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You may be the reason email marketing is suffering...
By Josh Anderson Owner and Founder of InternetBusinessIdeas.com
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Are you guilty of desensitizing your target market?
I agree whole heartedly that Email is not dead... yet.
In my eyes the real problems are shear volume and the low quality of the majority of publications offered.
Email Publishers that provide top notch content and value to their subscribers are not suffering as much as the avarage marketer who simply sends out sales pitch after sales pitch thinly vieled behind weak content.
All email publishers are suffering from filters, legislation, and subscriber inbox overload. But a huge impact factor is that for so long we have been preaching "get a list" and "build a list" so now everbody is.
Now there are thousands who call them selves "eZine publishers" who are nothing more than annoying sales people. Manyt are sending out the same pitches that everyone else is sending from the solo ad section of the latest affiliate program. These publishers are neither knowledgable nor qualified to offer advice or make product recommendations.
It is important to give your customers what they want and need but that does not mean constant ads. People are becoming desensitized to the sales pitches. If all you do is Badger your subscribers with a half dozen emails in a row begging them help you win the "latest affiliate competition" then guess what? Your next half dozen emails will not taken be taken as seriously.
Spam is the #1 problem, Filters #2, but the #3 problem in my opinion is- a serious lack of content and credibility.
Does that mean you?
Have you ever read the free magazine that is offered you on an airline flight? You know, the one that bears the airline's name tucked in the pouch in front of you? Do you remember opening it only to discover nothing but ads and no real content?
Were you fooled by thinly vieled ads made to look like articles? They call it complimentary and encourage you to take it with you when you go...
But how many of us do?
I run the number 1 response pulling advertising franchise in the Valley where I live. The response to our advertising is stronger than newspaper, television, cupon mailers, flyers, and any other media. Plus our advertising is free to our clients.
We sell a discount card - not a little plastic card or a crummy cupon book but a packed full 8-10 panel fold up card with hundreds of offers from hundreds of businesses. We literally drive traffic into stores... paying customers by the hundreds.
Why does it work so well?
People buy our card. They pay to recieve the advertising. We print once a year they purchase a card put it in their wallet or purse and read it every time they go out or shop. They simply use the heck out of it.
Our clients are compelled to get their money's worth because they paid for it. This factor drives them to return to a store more often than they normally would and spend more money over multiple visits. Use of the discount membership creates huge customer loyalty.
Email is not dead but email marketing has lost it's effectiveness.
What can you learn from my little discount card? Lots.
A local Sonic Burger franchise throws away $10,000 a year to mail out coupons in a money mailer. They pull in a couple people a week off of it maybe.
The Money Mailer or Val Pak coupons arrive at the target's house in a stack of junk mail. People quickly separate the bills and letters from the ads and deposit the mailer coupons in the trash. If a business is lucky the target might look through the coupons find one and use it once then it is thrown away.
With our discount card they pull it out of their wallet read through it see your deal and your business name use the card and then put it back in their wallet and repeat this over and over again throughout the year. At the end of the year they purchase a new card (we keep our customers and they call us to find out when the new card is coming out) see your new offers all over again. Even if they never use your offer they see your business name every time they read the card.
So, a local business has a choice spend $10,000 on advertising that their target market throws away (like handing out money to your customers and watching them throw it in the trash) or they advertise with us for free and watch the customers roll in.
The way to apply this to email marketing is to "read between" the lines I like to say.
We never carry advertisement for an offer that a customer can get just by walking in off the street into the store. The deals we carry must be better than they find in the newspaper or on TV we wont carry it if it isn't. The deal must be generous and worth paying to get.
Using the card is a novelty, its cool, people pay for the "privilege". They want to get their money's worth and we save them money so they use it often. They take our advertising with them every time they go out or go shopping. They check it regularly.
I changed some of the copy from one year to the next for one video store and we increased the response 300% and the income by thousands of $$$ monthly. It works just like email marketing.
Ok, now think how you might be able to use desktop marketing, selling subscriptions to your eZine, etc. to duplicate what I just described. Think you could increase your revenues?
Not only will 100% of your publications be received because you are not using email to send it but it is a novelty, cool, your subscribers want to get their money's worth, you provide powerful content, killer deals and offers they can't refuse, and it is always on their desktop…
…every time they go out to surf the web or even just use their computer.
These are killer marketing strategies that every online publisher should be using but few are.
------------------------------------------
Josh Anderson publishes a unique list of the best desktop marketing resources at www.Email-Alternatives.com and believes those who provide real content and evolve will prosper and those who don't will go the way of the dinosaur.
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
You may be the reason email marketing is suffering...
By Josh Anderson Owner and Founder of InternetBusinessIdeas.com
------------------------------------------
Are you guilty of desensitizing your target market?
I agree whole heartedly that Email is not dead... yet.
In my eyes the real problems are shear volume and the low quality of the majority of publications offered.
Email Publishers that provide top notch content and value to their subscribers are not suffering as much as the avarage marketer who simply sends out sales pitch after sales pitch thinly vieled behind weak content.
All email publishers are suffering from filters, legislation, and subscriber inbox overload. But a huge impact factor is that for so long we have been preaching "get a list" and "build a list" so now everbody is.
Now there are thousands who call them selves "eZine publishers" who are nothing more than annoying sales people. Manyt are sending out the same pitches that everyone else is sending from the solo ad section of the latest affiliate program. These publishers are neither knowledgable nor qualified to offer advice or make product recommendations.
It is important to give your customers what they want and need but that does not mean constant ads. People are becoming desensitized to the sales pitches. If all you do is Badger your subscribers with a half dozen emails in a row begging them help you win the "latest affiliate competition" then guess what? Your next half dozen emails will not taken be taken as seriously.
Spam is the #1 problem, Filters #2, but the #3 problem in my opinion is- a serious lack of content and credibility.
Does that mean you?
Have you ever read the free magazine that is offered you on an airline flight? You know, the one that bears the airline's name tucked in the pouch in front of you? Do you remember opening it only to discover nothing but ads and no real content?
Were you fooled by thinly vieled ads made to look like articles? They call it complimentary and encourage you to take it with you when you go...
But how many of us do?
I run the number 1 response pulling advertising franchise in the Valley where I live. The response to our advertising is stronger than newspaper, television, cupon mailers, flyers, and any other media. Plus our advertising is free to our clients.
We sell a discount card - not a little plastic card or a crummy cupon book but a packed full 8-10 panel fold up card with hundreds of offers from hundreds of businesses. We literally drive traffic into stores... paying customers by the hundreds.
Why does it work so well?
People buy our card. They pay to recieve the advertising. We print once a year they purchase a card put it in their wallet or purse and read it every time they go out or shop. They simply use the heck out of it.
Our clients are compelled to get their money's worth because they paid for it. This factor drives them to return to a store more often than they normally would and spend more money over multiple visits. Use of the discount membership creates huge customer loyalty.
Email is not dead but email marketing has lost it's effectiveness.
What can you learn from my little discount card? Lots.
A local Sonic Burger franchise throws away $10,000 a year to mail out coupons in a money mailer. They pull in a couple people a week off of it maybe.
The Money Mailer or Val Pak coupons arrive at the target's house in a stack of junk mail. People quickly separate the bills and letters from the ads and deposit the mailer coupons in the trash. If a business is lucky the target might look through the coupons find one and use it once then it is thrown away.
With our discount card they pull it out of their wallet read through it see your deal and your business name use the card and then put it back in their wallet and repeat this over and over again throughout the year. At the end of the year they purchase a new card (we keep our customers and they call us to find out when the new card is coming out) see your new offers all over again. Even if they never use your offer they see your business name every time they read the card.
So, a local business has a choice spend $10,000 on advertising that their target market throws away (like handing out money to your customers and watching them throw it in the trash) or they advertise with us for free and watch the customers roll in.
The way to apply this to email marketing is to "read between" the lines I like to say.
We never carry advertisement for an offer that a customer can get just by walking in off the street into the store. The deals we carry must be better than they find in the newspaper or on TV we wont carry it if it isn't. The deal must be generous and worth paying to get.
Using the card is a novelty, its cool, people pay for the "privilege". They want to get their money's worth and we save them money so they use it often. They take our advertising with them every time they go out or go shopping. They check it regularly.
I changed some of the copy from one year to the next for one video store and we increased the response 300% and the income by thousands of $$$ monthly. It works just like email marketing.
Ok, now think how you might be able to use desktop marketing, selling subscriptions to your eZine, etc. to duplicate what I just described. Think you could increase your revenues?
Not only will 100% of your publications be received because you are not using email to send it but it is a novelty, cool, your subscribers want to get their money's worth, you provide powerful content, killer deals and offers they can't refuse, and it is always on their desktop…
…every time they go out to surf the web or even just use their computer.
These are killer marketing strategies that every online publisher should be using but few are.
------------------------------------------
Josh Anderson publishes a unique list of the best desktop marketing resources at www.Email-Alternatives.com and believes those who provide real content and evolve will prosper and those who don't will go the way of the dinosaur.
------------------------------------------