Title: Email Marketing – Happy Endings Word Count: 416 Summary: There once was a world where Elfin delivery folk were commissioned to take packets of information to cities far beyond their elfin kingdom. The motto of the EPS (Elfin Postal Service) was, “Neither lame servers, rogue viruses or faulty connections will stop us from our appointed deliveries.” Needless to say some Elves had attitudes that caused their deliveries to be received with something less than enthusiasm, but beyond the realm of the Elfin Folk deliveries are being... Keywords: marketing,internet marketing,site promotion,autoresponders,email marketing Article Body: There once was a world where Elfin delivery folk were commissioned to take packets of information to cities far beyond their elfin kingdom. The motto of the EPS (Elfin Postal Service) was, “Neither lame servers, rogue viruses or faulty connections will stop us from our appointed deliveries.” Needless to say some Elves had attitudes that caused their deliveries to be received with something less than enthusiasm, but beyond the realm of the Elfin Folk deliveries are being made around the clock. In a perfect fairy tale all deliveries would be anticipated and desired, but in real life, and in an allegorical sense, these deliveries are email marketing efforts and not all of them are desired – although they might be anticipated. If email marketing were a fairy tale then perhaps everyone would live happily ever after, but the truth is email marketing can be tedious and may result in hostile reactions from recipients. Just like the fictitious elves delivering their ‘packets’ under the cover of night, online businesses work to provide what they feel is important information at any time of the day or night. Because online users are barraged with spam that often includes financial advice or information on very specific pharmaceuticals there tends to be a less than enthusiastic response to many email marketing messages. It may be hard to get your foot in the door when it comes to email marketing, but if you can learn to respect the members of your email list by ensuring you only send to those who have actually registered with you the response will likely be much better. This is the best in organic email marketing. One way to encourage visitors to sign up is to provide a first visit ‘welcome’ page. This page encourages them to sign up for your free offers, samples and discounts. Their initial welcome can be delivered with an autoresponder that provides a welcome email that includes attractive first time purchase perks. This can be followed up with emails alerting them to sales on popular merchandise, clearance information on products and other information that may remind them why they visited your site in the first place. The deliveries of your email marketing messages do not have to be received with disdain and they don’t have to be received in the dead of night when the recipient isn’t looking. If you respect your customers enough to make sure they are receiving information they want you may find a happy ending after all.