**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers, Britney Baker. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please send an email to javfire [at] yahoo [dot] com or see our guidelines for guest posting.

5 Proven strategies for successful email marketing campaigns

1. Select and target specific customers in order to get the best returns from your e-mail advertising campaign.

Selecting the right potential customer is by far the most important part of an e-mail advertising campaign. If your e-mail advertisement does not reach a person who has both the means and the will to buy your service or product it will be useless. If your company has a market research department they will be able to select potential customers. If your company does not have its own market research department there are a variety of firms which can obtain the list of the e-mail addresses of potential customers based on information which you will provide them about your product or service. It is a complete waste of time, manpower, and money to send random e-mails to people who either can’t afford your product or service or who cannot be persuaded to buy it.

2. Avoid the “Junk Mail” folder.

It is important to understand that most potential customers are not actually seeking your goods or services; if they were, they would simply go to your website and give you their credit card number. If this were the case, you obviously would have no need for an e-mail advertising campaign. Since most e-mail advertisements are in fact unwanted, e-mail service providers spend a considerable amount of time, energy, and money creating effective junk e-mail filters. In many cases a junk e-mail filter will send an unwanted e-mail advertisement to a junk e-mail folder without even allowing the potential customer to see it. Avoiding the junk e-mail folder is the most difficult and time-consuming part of an e-mail advertising campaign. E-mail service providers are constantly updating their junk e-mail filters. In order to avoid the junk e-mail folder you must avoid anything that would flag your e-mail as junk mail.

3. Create your e-mails to have a professional appearance.

When a potential customer opens his or her inbox, the first thing he or she will see is the subject of your e-mail. It is important to be sure that the subject is polite and friendly, also being brief and to the point. Your subject should be interesting enough to entice the potential customer to open and read the e-mail. The potential customer will also be able to see the name of who sent the e-mail. It is important to make sure that the subject and name to not make the customer suspicious. If a potential customer since that’s a scam, or a threat of computer viruses they will most likely delete your e-mail without opening it.

4. Meet the customer’s needs.

Once your potential customer chooses to open your e-mail it should immediately convince the customer that your company can meet his or her need. In some cases you’ll have to convince the customer that he or she has a need which needs to be met. Keep the content of your e-mail advertisement simple. There are an endless number of combinations of e-mail services, virus scanning software, and junk e-mail filters, so the simpler your e-mail is the more likely it is to open easily without making your potential customer suspicious of a scam.

5. Give the customer a comfortable path to buying your product or service.

Once the customer has opened your e-mail and decided to buy your product or service, he or she will need a secure way to pay your company and receive your product or service. PayPal is an excellent method of secure payment. If you are going to accept credit cards directly from your customer, you will need a secure website. If you are shipping an item to your customer, be sure to let the customer know what shipping service you will use, as well as which security or insurance options you will include with the package.

An e-mail advertising campaign can be a very effective way to improve your business and solicit customers. Above all, your advertising e-mails should showcase your company’s quality and commitment to service.

Britney Baker reviews prepaid cellphones for PrepaidCellphones.net. Her latest review looked at Tracfone.

[photo credit]

Chris Brogan, from New Marketing Labs, offers some valuable insights into the world of social media and social media marketing campaigns. He also offers up three great responses to common social media misconceptions on his blog.

Where many online businesses make their money is often from the banner ads that they have so proudly displayed along the sides of their web pages. However, how much is too much?

Not Always the Bread and Butter of Your Business:

Isn’t wasn’t that long ago (maybe five minutes perhaps) that I was surfing the Internet and came across a website in which the content was actually quite good. However, I was extremely distracted by all of the banner advertising that was displayed on the landing page. Across the top, along the sides, down at the bottom…I felt as if I was being surrounded by banner ads.

It made me feel kind of webpage-a-phobic. Eventually, I grew annoyed enough and left the website simply because it was too distracting. I’m not the only one who follows this natural progression, however. There are countless others who find banner ads to be incredibly distracting, and it seems as if some website owners don’t realize exactly how distracting it can be. So, if this is the case, then why do so many Internet marketers insist on the banner ads?

In 2007, Dave Morgan published an article called Outing the Heavy Clickers in which he described the behavior behind those people who actually clicked on banner ads and other types of PPC-related items:

While focusing on clicks makes a lot of sense in search advertising, since the audience has already been highly qualified by their search term and is “hand-raising” — announcing their interest in a particular product or service or activity — it is logical to focus on a click as a very good proxy for the generation of a qualified lead. It makes sense. It works. The market loves it; Google will do more than $10 billion in revenue selling clicks this year. No further discussion needed, right? Not the case when it comes to display ads delivered on Web pages containing content or applications, where the audience is not in an active search- and-buy mode. [source]

In the end, Morgan denounced banner advertising, explaining that most people do not click on ads; therefore, banner advertising is not necessarily an accurate representation of the number of people who will actually be the ones who eventually use your product or service. My advice? Lose some of the advertising on your landing page, and keep it simple.