(AMA) Ask Me Anything About Email Marketing!

[jackwilder94]

Nice AMA, but as you know spamming is way more profitable than building an opt-in list yourself, it's also less time consuming.

Why don't you teach us the best sources to getting a whitelisted SMTP server, maybe what to take into consideration when trying to inbox 90% of a million emails and remove all the spam triggers.

Anyways, my question is, how would you increase the CTR of a link, what psychological triggers are there to make people click a link?

Also, what subjects work best when trying to promote a dating site or sell something etc. to enhance the open rate?

Thanks again for doing this AMA.

 

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[stranger]

I run ecommerce stores and I have a decent size list. My problem is that I don't know what content to send them on emails. I don't want to send spammy emails about products in my store. I just like to keep in touch every week or so. I don't have a landing page in my emails as the links just to go my storefronts. Can you give me some examples of email subjects that you would send that aren't sales directed?

It dependents on who your customers are. For example, share a new anecdote with them.
------------
Dear “NAME “,
Hope I’m reaching you at a good time!? If it’s okay with you, I can share with you this joke that I heard today.
“Your anecdote“.
Yours truly,
Biophase.
P.S. Oops, I forgot to say – we always glad to see you at “ Your link “.
-------------

 

[thecalmpickle]

Hello thecalmpickle,

Thank you very much for doing this.

I've got an ebook to sell in a niche. Here's my quick action plan to see if I can make any money off this book in this niche before I scale it up & invest a tonne of time, please provide any feedback (positive or negative I dont care - profit is the only thing that counts haha).

1. Split test some squeeze pages offering the following as a "free gift" for their email:
a) X Day Video Course b) X Day Email Course c) XYZ Niche Related Free Report
[I like to send at least 100 clicks to a squeeze before I make decisions]
What Length "course" do you suggest?

2. Whichever squeeze gets the most conversions I will create that Free gift and stick with that

3. I would like to be able to get at least SOME conversions within one week in order to know if I should pursue this niche or not. How do you recommend attempting this?

examples:

a) 3 emails every 2 days all with valuable info and soft sells and then on the 3rd email do a harder sell?
b) 3 emails over 3 days, then a 4th email 2 days later with a hard sell?
c) whatever suggestion you have

Thank you very much for any help at all.

I would not create an email autoresponder until AFTER I know that the ebook sells.

The reason for that is because an autoresponder has too many moving parts (and it takes a ton of time).

Plus - if it bombs you'll have too many questions to find answers to and it can f*ck sh*t up (i.e. you have an amazing autoresponder but the offer was bad in the first place - so you change a perfectly fine autoresponder when the offer was the weak link).

But with just a sales letter and order link, there's less moving parts.

If it sells, you could always add a thank-you page with a survey asking them about their pain points and how they'd prefer receiving info for solutions. Then create your autoresponder course based on those answers and boost conversions knowing your ebook ALREADY sells.

 

[thecalmpickle]

Love your samples, they're really good. Two questions to keep this going:

1. Any tips for converting more software trials through email?
2. What's your take on sender names (company name vs employee name vs firstname and company name)?

Thanks!

1. Try an autoresponder series showing a handful of people in your industry using your software and getting results.

2. I like it as personal as possible - just your name. Sometimes prefixing your name and subject line with your company abbreviations helps to stand out. Also, best to tell people to filter and label your email when they sign up.

BUT it's more about how you've built up the relationship BEFORE they opt-in (and during) that's gonna boost opens and sales. (For example, if you saw an email by "Mom" you're gonna open that up no matter what. Why? The relationship you've built.)

 

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[thecalmpickle]

Hey, I have another question - about URGENCY & AN IRRESISTIBLE OFFER

Bill Glazer pushes for Urgency - to get them to move and do something (in my case, come to my site and optin so i can follow up with them), and he combines that with needing an Irresistible Offer.

I'm starting a unique monthly coffee delivery service, built around "Europe's Finest Coffee - delivered" - offering the same coffee served in Michelin Star restaurants in Europe - delivered directly from Europe to the subscriber's door, in the US.

I'm feeling at a loss as to how to create Urgency and the irresistible offer in my two pronged marketing:

1. Direct snail mail: i'm sending out a series of 3 clever postcards - each one reenforcing the previous and pushing for them to go to my site and download the "Secrets & recipes of Europe's Master Coffee Roasters" (and sign up for a coffee subscription if they want, but that's not the immediate goal.

2. Affiliate: Engaging with complementary small companies (like those that sell high end espresso, or other luxury coffee related (or not) items) and getting them to sign up as an affiliate and contact their customer list, with an offer of $100 for each customer who stays for a month.
=> I'll give a template of an email for them to use with their customers, but it also needs the Urgency and Irresistible Offer.

I thought of "Subscribe by [date] and get a Free pair of handmade Espresso cups" - but I really don't know if that's a good idea (yeah - i know, "test" - but i think it needs to feel right first...).

=> Any suggestions or ideas for me?

Thanks!

Another question? Where's your first one?

Urgency and irresistible offers -

Let me answer the affiliate question first...

2. Here's something irresistible to affiliates... give them monthly recurring commissions AND let them build their own list by letting them promote to your list. Do endorsed mailings together and promote all your stuff together.

As far as urgency goes... do time-limited contests and bonuses. (i.e. X amount of customers = $10,000 bonus).

As long as your numbers work, find a way to reward heavily.

1. A free pair of handmade espresso cups doesn't sound irresistible to me. But I'm not your target market - I don't even drink coffee... at all.

I actually have no clue what's irresistible to coffee drinkers... except for coffee.

Hmm...

How about this... MORE COFFEE.

Example:

"If you order before {Date}, you'll be delivered DOUBLE the amount of coffee for life - without ever having your membership upgraded."

Hey, if the numbers work...

 

[thecalmpickle]

One quick question - where are the best places to buy a list?

The best places to rent lists?

...wherever you find a list that's buys similar stuff as you're selling and is profitable mailing to.

You can check out:
Nextmark
SRDS
Directory of Ezines

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Thank you for writing TMF !

You're welcome.

I hope you're ready for an onslaught of questions: Ill be sharing your AMA on all my social links as well as putting out an email!

Get readyyyyyyyyy!

 

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[thecalmpickle]

Nice AMA, but as you know spamming is way more profitable than building an opt-in list yourself, it's also less time consuming.

Why don't you teach us the best sources to getting a whitelisted SMTP server, maybe what to take into consideration when trying to inbox 90% of a million emails and remove all the spam triggers.

Anyways, my question is, how would you increase the CTR of a link, what psychological triggers are there to make people click a link?

Also, what subjects work best when trying to promote a dating site or sell something etc. to enhance the open rate?

Thanks again for doing this AMA.

Actually I did NOT know spamming is profitable.

I thought that was -EV and jail-worthy... :coco:

By the way, even if you LEGITIMATELY rent lists, do endorsed mailings, etc. (not spam) you can still send an email with a SPAM score of zero and it can still pop up in people's spam folder.

----------------------------------------

Boosting CTR of a link

A few tactics to try:
- Bold the links
- Make them a bigger font-size
- Do not hyperlink them, use the full url (ex: http://www.fakeexampledomain.com)
- Do not put a call to action like "here's the link...". Just drop it in there.
- Surround the link with curiosity elements

----------------------------------------

Subject Lines That Boost Open Rates

I like the formula by Gary Bencivenga...

I = B + C

Interest = Benefit + Curiousity

So for dating... let's see if I can have some fun coming up with some ideas...

Subject Line Examples:
1. how to make women beg you to take their clothes off
2. the one word that makes you rejection proof
3. types of dates that get you laid
4. how to get women to approach YOU
5. do this to avoid competition
6. what to say to soak her panties
7. where to touch her to make her O
8. how to last for hours even if you're banging a perfect 10
9. how to get good girls to release their inner freak
10. how to never have approach anxiety
11. when to say "i love you"
12. why smiling reduces your chances
13. how to initiate threesomes
14. where to find "marriage material" women
15. proven signs your girlfriend is cheating

By the way, I'm curious - if ANYONE reading this would open ONE of the above emails then hit the like button. I want to track this. If you're embarrassed, don't worry the NSA already knows you're reading this - so hit the "Thanks/Like" button.

WARNING: you may or may not want to tone it down depending on how you position yourself.

Raunchy, but surely that hits the hot buttons of people in that market...

Benefit (know your market) + Curiosity = gets opened

 

[TedM]

How about this... MORE COFFEE.

I was thinking about that. Not double for life, but order now and get the rarest coffee on the planet: The Top Poop Coffee Blends — Begin Your Day With Some Poo in Your Cup

My roaster in Paris has the Jacu bird coffee, which is only produced in one (animal friendly) location, in Brazil.

give them monthly recurring commissions

I don't think the guys I am contacting are in the Affiliate mode - so I was thinking a $100 payout would be enough to have them sit up and take notice.

AND let them build their own list by letting them promote to your list. Do endorsed mailings together and promote all your stuff together.

Thanks for this. I'll make sure I include this in the follow-up mail to them, after our conversation.

This is a completely new business, so I don't have a list at all.

On that topic (I mentioned this in my thread here - https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/pr...ffee-startup-intro-post285483.html#post285483) - I found a list broker that will provide me w/a list of: people making over $200K a year who travel internationally and spend $100 / mo. or more on gourmet coffee.

-> What do you think of that?

 

[bane]

I would not create an email autoresponder until AFTER I know that the ebook sells.

The reason for that is because an autoresponder has too many moving parts (and it takes a ton of time).

Plus - if it bombs you'll have too many questions to find answers to and it can f*ck sh*t up (i.e. you have an amazing autoresponder but the offer was bad in the first place - so you change a perfectly fine autoresponder when the offer was the weak link).

But with just a sales letter and order link, there's less moving parts.

If it sells, you could always add a thank-you page with a survey asking them about their pain points and how they'd prefer receiving info for solutions. Then create your autoresponder course based on those answers and boost conversions knowing your ebook ALREADY sells.

Hello! Thank you for your response. It makes a lot of sense.

But dammit. I am using Adwords to drive traffic to the Sales Page but it isnt converting I have split test a fair few sales page ideas and none seem to be working... So I've been getting very disheartend with this angle.

So my next idea was to try a squeeze instead to see if I could succcessfully use the principle of "7 Points of Contact" before a customer will make a purchase ...

I know an email list is a better overall concept, but you are saying, if I can't make money direct linking, there's no point trying email marketing? Is that a good general rule of thumb?

Any advice for my lack of conversions? Maybe I should try another traffic source?
I've tried testing the following on the Sales page: Split testing designs, adding bonuses, changing the copy, increasing the copy size.
I feel like my sales page is at a point of being "good enough" - so maybe it's the KWs and traffic source?

Thanks a lot for any advice. Very much appreciated.

 

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[healthstatus]

I have a general health content website. On my site, I have a "sign up for our newsletter" form and have a good number of subscribers. What is a good way to take them from this point and move them into a cash generating machine? Your previous posts indicate I should try and pound on pain points, but the nature of the signup I don't have that info. Should I develop multiple funnels (ie exercise, weightloss, wellness, aging) and try and splinter them from the main list into the sublists? (which sounds like making a whole lot of work for myself)

 

[stranger]

E-mail marketing only works if a receiver was/is your customer. You just waste your time out if you buy an email list from a broker. Your "brilliant" sales emails is just "F*cking" spam for else others our days. Just my opinion.

 

[thecalmpickle]

E-mail marketing only works if a receiver was/is your customer. You just waste your time out if you buy an email list from a broker. Your "brilliant" sales emails is just "F*cking" spam for else others our days. Just my opinion.

I can see where you're coming from.

You're right. If you legitimately rent lists you can be seen as "spammy" and you can be wasting your time.

So here's a suggestion.

Rent RELEVANT lists where people are nurtured by the list owner and buy/are interested in similar offers to your own.

Also, if you actually write in a way that is not hitting them over the head like "hey check this out, hey click this, this is soooooo awesome, just click this link" then you're actually doing a service for someone by introducing them to something that can help them.

Also just wanted to clear this up quickly...

E-mail marketing only works if a receiver was/is your customer

Marketing to past customers works better... they bought from you before, they trust you, they want more stuff.

But saying to NEVER build a list of email leads because they'll NEVER convert into customers is false.

If that was true, no one would know what an opt-in form is.

...hell, MJ wouldn't even be wasting his time capturing leads with that email lightbox pop-up form you see. (Btw, MJ we should do a case study on that and see how we can optimize your email marketing. Should make things fun.)

I appreciate your opinion, but let's strive to be givers of great information in this thread.

 

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[BillP]

I run ecommerce stores and I have a decent size list. My problem is that I don't know what content to send them on emails. I don't want to send spammy emails about products in my store. I just like to keep in touch every week or so. I don't have a landing page in my emails as the links just to go my storefronts. Can you give me some examples of email subjects that you would send that aren't sales directed?

Reeading this, I immediately thought of you and our conversation at Roy's house. Just keep in mind two things, you can send them to great content and have an offer on that page that is related.

For example
Subject:
Warning! Doing this will ruin your Ghillie suit.
Body:
Did you know that most people are cleaning their Ghillie suit incorrectly?
Check out this blog post where I show the correct method to keep your Ghillie suit in like new condition.

Link to blog post.


Then on your blog post, put in a great article (video would rock - heck doesn't have to be your video) all about the proper way to clean a ghillie suit. Here you can put an expensive method using high dollar cleaning solutions and also share an inexpensive alternative (providing value to the reader).

At the end, have affiliate links to the expensive stuff, and other related products (Ghillie suit cases, whatever these guys are also buying - look on what people are ALSO buying on amazon or whatever).

Boom.

You've provided a ton of value, they will keep reading and many will GLADLY buy stuff from you for being such a great resource.

The email could also thank them for trusting you with their email and you can share a link to a discount, or a *coupon or 'subscriber' only link to a deal on some of your (or one of your featured) products. (a $20 coupon is GREAT as people feel like they are losing money if they don't spend it).

Bill

 

[BillP]

No matter what you do, expect some spam complaints.

In the first email I send people, I tell them they can unsubscribe to any email at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of ANY email.

In that first email I also tell them about me, recommend some threads to read and what not.

At the end, I put - Here is that once click unsubscribe link I told you about. I certainly hope you stay with me, but at any time you want to stop receiving emails from me, please click this.
Here is the unsubscribe link.

Sure you get unsubs, but you also dramatically reduce spam complaints.

Oh ya, I also use emaildelivered.com (not aff link or related to them in anyway) to manage my email reputation (but it's like $500 a month so only worth it if you need a lot of control or you get booted off of Aweber as I was). Bottom line if your list gets too big, you will at some point get booted from Aweber as a big list will always get a lot of complaints even if you send valuable content.

B

 

[thecalmpickle]

I found a list broker that will provide me w/a list of: people making over $200K a year who travel internationally and spend $100 / mo. or more on gourmet coffee.

-> What do you think of that?

So you know they spend money PER MONTH on gourmet coffee.

I'm assuming it's by MAIL, correct?

Sounds like a decent match.

Here's what you can do to increase your chances of having a profitable test.

1. Ask the broker to mail to a segment of the hotline list (people that bought recently i.e. last 30 days)

2. Ask who's been mailing to them CONSISTENTLY

3. Ask if you can see their mailings to that list

Then find out what words they are using, what offers, etc... so you can pick up some elements to use in your test that someone else has PAID MONEY to find out what works for that list.

 

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[thecalmpickle]

Hello! Thank you for your response. It makes a lot of sense.

But dammit. I am using Adwords to drive traffic to the Sales Page but it isnt converting I have split test a fair few sales page ideas and none seem to be working... So I've been getting very disheartend with this angle.

So my next idea was to try a squeeze instead to see if I could succcessfully use the principle of "7 Points of Contact" before a customer will make a purchase ...

I know an email list is a better overall concept, but you are saying, if I can't make money direct linking, there's no point trying email marketing? Is that a good general rule of thumb?

Yes, if you're driving adwords ads to a sales letter and it's not converting I think it's a waste of time to set up an email autoresponder.

You can't multiply zero's.

Any advice for my lack of conversions? Maybe I should try another traffic source?
I've tried testing the following on the Sales page: Split testing designs, adding bonuses, changing the copy, increasing the copy size.
I feel like my sales page is at a point of being "good enough" - so maybe it's the KWs and traffic source?

Thanks a lot for any advice. Very much appreciated.

Hold up.

When you say you're not converting this is based on what numbers AND over the course of how many days?

Impressions?
Clicks?
CTR?
# Sales?
Ad Spend?
CPC?

You say you're split testing already, so I'm ASSUMING you've already got over at least 300 clicks.

If you haven't gotten 300 clicks yet and you're already split-testing I think that's dangerous.

If you have gotten 300 clicks and have made ZERO sales, I'd chalk it up to an offer that's a mismatch.

If you think it has to do with KWDs and traffic source, find out where competing companies are promoting the similar offers.

If you do find out they are bidding on Goolge you could copy competitor's URLs into Google Adwords Keyword Tool, hit the [exact] match button on the left side, and see what they are bidding on. (Right click and search the KWDs to be sure.) If they and other competitors are bidding on that EXACT MATCH term it's a safe (not fool-proof) assumption that they're making money on those KWDs.

 

[thecalmpickle]

I have a general health content website. On my site, I have a "sign up for our newsletter" form and have a good number of subscribers. What is a good way to take them from this point and move them into a cash generating machine? Your previous posts indicate I should try and pound on pain points, but the nature of the signup I don't have that info. Should I develop multiple funnels (ie exercise, weightloss, wellness, aging) and try and splinter them from the main list into the sublists? (which sounds like making a whole lot of work for myself)

I don't know what email service you use...

Some have this, some don't.

But if you're using AWeber you can buy AWeber Pro Tools which allows you to AUTOMATICALLY segment subscribers/customers into different lists.

For example:
You send out a content email with multiple articles...

AWeber Pro Tools can then automatically segment people into different lists based on which links they click.

That way you can pinpoint those leads with a specific offer later WITHOUT having to build different opt-in forms or email broadcasts all the time.

As far as converting leads into customers...

One email list I'm on is www.mercola.com.

I know Mercola is a balla and his emails are pretty damn good.

They do things differently, but the way they do email marketing may be perfect for another health content-based site like yours.

Sign up for that email list and watch how they deliver their health article content as well as their own products.

Free email marketing education.

 

[Dutto]

I give my list free/personal content to hard sell about 3:1 emailing twice a week. This is line with what a guru told me. Would you agree with this? Im tempted to send more.

One thing that worked really well for me is just simply asking people what they wanted me to send them.

 

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[thecalmpickle]

I give my list free/personal content to hard sell about 3:1 emailing twice a week. This is line with what a guru told me. Would you agree with this? Im tempted to send more.

One thing that worked really well for me is just simply asking people what they wanted me to send them.

I'm a firm believer in frequent emails.

As in daily, or every other day (for the main autoresponder sequence).

As far as selling goes, I sell in NEARLY ALL my emails. But they're not hard sells. They're written in a way that make people actually beg to open your emails and want to buy.

But it looks like you've found something that works for YOU. Keep doing that.

 

[stranger]

But saying to NEVER build a list of email leads because they'll NEVER convert into customers is false.

If that was true, no one would know what an opt-in form is.

...hell, MJ wouldn't even be wasting his time capturing leads with that email lightbox pop-up form you see. (Btw, MJ we should do a case study on that and see how we can optimize your email marketing. Should make things fun.)

I appreciate your opinion, but let's strive to be givers of great information in this thread.

Hell, I just wanted to said it wasn’t a problem to find a new customer with a spam message years ago. I remember those days when I sold goods without their pics, just discriptions in 1999-2002. Probably, you didn't understand what i meant under SPAM. If i signed in MJ's news letters, it's not spam. But if i get any email from MJ's friend, it's spam.

Really, I've done email marketing for 5-4 years. I know this is a COOL marketing tool. We get repeat sales on our very season goods around year. However, our customer base is little enough. So it takes no much time to write a customer's name in subject (to Jack Jackson), but only if his email address sounds not like jackjackson@email.com. My sales-emails have from 80 to 200 words. I found a short message works better for us than a long one. Also, all my sales-emails have P.S. I don't know why customers like P.S., but they do it. Well, I've created my own vocabulary file with "sweet" phrases/words for a shopper which i use in my sales-emails too.

 

[Rerun]

Nice AMA, thanks for sharing. +1 for Autoresponder Madness, really good stuff.

Which categories in the info marketing spaces have you found respond well to email and spend money? Which markets have been your favorite to work in?

 

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[bane]

Yes, if you're driving adwords ads to a sales letter and it's not converting I think it's a waste of time to set up an email autoresponder.

You can't multiply zero's.

Man great point. So is this the general process to follow when validating/testing ideas:

1. Get some sale conversions via Direct Linking - Validates the niche/product
2. IF can succeed with step one THEN: Scale and Optimise through Email Marketing - Because better Conversion Rate with Email Mkting but is a little more complex/work (in terms of setting up, split testing & optimisation etc)

How's that sound? Thanks for your enlightenment mate

Hold up.

When you say you're not converting this is based on what numbers AND over the course of how many days?

Impressions?
Clicks?
CTR?
# Sales?
Ad Spend?
CPC?

Great Questions! Here's the Summary:

Days Split Testing Sales Page = around 8 days
Ad Impressions? = dont have on hand
Ad CTR = dont have on hand
Clicks? = 1041
Click Thrus to Cart = 39
CTR? = 3.75%
# Sales? = 1
Revenue = $17
Total Ad Spend? = $104.1
avg CPC? = $0.10

You say you're split testing already, so I'm ASSUMING you've already got over at least 300 clicks.

If you haven't gotten 300 clicks yet and you're already split-testing I think that's dangerous.

Yeah I agree with you. I only make decisions based off >100 clicks. I would prefer 300+ clicks, but my budget does not permit this.

If you have gotten 300 clicks and have made ZERO sales, I'd chalk it up to an offer that's a mismatch.

So looking at my stats, is the mismatch betwen the Traffic & the offer? So I am not giving the traffic what they actually want?

If you think it has to do with KWDs and traffic source, find out where competing companies are promoting the similar offers.

If you do find out they are bidding on Goolge you could copy competitor's URLs into Google Adwords Keyword Tool, hit the [exact] match button on the left side, and see what they are bidding on. (Right click and search the KWDs to be sure.) If they and other competitors are bidding on that EXACT MATCH term it's a safe (not fool-proof) assumption that they're making money on those KWDs.

Man that is one awesome tip! Thank you!!!!!!!

Thanks for your great help. I really appreciate your time & effort. Thank you

 

[thecalmpickle]

Nice AMA, thanks for sharing. +1 for Autoresponder Madness, really good stuff.

Which categories in the info marketing spaces have you found respond well to email and spend money? Which markets have been your favorite to work in?

The markets that respond well to email and spend money are the ones that ALREADY spend money.

Using emails to send your marketing message isn't suddenly gonna convince non-buyers to buy.

Using email marketing to buyers in the big 3 (health & fitness, business & money, dating & relationships) usually ends in good results... if you position yourself differently than everyone else in your niche.

My favorites

I've enjoyed writing emails to people wanting to save their marriage and writing to the striving entrepreneur market.

...HATED writing to a certain fitness niche.

 

[Avus]

Hey this is my first post and I been dying to get some answers!

I am using Icontact and according to them I can only track my clicks through an HTML email(which most email hosts don't automatically load), or through a link.

Is this normal for tracking clicks?

So far I have had 0 luck with email marketing. I mean 0% openings. I don't know if it just me, or if Icontacts tracking system is screwy.

 

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[thecalmpickle]

Man great point. So is this the general process to follow when validating/testing ideas:

1. Get some sale conversions via Direct Linking - Validates the niche/product
2. IF can succeed with step one THEN: Scale and Optimise through Email Marketing - Because better Conversion Rate with Email Mkting but is a little more complex/work (in terms of setting up, split testing & optimisation etc)

How's that sound? Thanks for your enlightenment mate

BEFORE I EVEN SPEND MONEY ADS...

I prefer if I can sell it in person (even if it's an online info product) to make sure I'm not wasting my time.

Or some other "free" way online.

THEN...

I like to run ads to a presell page (has some copy and a link at the bottom to your/vendor's sales page).

The reason for this is because I do research on the market first and use copy that I feel can convert more than just direct-linking.

IF THAT WORKS...

THEN I'd start focusing on building a list.

I won't even put an autoresponder yet, just an opt-in form. Have a survey on the thank you page (what's your biggest fear, pains, etc.). THEN CREATE AN AUTORESPONDER that guides them towards the results they actually want.

Great Questions! Here's the Summary:

Days Split Testing Sales Page = around 8 days
Ad Impressions? = dont have on hand
Ad CTR = dont have on hand
Clicks? = 1041
Click Thrus to Cart = 39
CTR? = 3.75%
# Sales? = 1
Revenue = $17
Total Ad Spend? = $104.1
avg CPC? = $0.10

So looking at my stats, is the mismatch betwen the Traffic & the offer? So I am not giving the traffic what they actually want?

Here's the weird thing...

Your CONVERSION RATE (Sales divided by Clicks To Cart) = 2.56%

Not that bad considering your funnel is only traffic->sales page.

BUT your CTR from Sales Page to Cart is only 3.75%.

Personally - I think this is EXTREMELY low.

There's two possible questions to answer:
1. Is my sales page so bad that people don't bother to get to the end?
2. Or is my offer completely a miss?

Also, I saw that your CPC is only $0.10... this could be a sign that you're either playing on a cheap ad network OR you're playing in a market where there's no competition because it's filled with NON-BUYERS.

So another question to ask is...
3. Are there OTHER people in this market making money selling similar products?

Man that is one awesome tip! Thank you!!!!!!!

Thanks for your great help. I really appreciate your time & effort. Thank you

Thank you for adding to this thread!

 

[thecalmpickle]

Hey this is my first post and I been dying to get some answers!

I am using Icontact and according to them I can only track my clicks through an HTML email(which most email hosts don't automatically load), or through a link.

Is this normal for tracking clicks?

So far I have had 0 luck with email marketing. I mean 0% openings. I don't know if it just me, or if Icontacts tracking system is screwy.

If you're using PLAIN-TEXT emails on Icontact, I believe opens will NOT be tracked.

That's probably why you're seeing 0% opens.

If you're looking for that plain-text look, you can still do that with an HTML email AND have everything tracked.

Also, be sure you have click-tracking enabled on your campaign.

By the way, welcome to the forum.

 

[TedM]

I'm assuming it's by MAIL, correct?

Thanks for asking this question. I am editing my original answer: yes, they can do online purchases and hotline data. I never would have known to ask those questions! Thanks a million.

ECONOMICS
In any event, in looking at conversion information/assumptions - I think 10,000 email addresses (to an apparently good, bought list) with a good strong letter going to a pretty good optin offer/page) should result in about 10 optins and 2 sales. If so, then my cost per customer would be about $225, which is acceptable in the first phase (not great, but acceptable).

By comparison, a snail mail campaign to 1,000 addresses (3 mailings to each) would cost $2,800 and result in anywhere from 10 - 30 sales (maybe). It's a more expensive initial investment - and I'm a bit nervous about shelling out that much w/o any real confirmation that it will work.

I supposed I could pick 100 names and just make up my own cards and send them through Snapfish, for example, to test...

hmmmmmm.

 

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[LeungJan]

Thanks for doing this!!

What are your opinions on templates? Do you prefer plain text and have you had any experience where a template converts better?

Thanks

 

[zoborg]

Thanks for this thecalmpickle - learnt loads already! Would appreciate any feedback on my situation..

We are currently selling 99% on eBay and trying initially to get some repeat business by follow up emails (as we have their name/email address although really shouldn't be using it for this.. but our secret).

Here is my setup for current customers

1) Customer buys something from us - we sent the item out with a nice "thank you" letter (real paper in a envelope) which also contains a candy - finishing the letter it says something along the lines of "Watch out for a email from us it may be of interest to you".
2) One week after the item should have been dispatched I send out my first email - this is a bit "jokey" along the lines of I promised to send you something that interests you but couldnt make up my mind so I sent you a) A discount code off your next sale and b) a joke..I go on to explain how we have more quirky things.
3) 7 days after that I follow up with another email - this time basically saying "i'm intrigued - what did you do with what you bought from us?" with the hope they will respond - then I remind them of the discount. (I couldn't think what else to say)
4) 2 days before the offer is about to expire I send them a email reminding them the offer is about to expire...

Then thats it! my campaign finished...

Now - I myself think this is quite rubbish (and doesn't seem to work), the challenge is (particularly when just starting out) is knowing what copy is going to work? any ideas on a better series would be great!

In terms of how successful - well I must admit I am not using any professional software right now and have written some software which sends out the emails... I don't have great metrics but out of 505 emails sent in last 30 days (for full series) I have had 60 visitors bounce rate of 50% but 0 sales...

So TBH I'm a bit "stuck" I'm sure there are loads and loads of ways to improve this process but i'm a bit out of my depth right now...glad to have at least taken some action though