Marketing Merge Network

UPDATE:  Do Not Use the term 'Renegade University' anywhere, in any way, in your email marketing if you use I-contact.  You can promote to your list, but do not use Renegade University in the subject or content of your emails (also, don't use it in any way to name lists).  I'll follow up on this when there's time.

You may have learned the hard way that some email providers like Oprius, I-contact, Aweber and others have strict rules.

It's important to become a student of this topic, not only to succeed in your own marketing, but to become a highly sought after "attractive upline" who your prospects want to first talk with, and second sign up with... because of your knowledge in the field.

Challenges 'newbies' face when building their list:

1. Can't load leads into an auto-responder system without having them opt-in first (so you lose a big percentage of your list)
2. You lose your account because you're emailing leads that you gathered with another company's lead capture page (like Magnetic Sponsoring, Building on a Budget, Renegade, 7 Lies, Marketing Merge, University, etc).
3. Can't load leads into auto responder that you purchased or received from an upline (or elsewhere)

We're going to address all this and talk about solutions.

Why the email 'auto-responder' companies are so strict...

Good deliverability is EVERYTHING to a reputable email marketing provider.

Companies like I-contact, Oprius, Aweber (and a small handful of others) have survived in the highly competitive industry of 'emailing marketing' because they followed the rules. That is to say they made their clients (you) follow the rules.

The companies that didn't follow those rules are either gone or on their way out.

That's because their emails didn't get delivered--they were blocked by the 'big boys' who decide if an email gets through or not.

Aol, yahoo, hotmail and dozens of other major email giants block email senders that get a lot of complaints about spam.

You're not going to pay to have a company like I-contact or Oprius (or Awebber or any other) send your emails and auto-responders if they don't get through to your prospects' inbox.

That's why the rules are strict. They should be. We're all happier with less spam.

The rules are as follows, "Be very respectful to people's email boxes."

Among other things 'being respectful' means that the person should have opted into YOUR list. As time goes on the line gets more and more clear on what it has to mean to be considered 'your list.'

They don't want you to send an email to your list unless you generated it yourself.

That doesn't mean you won't get away with it if your complaints are low--but it's the rule to follow if you want to be 100% in the safe zone.

Can't load leads into an auto-responder system without having them opt-in first (so you lose a big percentage of your list)

If you've collected leads from somewhere, even if you gathered them with your own lead capture page using the most respectful opt-in methods possible... some email management companies like Aweber and Oprius require you to have them first "opt in" when you load them into your contacts list.

It works like this...

When you load in the leads to Oprius or Aweber, an email is sent to the contacts you loaded in asking if they want to receive email from you. If they don't indicate that they do, then they won't be added to your auto-responder or list.

Now, everyone knows you'll lose a huge percentage of your leads if you do this. But it makes sense why companies might require it... it minimizes complaints about spam.

I-contact is more relaxed on this...

That's why I use I-contact -- they do allow you to load in leads that you generated elsewhere without making you have them opt into the list when you load them in.

But they do have rules... for example, they ask that you have people opt in if you haven't emailed them for more than 6 months--and they require that you generated the leads yourself.

If you purchased the leads it's likely that I-contact won't bug you about it as long as you don't create a lot of complaints. That's all they really want to minimize... they don't want unhappy email receivers. And it makes perfect sense.

I-contact could change this policy but I hope they don't.

If you're using Oprius or Aweber and you're loading in leads you generated elsewhere (like with Magnetic Sponsoring, Building on a Budget, Renegade, 7 Lies, University, Marketing Merge, or any other affiliate lead capture page) you'll have to use the opt-in feature, which will cause you to lose a fair percentage of your list.

If you're NOT using I-contact than you're hopefully creating your own lead capture pages so that your leads opt into your list the moment they sign up, because much more of them will do it at that point in time.

At some point it's a great idea to create your own lead capture pages, which we're going to move into in our webinar trainings at Marketing Merge Professional later this summer.  

Having your own lead capture pages that you create yourself helps eliminate many email marketing concerns.

There are some great resources out there to help you fairly easily start creating your own lead capture pages. 

Oprius is one of them that I've heard a lot of good things about and am investigating to teach with.

If you want to jump ahead to creating your lead capture pages and haven't already done so, check out Oprius.

Again, we'll offer tremendous support in teaching how to set up your own lead capture pages later this summer. 

You Will Always Be Using 'Some' Affiliate Lead Capture Pages (Most Likely)

There will often be advantages to using affiliate lead capture pages to generate more leads in "niche" target markets and to monetize or offer more value to prospects...  So even if you are creating your own lead capture pages you'll likely be in a situation where you want to load leads into your email marketing service.

More about generating leads through an affiliate lead capture page...

If you're generating leads yourself, but you're using a lead capture page from one of these sources:

• Building on a Budget
• Magnetic Sponsoring
• The Renegade
• The 7 Lies
• Renegade University
• Any Other Lead Capture Page That is Accompanied by Emails You Don't Send

There's a challenge you may have to face.

While you ARE generating the leads when you use one of these lead capture pages, you are also partnering with these companies who created the lead capture pages (and usually much more 'value' behind the lead capture page).  This is a win-win because it gives you more value to share with your prospects.

But the creators of these lead capture pages (i.e. Mike Dillard, Ann Sieg, myself or whoever it may be) are also sending emails to your list. That's part of the arrangement. You get to use the tools, training, affiliate program, etc so you don't have to go out and build all of it yourself. In return you share the lead.

It works out well except for one little hitch, which has become a bigger issue recently...

The email companies (Oprius, I-contact, Aweber, etc) require that the lead capture page states that the person opting into the list will be receiving emails from two parties.

I'm currently working with I-contact on this so we can put the appropriate statement on the lead capture page to properly address the issue.

I think this is a great thing--because we're going to be advertising you, the guide, even more--right on the lead capture page! 

As you know it's all about branding YOU and we're going to keep looking for opportunities to do that.

I'll give you an update on that as soon as it's there.

In the meantime keep using your lead capture pages as you are (if you're using any right now).

If you're not generating complaints than you'll most likely be fine. If you run into any challenges let me know.

Buying or getting email leads from elsewhere...

So if you buy or get your leads from another source the email companies like Oprius, Icontact, Aweber, etc are very concerned and have set up some strict rules basically saying 'no' to it.

But basically, if you don't generate complaints then you stay under the radar. They know people are breaking their rules. In the marketing world that's pretty normal. But they rules will probably get more strictly enforced going forward.

So Here's the Email Marketing Solution:

1. Learn to create your own lead capture pages as we've mentioned already. It's not that hard. We'll start some tutorials on this shortly to take you step by step through it. Or, you can jump ahead if you like.
2. We'll be putting your name on all the Marketing Merge and Renegade University lead capture pages, which will put you 100% in compliance with being able to email your contacts even if you use our lead capture pages.

Other affiliate lead capture pages like Building on a Budget and Magnetic Sponsoring, Renegade or The 7 Lies may or may not follow this plan. But you can still use them -- just be thoughtful of the issues and note some tips I give below.

So going forward, if you're using affiliate lead capture pages to generate leads, stay under the radar and minimize spam complaints.

How?

By putting yourself in the shoes of the person getting the email--

• Do they know why they're getting the email from you right off the bat (based on your subject in the email and the content)?
• Is it perceived as value to them or does it feel like you're selling something too quickly?

Ultimately, this is the new landscape of the business world.  Become a student of these topics and you'll be a very valuable asset in the business world.

I'm still working with I-contact for the exact wording change for our Marketing Merge and University lead capture pages--to put YOU there so we're 100% compliant. The benefit will even go beyond that because it will brand you... putting your name in front of your prospects from the get go.

I'll share that with you as soon as it's ready and we'll hold a Webinar event to go over this topic in much more details.

We will continue to give you the most current and helpful tips you need to excel at attraction marketing.

It's indeed a process--enjoy it!

Partners in success,

  Mike Klingler

P.S. If you have questions or comments to contribute please share it using the comments section below. 

To learn more about any of the email marketing companies we've discussed in this article (or the issues), log into your Renegade University account at www.MarketingMerge.com   Contact your guide for help.