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TRR84
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Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:56 pm
Post subject: Email marketing - a few questions from a newbie
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Hi all,
Did anyone listen to that Ed Forteau call the other night (I don't want this seen as advertising the call organisers, if you were there you'll know).
It was quite alarming that one of the first things he said was
| Quote: | | E-Mail marketing is dead |
This is quite a scary prospect for a newbie who is just starting out and has been told time and again that "the money's in the list".
Ed obviously cited the increase in spam (and spam protection) as his justification, but is it really that bad? Is opt-in list building still the most effective way of monetizing your site?
<discuss> 
>>
Assuming a slightly brighter picture for a second, I have another question:
I've heard it said that it is possible to make $1/subscriber to your list.
I've heard this from a number of the bigger names (not limited to affiliate marketing) and have rationalised it like this; with a $100 product a 1% response rate would garner a dollar value equal to the number of subscribers.
A 1% response rate seems like an achievable rate even with spam filters etc., no?
Would the logic therefore follow that a newsletter, not selling but recommending and pre-selling in the usual affiliate manner, 5 products worth $20 comission each would produce a similar return? Or am I just being naive again?
Part of me (probably the naive bit) is trying to persuade the rest of me that 5 cheaper products would stand a chance of a higher return due to the broader range of products.
Yes, no, maybe?
Cheers
-Mark
Last edited by TRR84 on Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:34 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Warburton
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Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 7:32 am
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If people are starting to say "email marketing is dead" I couldn't be happier, actually. I'm sick of unsolicited bulk email, unsolicited non-bulk email and "solicited" (thrid party, but not the kind of third party I was anticipating) bulk email.
I'm sick of link requests, phishing attempts, mock-circulars, emails with virus attachments and other time-wasters.
I spend so much time clearing up the stuff that my Junk Filter doesn't catch that I am really loath to have extra mails bombarding my inbox. Even if it sounds like a newsletter I would otherwise be interested in.
In fact, I can't remember the last time I signed up to any list at all, because I know that all the dross will keep increasing slowly, even if I don't sign up to any more lists.
By contrast I heartily approve of RSS Feeds which leave the reader in total control, not the marketeer. |
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varunpratap
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Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 9:10 am
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| Quote: | | but is it really that bad? Is opt-in list building still the most effective way of monetizing your site? |
Yup... it depends on your relationship with your list. IF you are providing good content you'll get away wiht solo mailings on advertisment too...
the only thing email is not effective is to follow a strategy of pitch, pitch and some more pitch..
Varun
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topaffiliateprogram
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578
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Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 9:53 am
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personally i never read email telling me to buy something but i always read emails with announcments about new affiliate networks .so peoples read emails which are targated they ignore emails which they dont know .. however recently i have launched an email marketing campaign where i have sent newsletter to 350 subscribers of my website and got only 2 sign up's .its like i change tv channel when advertisemnts comes in my fav. show .noone like to read ads at all .. you have to present ads as part of your site . so i think 99% of peoples just donot read emails from peoples they dont know so if you are in email marketing you are simply ignoring 990 million internet users ,thats why they call email marketing is dead .....thats why i dont sent emails
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offerdepotalan
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Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:36 pm
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I kinda disagree that email marketing is dead. Marketing Sherpa has a few reports that show clicks to open, and conversions are still prety healthy. So it is far from dead and big Ecommerce sites will still use it. It's just so cheap.
But given that, I think the next real push will be in relationship marketing.
Developing a trusting relationship with your list will bring more long term customer value
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FluxAds
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:45 am
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I will have to disagree as well with the statement "Email marketing is dead". Not only do we ourselves run successful email marketing campaigns...MANY of our affiliates are able to generate large profits and great results through email marketing. Email marketing may have slowed down over the last year or two, but it is by no means 'dead'.
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offerdepotalan
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:33 am
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Flux is right. I didn't mention it earlier by our biggest affiliates are email guys and do extremly well. But we do have a few site guys who also do well
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AllanGardyne
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 2:35 am
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Email marketing is far from dead. It still works beautifully. You're just not doing it right.
Perhaps your communication skills are the problem? If so, you could experiment, polishing them on this forum. One of the best ways to learn to write is by simply doing it.
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Allan Gardyne
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varunpratap
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TRR84
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 12:15 pm
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| Quote: | | Email marketing is far from dead. It still works beautifully. You're just not doing it right. |
That wasn't my quote Allan, it was Ed Forteau (sales conversion specialist).
I'm not doing anything just yet, I'm still constructing my first site  . I wanted to get the opinions of the experts before spending the money on implementing an email system.
Given the responses so far, it looks like I will. I'll also put up an RSS feed and let the visitor decide.
Thanks all!
-Mark |
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Chris Demetrios
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:42 pm
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| TRR84 wrote: | | I wanted to get the opinions of the experts before spending the money on implementing an email system. |
Don't spend any money on an email system yet. If you are just starting off you are going to have a few subscribers for at least a while.
Here's a bootstrapper's tip:
1) Setup a subscribe form on your site for them to sign up on and direct it to email you with their details
2) Send them the confirmation email from your email client.
3) Add all these names to a separate "subscriber" contact list on your email client.
4) When you send out your newsletter put yourself in the "To:" and "BCC:" all your subscribers.
This is manageable for a list of lest than 50 people.
There are two advantages to this:
1. You are saving $14.95 - $19.95 per month that you can use for advertising somewhere.
2. You will gain some experience in managing the list manually and from that will get to know EXACTLY what you want from an email system
When you are ready or it starts becoming unmanageable sign up to the email system you want and send an email to your subscriber's notifying them of the change and for them to re-subscribe.
If it takes you 6 months to get there you would have saved at least $90.
Regards,
Chris |
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TRR84
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:51 pm
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Thanks Chris, makes sense
-Mark |
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AllanGardyne
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Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 10:06 am
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| Chris Demetrios wrote: | When you are ready or it starts becoming unmanageable sign up to the email system you want and send an email to your subscriber's notifying them of the change and for them to re-subscribe.
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Ouch! I'd strongly advise you NOT to do this, unless you're brilliant at writing and brilliant at providing fantastic, useful articles in your niche. Otherwise, you're likely to lose a large percentage of your readers if you force them to re-subscribe.
Most people get far more newsletters than they want and are looking for the slightest reason to unsubscribe.
Last time I looked, it was under $20 a month to use Aweber, and considerably cheaper if you sign up for 12 months. If you have confidence in yourself and your ability, start off doing it right, right from the first day, using a good, reliable system which will handle subscribes and unsubscribes etc, and a system you can use on different websites, for autoresponders or newsletters.
By the way, the "email marketing is dead" quote which I was referring to was made by another forum member. It was his post I was replying to.
As far as earning commissions from one high-priced product or several low-priced products goes, that would depend a lot on your market and the sort of people you get to sign up. In my market, I've found it almost as easy to earn $50 commissions as it is to earn $1 commissions. Your market may be entirely different.
However, an important thing to remember is that it's usually much easier to achieve a decent number of sales if you promote only one product at a time. If you promote several, you risk confusing people and they may end up buying nothing.
I often mention several products at a time in my newsletter because people ask me to and I'm not good enough at saying no - but the most effective newsletters are the single-topic ones.
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Allan Gardyne
AssociatePrograms.com - You're here. Explore it! |
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TRR84
Joined:
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Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:32 am
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Thanks Allan,
Yeah, I was thinking about the 'do it from home' idea more last night and it started to not sound like such a brilliant idea. I'd have to manually deal with un-subscribes and compete with spam blockers myself.
I'd honestly factored an Aweber subscription into my budget from the get go so I think I'll stick with the original plan.
| Quote: | | By the way, the "email marketing is dead" quote which I was referring to was made by another forum member. It was his post I was replying to. |
ah, sorry
Cheers for the advice on the newsletter question. I guess the only way I can know for sure what works with any audience I get is experimentation eh?
Thanks,
-Mark |
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Chris Demetrios
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Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 4:03 pm
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I stand corrected.  |
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