One of the best every example of viral marketing has got to be Hotmail which is a web based email service founded by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia back on Independence day back in 1996.

The idea was so simple and extremely powerful.

Give people a free email address, then at the end of every email that’s sent out include a short message with a sign up link so they too could get a free hotmail account.

What worked in Hotmails favor was that it was one of the very first free webmail services. So whilst the market was much smaller back then there was a huge novelty and viral factor simply because it was new and it was free.

Hotmail was eventually acquired by Microsoft in 1997 for an estimated $400 million and rebranded MSN Hotmail. I’m sure it’ll be a long time until we see something this viral again!

One of the most important things you can do to really multiply the profits generated from your email marketing message is to CONCENTRATE on the “movers and shakers” that you have among your contacts.

Most people say “subscribers = future customers.”

I’ve always said that a “subscriber” is another way to say “marketing partner” if you just get a bit strategic.

Subscriber is good…

Customer is better…

Marketing partner is best.

Don’t ever forget that.

A marketing partner can bring with them more subscribers, more customers and even more marketing partners.

People too often look at their list as something they send messages to in order to make money.

The mindset should be that their list is a network of marketing partners who can help build their business well beyond the scope of the list itself.

What’s more valuable to you … 500 subscribers or 500 customers?

The customers, right?

What’s more valuable to you … 500 customers or 500 marketing partners who bring more customers to you?

I’m going with the marketing partners every time.

Now, I’m digressing just a bit here, but I needed to make that point.

You should be building a SUBLIST among your large list of people who are influential in building your business.

• Joint venture partners.
• Affiliates. (even if you don’t have your own affiliate program)
• Repeat customers.
• List publishers.
• Anyone who has influence over any other network of contacts, whether large or small.

Single out those among your big lists who mean the most to your business, particularly repeat customers and affiliates/jv partners.

Having said all of that, THE most profitable thing you can do with your email marketing messages is to make certain they get into the hands of those influential people.

Think about it this way: with all of the filtration problems, massive deletes, competition, etc… which is easier (a) trying to get your email message to thousands, even tens of thousands of subscribers, or (b) trying to get your email marketing message to a few dozen people of influence?

It’s gotta be easier to get it to the smaller group.

Now, please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not suggesting that you stop sending out mailings to the masses. That would be a foolish thing to do.

I’m just saying that you get your message into the hands of those who are most critical to your business regardless of what it takes to get it to them.

Yes, send your solo mailing out to your main list. But make darn certain you get that message into the hands of your repeat customers. Email them separately and personally from your own email box. Call them. Fax them. Whatever it takes. They are most likely to buy from you, so make certain they get the message.

Yes, send out your new product release to your main list.

But make darn certain that you get that message into the hands of your JV partners and affiliates so they can promote it to their own lists. You make certain that those messages get into the hands of your “power” contacts.

Those who are the most influential…

Those who mean the most to your business…

Those who have consistently purchased from you and promoted you…

Big lists are great. But, smaller “power” sublists are the best…

People think too much in terms of “size.”

We all want a “huge” list.

At least, that’s what we THINK we want.

What we REALLY want is a “huge” PAYCHECK!

And you get that by making certain that you stay in regular contact with those who mean the most to your business.

Let’s look at a couple of “traditional” ways to deliver your email marketing message and then look at how you can apply this to using what I refer to as “alternate delivery methods.”

Two of the best ways to deliver both content and offers (the perfect email marketing blend) are through publishing an ezine (email newsletter) and an e-course (email mini-course).

While these are still highly effective, the same content can be used in other ways to be even more effective.

Think about it: how can YOU stand out among the many who are publishing similar newsletters and similar e-courses?

And how can you actually get your messages delivered to your subscribers with all of the SPAM filters in place?

And how can you expect folks to actually read your message when they are bombarded with emails?

That’s not to discourage you or to tell you to stop the practice of publishing via email.

That would be stupid.

I publish via email and will continue to do so.

But, I’m also hip to the fact that there is competition, complication and confrontation awaiting every push of the “send” button.

Good marketers are always redefining their uniqueness, always looking for an edge over the rest of the pack.

Even the smallest margin of advantage can make all the difference in getting your messages read and responded to, when the guy sitting next to you does not.

That’s where “alternate delivery methods” can be to your gain.

The idea is simple: publish the same content and offers (I.E. what you would normally publish in your “ezine” or “ecourse”) in a different format.

Let’s take a look at a great marketing exhibit of a newsletter being published via an “alternate delivery method.”

Marketing Exhibit: Jim Edwards’ “I Gotta Tell You”

Jim Edwards publishes a multimedia newsletter that has raised the bar in content distribution.

If you’ve never “listened to” and / or “watched” an issue unfold, then you need to take a closer look at www.IGottaTellYou.com

Jim is an Internet marketer. And while his content is very good, so is the content of a lot of his competitors.

How does he stand out?

Audio and video.

His newsletter is multimedia.

It’s different than the onslaught of email publications that flood most of our inboxes.

And his results have been tremendous.

He’s even spun off into a rather entertaining Friday Night Smackdown that he publishes on a regular basis as well.

Agree with him or disagree with him, love him or hate him, he gets your attention.

And that’s the first step towards profiting from your newsletter and / or eCourses.

If you don’t have someone’s attention, you ain’t gonna get them to buy from you.

It’s that simple.

Jim Edwards gets folks attention.

And that does two important things:

First, it gets people actually LOOKING FOR Jim’s next publication, actually anticipating and wanting that next “smackdown” or that next “video tutorial.”

That’s a good thing.

Secondly, because his multimedia is engaging and interactive, it gets people to actually CONSUME the messages that he is delivering.

That’s a very good thing.

The combination of anticipation and consumption is the absolute best thing that you can ever achieve in delivering content that is designed to sell.

When folks are excited about your stuff and then actually consume your stuff, the making money part is easy.

There are two keys that I think can really make this a very effective strategy, even to the point of beating the SPAM filters as well as your competition.

Key 01: Consistent publication.

If your subscribers know that every Friday you’re going to publish a new multimedia newsletter (or an HTML newsletter, for that matter) then they will begin to look for it without hearing from you via email, if you also have a…

Key 02: Consistent location.

If your latest publication is always found at, for example www.yourdomain.com/current.html, then getting your customers there is not dependent upon them getting an email notice from you stating that the latest issue has been released.

By letting your subscribers know that you will publish on a certain day and, most importantly, letting them know a standard location where they can always access the current and newest issue, you can actually train your subscribers to visit your site without even notifying them.

The key is to provide a publication that is so good that folks really do want to grab anything new you publish, and to give them a consistent location to find it on their own without prompting.

And you can use this for eCourses as well.

Ryan Deiss and Jimmy D. Brown were approached by one of their affiliates for their How to Create Best-Sellers Online course.

The affiliate had done something rather interesting and wanted their approval.

He had taken the affiliate eCourse, The Potential Best-Sellers List, and had turned it into a multimedia eCourse!

He created some Power Point slides and read each lesson of the eCourse word-for-word as he recorded an on-screen video.

Do you think this will increase his sales? Will he now be separated from the other affiliates distributing the eCourse?

You betcha.

Smart. Very smart.

Armand Morin and Alex Mandossian have changed the face of Internet marketing by delivering free content in a different format.

They use free teleseminars to educate their contacts and have become two of the most successful “high-ticket” order producers on the planet.

Same kind of content you’d receive in an email newsletter or email mini-course.

But, it’s delivered in a different way.

And its effectiveness is unmatched.

So, where does that leave you?

It either leaves you running behind or moving to the front of the pack.

And that depends entirely upon whether or not you use this strategy that we’re looking at now.

I encourage you to consider “alternate delivery methods.”

Publish a multimedia newsletter.

Setup a 4-6 week audio or video training program.

Hold weekly or monthly teleseminars.

Conduct “webminars” like Jason Potash of PickTheirBrains.com

By focusing on this one strategy alone you can beat the spam filters, beat the massive deletes and beat your competition.

So, what’s stopping you?

You can really turbocharge your results with this one by adding in a touch of viral marketing.

Let’s suppose you organize a monthly teleseminar and you announce it to your “inner circle.” Let them know that they are “permitted” to invite TWO FRIENDS to the event.

Heck, you might even offer them an incentive for bringing two friends with them.

And just like that, you’ve got three times as many people attending your teleseminar as you did before.

Which leads us into this next strategy rather nicely… (I’ll get to that in my blog post tomorrow, make sure you subscribe to this blog!).

Okay, so it’s not actually “age-old”, but rather got its roots in 1903. You get the idea.

The “80/20 rule,” also known as “Pareto’s Principle” suggests that 20% of something always accounts for 80% of the results. Examples:

• 20% of your workday results in 80% of your results.
• 20% of your affiliates results in 80% of your affiliate sales.
• 20% of your optin list results in 80% of your responses.

Without in any way suggesting that 80% of my affiliates, customers, list members and workday time is “trivial,”  I think it’s safe to say that the principle is fairly accurate in many cases.

If you examine your own life, I’m sure you can see similar results.

The value of the 80/20 “rule” for you is that it reminds you to focus on the things that matter the most to your business.

It reminds you to spend your time and energy on the things that most directly influence the bottom line of profit.

Every year Forbes® and other magazines compile and release their list of “Most Influential” people. These “power lists” ranked celebrities, athletes, executives, and so forth based upon various criteria.

It’s all about whose the most “influential.”

Maybe you should create your own list as well.

Who are your best customers?
Who are your top affiliates?
Who are the “unsung heroes”?
Who sends you the most referrals?
Who are your most valued partners?
Who are your evangelists?

Out of your contacts – your entire network – who are the 50-100 people who ultimately are the biggest contributors to your business?

If you take the time to find out (and you should!), I think you’ll find out that 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your contacts … these folks are your best customers, top affiliates and so forth.

These are the folks that you need to do something “extra” for in order to further build your business.

Let me share a quick story with you…

When I was 20 years old I went to work at Kinko’s Copies and my manager was a guy named Duane.

I learned something about management from Duane that I’ll never forget, and it has served me well during the past several years that I have had an online business (managing customers, affiliates, subscribers and partners).

I worked the newly formed “graveyard shift” at Kinko’s and I was a very productive employee.

I worked alone and I worked fast.

Duane had told me when I finished my nightly duties, I could basically do whatever I wanted to do with my remaining time.

That’s how I learned to use a computer, but that’s a different story.

One night I got finished early. Real early. I’m talking several hours early.

And I decided to completely redo the stock room.

I gave it a thorough cleaning, completely restocked the shelves, organized everything into a neat, easy-to-use display and basically transformed a junky stockroom into a streamlined work of art.

Duane was very impressed and said so.

But, that’s not what I learned from him.

The following Saturday morning we had our monthly “store meeting” with every employee in attendance.

During that meeting, Duane stood me up in front of everyone, thanked me and had everyone applaud my efforts in reorganizing the stockroom.

Then, he handed me a $100.00 bill as a cash bonus.

From that day forward, I worked twice as hard as before for Duane.

Find those folks who are the most influential to your business and reward them.

Give your top affiliates extra commissions for a job “well done.”

Deliver some unadvertised bonuses to your top customers for their repeat business.

Those subscribers who consistently answered your polling questions, gave your feedback and helped you out over the months and years… do something special for them.

• Mention these folks in your newsletters and other publications publicly.
• Contact them personally.
• Give them advanced notice to upcoming events and announcements.
• Let them have privileged information that you share only with your “inner circle.”
• Reward them.
• Applaud them.
• Cheer them on.

And I guarantee you they will work twice as hard for you in the future.

Your affiliates will choose YOU to focus on instead of your competition. Your customers will buy more from you. Your subscribers will read every word you publish. Your evangelists will proclaim you louder than ever.

This “strategy” gets your marketing messages read because those who are most responsible for your success will be even more devoted to you than ever before, more diligent to promote you to those they are in contact with … further spreading your messages to the masses.

You can’t buy an ad so powerful as the voice of those who are loyal.

A lot of smart email marketers have been doing this for months now and it definitely increases the effectiveness of your mailings.

The idea is to send TWO mailings instead of one.

The first mailing would be your regular newsletter, solo mailing, announcement mailing, etc. The second mailing would be a “chaser” mailing that consists of a very brief message letting your subscribers know that you sent them the earlier message.

Two marketers who do this very well are Aussie Phil Wiley and nutty Jim Edwards. (Love ya Jim   )

Phil publishes one of the better Internet marketing ezines “Letter From Phil ” (formerly “All The Secrets”) and Jim publishes the trailblazing “I Gotta Tell You ” MULTIMEDIA Internet marketing newsletter.

Both send out “chaser” emails.

And as I’ve observed them (along with other marketers who do the same thing) and as I’ve experimented myself, I’ve found that there are but two simple keys to success…

Key 01: Educate subscribers about the earlier mailing.

Obviously, you want to point them to the initial mailing that you sent them.

Notice that I said, “point” them to the initial mailing.
Don’t send the same lengthy mailing again, as it is likely to be gobbled up by the same SPAM filters that gobbled up the first mailing!

Instead, load your original mailing to a page at your web site and point your subscribers to that location for the message.

Simply provide them a link that they can click on.

——–
Make certain you include AOL coded links in your text messages.

Regular link:
www.yoursite.com/page.html

AOL link:
<a href=”http://www.yoursite.com/page.html “> AOL Click Here</a>
——–

Key 02: Give subscribers some reason to find the earlier mailing!

Let me ask you a simple question: why should your subscribers click on your link to read your earlier message to them?

While there ARE those who hang on your every word and will drop everything they are doing to go rushing over to your site to read something that is likely designed to get their money in some way (well, maybe a few), most aren’t nearly as eager to do so.

So, in your “chaser” mailing, give them a powerful, compelling, curiosity-building reason to come around your place.

Let them know whatever your STRONGEST benefit is to them. Fire your BIGGEST gun. Your message is of no value to either of you if they don’t take a look at it.

Get them to your site to read it.

Now, the question is, why do this?

Why send out a “chaser” message?

Well, there are a whole slew of reasons.

• Maybe the earlier message got blocked by the spam filters.
• Maybe they missed it.
• Maybe they were busy at the time and “meant” to take a look later.
• Maybe it didn’t strike a chord with them.
• Maybe they accidentally deleted it.
• Maybe it didn’t look appealing to them.
• Maybe they didn’t want to read through 5 pages of text at the time.
• I mean there are MANY reasons why they might have missed your earlier message.

All I know is this: since I began using it, my responses have been significantly increased.

And I’m not the only one who has seen these results.

Might just as well add your name to the list.

An Example “Chaser” Mailing Message…

Here’s a sample template of Jimmy D. Brown’s that you can use to model your own chaser after. By the way, if you’re not familiar with Jimmy, be sure to check out his site at www.123WebMarketing.com to learn more about this great marketer.

Sample Email…

Hi [First Name],

In case you missed the announcement earlier today, I’m GIVING AWAY personalized, one-on-one training for YOUR Internet business.

Read all about it at www.mysite.com/blahblah.html

<a href=”http://www.mysite.com/blahblah.html”> AOL Click Here</a>

Best regards,
Your Name

P.S. This offer is limited to the first 12 people who respond, so don’t delay.

That ought to do it.

I’ll be honest with you, when people started talking about building “double-optin” lists, I was a bit reluctant.

I knew that it wouldn’t be possible to build as large a list using that technique as it is with single-optin. And, everyone knows that “larger lists produce larger profits”, right?

Wrong. Reality is “loyal lists produce larger profits.”

The whole purpose of building a list is to get your messages read (and ultimately to produce profit), right? So, here’s an easy way to accomplish that. When you build “double-optin” lists, then you generally have a much higher quality list (I.E. Better responses) for two reasons…

Reason #1: More interest. Obviously, if someone is willing to make the effort to subscribe to your list, check their email, click on a link, and actually confirm their subscription, then they are likely to be expressing a general interest in your list.

More interest = better responses.

Reason #2: More inbox. And, if they go through the “double-optin” process, it also means that you got your initial message into the intended recipient’s REAL email inbox. No fake email addresses. No email by proxy (where Joe subscribes Bob to your list). Fewer “unused” email accounts. And – at least for now – you got your message through the spam filters.

More inbox = better responses. Use DOUBLE-OPTIN because subscribers have to verify their email address and confirm their interest in joining your list.

Your lists won’t be as big, but they will be more effective!

That is, after all, the goal we’re aiming at here.