Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

Unfortunately, I know of no magic bullet, because e-marketing is based on many separate pieces (art & science): technology, the quality of the list, and the copy of the email.

There are a number of technology offerings: everything from ESP (SendStream, Constant Contact, iContact, MyEmma, etc.) to bulk email programs. Each of these have pros/cons based on budget, tracking, IP address sharing, and appearance.

The quality of your list is extremely important. You want people that have opted-in, know & trust you, and look forward to receiving your emails.

Your copy is king. Starting with the subject line, the copy needs to convey that your information/offer needs to be acted on immediately, and is targeted to your list to a "T".

A simple book that might help is: Advanced Email Marketing (Jim Sterne)

e-marketing is so broad especially with all the new media opportunities. I haven't found a book that covers all aspects from a-z. I think that is almost impossible considering the why we market is changing at the speed of light. I would recommend picking a couple areas of interest and search for topic-specific books on Amazon. Not sure if this is what you are looking for or not, but here are several good books I have read particularly targeted toward social media that you may be interested in reading.

1. Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business

2. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

3. Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online

4. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

Others I have ready that focus on Web sites are as follows:

1. Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow that Works
2. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites

You may want to check out www.membershipsiteowner.com for ideas on maximizing continuity programs. I joined when running my coaching practice.

The members are friendly, helpful and not too 'hypish', if you know what I mean. Not only did I learn useful marketing techniques, I also gleaned good organizational tips. Tim Kerber, one of the founders, is a good guy. I'm not an affiliate I just appreciate all the help Tim and his team provided over the years.

Best of luck,

Dina
Charmed Life Cards

Jay and Krista are absolutely right to point out that E-marketing is a very broad subject, not easily covered in a single book. (Think about what it would be like to ask for a recommendation to learn history, for example.)

A few books I've found most useful are:

1. Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, by Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd

2. Permission Marketing and The Big Red Fez, by Seth Godin

3. Groundswell, by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

I'm sure there are others, but these come to mind first. I also think there are many good articles and white papers on various websites, and I wouldn't dismiss them too quickly. In some cases they're better than books.

I found a great book on online marketing a while ago. It is by David Meerman Scott and you can find it on amazon.com. I've learnt a great deal from this book and highly recommend it.

Personally, I would feel I would need at least 10 years experience working with a broad range of issues and companies before I would personally feel qualified to offer such a subscription service.

If, however, I had my heart set on offering such a service, I would seek articles and answers from those who have spent many years trying to get a handle on this vast and rapidly changing subject.

It seems to me that you've gotten quite a bit of helpful advice and resources from the folks above. Please realize that your potentials of drivers can find comparable lists of links with Google searches. You'll have to offer much, much more, in my opinion, you have a valid business offering.

A book that was extremely helpful to me when I first started with email marketing was Kim MacPherson's Permission Based E-mail Marketing.

It is an outstanding primer on email marketing.

Hello,

I recommend you visit :www.the-dma.org website.

Most emailers forget that the core principles of email are derived from Direct Mail. From this site you will find a many resources on email marketing and direct marketing.

There are many parts to email marketing and it is hard to be a master of them all. Pick the parts you want to master and build a network of experts for the other parts.

Hope this helps.

Thank you
Tom