Got a list: Avoid this massive mistake -

[John W.G.]

I've seen and made (and learned from) many internet marketing
mistakes over the years.

Here is a big one that I see marketers making over and over again and
I can tell you that there is no faster way to get someone to unsubscribe
from your list.

When someone signs up for your list it's really important that you wait don't
start sending them offers right away.

You especially shouldn't start sending offers to someone before you send them
the actual content that you promised them when they signed up for your list.

It's unprofessional and it communicates to the person that you only care about
making money and you don't really care about them.

Of course if you want to make money from your list then you need to take care of
them and provide actual helpful information to them.

I've seen in time and time again. Yesterday I signed up for someone's list because
it seemed like he had a lot of offer.

About 5 hours after I signed up for his list he had not sent me the the info promised
but he did send me an email pitching a product for which he was an affiliate for.

That's just lame if you ask me.

There is a way with aweber and probably getresponse to not send the broadcast out
to someoen who has been added to your list in the last day, week, month or whatever.

I would suggest that if you have a list and actively send out emails to them that you
take advantage of that feature unless you want your new subscriber to unsubscribe
as fast as possible.

John

[websitebroker]

Yes, pretty much common sense! People need to understand that you need to provide useful informative information to visitors/subscribers to gain their trust and loyalty first. Once that has been established, they will be more compelled to take your advice when promoting a new product or service that is monetized - your conversion rate will be much greater in the end.

[jhongren]

Thanks for the great tip.

GR allows you to group up your subscribers based on dates. You can contact their LIVE chat for assistance. =)

John

[Carlsbadd]

Great advice, I could not tell you how may people I have unsubed from for sending me offers instead of content I could learn from.

Geez , let me learn a little about YOU before you try to dip into my wallet

[jasonl70]

My first list, I hammered the heck out of them. I sent email to them every day for the first 10 days, and all very heavy on the sales pitches.

AFter I had had 2,000 people on that list, I started another list from the same squeeze page. This time went the opposite way. lots of content, 2 emails a week a max. And I went with a very soft sell - any affiliate links went only at the bottom of my emails, similar to a resource box.

I'll be honest, my sales droppped a lot with #2. My unsubs dropped by half as well, and since I'm working on a launch I decided to stay with the second approach at the moment.

I have to say I'm torn here... guys like mike filsaime and tellman are extremely successful with approaches like #1, where as guys like eban and frank kern are very successfull with an opposite approach.

[Jelasco]

John, I get your point but don't agree with what you suggest.

When I give a freebie to get a subscriber, they get the freebie as soon as they confirm.

When I do a broadcast it goes to the whole list, so somebody may get a broadcast a few hours after subscribing depending on their timing.

But they would have already been given access to the freebie.

If they have a problem with me sending them emails, they should unsubscribe.

I'm not going to assume people don't want to hear from me until X number of days after they subscribe. Subscribing means they want to hear from me!

[jaiganeshv]

What I'm planning was to sell only my product to my list and not others...

Thank you.
Jai

[Daniel E Taylor]

Please don't give advice unless you test it.

Everybody does not feel like you. Everybody
doesn't get upset if you send them offers.

Everybody doesn't just join lists to get a bunch
of free stuff and never be sold to.

And I don't do the hammer sales pitches every email.

But I know some who do and are successful with it.

Some marketers rather have serious buyers than a bunch
of freebie seekers who come to forums and complain when
someone who runs a FOR PROFIT business tries to get them
to BUY SOMETHING.

What I'm trying to say is this thread stinks.

Daniel

[ForeignProfessor]

I'm on someone's list at the moment which has had a list swap every day for the last 7 days or more. That and an email selling something. I only stay on the list out of curiosity and to see how many more special offers I'll be.. err.. offered. I'd love to know whether all these list swaps are working and whether the list is actually growing, or whether a lot of people are unsubscribing due to the large amount of 'offers' being sent. If the members of this list have been 'taking advantage' of all these 'special offers'/list swaps they must be getting about a dozen emails more a day than they were getting a week or so ago!

How often do you 'list swap'? On the other lists I'm on it seems to only be about once a week or less often. This is a decent frequency in my opinion if you want to maintain a decent relationship with your list. Well, if your list is made up of people like me anyway When every day is an 'unmissable offer' rather than giving information it seems to degrade the list in my opinion.

But then as someone pointed out, some marketers do very well selling stuff non-stop, and if the point is to make money.. then.. I guess maybe we should all be doing it that way.

[Frank Donovan]

Originally Posted by Daniel E Taylor

What I'm trying to say is this thread stinks.

Daniel, of course it does - it's 15 months old!



Frank

[TommyBussey]

Originally Posted by Frank Donovan

Daniel, of course it does - it's 15 months old!



Frank

Wow, Frank, this post IS really old...why did it get dug up for this:

Originally Posted by jaiganeshv.com

What I'm planning was to sell only my product to my list and not others...

Thank you.
Jai

Haha sometimes I just don't get a post like this...no offense Jai...

Since I'm here I might as well say that it depends on the market (kind of what Daniel was saying). Also, it depends on your approach. I've run "soft-sell" type offers on the "thank you page" that basically says if this is for you then here's a discount to buy it to say thanks for opting in, if not then click the link that will take you straight to the content you opted in for. In some niches this has converted as high as 5%.

There's my 2 cents haha

- Tommy

[Emily Meeks]

Originally Posted by jasonl70

My first list, I hammered the heck out of them. I sent email to them every day for the first 10 days, and all very heavy on the sales pitches.

AFter I had had 2,000 people on that list, I started another list from the same squeeze page. This time went the opposite way. lots of content, 2 emails a week a max. And I went with a very soft sell - any affiliate links went only at the bottom of my emails, similar to a resource box.

I'll be honest, my sales droppped a lot with #2. My unsubs dropped by half as well, and since I'm working on a launch I decided to stay with the second approach at the moment.

I have to say I'm torn here... guys like mike filsaime and tellman are extremely successful with approaches like #1, where as guys like eban and frank kern are very successfull with an opposite approach.

Different strokes for different folks - you have to go with what you're comfortable with. I personally like the second approach better.

[mikeyman120]

I see this post is old but I recently contacted aweber about this and they said anyone you send a broadcast message to will get it even if they are new to your list. If anyone knows what the op is talking about with not sending an email to certain people I would love to know how to do it.

Mike

[InternetMarketingIQ]

"When someone signs up for your list it's really important that you wait don't
start sending them offers right away. "

That's odd because that is the very reason I sign up for something, because I want it right away.

[Paul Schlegel]

Originally Posted by InternetMarketingIQ

"When someone signs up for your list it's really important that you wait don't
start sending them offers right away. "

That's odd because that is the very reason I sign up for something, because I want it right away.

I THINK what he was trying to say was to send something else besides an obvious sales pitch first.

I would think it would depend on what expecations you've set for the people who subscribe to your list. i.e. what can they expect to receive from you when they sign up for your list?

[JMPruitt]

If your free giveaway is set to send as soon as the optin is complete, then there is not a problem.

I agree with not over promoting the list, but as some here say there are some who make it work and some who don't.
Listen to the advice of others, but MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS about what is best for your business

[tkulzer]

Originally Posted by mikeyman120

I see this post is old but I recently contacted aweber about this and they said anyone you send a broadcast message to will get it even if they are new to your list. If anyone knows what the op is talking about with not sending an email to certain people I would love to know how to do it.
Mike

By default, yes when a broadcast is sent it sends to everyone who is subscribed to
that list.

However, you can easily segment the list and send a broadcast specifically to
that segment. A video and full instructions are in our knowledge base at
How Do I Create a Segment? :: AWeber Knowledge Base

[Mark Jordan]

Originally Posted by jasonl70

I'll be honest, my sales droppped a lot with #2. My unsubs dropped by half as well...

I have to say I'm torn here...

I like the fact that Jason actually tested both methods. But I don't understand why he would be torn.

I have always believed that "the money is in the list". Anything you do that causes your list to shrink is not a good plan. Sure, your sales may go down initially, but in the long run, you will actually make more, because you will have a bigger list of subscribers that trust you.

That's my opinion, and I don't expect everyone to agree with it. That's OK, you have to do what you feel is best for your situation. I'm just trying to add something for people to think about.

I do believe there is a right way and a wrong way to immediately hit brand new customers or subscribers with an "upsell", but that is a whole new discussion for another day.

Regards,
Mark

[steve-wilkins]

Building a bond of trust is a must! I always make sure to offer a load of free useful info and resources when someone signs up to my list. I usually do this for the first 3 weeks which is a decent amount of time to build trust between me and my subscriber.

Then I usually use the rule of 4-1, beaing that I send 4 useful free resource emails to every 1 promotion. Some marketers might say that I am not maximising my lists potential but I don't see it that way as after 6 months of testing I have decreased my unsubscribe rate significantly and built up such a bond that my subscribers tend to buy even more from when I do promote increasing my value per subscriber.

Give Give Give and Give before you take!

Thanks!
Steve