Have you ever heard of spam? Of course you have, we all get it and we all delete it. It can be annoying, but the truth is that it does work. The more emails that go out the better the return. However, for us average marketers permission based emailing can be more effective because it can generate leads that are much more responsive.

The average person gets over 300 email a week, and about 60 percent of them are spam! So if you are an email marketer what can you do? One solution is through permission based email marketing.

What does effective permission email marketing involve? First you must get the permission of the customer. You can do this by using a double opt in technique which requires them to click on a link in an email which is sent to them right after they complete a registration form. This means that the recipient has expressed an interest in receiving emails from you, the sender. Of course the subscriber is also given the opportunity to unsubscribe at anytime.

The purpose of permission email marketing should be to create interest and a desire for your product or services. It is still one of the most cost effective ways to contact current customers and to convince prospects to become customers. When done correctly, permission based email marketing can be one of your most effective free advertising techniques.

TIP: Provide value and your prospects will be more likely to check out a few of your advertisements.

So, what is the difference between spam and permission based emails?

Permission email marketing involves only sending emails to people who have requested to receive them. Implementing a successful permission email marketing campaign should not be difficult, but what may not be easy is consistently doing what needs to be done every day!

Spam is never helpful and rarely has any value. Sending spam will never have any positive impact on any legitimate business. But, permission email marketing is all about turning those we do not know into friends and then those friends into customers. By focusing on prospects who are really interested in your offer you have a much better chance of turning them into customers.

TIP: Your prospects may respond to your emails if your message relates to their interests.

What might compel a reader to open your email?

1. The from field. Make sure your company name is clearly visible in the from field, and you should not use it for anything else.

2. The subject line. The most compelling subject lines contain discount offers, interesting news, and free offers.

Some key assumptions with which you should approach every email marketing campaign are:

• You will need to send out multiple email messages over a fixed period of time to get any results. You can then test various messages. Remember that it is all about numbers and percentages. One day a prospect will ignore your email and the next day open it and purchase your product or service.

• The first part of your email is the most important. Provide a few accurate, thought compelling words in the beginning of your message and avoid starting with bland copy or your company name. Avoid using words such as we, leading, solution or there are. Know what interests your readers and then give it to them, right from the start!

The purpose of email marketing is to interest your prospects in your product or service which may then lead to an actual sale.

Unsolicited bulk email or Spam is not worth the risk. Your domain could be blocked by many ISPs, not to mention the possibility of facing some legal challenges.

In case you still do not get it; permission based email is the ultimate free advertising resource for the internet marketer.

Copyright 2008 Joe Rispoli