Looking for marketing advice

No, you do not need to charge in order for people to see value. Keep in mind that free anything tends to get a bad rep out there. And, when people join anything that is free, if they do not see immediate results they leave, which is what you are seeing. FREE does have some value. A lot of free marketing methods help create product branding, and name recognition. Maybe you need to look at the way you are promoting your free service. FREE sounds good, but is it good enough to stay? That is one question you should find the answer for before you expect your sign ups to believe in your product. It may just be you need to alter your campaign. Good Luck

You ad is getting for tirekickers. I would not suggest paying for tirekickers.

Pay to directly selling targeted customers only.

Cheers,
Mukul

I wouldn't recommend using something free to attact clients to optin in if you're paying for them.

This method works very well for free marketing methods and I would imagine you woud get much better results.

You have to remember, and so many people forget and are so focused on numbers in their list. It's just like turnover, it doesn't matter. What matters is how much profit you make and how many people are on your list are targeted and will buy from you, who don't just want freebies.

Once you remember this in business you will succed with your marketing and with making profit.

You don't want people who are just after freebies. Obviously you want to add value and try and entice them in, but you're paying for each person. Once you start paying for advertising, the game changes slightly.

Marketing is all about being specific. People want to know the truth. There will always be people after freebies and don't see the value in learning, or paying for certain products etc. You don't want them.

I would hold your campaigns, keep your adverts etc. but use free paid methods and see if you get better results. I would also split test your campaigns and change the wording, see which get better results, mentioning free stuff or otherwise?

Best of luck.

Lilach

@marcdonovan - couple of things

1. Maybe make your niche smaller and more targeted, i.e. businesses interested in email marketing and tailor your ads to that. Where I live, ConstantContact runs email marketing ads like crazy on the radio, so businesses are aware of email marketing and seeing something for free might attract them.

2. Test & Engage - every advertising agency, pr firm that runs ads to promote products, services, etc. constantly tests their ads and will always look to beat their best performer have you tried running different ads and compared their results.

As for engaging, if you want to know why people are just signing and not doing much, then ask them don't wait for them to tell you. You'll be amazed by what people will tell you and if you listen, you might find ways in which to improve your product.

First you need to keep in mind that at least 9 out of 10 people who buy things ebooks, autoresponders and such never really use them. I could take all of my cash producing businesses, sites, keywords and everything zip them all up and give them away on this forum and still not see an increase in competition in my markets.

I'd also say that those ads lack real pulling power, especially for the serious buyers.

You know you're providing an autoresponder but that isn't really whay you are promoting.

Good ad copy is going to pump up the benefits (not features) to your customer, maybe even throw some salt on their wounds.

What does an autoresponder do? Send emails? Sure, yours is free OK so what... I've got money...free is good but unless I am shopping for a free autoresponder that isn't going to draw me in.

An autoresponder saves me time, it helps me build relationships with my customers, it increases profits and yes it is a good tool but the very last thing I care about is the fact that it is an autoresponder and that it sends email and that I can manage it through some full freatured system...to me that means nothing.

Yes I am being a little harsh but just trying to say that those ads miss some basic elements of sales and advertising. And to me that is why you're getting tyre kickers.

Think about the benefit, the problem you solve and write ads around that just off the top of my head here are some weak examples.

"Increase your ROI by X% using this free, powerful customer relationship tool."
"Sick of losing your customers to your competition then...."
"Fact: 97% of your site visitors will leave forever without giving you a second thought. Learn how to reclaim those lost sales opportunities."
"Increase your sales without increasing your marketing budget."

Start to weed out the click happy freebie seekers by speaking directly to your target market using words and benefits that mean something to them.

I think you need to stop, think and reflect what you want from this. What is your strategy? What do you want from it? Am I right in thinking that you're offering an alternative to aweber and getresponse? Because that value is not coming across.

I think this could be packaged for newbies. The responder they need that would otherwise be a big investment with what to do with it.

Then you can sell an all in one solution.

Alternatively, go for offline businesses wo don't currently manage emails and don;t know how to. Offer the complete package of form for their site and messages to send.