing and see if your status is in question. And if you’re not listed, for goodness sakes, register now>.

The Single Most Powerful Use of Social Media for Small Business

If you’ve ever wondered why your business should be on social media (and what the heck it would do there), here’s your answer. (Make sure to pay attention to John’s advice on who to start engaging with!)

Serendipitously enough, if you take this approach to social media, you should end up with lots of great content ideas for your marketing emails!

Get Your Website Ready for the Mobile Web in 10 Steps

Within two years, half (or more!) of the views of your web site and emails will happen on mobile devices.

Which means that (you’ve heard this a thousand times, say it with me now) now is the time to get ready for mobile.

But what you haven’t heard a thousand times are the practical ways you can do that. What sizes should things be, specifically? What if your site has JavaScript? And how can you tell what it looks like on mobile devices you don’t have?

This 10-step guide has your answers – with practical links to the tools you’ll need.

101 Uses For Quick Response (QR) Codes

In case you missed the post on it, you can use QR codes to get email subscribers: people scan your code with their smartphones, you instantly invite them to sign up for your emails.

Making your codes is easy (again, see this post). The trick is getting them out to the public.

Fortunately, a few of those tricks are laid out here – 101 of them, to be exact – along with links to real-life QR marketing stories.

Are You On Fire Yet?

Put one or two of these in place, and you’ll start to see sparks. Implement all of them, and things will really catch fire.

And of course, if you want to keep the fire of your business blazing brightly, the best marketing tool of all is email marketing through AWeber – just look at what you get!

So if you don’t have an AWeber account yet, get yours now.

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“Twenty percent of email in the United States and Canada is still not making it to the inbox while 3% of email goes to the “junk” or “bulk” folder and another 16% goes missing.” – Return Path (2010)

That’s a scary statement for email marketers. And the stats are similar worldwide:

In Asia, 3% hits the junk folder while 10% goes missing. In Europe, 3.6% gets junked, 11% disappears.

And this is legitimate email, sent to those who’ve opted in. So, yes, this can (and probably sometimes does) happen to your email.

Let’s talk about how to prevent that, shall we?

Here, I’ll Demonstrate

These are emails from marketers I’ve opened from before. I’ve clicked a few of their links. I never added them to my contact list, though, just to see what happens.

So. You see what happens?

Here’s What You Can Do About It

Learn the Nuts and Bolts

Yes, AWeber handles the technical side of deliverability for our customers. But to make sure you’re doing everything you can do yourself, you may want to get familiar with the back end of things.

Get Started Here

Aim To Be a Priority With Your Readers

Major email providers now offer ways to sort email as you get it – for example, Gmail’s Priority Inbox. Bad news for spammers, but it could be good news for you…

Find Out How

Protect Against Malicious Sign Ups

You’d never intentionally spam someone. But malicious sites crop up. And they would use your web form to sign people up for unwanted mail. So make sure you’re protecting against them.

Use This Technique

Prevent Spam Complaints

You can be doing everything right, and some people will still click the “spam” button. But don’t think there’s nothing you can do to prevent it. We have 5 solutions for you to try.

See Them

Don’t Purchase a List

For goodness sakes. Do you want emails from random brands you’ve never heard of? Of course not. Neither do the people on that list. And as for what it’ll do to your reputation…

Well, Find Out

Stick With One “From” Address

Switch the address your email is “from,” and subscribers may be surprised (especially when they have to re-opt to open your images and re-add you to their address books. If you MUST switch, at least follow this example…

See the Example

Get Whitelisted

If your readers say you’re okay, their email providers will believe them. So ask them to put in a good word for you.

3 Ways to Ask

Choose Confirmed Opt-In

We know, we know. You want as many subscribers as possible, and some of them aren’t going to bother to confirm their interest. But that may actually be a good thing.

Find Out Why

Use an Unsubscribe Header

If you’re an AWeber customer, we handle this for you. If not, you may want to check into this – it’s a good solution for subscribers who don’t trust standard links to unsubscribe.

Read More

One Last Thing About Deliverability

It’s dynamic.

Technology changes, subscribers get more savvy and the email industry evolves. And this effects your delivery rates.

So if you don’t already get updates for the AWeber blog, you may want to sign up for them now. You’ll get emails twice a week with tips for creating emails that get delivered – and get results.

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