Many people think that sending tons of emails and buying lists is a sure bet. But if it were so easy, everyone would be doing it.

Email marketing is very similar to direct mail. Many of the best practices of direct mail apply to email marketing. You need a good offer, good sales text, a well designed advertisement and a list of recipients who are highly likely to respond.

Purchasing a list and blasting millions of people is not the way to go. The best way to make email marketing work for you is to use it as a channel to talk to your existing customers and prospects.

To do this you are going to need a good email service provider. An email service provider is a company with the servers and software to deliver your email marketing messages.

Top Email Marketing Companies – Free Trial with links below:

	StreamSend 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Lots of great features. Good for both beginner and experts, you pay for number of messages sent. Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
	Vertical Response 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Flexible pricing plans. Easiest system to use, also does surveys and postcards. Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
	iContact 15 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Nice templates, easy to use. Excellent stats and integration. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.6 out of 5 stars
	Constant Contact 60 Day free trial. Lots of great looking templates, Easy to use. Great for beginners. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.1 out of 5 stars

*Since most companies offer a free trial, you should sign up and test drive each interface.
You will quickly figure out which email service provider is best for your company.

We’ve tested out iContact and reviewed their service over a 3 month period by using them to send out email campaigns for our clients.

Overall, I was impressed by how easy to use their system is. The features and functions are laid out in way that is very intuitive and just seems to make sense. Unlike, ConstantContact, creating messages is extremly easy. If you are not familiar with HTML programming, they offer a what you see is what you get editor that is very much like using Microsoft Word.

For those familiar with HTML, you can switch back and forth from code to visual in the template editor. The editing process is very easy. We used their free templates for some campaigns and also built custom templates and imported the design into their system.

List management is also quite easy with iContact. You can upload your list from excel and also add custom fields, which can be used for searching, segmenting and personalization in your email templates.

One really nice feature with iContact is their automatic bounce handling. If you have a person on your email list whose email expires or gets canceled, iContact will automatically detect it and stop sending to them after 5 failures. This keeps your deliver-ability rate high and also saves money because that bad email address no longer counts towards the number of people on your mailing list.

The automatic bounce handling is important because some email service providers such as gmail, comcast and aol actually turn old unused accounts into spam traps. If you start sending to accounts which the service provider knows is inactive, they secretly start penalizing you for it by blocking your emails to other their users.

Other Email Marketing Company Reviews

	StreamSend 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Lots of great features. Good for both beginner and experts, you pay for number of messages sent. Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
	Vertical Response 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Flexible pricing plans. Easiest system to use, also does surveys and postcards. Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
	iContact 15 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Nice templates, easy to use. Excellent stats and integration. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.6 out of 5 stars
	Constant Contact 60 Day free trial. Lots of great looking templates, Easy to use. Great for beginners. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.1 out of 5 stars

*Since most companies offer a free trial, you should sign up and test drive each interface.
You will quickly figure out which email marketing service will work best for your company.

The idea behind autoresponder software is that you have a pre-written “collection” of past email marketing campaigns that every new prospect would benift from getting.

Rather then send out email marketing pieces individually and try to manage who gets what, autoresponder software makes sure that every new prospects gets each message over a pre-defined time period. Usually what people do is craft 4-6 messages and program their autoresponder software to send out each message a couple days or a week after the previous messages is received.

This give the appearance that you are actively marketing, creating content or launching a product. When done right, each autoresponder message seems timely and is of interest to a prospect who is genuinely researching your product or service.

When creating an autoresponder series, it’s best to walk people through your sales cycle one step at a time. Do your new prospects need to know details about your product, your company, your service? What is it that every new prospect should hear that would convince them that you are the vendor to buy from?

Figure out your unique selling proposition and condense it into a series of quick easy to read messages. The purpose of the autoresponder is not to write a book, but to provide a consistent stream of advertising that keeps your company at the top of your consumers mind, while they are researching or considering a purchase.

For this reason, there is no ideal length for an auto-responder series. The ideal length should be whatever your normal sales cycle is. If you have a short sales cycle, like for a gadget, then 3 auto responders over 7 days might be best. For a new car purchase, you might want 5 messages over 30 days. Whatever it is, you need to talk to your sales staff and work with them to develop the ideal campaign. Then you need to program the messages in your auto responder software, run it for 6 months and then evaluate its performance.

Top Autoresponder Software

The links below will provide free trials to companies with good auto responder scripts. Generally autoresponder software is included with most email marketing or email blast services. Don’t try to use software that you run on your computer, it generally doesn’t work well or will get flagged as spam.

	StreamSend 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Lots of great features. Good for both beginner and experts, you pay for number of messages sent. Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
	Vertical Response 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Flexible pricing plans. Easiest system to use, also does surveys and postcards. Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
	iContact 15 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Nice templates, easy to use. Excellent stats and integration. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.6 out of 5 stars
	Constant Contact 60 Day free trial. Lots of great looking templates, Easy to use. Great for beginners. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.1 out of 5 stars

*Since most companies offer a free trial, you should sign up and test drive each interface.
You will quickly figure out which auto responder scripts work best for your company.

An auto responder is simply a sequence of automatically delivered email marketing messages. In direct mail this tactic used to be called drip marketing.

The idea is that if your advertising is able to connect with a prospect that is genuinely interested in your product, but not quite ready to buy, an auto responder campaign will keep your company in-front of the prospect and at the top of his mind.

Auto responders work well for two reasons. First, when you are doing a lot of advertising and generating a lot of leads, it can be very difficult to figure out which step of the sales process each prospect is at. Imagine you had a successful online PPC or banner ad advertising campaign that brought in a dozen inquries per day.

Without a semi-sophisticated CRM or a large sales force, it would be difficult to manage a dozen leads per day, each with different needs and each at a different point in the sales cycle. How would you know who is just looking, who is ready to buy, who is comparing his top 3 vendors. Auto responders fix all that because each person is walked through the same sequence of marketing materials over a defined time period.

Second, auto responders work well because sales people tend to work the leads that talk back. Meaning sales people tend to be really good at following up with the prospects who return calls and emails. They tend to allow people who are harder to reach to fall to the bottom of the pile.

If you have just spent $50 in advertising generating a lead, this type of behavior is unacceptable. Auto responders have a way of fixing this because they are executed automatically. You might spend a couple days developing your campaign and then you can “set it and forget it”. Don’t completely forget it, because you will want to check in every 3-6 months to optimize it so you get even more sales response.

Top Auto Responder Scripts

The links below will provide free trials to companies with good auto responder scripts. Generally auto responder scripts are an add-on to email marketing or email blast services.

	StreamSend 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Lots of great features. Good for both beginner and experts, you pay for number of messages sent. Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
	Vertical Response 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Flexible pricing plans. Easiest system to use, also does surveys and postcards. Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
	iContact 15 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Nice templates, easy to use. Excellent stats and integration. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.6 out of 5 stars
	Constant Contact 60 Day free trial. Lots of great looking templates, Easy to use. Great for beginners. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.1 out of 5 stars

*Since most companies offer a free trial, you should sign up and test drive each interface.
You will quickly figure out which auto responder scripts work best for your company.

Email blasts are cheap compared to any other type of communication. A do-it-yourself email blast company where you upload your list and build your message will charge as low as 8 cents per thousand emails sent. This is considerably cheaper than sending paper newsletters.

To send out email blasts, your church will need an email marketing company. There are many companies available but here are some of the best.

Church Email Blast Companies

	StreamSend 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Lots of great features. Good for both beginner and experts, you pay for number of messages sent. Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
	Vertical Response 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Flexible pricing plans. Easiest system to use, also does surveys and postcards. Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
	iContact 15 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Nice templates, easy to use. Excellent stats and integration. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.6 out of 5 stars
	Constant Contact 60 Day free trial. Lots of great looking templates, Easy to use. Great for beginners. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.1 out of 5 stars

*Since most companies offer a free trial, you should sign up and test drive each interface.
You will quickly figure out which email service provider is best for your company.

Email marketing is one of the best ways to reach customers because

• Most people have an email address
• Most people check it daily
• It’s considerably cheaper to email than to mail
• People really interested in hearing from you will voluntarily add their name to your list

Here is how a typical email marketing campaign works:

1. Prospects find your website through a search engine or online ad, or go to your site in response to an offline ad (such as magazine, print, TV or radio).
2. Your well designed website explains your product/service, but you also have an opt-in form where prospects can signup to hear more about your company or receive
   promotions via email.
3. You create compelling sales messages and program your message inside your ESP (oftin as easy as cutting and pasting)
4. Your Email Service Provider takes care of the technical details (sending, tracking, spam filters).

The conventional way to look at email marketing is to think of it as direct mail, except you are sending a direct email instead of a printed letter. The only differences are how the message is delivered and the fact that once a message is delivered, it is slightly easier to respond. When you get a good direct mail offer, you usually need to pick up the phone, send something or call to respond. With email you can click and respond instantly.

Email Marketing Companies with Auto Responder Software

	StreamSend 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Lots of great features. Good for both beginner and experts, you pay for number of messages sent. Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
	Vertical Response 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Flexible pricing plans. Easiest system to use, also does surveys and postcards. Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
	iContact 15 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Nice templates, easy to use. Excellent stats and integration. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.6 out of 5 stars
	Constant Contact 60 Day free trial. Lots of great looking templates, Easy to use. Great for beginners. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.1 out of 5 stars

*Since most companies offer a free trial, you should sign up and test drive each interface.
You will quickly figure out which email service provider is best for your company.

We have been testing a number of different auto responders and have found that StreamSend is by far the most reliable and the most effective auto responder software available on the web. They put the most power into the business’s hands. You will have absolute control over when your messages go out and who they go out to. You will be able to customize your message in any way you feel fit and know that its going to be delivered correctly. With a number of attractive design tempates, colors, and graphics, you will have more power to get the attention of your subscribers.

Go to http://www.streamsend.com/ today, for a free trial of their email blast + auto responder software for a reasonable price. Not only will you have control and access to the best designs, but you will also be able to track who has opened the messages and how effective each message has been. You will be able to see who you are getting to, and who has not been responding, which allows you to tailor your message for the most response.

One major email blast company (ConstantContact) fails in a major way when it comes to using custom email templates. But if you are going to just change the text on any of their stock email template designs, then ConstantContact might be a good choice. They seem to get really good reviews from beginners and non-tech people.

If you are going to be designing your own email marketing templates, you might want to consider iContact. Importing a custom email template design is much easier with their system.

StreamSend is also a good email service provider that offers the best of both worlds – their service comes with dozens of good looking easy to modify templates and it is also easy to import your own custom design.

Sending large quantities of email is not quite as easy as one would think. The technology needed to avoid spam traps and keep your mail out of the junk box is quite sophisticated. Still, email blasts are the cheapest form of advertising.

Don’t confuse the free email you get with gmail or comcast with email blasting. These free email accounts are designed to send only to a handful of recipients at at time. If you want to send to thousands of prospects, you will need an email blast company.

Fortunately, professional email blast companies have very reasonable service fees, usually starting around $10/month. Some email blast companies charge based on the number of emails you send, and it can be as low as $0.08 per thousand emails sent.

Which Email Blast Company is Best?

	StreamSend 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Lots of great features. Good for both beginner and experts, you pay for number of messages sent. Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
	Vertical Response 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Flexible pricing plans. Easiest system to use, also does surveys and postcards. Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
	iContact 15 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Nice templates, easy to use. Excellent stats and integration. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.6 out of 5 stars
	Constant Contact 60 Day free trial. Lots of great looking templates, Easy to use. Great for beginners. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.1 out of 5 stars

*Since most companies offer a free trial, you should sign up and test drive each interface.
You will quickly figure out which email service provider is best for your company.

It’s not recommended that you try to send email blasts using a software that you run on your computer at home. Sure, you might save $20 per month, but it won’t be worth the effort because generally these email blast programs fail to deliver messages to your prospects in-box.

Top Email Blast Companies

	StreamSend 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Lots of great features. Good for both beginner and experts, you pay for number of messages sent. Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
	Vertical Response 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Flexible pricing plans. Easiest system to use, also does surveys and postcards. Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
	iContact 15 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Nice templates, easy to use. Excellent stats and integration. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.6 out of 5 stars
	Constant Contact 60 Day free trial. Lots of great looking templates, Easy to use. Great for beginners. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.1 out of 5 stars

*Since most companies offer a free trial, you should sign up and test drive each interface.
You will quickly figure out which email service provider is best for your company.

Email Blast companies differ slightly in how they price their services. They all provide good features and all have good templates. Sign-up for a free trial and review their templates and service. Most will allow you to send a couple hundred emails for free.

Generally purchases lists are low quality and people tend to ignore emails from names or companies they don’t recognize.

When using purchased list to send bulk email, the greatest concern will be getting your emails through spam filters and keeping your email out of the junk box. With the newer black lists that most ISPs are using, it can be very hard to get messages delivered.

You don’t want to be labeled as a spammer. Once you are labeled as a spammer it is almost impossible to clear your name. Someone sending spam will likely get all their emails blocked. To make matters worse a spammers web site also might get blocked or banned from search engines. You will certainly get a nasty note from your ISP.

Internet Service Providers do not take the issue of spam lightly. All have strict guidelines and list critera that must be followed.

Unfortunately since email marketing is so much like direct mail marketing, people get best practices confused. In direct mail, it is perfectly acceptable to purchase a list. Not so with email.

Being labeled as a spammer detrimental to your business – avoid doing anything that even resembles spamming. This may make one leery of trying to do any form of bulk email marketing, but if you follow some simple rules, you can limit the likelihood of being labeled as a spammer.

The key is really to not used purchased lists and send your email through a reliable Email Service Provider. Don’t send out thousands of messages through outlook, comcast or gmail. You must use a company that is dedicated to sending email marketing.

Bulk Email Marketing Companies – Free Trial with links below:

	StreamSend 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Lots of great features. Good for both beginner and experts, you pay for number of messages sent. Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars
	Vertical Response 30 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Flexible pricing plans. Easiest system to use, also does surveys and postcards. Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
	iContact 15 Day free trial, no credit card required to try. Nice templates, easy to use. Excellent stats and integration. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.6 out of 5 stars
	Constant Contact 60 Day free trial. Lots of great looking templates, Easy to use. Great for beginners. Pay by list size (good for frequent senders). Rating: 3.1 out of 5 stars

*Since most companies offer a free trial, you should sign up and test drive each interface.
You will quickly figure out which email service provider is best for your company.