Excerpted with permission from Jimmy D. Brown’s “SEP”…

Thank you for your interest in Jimmy D. Brown’s “Optin Secrets” mini-course. While we make every effort to deliver the emails you request from us, we need your help!

If You Use AOL: AOL has a very aggressive filtration system in place to block SPAM from filling your inbox. Unfortunately, they also mistakenly block emails you requested. You can make sure you receive emails from Jimmy D. Brown by adding jimmy@profitsvault.com to your address book and “approved” list.

Additionally, AOL’s new SPAM controls will recognize what kinds of email you consistently delete and in about a week will automatically block those messages from reaching your inbox.

For example, if you do not open the “Optin Secrets” daily eCourse for about a week, AOL will automatically block you from receiving any additional messages in the series. We recommend that you open each message at the first convenient time every day.

If you are not receiving the messages, we recommend that you contact AOL and request they unblock jimmy@profitsvault.com so you may continue receiving the messages.

If You DO NOT Use AOL: Email settings, email filtering and other SPAM controls may result in possible mistaken blocks of the “Optin Secrets” mini-course.

If you do not receive the messages, we recommend that you contact your ISP to find out why you are not receiving the messages.

Generally, you should be able to add jimmy@profitsvault.com to your address book “safe” list or “approved senders” list. This will allow messages to be received as you requested.

Tips to Avoid Problems: There are four things you can do in order to make certain you receive our mailings.

1. Add us to your “approved” list. As we already mentioned, you can add jimmy@profitsvault.com to your “approved” list which should allow messages to be properly delivered to you.

2. Contact your ISP or ESP. If you still do not receive messages from us, then you should contact your ISP or ESP for additional support help.

3. Use a POP3 account AND a web-based account. Join Jimmy’s list with your regular ISP email address (POP3) and a web-based account (Such as Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) By using multiple email addresses, with different services and delivered at different locations, you should be able to receive the information you requested.

4. Let us know if you continue to have trouble. We will make every effort to get you the information you requested. If you still are unable to receive Jimmy’s course, email us directly at support@profitsvault.com and we will do what we can to get the information to you.

You want to help your subscribers get the information they requested from you.

It’s to BOTH of your advantages to do this. Education. Education. Education.

It’s impossible for you to track down every email issue yourself, but by instructing your subscribers on how they can get proactive and get the information themselves, you’ll go a long way to getting more emails delivered properly.

And, you only have to create such a page ONE time. One size fits all.

Make an effort to stay on top of what AOL and Hotmail are doing, since they are the largest ISP and ESP, respectively. And give some “general” tips for all users to work with.

Now, what should you do with this “subscriber education page” when you’ve got it put together?

Good question. There are three basic ways you can use it…

1. Use it as your opt-in page itself.
You can put the information on your actual optin page itself. That’s the worst place to put it, in my opinion, but it’s still an option. I don’t like it for several reasons, primarily because (a) it can be distracting, (b) it can seem like “too much work.”

2. Send visitors who are having delivery problems to the page. Certainly this is something you’ll want to do. When someone emails you and tells you that they did not receive the information they requested from you, then you can send to your “subscriber education page.” I use it in this way, in conjunction with…

3. Redirect visitors to it AFTER they have opted in. I think the best way to use the page is to redict subscribers to it immediately AFTER they have joined your list. You can give them the usual, “Thanks for joining the list. Check your email. Blah, blah, blah” and go on to let them know if they have any problems receiving the information, here are some things they can check. Eliminate problems before they become problems.

With SPAM filtration out of control, one of the best things you can do is educate your subscribers so they can do their part to make certain they receive messages from you.

Every time I send out a mailing to my optin list, there are more and more “confirmation requests” arriving back to me. You know what I’m talking about.

Services like “Spam Arrest” have created these “challenge/response” systems that force you to jump through a hoop in order to get your message to your intended recipient.

Basically, it works like this:
Your subscriber joins the service. You send a mailing. The service sends you a message asking you to click on a link, visit their site and type in a word so they can see you’re a real human being and not a computer.

For a long time, I just deleted those messages and didn’t bother with them at all. I was a bit out of practice on my hoop-jumping.

But, how about this for an eye-opener: what if I told you one of my best customers wasn’t buying from me anymore!? Give you one guess as to why they weren’t buying.

Since then, I’ve started clicking on those challenge/response links to “approve” my mailings to my subscribers. There aren’t many and so it isn’t very time-consuming.

But, it is profitable.

What’s funny is this: many of my competitors have told me that they don’t “waste their time” on clicking the confirmation links. I tell ‘em “Good for you.” If no one else does it, that means my messages will be among the few getting through.

Less competition suits me just fine. In fact, forget I said anything at all about this one. 

Ryan Deiss, launched a very interesting “behind-the-scenes” look at how he markets his own business, and what he observes in the marketing world at large.

It’s called the “Profit Diary.”

[It’s free, and I encourage you to take a closer look. It’s a very informative resource. www.ProfitDiary.com]

Ryan uses this diary much like you’d use any diary … he logs his thoughts and ideas into it, about “marketing” and specifically, as the name alludes to, “profit.”

Only Ryan ALLOWS you to take a look at his diary!

You don’t have to sneak into his room when he’s away and read the juicy entries.

He actually INVITES you to take a look.

And just like any diary, there are a few surprises waiting inside.

Now, what I find interesting about Ryan’s Profit Diary is how he uses the very technique that we’re looking at right now.

Let’s take a look at an exact mailing you receive from Ryan after you subscribe to the Profit Diary…

Hi ~~NAME~~,

This is Ryan Deiss, and I just wanted to let you know that you’re all signed up to receive entries from my “Profit Diary.”

Depending on the day that you signed up, you should receive the next entry within a day or so. (Remember, I try to write in my diary at least once a week.)

Also, a lot of people have been asking me if my diary entries will be archived online, and I’m sorry to say that they will not.

For that reason, you may want to create a folder in your email client labeled “Profit Diary Entries,” so you can keep track of them on your end.

As always, I welcome your feedback. )

All the best,
Ryan Deiss

P.S. I almost forgot, here’s the complimentary special
report that I promised:

www.sitesightings.com/99sites/dloadpage-thankyou.htm

Oh yeah, and I also forgot to mention that this report
comes with fr^e master resell rights…just in case you’re interested. )

Did you see it?

Re-read the message and you’ll see…

“For that reason, you may want to create a folder in your email client labeled ‘Profit Diary Entries,’ so you can keep track of them on your end.”

Right on the money.

This is a perfect example of using this strategy.

But, did you notice the really brilliant way that Ryan “encouraged” filtering of his mailings?

He stated…

Also, a lot of people have been asking me if my diary entries will be archived online, and I’m sorry to say that they will not.

There’s the real encouragement. You’re not going to find these messages archived. If you want to refer back to them, you’ll need to do it on your end.

If you miss them, you miss them.

And you don’t want to miss them, so I encourage you to filter them all into a special folder so you can read them all.

Nicely done.

Something that works extremely well should you choose to “brand” your email is to ENCOURAGE your subscribers to filter your messages.

What? “Encourage” subscribers to filter my messages?!!!

Absolutely. Encourage them to setup a special folder within their email software /service for “high priority messages.” This folder would be especially for mailings that they absolutely do not want to miss or mistakenly delete.

They can easily filter their incoming messages so any mailing with your email brand would automatically be transferred into their special folder … or even “copied” into the folder, giving them both a copy in their inbox and in the special folder.

People use filters all the time to automatically REMOVE messages they didn’t request (I.E. They filter words like “viagra”). They can just as easily filter messages that they DID request (I.E. Your “brand”) into a special folder that gets their immediate attention.

Will My Subscribers Do It?

Some will. Some won’t. But, here’s the thing: YOU control a lot of what they do and don’t do by educating them. Sure, it may be a new process to them, but everything on the Internet was new at one time

Do you think folks always knew how to subscribe to a list? Did they always have to confirm their subscriptions (I.E. double-optin)?

Education is the key. Teach your subscribers to do this, and many will do it because they value your content.

This is a new one that I’m just beginning to experiment with that is already producing some increases in my mailing responses.

I got a feeling it won’t be long before it catches on and everybody will be using the idea in one format or another.

Whether or not someone decides to actually read your incoming message (let alone LOOK for it in ANTICIPATION) depends largely upon how well you train them. That’s right, the ball is in YOUR court.

You call the shots here.

We’ll get to that in a moment.

The important thing I want to talk about in “adjusting your subscribers expectations” is that of consistency.

Consistency.

Say that out loud with me. Con – sis – ten – cy.

All training revolves around consistency. Around repetition.

If you want to become a good free throw shooter, you shoot free throws over and over and over again.

If you want to be the best burger flipper down at the local fast food joint, you gotta flip burgers over and over and over again.

If you want to become a mediocre burger flipper (maybe you just aren’t that motivated), you still gotta flip burger after burger to learn how to do it well enough to keep your job!

The point is: all training requires consistency.

And if you really want folks to read your mailings, you gotta train them. You gotta be consistent with them.

Let’s talk about that.

There are a couple of different ways to accomplish this.

First, there is consistency in QUANTITY. That is, you publish content on a regular, consistent, dependable, predictable schedule.

Every Tuesday your subscribers can expect a new 5-page downloadable report.

Your newsletter is always available on Friday nights.

A new post at your Blog shows up every weekday morning.

Your subscribers can download a weekly audio training message to start their week off on Mondays.

The point is to be consistent in when you publish your content (and even your offers) Adjust your subscribers’ expectations. Train them to know when and how you’ll be making information available to them.

Secondly, there is consistency in QUALITY. That is, you publish content that is far superior to any “competition” out there.It can be superior in “substance.”
If you consistently share more useful information than your competition, then you naturally can expect folks to read your mailings. John Reese is a prime example at Income.com . When he publishes his newsletter, I guarantee you the overwhelming majority of his subscribers STOP what they are doing to read it. (I know I do!) It’s that good and it’s that far ahead of the pack. Enough said.

It can be superior in “style.”
Maybe you can blow away your competition in your writing style. While Paul Myers’ Talkbiz News certainly blows away competition in substance, I read it because of his style. Paul is super-witty and I find myself not only being educated, but also being entertained. That’s a rare combination and one that will get you some attention if you can pull it off. Tell stories, be personal, get motivational, share Bible scripture, get creative. Your delivery – your presentation – can be just as powerful a motivator to get folks to read as the information you share.

It can be superior in “story.”
You can also have your own unique FEATURE or COLUMN to share in each publication that folks will automatically flock to each time you release a new issue. I’m going to give you a quick example below to hopefully get your creative juices flowing. The idea here is to have some regular feature of your publication that is so unique, so interesting that folks will want to read each issue just to see what’s next in the feature.

One of the most important things you can do right now to get your email messages read is to “brand” your mailings so they stand out from other messages that arrive in your subscribers’ inboxes.

Just create a 1-2 word strapline that you include in every one of your mailings to your list… to identify the message as being from YOU.

If you offer valuable content and recommendations to your subscribers, then they’ll learn to LOOK for your messages by looking for your individual “brand.”

I know this: When I receive anything that reads “Talkbiz,” I know it’s from Paul Myers and I immediately read it because I know it’s valuable.

Paul’s been doing it for as long as I can remember. And I’ve been reading his “ramblings” for as long as I can remember.

The “brand” gets my attention, even though I receive about 800-1000 email messages per day. Enough said.

That’s important to mention here: your “brand” must be equated in the mind of your subscribers with “value.” The reason Paul Myers’ mailings get my attention (and the attention of countless others) is because I equate “Talkbiz” with “value.”

I don’t recommend many lists, but one that I think every marketer should join is Talkbiz News. Paul is one of the sharpest marketers I know and I have learned more from him than I could write in 10 books.

Visit his site for more details on his free newsletter. Nope, I don’t get a commission for sending you there … but, I do get to say “thanks” to Paul for all he’s done for me and Internet marketing.

It won’t help you to use email brands if your subscribers don’t recognize the importance of reading your specific messages.

Email branding and message value must be holding hands at all times.

If not, the romance between you and your subscribers is going to be short-lived.

So, what does it mean to “brand” your email messages? How can you do this? Let’s take a look…

Branding Your Email Delivery

There are two ways to “brand” your messages for delivering them to your optin subscribers…

1. Brand your “From” listing. The first way to “brand” your email messages is to use the same “From” listing in each mailing.

Here are some examples…

AMS Ezine
Affiliate Secrets eCourse
All Access Member Update

The idea is simple: Each email that you send out to a specific list would always come “from” the same origin, whether it is the name of a person, a newsletter, an eCourse, a list or otherwise.

2. Brand your “Subject line. Another way to “brand” your mailings is to use a consistent word or phrase in your “subject line” Again let’s look at some examples…

In today’s Gazette
[PVM Members]
AMS #210
By Request

Again, the point is to have some consistent wording to your mailings so folks can quickly and easily identify a message that comes from YOU.

Important note: If you “brand” your subject line, I still think it’s important to add some kind of additional “attention-grabbing” headline to your subject. For example…

In today’s Gazette: “How to double your profits”
[PVM Members] Update available for 24 hours…
AMS #210: My top traffic generator

I guess the best marketer I’ve ever seen do this is Jim Daniels.

His Bizweb Gazette newsletter does this just about as well as you can do it. His subject line usually mentions the Gazette, which is followed by a short, attention-grabbing statement about what he’s going to reveal in the current mailing. One of my favorites was…

“Details on my #1 Traffic Source” in today’s Gazette…

Irresistible. The “Gazette” is consistent for branding. And the “Details on my #1 Traffic Source” is going to pull you into that mailing like the most powerful magnet on the planet. I know I stopped what I was doing to read it.

Look, this is an easy thing that anyone can do with any list that they build. Insert some 1-2 word tagline that your subscribers can become familiar with and easily see among the many emails in their inbox.

Even while email marketing was a totally zero cost, unsettled frontier just a few short years ago, it’s turned into an obstacle course littered with obstacles and barriers.

Every single email marketer faces three clearly distinct challenges in getting their email messages in front of the eyes of their optin subscribers…

1. Spam Filters. 
The first challenge is that of “spam filters.”

We have SPAM filters that are deleting a great majority of the SPAM, but are – in the process – deleting a great majority of the legitimate email messages (Like YOUR marketing messages and MY marketing messages to recipients who REQUESTED the information).

While there aren’t any concrete numbers, many researchers estimate that up to 50% of requested email never makes its destination.

2. Mass Deletion. 
Another challenge that optin email marketers face is that of “mass deletion.”

We have massive deletes (how many times have you quickly scanned through 50 message subject lines, highlighted them all and then clicked the DELETE button?) as we, as individuals, try to determine which emails to read, and which are SPAM.

Because we are bombarded with so many unsolicited mailings, we oftentimes mistakenly (or out of frustration) delete the very messages that we actually requested.

3. Incredible Competition. 
And yet another challenge is that of “incredible competition.”

We have incredible competition for the subscriber’s attention. There are many other messages (and more coming each day) by many other marketers (and more coming each day) that are also attempting to reach the very subscribers that we’re also trying to reach.

And they convinced “our” subscribers to join “their” lists just like we did. And the obstacle course keeps getting bigger as more obstacles are added.

Bottom line is: it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get your email marketing messages seen by the intended recipient, and certainly more difficult to get the messages read and responded to.

Does that mean that email marketing is dead, as many people want you to believe?

Of course not!

Don’t buy into that kind of limited thinking.

What it means is that YOU must adapt as email marketing challenges arise.

As these obstacles get into your pathway, don’t just quit and head backwards.

Finding a way around the obstacle, through the obstacle, over the obstacle or under the obstacle is crucial… just so you can continue to go forward.