Combating List Building Frenzy: Take The Time To Promote

It is an accepted fact among the experts now that online marketing succeeds only with a quality, highly targeted permission email list in place. As a result, the multi-level marketers have pounced on this and everywhere you look another "matrix" lead generating system springs up.

There is no doubt that these are powerful techniques offering the advantage of building your subscriber base while basking in profits simply from growing your list. This is a best-of-both worlds sorts where the very thing that you are promoting is one in the same with what you are building -> your list.

For "newbie" marketers, it is easy to get caught up in the frenzy since one is desperately hungry to build a subscriber base and actually see the first profits rolling in. However, with working on an initially limited advertising budget, the monthly charges to stay in the "matrix" can take a substantial bite out of other advertising resources.

What is one to do? Can you build a list with highly targeted subscribers, subscribers who are craving for your information, at relatively low cost? The answer: yes, but it takes time.

For those just starting out this is a double-edged sword. You want profits soon, but also want profits to continue to come in. The problem here is that the two are contradictory. They straddle two opposite sides of the fence so to speak.

*Consider the following scenario:

Suppose you have a large subscriber base that trusts your opinions and judgments. On Friday you send to your list a promotion for which you either own the product or are an affiliate. Now suppose that your list is 3000 subscribers in size, your conversion rate is 5% (pretty good) and your profit per sale is $99. That amounts to $14,850 in sales from one campaign! Not bad, not bad. I could easily live with this kind of return.

Now lets take another scenario. You are just starting out, understand that building a list is of utmost importance, but really want to start making profits quickly. You purchase 600 leads advertised as "quality double opt-in MLM". You then quickly blast away your promotion. Approximately 0.5% (note that this is an order of magnitude less than the first example!) actually make the purchase - 3 out of 600, which is not a very good conversion. But hey, you paid $100 for the leads, made $297 in sales, for a $197 ROI! Just starting out, you become giddy and sort of euphoric at the profits you have just made.

All excited, you blast away another promotion the following week. But this time you only receive a single sale. Uh oh! What's going on? So in a panic you only wait 3 or 4 days and try to re- promote. But, over the next few days, not only do you see no sales, over half of your subscribers cancel their subscription.

*Question: What happened?

Your subscribers don't know you. In all likely hood the sales you made were nothing more than pure luck. Within your list you will undoubtedly have a few people who are really serious, perhaps a bit frivolous with their money, and will buy immediately. But you have absolutely no relationship with your subscribers. They simply looked at your second promotion and said "I don't know who this is, but they keep sending me emails", and cancelled.

What has happened here is the marketing analogue of the biochemical "quick fix" you get when eating a candy bar to curve your hunger. It works great initially, but you crash hard shortly after.

*Solution?* Take your time building your list!

One thing that I cannot stress enough is the time between sign up and first contact. When you buy lists, although sellers usually advertise only a few days old, you get addresses of people who don't even remember what they initially signed up for. I don't know about you but if I receive emails from people that I don't remember, it gets canned immediately. Being that over 150 million people are on the internet today, and are constantly hit with advertisement after advertisement, can you really be surprised that after a few days they really can't remember what they signed up for. The information age has catapulted us from one extreme to the next: information no load to information overload. So, you absolutely must make contact immediately after sign up.

There is another very important reason for the quick follow up after sign up - building credentials. People will be much more likely to stick with you if they think "hey, I signed up and immediately received a response. This person cares." And you should care. If your serious about developing an online business you should care about your contacts and you should supply them with valuable information. To succeed first take the time to promote and build a quality list. Profits will come in due time.

About The Author

Dan J. Fry is an independent researcher and owner of e-Kinetic.com, a site devoted to providing resources for small budget home businesses. He has a PhD in Physics and is married with two daughters and two cats. Subscribe to his free E-Zine on home business resources at mailto:e-kinetic@GetResponse.com or by visiting his site at http://www.e-kinetic.com. He can be reached at mailto:comp@e-kinetic.com.

---

Reach Out and Slap Someone

I got my first email account way... Read More

Email Laws That Could Bring You to Jail Even if Youre Not Spamming

First things first, I'm not a legal expert and so... Read More

Email List Management

How do you get the most out of your list?We... Read More

7 Wise Ways to Collect Email Addresses and Build Your Mailing List

=> Wise Way #1 - OFFER A FREEBIEYou have to... Read More

Add Email To Your Marketing Mix

If you are serious about adding email to your marketing... Read More

How to Deal With Rude E-mailers

Rude and crass e-mail seems to be at an all... Read More

How To Set Up an Ezine Encyclopedia

Do you read all your Ezines? Or do you file... Read More

3 Simple Steps on how to Get Unlimited E-Mail Accounts for Pennies a Day

As an Online Home Based busy owner you will reach... Read More

Building Your Own Goldmine - The Golds In The List

The best way to make money on the Internet is... Read More

Proven Techniques For Building A Responsive List

We've all heard those who have Internet business-success stories proclaim,... Read More

Writing Effective Emails

Sometimes email messages can get quite long, especially when you... Read More

Lost: 200 emails gone missing. Last seen on the 25.10.2003

Sound familiar? Ever wondered what happens to those unopened emails... Read More

Writing Newsletters Online: How to Get it Right

A strange thing has been happening to newsletters online. They... Read More

Get Viral

Hey, using eBooks, eReports and eCourses is a fantastic way... Read More

Consumer Thinking and Email

In an article based on research done by emaillabs, MarketingSherpa... Read More

Six Tips for Nonprofit E-mail Success

An opt-in e-newsletter is one of the most effective marketing... Read More

The Innovative Ways To Use Your Autoresponder

If you have auto response system set up for following... Read More

How to Start Your Own Mailing List

I remember reading time and time again when I first... Read More

The Opt-In Secret

Everyone knows that in order to be successful online you... Read More

Web Advertising: How To Increase Traffic By Offering A Free Course

One web advertising strategy that can help you become popular... Read More

10 Persuasive Triggers To Plug Into Your Ad

1. Most people want to win over others. Tell your... Read More

Using Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) For Email Privacy

Need for PrivacyPeople have become hypersensitive about their privacy during... Read More

Explode Your Sales By Building Your Own Opt-In List!

Top 10 Ways to Quickly Build Your List Have you... Read More

You DO Have an Email List Dont You?

No matter what type of business you operate, you need... Read More

Lesson #5: Four Easy Ways to Kill Your Business Using Your Autoresponder... And How to Avoid Them

The importance of building an opt-in list over spamming (a.k.a.,... Read More

The Lazy Way To Build A Responsive Opt-In Email List

If you're in business on the Internet to make a... Read More

How To Get People To Constantly Open Your e-Mail Promotions Or Your Newsletter

In this article I'm going to talk strictly from a... Read More

Direct Marketing Strategies for Holiday Email Promotions

Tis the season to leverage customer interest data for successful... Read More

Website Promotion Through Newsletters

Website promotion is certainly a main focus of all business... Read More

Email Scam Warnings

Most people online are very familiar with the Nigerian Email... Read More

Reports of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated -- Email Marketing

Recently, there has been a lot written about email and... Read More

3 Essential Tools for Email Marketers

Marketing your business with email is an art.It's very easy... Read More

The 12 Most Common Newsletter Design Mistakes

Your newsletter's success depends on its design. An attractive, easy... Read More