Direct promotions that are using email have boomed over recent years, but has brought with them mountains of spam. If you intend on using email as a method of advertising products and services, you have to be sure that you stand behind the products you're promoting and make yourself available to answer any questions that may be asked. If you hide from people, they will wonder what you are hiding.

An effective promotion technique that I have found is to combine email with an "ad article strategy". This generally means creating an ezine or newsletter promotion that visitors can sign up for that goes directly to their email inboxes. You can occasionally put a summary of a product or service, however, you should include just enough information to stir the curiosity of your readers in an ezine. The summary then contains a link to the ad article on our site. The benefit of this is not only that you have a good opportunity to promote the product or service, but while visitors are on your site they may also look at other sections at the same time This way you as the advertiser benefits through having highly targeted potential clients visit their site.

I can't emphasize enough of the importance of "warming up" your list before blasting them with an ad. The first few autoresponses and/or broadcast emails you send to your list should be purely informational, and should truly benefit your readers in some way so they want to keep reading what you send to them. Then after properly gaining their trust, you can start recommending products. Again the key here is making a "recommendation", not blasting them with an ad written by the author of the product you're promoting. You should always personalize such recommendations and tailor them for your subscribers.

You would think it goes without saying, but many marketers still don't understand the importance of a double opt-in system. If you're serious about bulk email marketing for the long term without being accused of spam, it's the only way to go. You can run your own opt-in and list server on your own server, but for several reasons I would recommend renting your opt-in service from a long established company such as Aweber. You will find that your email will be delivered to a higher percentage of subscribers, and you will not have to worry about the technical risks of managing the list.

What about those companies that allow you to email your ad to millions of opt-in members for a low price such as $29.95? In general, the downfall of such lists is that they are not very targeted. Nevertheless, there is some value to them considering the low prices available these days. The key is to make sure your list manager is reputable. If you blast an ad to people who haven't opted in, you could run the risk of your site being banned and even could face fines. So again, yes you can find good deals, but always take the time to make sure they are legitimate.

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For more information about bulk email marketing, check out Yao Zhijian's BulkEmailMarketer.com to find the best resources and safe lists.