Email is still, hands down, THE best way to launch a new program or product. Unfortunately, most women entrepreneurs are skittish about using email frequently enough. Others don’t understand how to effectively use the medium.

Now, my internet marketing tip is NOT that you send your list an email every five minutes. We all know how annoying THAT is!

BUT…I hear from too many business coaching clients that they send out one, maybe two emails, and then expect to sit back and watch their programs fill and their products leap off the shelves.

It just doesn’t work that way.

Your prospective clients are busy. They’re not focused on what you’re so generously offering. Doesn’t that sound like YOU on the receiving end of an email offer?

So, to earn their attention, you need to send multiple emails. Make your message catchy, authentic and fun to read. Now, before you balk and tell me you “don’t want to be one of THOSE kinds of marketers,” please hear this marketing coach out…

If your email campaign is engaging and relevant to your reader, you can easily send five to seven emails over a period of three or four weeks.

Here are six quick tips for a successful email campaign:

Internet Marketing Tip #1: Plan a “preview” event and market it FIRST.

It’s much easier to get prospects to take baby steps during the trust-building phase. For now, make it easy for them to say ‘yes’ to an invitation. Later, during your preview event, when your relationship is growing, you can introduce your new program or product.

Case in point: I sent out three emails invitations to register for my free Brand Authenticity business coaching preview call. The result? A gratifying 516 people registered for the preview call!

Internet Marketing Tip #2: Get their attention with this…

Did I make you look? Using a trailing sentence in your subject line… and the first sentence of your email will encourage your reader to, well, read the rest of your email. (Asking a question in your subject line will have the same results!)

Internet Marketing Tip #3: Do NOT sell in the email!

Don’t expect a little ol’ email to do the heavy lifting. That’s your sales page’s job. Your email message should create enough interest to motivate your prospect to go to your website for more information. Resist giving details of your new product or service. Instead, explain what the offer will do FOR them!

Internet Marketing Tip #4: Create urgency by releasing your sales figures.

Let your readers know how limited your offer is, and then keep them posted as to how much you’ve sold. Demonstrate that others want what you’re offering by revealing the decreasing supply, and you’ve created a sense of urgency.

For example, response to my last email for Brand Authenticity disclosing that we were 56% sold out, pushed the figures to 64%! People need to know that if they snooze, they lose; so be sure and remind them to take action…now!

Internet Marketing Tip #5: Send a “last chance” email the day before your cut-off date.

You will be amazed at how many people will wait until the very last, teensy, tiny second to take advantage of a time-sensitive offer. So if you’re tempted to omit the “last chance” email, please, send it. You’ll be glad you did!

Internet Marketing Tip #6: A weekly email is barely enough!

In my business coaching campaigns, I send one email each week for the first 2-3 weeks. Then, as the cut-off date draws near, I send a second email each week for another two weeks. For the final week I send out a third, the “last chance” email.

Will sending so many emails make some people mad? Yes. Please excuse me for sounding tough here, but just ‘get over it!’ These are the people who won’t buy from you anyway. As I remind my business coaching clients: “Don’t take it personally. Sending out email reminders to your potential clients is an important part of your job.”

Most of all have fun with your campaigns. If you’re genuine and project a feeling of caring and connection in your emails, your readers will watch what you’re doing with interest. When your offer (finally) tickles their fancy, they will appreciate the consistent reminders that you’ve been eager to work with them.

Viral marketing is a unique tool designed to create so much buzz about the article itself that even the largest sites will want to publish it.Those who use this technique have seen incredible spikes in their site visitation simply because viral marketing can provide a quick boost in traffic.

In a campaign where viral marketing is successful traffic can go from a few hundred visitors to several thousand.

How does it work?

The idea is to create content that is so compelling that when you offer it free of charge you will find the content being used by large websites. Because you have links in your free-to-use article you will find readers who are interested in your writing coming to your website to see what you offer.

This has the effect of turning on a faucet. The traffic comes pouring in, but like most things in life it won’t last. Attention will soon focus on other new articles. Viral marketing can be a bit like the “flavor of the month club”.

So do I keep trying to create a buzz with new content?

Well, you can, but you also need to hope that other secondary sources will continue to carry and archive your viral articles.

Think of viral marketing like the spread of a virus. The hope is that your content will spread all over the Internet providing positive back linking opportunities for your website that will last much longer.

What sets viral marketing apart?

Viral marketing is often negative and controversial. It thrives on either raising the blood pressure of the reader or jarring the reader into considering something they have never considered before.

The articles need to be cleverly written with titles that grab the attention of the skimmer. These are individuals who scan until something catches their eye. In this case it could be a viral marketing article.

Why don’t more people use viral marketing?

In my estimation there are three reasons people don’t use viral marketing.

1) They don’t know what it is. They may have heard about it before, but most have no real idea of what it is or how it works.

2) They don’t know how to write a viral marketing piece. There really is an art form to the process of writing this type of article. It’s a skill that can be learned, but many don’t take the time to learn it.

3) The don’t feel it represents their business well. The truth is the negative feel of viral marketing and the controversial nature of much of the content can make the use of viral marketing problematic for some business owners.

Viral marketing is a strategy that seeks to grab a share in the proverbial fifteen minutes of fame by rolling out a dynamic article that can improve traffic to your website for an extended period of time. The positive residual effect is in multiplied backlinks from sites that will carry your article long-term. The reason this is a positive for business owners is that a growth in backlinks is generally viewed as improved trust by search engines and they will reward your business site with enhanced rankings. The best result would be better overall sales.

Perhaps the primary consideration for using viral marketing would be whether or not the article is a positive reflection on you and your business interests. If not then viral marketing may not be a perfect fit.

Marketing your business is one of the biggest challenges for any solopreneur – it’s a task we all find quite daunting, and are simply overwhelmed by all the information that’s available. Below I have put together some information on 3 simple and low cost marketing ideas, which you can easily implement right away to create more visibility for your online business and web site. They all work well for me!

To help you decide which is the best strategy (or strategies) for you, I have listed the pros and cons of each one.

Create a Blog

Pros

You can really show off your expertise by posting on a regular basis.

Blog posts don’t need to be very long – approx. 200-350 words.

If you have some important information to share, you can instantly create a post – no waiting for your next newsletter to make your announcement!

If you use a blogging platform such as WordPress, this is hosted on your website. Each time you post to your blog you are creating fresh content for your website, which the search engines love!

Cons

You need to post regularly – at least once a week – in order for this to be an effective marketing strategy.

You need to feel confident that you will be able to write fresh content regularly.

It can be difficult to build a direct relationship with your reader.

Publish an Ezine

Pros

Unlike a blog, readers sign up to receive your newsletter so you already have a connection with them.

You can build a relationship with your newsletter reader and encourage one-on-one communication.

You can go into more depth in your newsletter article than you can with your blog posts.

Your clients/target audience can get to know you through your newsletter.

Cons

You have to make a commitment to publish on a regular basis, otherwise your subscribers will see you as unreliable, and may even forget about you!

There is more work involved in putting together a newsletter than writing a simple blog post.

You will need to subscribe to one of the ezine distribution services – I strongly recommend you do this and not send your ezine via your email client!

Article Marketing

Pros

If you are already blogging or publishing a newsletter, you have your articles written.

It is highly likely that once you submit your article to one of the article submission sites, it will be picked up and published on other article submission sites.

Regularly submitting your articles will elevate you to ‘expert’ status within your field/niche.

Cons

You have to write the articles if you’re not publishing a newsletter or posting to a blog.

It takes time to manually research suitable article submission sites and submit articles.

In order for this strategy to be effective, you have to submit your articles regularly – at least once a month.

Conclusion: You can just pick one strategy to focus on, or you can do all three! Whichever one you choose make sure it’s the right one for you. The key is to be consistent in your approach. If you decide to go with a blog make sure you have the time and motivation to add new posts regularly – at least once a week. Don’t start a newsletter if you know you won’t be able to keep to a regular publishing schedule! And for article marketing to be effective you need to submit articles on a regular basis.