Increase Open Rates: Be Direct With Busy Readers
On-line marketer, ProspectZone, increased open rates by 28% and click-throughs by 53% in a recent split-test. What can you learn from their results?
First, some background: ProspectZone sells sales leads to busy health insurance sales people. They had experienced an average 34.8% open rate for their email campaigns. However, considering their product is the life blood of the insurance industry, they really believed their conversion rates should have been better.
So they designed an A/B split test and divided their list in half. Group A received a subject line that said “How to get 10 health leads at no charge”. Group B’s subject line read “Here’s ten health leads at no charge” [sic].
The direct approach won out. Subject line B experienced a 28% better open rate than subject line A (and a 48% increase in opens versus the previous campaign).
They also decided to split test the landing page. Both landing pages had identical headlines and sales copy, the only difference was the graphic.
Landing page A showed a gorgeous woman and landing page B showed a man in a business suit. Considering the average audience member was a 40 year old male, ProspectZone knew without a doubt that the gorgeous woman would out-pull the business man. In fact, they didn’t even want to waste their time with the test.
But it’s a good thing they did, because they were wrong! In fact, the business man generated 53% more click-throughs than the woman.
So, what can you take away from this and apply to your own on-line marketing? First, if your readers are busy (and who isn’t these days?) try the direct approach. Instead of a “How to…” or “7 Ways to… ” subject line, try “Here is…” or “Now You Have…” or some other wording that does not imply the reader will have to work for what you’re offering.
And don’t use impudent tactics, or try to otherwise “trick” your reader with brazen graphics. In today’s world of email overload, busy executives, sales people, and anyone who is trying to get some work done, will appreciate the respect you show for their time by keeping your message, and graphics, meaningful.
Secondly, if you aren’t split testing, start now. You should be testing subject lines, links, images, sales copy, personalization, headlines, calls to action, etc. Most email service providers offer a way to do this with your newsletters. You should even be split testing your web site.
Time to implement: you should be able to perform and analyze a subject line split test in approximately 30 minutes – the tricky part is deciding on the subject lines to use.
Karen Scharf publishes Successful Site Secrets, an on-line newsletter that offers insider tips, tricks and techniques for transforming your web site from one that is “good” into one that has your profits soaring through the roof. Get your own free subscription at http://www.SuccessfulSiteSecrets.com
Who Else Wants a Hurricane of Hungry Buyers From eBay
If you’ve tried to use eBay in the past to get traffic to your website or better yet build your list and you haven’t had much success then you’re about to read about a really easy technique that will have your website flooded with visitors, practically breaking down your door wanting to join your email list.
If you haven’t set up your eBay “About Me” page then you need to go do that immediately. Go to http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/about-me.html and find out exactly what to do to set it up. It only takes a few minutes.
Here’s the technique in a nutshell. You’re going to give poeple the opportunity to get your products at a discount if they join your list. All you need to do is make a simple change to each of your listings. You need to put an image or text that’s hyperlinked to your “About Me” page. The image or text should say something like, “Click Here to Find Out How You Can Get a Huge Discount On this Product”.
Your “About Me” page will tell them that if they go to your site and fill in their name and email address that they’ll get a link that will show them where to get all of your products at a discount. It’s that simple.
Of course you’re going to have to setup your squeeze page and have some decent copy in there. The incentive for them giving you their information is that they will be able to get your product(s) at a discount. Obviously you’ll also need to setup a page on your site with links also on your website to all of your products that you’re willing to give them at a discount.
You can use PayPal to accept payment for any or all of the products. PayPal has detailed information on how to put “buy” buttons on your website. It’s very simple.
If you’re thinking that eBay won’t allow you to put up a link on your website then think again. They won’t allow you to link to your site from your auctions but it’s perfectly within their terms of service to put a link in your “About Me” page. It’s also perfect acceptable and encouraged to put a link in your listings to your “About Me” page.
That’s all their is to it. All you need is a PayPal account and an autoresponder. You can easily setup this technique in under about an hour. The benefits of building your list and getting a ton of traffic to your site with this technique is literally priceless.
Of course you could easily do this without an autoresponder and just get people to your website but the money making power is in the list. Now go out and use this simple technique to generate a hurricane of free traffic to your site and build your list like you never thought possible.
Want more free money making tips like this one? John Gottshall is the writer and creator of Secret www.secretprofitfiles.com where awesome secrets are frequently revealed. You’ll also find great tips to generating traffic and increasing your bottom line at http://www.secretprofitfiles.com
How To Make Money From Freebie Hunters
I regularly visit marketing forums, and one of the most common things people complain about is not being able to make enough profits from their list. They complain that the vast majority of their subscribers are simply freebie hunters, and have absolutely no intention of spending any money. So how can you make money from these freebie hunters?
Well this is a problem that affects a lot of online marketers. We’re told that the money is in the list, which is absolutely true, but nevertheless it’s important to remember that most people on your list will not be buyers, unless of course you’ve built up a list of previous customers.
If you think about it, this isn’t surprising because most marketers build up their list in the first place by giving away a free report or mini-course just to get people onto their list, so straight away they are attracting freebie hunters to their list.
But even taking all this into consideration, all is not lost. It’s still perfectly possible to generate cash from these subscribers, without persuading them to dig out their credit card.
One of the best ways of doing this is by offering free and valuable content, but not in the actual email itself. Instead you want to direct them to a page of your website or blog where this content can be found and strategically place pay-per-click ads, such as Google Adsense, around the content so you earn money every time a visitor clicks on one of these ads. After all your list provides a great way of directing traffic to your sites, so why take advantage of this opportunity.
This way even if you have a list of say 1000 subscribers, with most of them apparently freebie hunters, by directing them to monetized pages of your site you only need them to click on ads to earn you money, which I’m sure you’ll agree is easier than getting these people to buy from you.
Another way of squeezing cash from a list of freebie seekers is by sending them to pay-per-lead companies. This can be very lucrative because a lot of companies will pay you generous commissions for each visitor you send who carries out a certain activity. This could be something as simple as filling out a form, signing up for a free newsletter, or downloading a free piece of software, all of which your typical freebie hunter will be more than happy to do.
So to conclude, although we would all ideally like a large email list of proven buyers that we can profit from, even a low quality list of freebie hunters can generate profits for you if you use some of the methods outlined in this article.
James Woolley is a full-time marketer who has built up responsive email lists in not only the internet marketing niche, but other niches as well. All of these lists are run from one autoresponder account. Click here to find out which autoresponder he recommends:
http://www.mytopautoresponder.com
Automation Features of an E-mail Marketing Service
An e-mail list management and autoresponder service is a major component of business automation efforts. From list building to management of subscribers, an e-mail management service can help to boost your sales and save you valuable time and money. The benefits of such a service are many and all will lead you toward an automated business process.
Managing your Opt-in lists
One of the main functions of an autoresponder service is the ability to manage multiple lists. List management includes the handling of subscribers, the automation of subscriber movement between lists, as well as automatic deletion upon user request. Sign-ups occur through a web form or subscription box that can be placed on your site. Most systems also allow subscribers to join by sending an e-mail.
Most e-mail list management systems also have features to control the adding or removal of subscribers to lists based upon certain events such as add or removal requests to a specific list. Users that decide to opt-out of your e-mail list can do so with a simple, single request through an unsubscribe list that is included in all of your e-mails.
Sending e-mail messages
An autoresponder system simplifies the task of sending e-mails to one or more of your lists. There exists two types of e-mails that you can send: broadcasts and follow-up messages. Broadcasts are standard e-mails that you send to the lists that you desire and at the times that you specify. Follow-up messages are pre-written e-mails that are sent automatically to a list subscriber at the intervals that you set.
Personalization
One of the best features of an e-mail list management and autoresponder system is personalization. Personalization is important because it helps you to develop a relationship with your subscribers as each message is personalized with their name or other specified information. Personalized fields, or tags, can easily be inserted into your e-mail message and the system automatically replaces the tags with the information from each specific subscriber.
Automatic downloads
An autoresponder system allows you to automate the distribution of an electronic product through a web link in one of your follow-up messages. The automatic sending of follow-up messages allows you to distribute a purchased product or a free gift to your subscribers.
FAQ lists
Use your e-mail list management and autoresponder system to set-up a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list and automatically delivery the FAQs through a follow-up message series. Advantages include the automatic delivery of the FAQs directly to the inbox of each of your subscribers. Many find that this not only saves time but also reduces the amount of support requests that are submitted to your customer support desk and often results in improved customer relations.
E-courses
Offer an X-day e-mail course (e-course) as an enticement to visitors to sign-up to your mailing list. Simply use a follow-up message series and the e-course will be delivered automatically over the period of days that you specify.
Newsletter management
A publication can easily be sent out and managed with an e-mail list management service. Doing so will put your newsletter on autopilot. Select a pre-defined newsletter template or customize your own. Simply insert your newsletter message and schedule the date and time for your newsletter to be sent to your list.
There exists many ways to automate your business. The set-up and use of an e-mail list management and autoresponder system may be one of the most powerful steps that you can take for your business.
Brad Semp uses his Cashmap techniques to lead entrepreneurs and business owners to higher revenues and profits. Brad provides free, step-by-step help for setting up an e-mail list management and autoresponder service in his Listping Cashmap product at http://www.ListpingCashmap.com
Surefire Email Marketing Strategy
If you’ve been selling real estate for a while you know that the secret to success is generating leads, and lots of them. Equally important is the ability to replenish them.
Why not simply advertise for them?
For one thing many agents assume that they must have listings to advertise, but that’s the farthest thing from the truth. In fact, it’s as easy to generate prospects with the listings of other agents as it is your own.
Now, I assure you that I didn’t just suffer a bump on the head, but think about it for a second. Do you think agents in your office would be upset with you for advertising their listings? Probably not. In fact, they may be downright ecstatic about it, because they know that the more exposure their listings get the more successful they’ll be selling them.
And most importantly why would they be upset about you spending your money to make them money – you, too of course.
So, they probably won’t care one teeny tiny bit, but to be on the safe side you should ask before doing it.
Email Marketing for Leads
There are many aspects of email marketing that are appealing, including but not limited to it being a relatively inexpensive way to advertise. Also, you can have your marketing messages broadcast 24/7 – almost completely automated; and in some instances once you develop one campaign you can duplicate it for little to no additional expenses over and over again.
Some agents use special reports, while others use electronic newsletters as the foundation of their email marketing campaigns, but have gone low maintenance by using prewritten content. Many agents simply don’t have the time or interest to write their own materials, so they simply buy prewritten content and pick and choose what they want to send to their readers.
If you want some, too you can go to Google and type in “real estate agent marketing reports” or some variation of that.
Advertising and Email Marketing – A Dynamic Combo
The key element of email marketing is to have people request information in exchange for their email address and other contact information and get folk offering up their contact information.
For example, you could advertise the following. “3 Bedroom House – Best Value In West End Subdivision. Won’t Last Long. Email yourname (you) at your name email address for full details.”
Do you think people might email you for additional information. And of course you’re not limited to advertising in a newspaper. You could advertise on flyers and place them on windshields of automobiles parked at the malls and shopping centers in your area.
Another example of this email marketing strategy is to advertise to gather the names and email addresses of renters in your community who might be interested in buying their first home. You could have an ongoing ad that reads something like…”Own a home for the same as rent. Email your name at your name email address for a confidential consultation.”
Again, you should not limit your advertising to just newspapers. Alternatively, you can post flyers in laundromats and simply lying around where people gather; in business offices, stores, college campuses, movie theaters, etc.
Now the point in both of these examples is to build your mailing list, not to make sales. While that might not be exactly what you want to hear you should understand that not many folk are compulsive buyers when it comes to purchasing real estate. It’s much too big of an investment for that. Instead, they typically labor over the process for months, sometimes years.
So, it’s unrealistic to think that you can change that about them and have them buy a home from you just because you want them to…espcially if you just met them. Forget about it already.
However, it is reasonable to expect that if you cultivate a relationship with them that you can be the agent they work with when they are ready to buy That’s the power of advertising for email marketing leads.
So, once you have names and email addresses you are ready to take the next step, which is converting them into paying customers. In fact, you’ll be able to provide useful information and follow-up for as long as it takes – and much of it with a precision like efficiency.
Who knows, pretty soon you could be in the enviable position of having folk on your list buying and selling through you, one by one, and all because you recognized the basic principal of selling – which is building relationships.
Visit Lanard Perry at http://www.real-estate-marketing-talk.com for more business building tips, tools and strategies.