Using emailing as a traffic source, your 2 most important factors affecting open rates are:

• Your email subject
• Your “From” or sender field

If you have those two down, half the battle is already won.

While some continue to use long-form emails, consider going with simpler emails – a small banner or graphic, together with benefits-driven body copy will get you the clickthrough to your landing page.

If you’re matching the intent of your list with the offer, you should see average conversion rates of above 10%. Comparing this to average conversion rates of 2% to 8% (peaking at about 10-15%) using other types of traffic, including PPC search network.

It’s little wonder that email affiliates were considered some of the best affiliates at the networks where I was doing affiliate manager work.

Emailing can provide volume (once you’ve built the list) with good conversions leading to great ROIs, especially once you know what you’re doing.

It can be a little tough getting started though, especially with choosing the right ESP (email service provider).

Though I have used and promoted Aweber, GetResponse in the past,their pricing seems to have got out of control in recent years. A ESP service serving 10,000 subscribers costs $600 per year? Seems pretty outrageous.

I’ve been looking at working on projects using my own email client and riding on Amazon’s SES (Simple Email Service) delivery infrastructure, which will keep things in control.

So it was great to see a thread on AffPlaybook outlining strategies to achieve $50,000 a month in revenue with emailing.

The first thing that the senior member strikenr does is to set up the email system, including how you capture the email opt-ins, and present offers. While it may look simple for those following the tutorial thread, it’s probably taken a fair amount of testing to see what works and how to layer the components together and work out the sequence.

He gives a sample for a simple opt-in page, which aims for a 3% clickthrough rate. If you’re familiar with optimization strategies, you’ll understand how he choose the text on his submit button.

Once you have achieved some level of critical mass on your list, you can direct them to high quality content on your site, and send targeted offers to the list. Strikenr cites an example where a mail generated $1,500 in commissions.

He’s also worked out a system where he doesn’t have to offer a free report or ebook as opt-in bait and it ties in with his promotion. There are also opt-ins to doing only pop-ups to collect leads, so he does some comparison of alternate strategies to collect the email.

Although strikenr himself is diversifying into other traffic sources and offer promotion strategies, I can see how his methods and his detailed walkthrough can still work if adapted to other channels.

So, yes, if you copy his method verbatim, you will probably fail.

But if you take some of those basic strategies and apply them towards collecting opt-ins on Facebook using the various paid or viral promotion methods and use alternative traffic sources with a low CPM cost, like RTB (real-time bidding), you can get similar results.

There is work involved, you will need a budget for testing his system and the rewards can provide a steadier stream of income versus just doing an arbitrage campaign.

You can find strikenr’s thread on AffPlaybook by looking for “My guide to making $50k a month”.

And if you’re not an AffPlaybook member yet, you can sign up using my discount link: AffPlaybook discount code link.

–

You can also read my AffPlaybook product review.

The benefits of a list are easy to see, zero acquisition cost and the ability to build an ongoing relationship with your list members.

Treat them right and a healthy list will generate a comfortable income for you.

Conservative estimates put the value of a list at $1 per list member per month.

In simple terms, each member is worth $1 per month or $12 a year. Multiply that by the number of members in your list, with some list owners having lists of upwards of 100,000 members and you get the idea of the potential and lucrative possibility of having a great list.

The relationship building element is where a number of marketers can experience pitfalls however.

I recently joined a self-improvement giveaway with a few hundred products to be given away free.

So I opted in to a mailing list and was sent to the download page.

This is when the problems began…

To receive each product, I needed to opt-in to that particular author’s mailing list.

With the giveaway touting itself to give away more than a hundred “gifts”, this potentially meant having to opt in to more than 100 mailing lists, just to get a free MP3 recording or PDF report.

After the 2nd opt-in, I gave up. So much for that “giveaway”.

Here is why I think the opt-in failed:

• Failure to follow the “Pay It Forward” concept: Have you eaten at a restaurant where you are asked to pay before the food arrives? It happens in fast food restaurants, but I think you will be taken aback at a 5 star restaurant which asks for your credit card before you’re even shown to your seat. Likewise, if you ask for an email even before you’ve shown your product, it’s the online equivalent of the restaurant example.
• Overestimating Your Brand power: Depending on your preferences, you will likely follow a leader or role model in your market, it might be someone like Warren Buffett for stock investing, Donald Trump for real estate, or Gene Simmons if you’re looking to start a music business. If one of my role models had an offer, I’d probably give up my name and email address to get the report. If Joe Blow “guru” asked for it, the trust and credibility is nowhere near what I’d expect.
• Misconception that Quantity Trumps Quality: Again, the unsophisticated will have the idea that “more is better”. Does getting more food at a buffet mean that you will have better quality food? Not really. Handmade Swiss watches are limited in quantity because there’s no way a human craftsman can compete with a machine punching out 100 watches per hour. Likewise, getting 200 reports will likely not be as beneficial as getting one quality product. If there’s 1 takeaway from list building, it’s always to deliver quality, quality and quality.

So what’s the solution, having deconstructed, destroyed and annhilated the giveaway campaign, what’s a good mechanism to build a list?

I’d suggest having a simple download page to give away your product. If you feel so include, you can include an opt-in box to provide updates and revisions to website visitors who’re interested.

Further, and this is the important step, include at the end of your report, an option to opt-in to your list. Chances are that someone who has made it to the end of your report and takes the effort to opt-in to your list, will be more qualified and more positive than someone who had been forced to opt-in to your list in order to get your report of unknown quality.

For more emailing and list building tips, take a look at “Permission Marketing” by Seth Godin.

For a quality autoresponder service, check out Aweber.

Also check out Friday Podcast with Aweber’s Education Marketing Manager Justin Premick “Email Marketing Tips“.

The question is: What effect does it have on your email list opt-in rates and is it significant?

Displaying your number of subscribers would make sense if you have achieved critical mass in your niche market. For a celebrity/entertainment Perez Hilton-type blog, I’d think at least 10,000 is a good number. For a specialized niche like Dog Training, a list size of 1,000 qualified customers (not leads! Or mere readers) might be the sweet spot.

I think displaying the raw number of subscribers is a good idea for mass consumer type blogs, because there’s a groupthink (or “sheep” mentality) that says “if 100,000 people are on the Britney Spears list, then it must be good to join in…”).

As an astute marketer, I’d think the power of 3-5 high authority testimonials like:

“After listening to John for less than an hour, my mind caught fire and everything fell into place.  I immediately produced my first sales letter ever… and it brought in $287,000 the first week! You can bet I seek out his advice every time I make a major business decision.”  Rich Schefren, Strategic Profits, author of “Marketing Manifesto”

AND

“Just before the famous StomperNet launch, everything was in doubt. We cornered John for advice, and in just a few minutes he provided such clarity that the fog melted away… and I was finally able to write the pitch that brought in over $10 million in one day. – Frank Kern”

for copywriting expert John Carlton over at MarketingRebel.com will do incredible things for your opt-in rates.

Whichever path you choose – displaying subscriber counts and/or high power testiominals – the most important consideration is to see how what you do at the tactical marketing level fits in with your overall plan.

The best solution might be to combine both approaches and get the maximum leverage from your marketing efforts. After all, quality AND quantity is the best form of social proof.

Check out

-> Aweber email autoresponder services

In a recent Friday Podcast, Aweber education marketing manager Justin Premick alluded to some forthcoming enhancements to their services and it looks like they made the announcement today.

Here are some of the enhanced email analystics tools:

• See exactly when subscribers open your message so you can focus on the right time to send your message.
• Send a broadcast to only subscribers who didnâ€t open or click on your previous broadcast.
• Send a broadcast to only subscribers who did click on your order page, but didnâ€t order.
• See which subscribers are responding to your campaigns — which messages theyâ€re opening, which links theyâ€re visiting, and where on your website theyâ€re going after clicking through.
• Target subscribers by sending broadcasts to only those who responded (or didnâ€t respond) by clicking or opening a specific message or link.
• Track revenue generated by campaigns and subscribers to see which subscribers and campaigns are making you money.

Together with click tracking, campaign reporting, email tracking, email ROI reporting and other features.

The old package cost $179.40 for 10,000 list members for a year. The analytics-enhanced service costs $69 per month for 10,000 list members.

With about a 362% increase in their prices, email marketers will have to decide if they need the enhanced analytics functions.

In an exchange between marketer Kevin Riley and Aweber founder/CEO Tom Kulzer, Kevin mentioned in a twitter update that existing customers can choose to remain on their existing plan.

Are the enhanced analytics going to be worth the upgrade?

I’m keen to hear some feedback from other marketers before making a decision.

I don’t think any responsible email marketer will give advice before finding out more information.

For example, how was the list built? Using PPC? Expired domain traffic? Co-reg traffic? Via opt-ins through Squidoo or HubPages? Via an article directory? As a result of a follow up/update list after buying a product (either an affiliate product or your own product).

Each of these channels comes with it’s own level of permission – and if you’re a permission-based marketer, you’ll realized that someone who’s just bought something from you has a higher level of loyalty and stickiness, compared to someone who’s just downloaded a free report off your site.

So back to the 10,000 mailing list – determine the source of list/lead generation is important. Are they emotionally invested in you? Have they spent money purchasing something you offer? Called into one of your teleseminars and stayed the full duration because they found the information compelling? Are they merely curious strangers? Or evangelists for your brand (also known as “raving fans”).

Once you’ve sorted that out, you need to figure out the demographics of your list too. What’s their geo-origin? US/Canada? Europe? Asia?

Obviously some forms of monetization will work better than others.

Pay-Per-Click Content Publishing: You probably would know that adsense publishing and CPC publishing is probably my least favorite source of monetization (mainly because you’re sending visitors AWAY from your site for $0.10 to $0.50 per click). So unless you’re generating a couple of hundred thousand uniques a month who come back repeatedly, it’s not going to be very viable.

–

CPA Marketing: despite what you might hear, the bulk of revenue is still based in US/Canada for CPA/lead generation type monetization strategies. So you might have 30-50 offers that are “international” (even then a number of countries will be excluded), and there’s only so much you can do from Europe and Asia.

–

Affiliate marketing/product sales: to do either of these well requires that you understand your list. This might include getting them to take a survey and compiling the demographic data. A good way to increase responsiveness for this is to offer some type of incentive. Maybe a $20 or $50 coupon in a mini-sweepstakes, valid at Amazon, iTunes, home depot or some site which is relevant to your list.

–

The most important element I would suggest is to segregate your list into smaller sublists, especially if there’re multiple demographics in there – teens and babyboomers will have different interests and breaking the list into at least 2 different lists will have a huge impact on your conversions (just imagine having 10,000 keyphrases in a single adgroup…it doesn’t work does it? It’s a similar principle for email marketing too).

–

Once you’ve got your lists broken up, work on your sales funnel and go beyond just promotion one ebook or service to that list. Ideally you’d want a funnel of multiple related and relevant products and services that you’d market to the list over the course of your relationship with them.

It’s all about the permission thing and if you’re speaking to their needs, there’s no reason why your list wouldn’t continue to generate the big bucks for you.

So think long term and the list will do well for you.

–

On the choice of autoresponders: Aweber and GetResponse are the big ones. I personally prefer Aweber, and I know marketers who’re happy with GetResponse too.

I think I’m doing more than 90% of the affiliates out there when it comes to incorporating email marketing as part of my SEO-based marketing campaigns, but some of the tips that Justin shared with me during the few minutes we talked before the Blue Man Group performance at the Affiliate Bash at Tao gave me a couple of ideas to test out in my campaign.

So I was looking forward to chatting with Justin when he agreed to come on as a guest on this week’s Friday Podcast. Some of the ideas and behind-the-scene stuff that goes on at your autoresponder operator will surprise you, and I uncovered some killer tips to use autoresponders to enhance conversions in your affiliate AND CPA marketing campaigns.

It was definitely worth waking up at 3am this morning (3pm EST Tuesday) to chat with Justin and the interview will be posted this Friday.

If you aren’t already using email marketing in conjunction with a PPC or SEO marketing campaign, you could be leaving quite a bit of cash on the table…

Here’re some tips which will help you get started:

• Content is and should be packaged differently across multiple platforms

Seems obvious, but you need to tailor your content to suit the medium you’re publishing the content on.

On a website you have the benefit of space and the ability to use multimedia generously (audio, video, graphics), while in the context of email marketing, people are used to seeing bite-sized chunks of info.

So unless it’s very compelling, it’s generally not a good idea to send out a 5-page email. Even if it does get read, you can expect to see a dropoff if you consistently send out long emails.

• Permission-based marketing

This was one of the major points during our discussion – email marketing is very much “relationship marketing” which plays by a different set of rules when compared to pricing/bidding strategies of PPC or the search engine algorithmn trustrank/pagerank strategies of SEO.

“Permission Marketing” by Seth Godin is a great primer. To check out 4 free chapters, visit Seth’s blog.

The reality is that even if your prospects opt-in to your list, go through a double confirmation process, and you start sending them junk and unrelated offers, they will hit the “Report As Spam” button faster than you can say “It’s about the relationship, Stupid!”

–

One useful resource you might want to check out prior to Friday’s session are the tips  that Aweber offers to enhance your email delivery rate.

Among the topics covered:

• blocklists and spamlists
• email authentication
• email marketing resources
• whitelisting
• test emails in different environments

I’ve been an active email marketer for 2 years and got a number of useful tips from the short guide.

You can check it out at:

–> Aweber free email deliverability guide

If that’s not enough, over at the Gmail blog, they’ve just mentioned “More Gmail Storage for All”

In my opinion, it’s been a brutally effective marketing campaign with the other free email marketing services like Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail upping their 20megabyte and 100megabyte quotas to try to match the (current) market leader.

Will you be able to exhaust it all?

Not likely, unless you’re like the user who “sends minute to minute photo updates of her kids in RAW format”.

More than a handful of Internet marketers I know run their business using primarily their Gmail accounts, but until the process of writing an email evolves beyond drafting a text message with attachments, you might have difficulty making full use of your email quota.

Google’s instant messenger service Google Talk provides text messaging which is then archived in your Gmail account. It’s a good alternative to the other instant messenger services and I’ve been using it more frequently for project collaborations.

Still, do email service quotas mean anything anymore?

If nothing else, it can be therapeutic to see the quota tick upwards when you’re taking a short break…