infoready
I
was wondering how big a customer list people have. This has been something
that I've had trouble with. Part of it is I don't like doing a weekly
mailing.
The only sucessuful (relatively) list I've put together, is on a humor
site that I was runing, and I haven't mailed to that list in forever.
Besides the poll, I'd like to know how much time people spend per
month on marketing to their list.
Neil
Day
Hi
Justin
I am just starting my list over again. I was beginning to see more
and more bounces to non deliverable addresses and, coupled with new
laws coming in, I decided to go double opt-in - which I should have
done in the first place. :(
So... I completely wiped my list off the face of the earth. Drastic?
Yes! But at least those die hards who have been with me since the
beginning haven't deserted me and have already signed up to stay with
me.
At the moment, I am about 245 strong but hope to dramatically increase
that. Althought to be real honest with you, I don't really care how
big my list is - I would rather they be responsive. After all it is
definitely QUALITY and not QUANTITY that will make you your money
eh? ;)
By the way ... have you noticed how the delivery of newsletters seems
to be slowing done since the introduction of blogs. And with all the
spam that is flying around, I have noticed that people seem to be
more than happy to send out reminders, updates and quick recommendations
these days.
Or is this just me?
Cheers
Neil D
infoready
I
think the quantity and yes, mostly the quality of your list, is important.
I don't have anything setup right now, and I can't say I'm proud of
that.
I've heard, and I believe it to be true, if you can build a list of
10,000 good responding prospects, you'll be set. Right off the top,
if you could pull an average of $1 per subscriber, that would be 10k
a month in revenue, which would suit me fine right now.
Louis
Originally
posted by infoready
I was wondering how big a customer list people have. This has been
something that I've had trouble with. Part of it is I don't like doing
a weekly mailing.
The only sucessuful (relatively) list I've put together, is on a humor
site that I was runing, and I haven't mailed to that list in forever.
Besides the poll, I'd like to know how much time people spend per
month on marketing to their list.
What Neil Shearing does is take his customers (those that buy from
him - even a $1 trial) and put them on a customers list, and sends
them a short email about once a month with free goodies, occasional
recommendations...etc.
It's worked well for him but with the email issues chances are it's
becoming less effective.
It's been said many, many times that a customer is probably going
to be your most responsive "prospect" since they've made
that initial buying decision from you so making it again has far less
resistance for them.
So my thinking keeps coming back to snail mail, and making sure you
have a product catalog that you can consistently and profitably market
to your customer list by post. Because one thing's for sure - snail
mail is not going anywhere. :)
infoready
Snail
mail has some advantages, however I don't think they overcome the
cost. I think as far as follow up goes, email can be close to as effective
without the cost. That said, if you have the money for a snail mail
campaign or follow-up program, I would use CD's they're less likely
to go in the garabage next to the mail box. You can add a lot of multi
media and it's not that much more expensive.
I think email can be very effective, especially if it's used to foster
personal relationships with your customer. Also, from a newsletter
stand point, nothing beats having a great and more importantly, unique
subject for your newsletter.
I can only think of one newsletter that I read every time and right
away. Trafficology. That's because it has that unique feel to it,
it's actual techniques that people are testing out, for building traffic.