New to emarketing: Getting 150+ subs a day in targeted dog niche but losing money!

9 replies
Hi, I am new to email marketing . and had built a list of over 1000 subscribers segmented into dog breeds. this list was built fast too

However, I stopped because the cost of keeping the list and needing to upgrade was becoming not nearly profitable to carry on.

But i know i am missing out on all those potential emails with so much targeted traffic.

any help, thanks

edit: Prior to building the list I had signed up to GetResponse and typed up a few months worth of email autoresponders - 1 email per week. mostly amazon products related to the dog breed and some links to partner sites and a dog training course.

I got a few sales now and then but that was it. Haven't done much. The list has been building for months from Facebook - i'd say i got 450 emails in 6 months.

This was prior to adding subscribe optins to the site - once i did that, i was getting 150+ subscribers per day, that was recently - then i decided to stop and see what i can do to make this a profitable long term thing potentially, so I should do it right
#150 #day #dog #emarketing #losing #money #niche #subs #targeted
  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    If you have a list people have signed up to - and you are not emailing that list....of course you are missing out.

    It doesn't sound like you had a plan for promotions to the list - did you have at least a few weeks of emails preloaded into your autoresponder?

    What did you do to prepare for building a list in that particular niche? What were your expectations? How many emails have you sent? How long have you been building the list?
    Signature
    Saving one dog will not change the world - but the world changes forever for that one dog
    ***
    Please do not 'release balloons' for celebrations. The balloons and trailing ribbons entangle birds and kill wildlife and livestock that think the balloons are food.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11093747].message }}
    • Hi, prior to building the list I had signed up to GetResponse and typed up a few months worth of email autoresponders - 1 email per week. mostly amazon products related to the dog breed and some links to partner sites and a dog training course. I got a few sales now and then but that was it. Haven't done much The list has been building for months - i'd say i got 450 emails in 6 months.

      This was prior to adding subscribe optins to the site - once i did that, i was getting 150+ subscribers per day, that was recently - then i decided to stop and see what i can do to make this a profitable long term thing potentially, so I should do it right
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11093760].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    Actively work that list Nicholas. See those subscribers as pure gold. Treat them with care. Help them through emails. Don't look at a list as something to sell to; ask your list subscribers questions, create helpful free content, then add in the sell too. Doing these things will boost engagement big time which will boost sales big time.

    I'd email your list helpful, meaty posts at least 2-3 times weekly. Be active. Be engaging. Be helpful. Prosper.
    Signature
    Ryan Biddulph helps you to be a successful blogger with his courses, manuals and blog at Blogging From Paradise
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11093779].message }}
    • Hey, thanks for the reply. Do you know any resources for someone new to Email Marketing?

      As mentioned before, I want to do it right
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11094040].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Doan Chi Tin
    Man, 1 email per week is too hard too generate sales. Dont be lazy to add 3-4 email per week
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11094570].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author rritz
    Since you made sales off and on you already know that there is money in that list.
    Now you need to optimize.

    Work on the autoresponders that you had - go through them.
    Define your goals - each email should have a goal.

    What could your goals be: Get to know your subs and have them get to know you
    build a relationship and trust
    find what your subs are most interested in - which subject lines get the most opens, which links get the most clicks - what emails get the most answers or reactions - where do you get the most unsubscribes
    introduce offers and their benefits
    show your expertise, educate your list
    create curiosity and controverse
    entertain your list
    if you are promoting some special offers you can build up a small sequence that nudges your subs along to the sale: you can describe the various benefits of your offer in several emails in a sequence. Keep the buy link in the PS

    and so on

    Now read your email sequence as if you were one of your own subscribers. Can you see a clearly defined profile?
    Are you just randomly sending out stuff, doing a promo here and a promo there? Or is there a line going through from introduction of yourself to introduction of the offers to benefits of the offers to a very clear call to action, maybe underlined by an urgency or a scarcity?
    What do your subs get out of your list?
    Do you give them reasons to open, read, click and buy? Are the reasons compelling?

    I look upon email marketing, or any marketing, as a process where you test, test and test again.

    I think a way you could go is by taking what you already have and giving it a thorough review.
    Try to eliminate inconsistencies. Try to follow a concept with your emails.
    Set up your reviewed autoresponders and start testing.
    Concentrate on one thing at a time. Improve your subject lines. Then improve your email copy. Then improve your promotional content. Then improve your calls to action.

    Dump emails that don't work, improve emails that show some results. Try to get better results. Try to beat your own numbers with every change you make.

    If your numbers go down, dump the change and try something else. If your numbers improve, you have made a step forward. Go on to the next thing you can optimize

    I don't know how long you had that list or how many subs you have now, I think you said around 1000.
    In my opinion this number is just a little too low to really collect any significant data.
    Don't be afraid of investing a bit of money. What you'll get in return is experience, and data you can work with

    Say, you have 1000 subs and you send out a promotional email, and you manage to get a 20% open rate, and a 3% click through rate to your link - then that's only 200 people who actually read your email and only 30 who actually looked at the offer.

    That's not a lot to build any marketing decisions off. And these numbers are totally random, I don't know the open rates and click rates in your industry. Maybe only two people actually looked at your offer. Now what kind of decision can you base on 2 people who have seen your offer?

    And then take into account that people are said to take 7 to 10 exposures to an offer on an average before they buy something.

    And probably a ton of other factors to figure in.

    To get this to a point: You have already seen some sales - so you know it could work. What you need now is to find out how to make it work better so that you get a profit. To improve your ROI you need to test, optimize and dump. To really have some data that you can base optimizing decisions on you need bigger numbers. Or else you will base your decisions on random data.

    Don't give up too soon just because you didn't get it right the first time.
    Sometimes you have to fail a lot of times before you hit the target.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11095665].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    "segmented into dog breeds"

    That may be a mistake - it's a lot to handle from an email perspective. You might consider using dog categories such as 'hound' - 'working' - 'herding' - 'sporting' - 'non-sporting' - 'terrier' - 'toy'.

    Specific breeds in each category share many of the same traits, health issues, etc and owners in those groups buy many of the same breed specific products.

    Just a thought.
    Signature
    Saving one dog will not change the world - but the world changes forever for that one dog
    ***
    Please do not 'release balloons' for celebrations. The balloons and trailing ribbons entangle birds and kill wildlife and livestock that think the balloons are food.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11095684].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Brent Robison
    Have your optin go into a plugin that just keeps a data list.. export it into Excel or Googlesheets.. no cost, and no loss in subscribers. no, you can't email them right now, but you aren't missing out on getting them.

    In the meantime, work on learning how to monetize your list better so you can afford to pay for your list. Mailchimp is free to 2,000 people, but limited functionality.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11111797].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Harry Exper
    When your list is still as little as 1000, the profit you get from it will not be enough to complement the amount you spend to maintain it.

    But at this point you mustn't give up, keep doing everything you need to build that list. When it reaches about 10,000 you would no longer worry about things to do to get profit from the list, because when you do one or two things to monetize the list, the profit you will get will be more than satisfactory.

    For now focus on building that list and keeping the current subscribers by regularly sending out post instead of abandoning them for weeks. Also look for products on clickbank to promote that would have significantly higher commission than Amazon products. Also consider Cpa offers as well.
    Signature
    Get Your Facebook ad, Google ad, Solo ad, Landing page copy and Sales copy written for you by Fiverr Ad Writing Specialist
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11111844].message }}

Trending Topics