When I first started marketing on-line, I quickly created a marketing email
nightmare. I didn't know not to use my regular email account when I went
out placing ads at the various sites on-line. Oh Boy do I wish someone had
mentioned that to me! Imagine my horror when I checked my mail and there
were hundreds of confirmations from the owners of the ad sites I posted to.
Trying to sort through them finding any that might be a customer asking for
help, etc. was again nothing short of a nightmare.
It didn't take me long to figure out I would need to focus some time on
organizing how I managed the email I received from my advertising. Thankfully
with just a little organization. And a few months of undoing the disaster
I had created. Today it is, no longer a problem, but instead a well oiled
machine, that is controlled by me and not the other way around.
I am sure many make the same mistake as they begin their marketing adventure.
But hopefully this article will help a few of you to not have to endure the
nightmare this mistake can cause.
First off you will want to use good email accounts for your posting. Don't
compromise your advertising just to avoid the confirmations. Not using quality
email will only get you banned from the sites and then your ads won't be
seen. Making it just a waste of time at that point. Many of the free email
accounts out there are not a wise choice for using with your advertising.
They can be used if handled properly, but I do not recommend them for the
beginner.
Set up your email accounts according to what types of advertising you are
doing. Basically you will need one or two email accounts for free ads sites
such as classifieds and FFA's. One account for your safelist ad posting and
one contact account for the safelists. Because safelist admins can and do
send quite a bit of mail to these accounts, so this can still create clutter
in the mailbox of your main contact email address.
I personally use POP email accounts created from my hosting account where
my domain is hosted. You can organize this to suit what is easiest for you
such as you might create a email account named ads@your-domain-name.com for
posting to classified and ffa sites. Then safelists@your-domain-name.com
and for the safelist contact email slcontact@your-domain-name.com
The main benefit of using POP accounts is that when needed, you can put them
on mailbox cleaners. You can't do this with forwarding type email addresses.
Now I am from the "old school" as many call it and I don't dump my mail unless
absolutely necessary, such as being gone for the day or my Internet service
is down, etc. Not to mention that many of the sites, you advertise on, require
that you confirm your posting, so you will want to be able to view your mail
to find those that you need to click on.
In addition to the accounts mentioned above, you will need to pull all this
together with quality email software that will handle multiple email accounts
and download mail automatically. There are many to choose from, but the easiest
I have found to use are Outlook Express and Mozilla Thunderbird. Both can
be obtained free or in most cases is already on your computer if you use
Window's. Simply set up all your accounts you have created and set the program
to auto-download every 15-30 minutes.
There can be even further organization by creating folders or mailboxes as
some software calls them, then using filters to filter mail into various
folders of your email software. Giving you even more ability to know what
mail is coming from where so you know how you need to handle it. Such as
if it is safelist mail you will want to browse at the very least the headlines.
You will find many quality services, money makers and other goodies from
safelist posters. If it is FFA and Classified mail then you will want to
find and click on any confirmation links to optimize your ad being seen.
Then again check the offers, many will be great. For mail from the safelist
admins, you will need to watch for important notices, such as list changes,
and also view the solo ads and so on.
One last piece of advise for managing your marketing email accounts is not
to over create accounts. This will only cause chaos in trying to stay organized.
You can only post so many times to a site any way and creating multiple accounts
so you can post more, is not only bad Internet ethics it is again a waste
of your valuable time. 9 out of 10 sites offering free advertising will track
you by your IP address and not the email you use any way. There may be reason
to have a few posting accounts pertaining to your organization of this, such
as what ad you are posting or site you are posting to, ad tracking, etc.
But just keep it to a limit, so that your mail doesn't get out of control.