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?

(more…)

Back in March, I wrote THIS article, complaining about the quality of my list, and how unresponsive they are to anything.

So, being the pull your finger and fix it type of guy, I went on a mission to build, not only a quality site, but, a QUALITY news letter.

I sent an email to my whole list, apologizing for me bombarding them with offers, and not living up to my promise to send them a real newsletter with quality content. I asked them to sign up to the newsletter on this site, which would automatically unsubscribe them from all the other lists that they are on.

I was actually quite surprised at the number of people who did signup to the newsletter list!

So, now that we have started putting out this newsletter, how has the response been?

Let me 1st give some more details. The newsletter is full of quality content, as well as other bits and pieces, including promotions for affiliate products as well as my own. Content is still around 80% +. You can see for yourself in the newsletter archive on the menu at the top.

The newsletter list gets the newsletter only, unless there is some time constraint on a promotion, and I truly believe it is worth risking those valuable subscribers, to let them know about it.

The other lists, all still get all kinds of promotions, but, they also get the newsletter.

Open rate of the newsletter across ALL the lists is at a staggering 70%!!! Clicks inside the newsletter, also across ALL lists, are at a mind blowing 85%!!!

Now, I must add here that I DO provide a lot of free resources in the newsletter, which people click on, but, the promotions does get a fair share of around 20% of all clicks!

Not bad at all for providing quality content, which I write myself, from the heart, and does not take me more than around 45 minutes total to put out the newsletter.

Are the clicks on the promotions converting? YOU BET THEY ARE!

Now, you go and write some quality content for YOUR list, and let me know the change you experience from it!

Most marketers know they shouldn’t divulge information about their customers or subscribers.  Many of them even have privacy policies in place assuring customers they won’t do so.  And most marketers really wouldn’t dream of sharing any customer information.

Yet something about having well-known subscribers or buyers throws all common sense out the window for some marketers.  While a marketer may never dream of telling anyone that “Joe Schmoe” is on his list, as soon as someone well-known joins, he blabs it all over the forums.

Around the forums you’ll start seeing posts like, “Mr. Well-Known is on my list!” or “Mr. Guru just bought my new ebook!”

Do this and you could not only end up upsetting the person who’s name your dropping, but you could also make your prospects uneasy about your business practices.  They’ll assume that your privacy policies and any notions about customer confidentiality are just for show and aren’t taken seriously.  And as a result they won’t want to do business with you.

Another way to make your customers and prospects uneasy is to use their words without their permissions.  In other words, you turn their private testimonials into public endorsements.

You see, just because someone raves about your product or service does not mean you are automatically granted permission to use those words in public.  Customer confidentiality standards still apply.  You shouldn’t use any private communications – even if it’s an endorsement of your products – unless you’ve been given explicit permission to do so.

Case in point: I know a copywriter who has dozens of extremely satisfied clients who won’t give her a testimonial.  Why?  Because she’s become their “secret sales weapon.”  If they should endorse her publicly, people would know about their secret …and they’d rather keep her away from their competitors!

That’s just one example, but there really are dozens of reasons why your clients and customers might not want anyone to know they’re doing business with you.  Respect their privacy.  And be sure that you extend this courtesy to ALL of your customers, clients, and even newsletter subscribers.

Outsourcing is a beautiful and wonderful thing.  You come up with a great idea, send money to a freelancer, and like magic they send you a completed project.  If you do enough outsourcing, you can get projects from the idea stage to completion in lightning-quick time.

So you find your dream freelancers, go over the details, they give you estimated delivery dates, and you start planning out your marketing.  As the delivery dates near, you check with your freelancers to ensure they are still on track (they are).  Then you start sending out emails to build anticipation for the upcoming launch.

Can you see the problem boiling just under the surface?

The success of the product launch is completely out of your hands.  The freelancers may suddenly disappear, they could become ill, for example, and you won’t know what happened until it’s crunch time. 

It doesn’t matter if you’ve set your launch several days or even a week or more ahead of the date your freelancers told you they’d deliver.  What happens if they can’t deliver?  Now you need to scramble around and find another freelancer (and the good ones aren’t available at the drop of a hat like that), or you need to put in long hours to get it done yourself.

It’s exhausting to say the least.  And that means you might not get everything done before the launch, or you might drop the ball in a few places.  That could easily lower your credibility in the marketplace.

The same goes for your business partners.  Don’t let your success depend on another person, because it’s the customers who suffer if someone doesn’t keep their promises to you (and in turn you can’t keep your promises to your customer).

Your best bet?  Never make promises until you’re actually ready to deliver.  If it’s not already in your hand, don’t promise your customers that you can get it into their hands on a specific date.