Money in the list?

There is the OLD saying: The money is in the list.

I agree with this wholeheartedly!

BUT, and you KNEW there was a BUT coming…

Most “gurus” tell you to give away free stuff to build your list. This generally works well, and if done correctly, you can grow quite a size-able list in a fairly short amount of time.

I still think there is a caveat to this bit of advice…

Let me explain by way of example….

Yesterday, a fairly big marketer, good friend, and mentor of mine, emailed one of my offers to one of his lists.

The list in question is over 50K in size, and he has built this up over a year or so period by giving away freebies. The list is very fresh, and gets marketed to very regularly.

So, the offer was for a VERY limited set of resell rights at $197 a seat. Not cheap, but, by no means expensive considering some of the BIG launches we have seen over the past couple of months.

The actual email copy was LONG, and had the link in it all over the place. The email itself was brilliantly written by said marketer. I read it top to bottom, and if it wasn’t my own product being sold, I would have bought, just from reading that email!

So, BIG list, well known marketer, GREAT email, great offer, reasonable price. What happened?

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There, I’ve said it!

Sometimes we as Internet Marketers gets so caught up in what we are doing, we don’t realize how we disrespect our list, nor do we notice the SILLY mistakes we make.

I just sent out an email promotion to my WHOLE list, promoting the new Stomping The Search Engines 2 launch.

This is the email, VERBATIM:
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There is a lot of concern over the sending of commercial email messages. Governments have passed laws that need to be followed by ethical marketers. Add to that, that you can be falsely accused of sending spam and you may decide an email marketing campaign just isn’t worth the risk. I will say that it is more risky NOT to run an email campaign if you really want to increase your online profits.

Much of the risk involved with email marketing comes from not doing things right. If you follow the “rules” you will come out ahead, and the few bumps you encounter won’t be felt at all. Let me ask you this, have you ever taken a “shortcut” while driving only to end up lost or way off course? We all have. It seemed logical to take the shortcut, but we really didn’t know the way – we just thought we knew. Email marketing can be the same way.

The overriding concept here is simple: be ethical. That’s it. Of course it wouldn’t be much of a post if that’s all I said. Here are a few ideas to keep you on course.

There is an ongoing argument amongst marketers about whether or not you should use single or double opt-in. Single opt-in means a person fills in their name and email address and starts receiving messages. Whereas double opt-in means people fill in the form, but they must respond to the first message you send to confirm they indeed want emails from you. Both sides have good arguments. As long as you don’t use false pretenses to get people’s information, either form of opting in will work.

Be honest when convincing people to sign up for your emails. Point out the benefits, explain why you’re better and what they get for signing up, but don’t resort to misrepresentation or hype.

So far we have looked at having people sign up using a form that you put somewhere. What about buying a list? This is almost always a bad idea and is asking for trouble. It’s one shortcut you should avoid unless there are extenuating circumstances. Never buy an email list that offers millions of names – ever. However, you may know someone personally who is selling their online business. Even then, you have to be careful. Make sure you really know them. Do they have a good reputation? Have you communicated with them previously? Also, be sure to request that the list seller notifies their list that it will be changing hands. This will give people a chance to opt out if they are worried about a new list owner. If all of these steps are in place, then buying a list could be an option.

Do not spam your list. This includes passing their information on to others, or sending unrelated offers to them. Keep any emails you send relevant to whatever they signed up for. It is okay to send them offers, as long as it’s within the bounds of any promises you have made.

Following these simple guidelines will help to minimize the risks associated with email marketing. You don’t have to rely on cheap tricks, in fact if you do things ethically you will have an easier time on the road to success.

Over the next couple of days, I will be doing a series of posts on customer service. Come back daily for the updates!

True story…

Last week I took out my credit card while sitting on a well-known vacation site that allowed you to book hotel and air packages to popular destinations.  And even though I was literally seconds away from purchasing, I didn’t.  I gave my business to someone else.

Why?

Here was the problem: I was booking this vacation for someone else.  Some vacation sites require the person booking the vacation to also be one of the travelers – and indeed some hotels require the guests to show the exact credit card they used to reserve the room.

I scoured this site and read every FAQ, every term of service, and even started through the buying process to see if this particular site allowed a third party to purchase the travel package. 

No dice. 

I couldn’t find a word about it one way or the other.  Most sites let you know up-front whether third parties can book travel, so that alone was surprising that it wasn’t in writing.  But at this point omitting the information certainly it wasn’t a deal-breaker to me.

The solution for me was quick and easy – write to them to inquire about their policy.  They did have a phone number (bonus points for them!), but for such a simple question I didn’t want to jump through phone menus and spend who-knows-how-long on hold.

So I wrote to them…  And then I waited.  And waited.

Four business days later I hadn’t heard anything from them, and the special offer I was prepared to book through them was about to expire.  So I went to another site who had a similar offer, found the terms of service met my requirements, and purchased.

So what happened?

Who knows.  Maybe my email got lost or their reply got lost (I don’t have filters on this account).  Maybe they’re running slow and didn’t get around to it yet (it’s been a week now as of this writing).  Maybe George Bush intercepted the email or it’s reply.

Now while I understand that things can and do happen to emails, I still didn’t purchase the package from them.  They lost my business because of this incident.

“But it’s not necessarily their fault,” you might say.  “Emails get lost and such, right?”

Sure, but this site could have allowed me the convenience of sending an email while ensuring they received it and I got the reply.  How?  By installing a help desk where not only are emails sent, but the exchange is listed in its entirety online too.