The biggest reason why email marketers fail is because they don’t target their audience. Using an opt-in mailing list is the biggest step in creating a successful email marketing campaign. If you do not use direct response marketing, you won’t be going very far. Even if your audience doesn’t mark your emails as spam, they will most likely not be read.

There are three major strategies to increase your targeted email marketing campaign. They are using a targeted email list, getting your prospects permission and utilizing action-provoking subject lines. Let’s go over these now.

Using a targeted email list does not mean buying a list of emails from someone and blasting them with email software. What you need to do is focus on a specific audience and send the right message. To do so, you must do some research to determine who your actual target is. Only after you do this can you create a highly targeted email list.

The next step in targeted email marketing is to get your prospective audiences permission. The easiest way to do this is to have them complete a lead capture form. This part of email marketing is the opt-in process.

Many programs are available to scan websites for email addresses to use for marketing purposes. These people didn’t give you permission to email them. Even if you have something great to tell them, this method will be considered spam and will not help you if you are trying to make a legitimate business.

The final step in a successful campaign is to use action-provoking subject lines. Creating a compelling subject line will get more of your emails opened up by your audience. Which of these is a catchier subject line:

Targeted E-Mail Marketing Strategies, or 5 Steps to 50 Leads in a Day?

Using a compelling subject line is not the only step, as you must also deliver what you have promised. Hyping up your subject lines is just not enough if you fail to provide a quality product afterwards. If you can do both, you will build trust with your subscribers and continue to gain a larger audience.

Forum posting, used properly, is an effective way to advertise. In actuality, it is one of the cheapest and fastest ways to advertise. Forum posting costs nothing and as soon as you post your advertisement, you will see traffic to your website.

Why use forums for advertising? Not only is forum posting a cheap and fast way to advertise, but you are targeting your traffic. People go to forums based on certain subjects to socialize and find information that they need. If you had a website based on cars, and there is a car forum, advertising your website there would peak the interest of the forum users and you will gain a lot of targeted traffic. There are a few things to keep in mind when forum posting, though.

Forum posting is not a new way to advertise. People have been doing this for years, and most users are tired of seeing links spammed everywhere on their forum. Thus, it is essential to make a name for yourself in the community. Gaining credibility and trust from the forum users is as easy as talking to them. See what they are interested in, and what they are looking for.

Give advice and any useful or interesting information you can find. Not only will you become noticed in the community, but you will gain insightful information about what your consumers are looking for. If you do not make a name for yourself, not only will you lose traffic to your site, but you can and will be outright banned from the forums for spamming.

In order to gain credibility, first start with your profile. Write a description of yourself and even post a picture. Do not say you are an expert in your field if you are not. You will be outed by the other experts and most likely banned permanently from the forum. As mentioned before, in order to gain credibility, you must socialize. That’s pretty much it. Be helpful to others and share interesting information when you can.

After you have some level of credibility, it’s time to advertise. Start by creating a link to your website in your signature. Another option is to read posts and find readers who are looking for something that your site has to offer. Feel free to advertise your site then. However, do not post your link everywhere. Even if you are only posting your link when it is relating to the topic at hand, some forum moderators may still think you are spamming. So do it in moderation.

Forum posting is an easy way to advertise. Effective forum posting, however, takes a little more. Just be friendly and helpful and you will see traffic eventually. Also, these are your consumers, so learn as much as you can from them. It will help in your future marketing campaigns.