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Is I email marketing still viable?

by JimmyA
10 replies
Hi all,

I made the decision to try and make some money online over 1 year ago. I have had little success so far but have learned a ton of stuff. The limited success that I have is through sales of books that I have written.
The sales come from Amazon so it's using their platform (So probably not even classed as "internet marketing") I do have my own websites that have quality content to back these books up and link to them.
I know my niche well and have a real passion for it so I suppose I have an advantage.
However, it has become very clear to me that list building should be the top priority for any internet marketer.
From my own experience, I am very aware that when I sign up for a freebie, I will get emails from the creator of the product but most of the time these emails are in my spam folder and I don' open them.
I know that I am just 1 person, so I asked a few members of my family and some friends what their thought on their inbox were.
The general consensus was that they all get loads of spam and they won't think much of an email if they didn't recognise the sender or they thought it was a sales pitch.

As I am interested in internet marketing, I get stacks of mail about the latest "Best ever" system that will make me rich, but I rarely even open them now I guess I'm on a lot of lists
I recently bought one of these systems just to see if I could make a bit of cash. The system is based around email marketing and is in the make "money online niche" (believe it or not).
This system follows all of the rules of how to build a list and has a great sales funnel once a lead is generated.
I imagine that it is harder to make sales through email marketing today than it was 10 years ago?
So if you consider a good sales funnel is present and quality products are offered through email marketing in this day and age, how big would your list need to be to make any kind of decent money?
I'm thinking in the 100k - 500k regions?
I'm just after some stats. If anyone can share this information, or have thoughts on any other points in this post, I would be really grateful.
Cheers
Jim
#email #marketing #viable
  • Profile picture of the author copybum
    Jim, I've made over 100K (multiple times) from a list of less than 30
    people. It depends what you sell and if you have a real business with
    a backend, etc. I sell copywriting services to people who BUY these
    services. List size only matters if you sell very cheap items and if you
    do not have a backend.

    If you're doing info marketing, you need a range of 20 - 50 or more
    products at various price points to make a good buck. Should probably
    also offer high end group and one-on-one coaching etc.

    It's all about your overall strategy.
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    • Profile picture of the author slanier2
      Originally Posted by copybum View Post

      Jim, I've made over 100K (multiple times) from a list of less than 30
      people. It depends what you sell and if you have a real business with
      a backend, etc. I sell copywriting services to people who BUY these
      services. List size only matters if you sell very cheap items and if you
      do not have a backend.

      If you're doing info marketing, you need a range of 20 - 50 or more
      products at various price points to make a good buck. Should probably
      also offer high end group and one-on-one coaching etc.

      It's all about your overall strategy.
      This is a great post, an obviously an experienced marketer. He's absolutely right, list size means NOTHING, its all about how many on that list BUY your service.

      I have lists of 20,000+ people who never buy anything, but I also have lists of a few hundred where I will get 80-90% conversions.

      It's all in your market targeting.
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    • Profile picture of the author Networking_now
      Originally Posted by copybum View Post

      Jim, I've made over 100K (multiple times) from a list of less than 30
      people. It depends what you sell and if you have a real business with
      a backend, etc. I sell copywriting services to people who BUY these
      services. List size only matters if you sell very cheap items and if you
      do not have a backend.

      If you're doing info marketing, you need a range of 20 - 50 or more
      products at various price points to make a good buck. Should probably
      also offer high end group and one-on-one coaching etc.

      It's all about your overall strategy.
      Sell high ticket items to a few list members.

      This is a great strategy, to monetize of fewer list members with higher ticket items.
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  • Profile picture of the author Moneymaker2012
    E-mail marketing is still very much effective, it is very essential for making money if you are working as an affiliate or selling your own products or services.
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    • Profile picture of the author AllanJames
      Originally Posted by Moneymaker2012 View Post

      E-mail marketing is still very much effective, it is very essential for making money if you are working as an affiliate or selling your own products or services.
      I agree, but it's effectiveness is dropping in favor of SMS Text messaging etc as open rates and clickthrough's continue to fall. Gmails inbox filtering is the latest attack on open rates.
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  • Profile picture of the author gcbmark20
    Hi,

    I agree with CopyBum in terms of that you don't necessarily have to own
    a 100k list in order for it to make you life changing incomes online.

    The more targeted and higher the quality of leads you can add to your
    sales funnel the better.

    If you can build a great relationship with your list that gets you a HUGE response
    every time you send out an email will also go a long way for you too.

    It depends on which route you take.

    Do you hammer your lists with promo after promo?

    Or do you look at building the K.L.T. know, like & trust formula
    between you & your subscribers and then sprinkle in those promotions
    and make more sales.

    If you can master the skills of getting the best response from your
    subscribers through email marketing then you won't necessarily
    need a huge list.

    All the best
    Gavin
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  • Profile picture of the author Not So New
    In short ... Email marketing does work.

    Depending the value you offer will determine your opens and essentially your income.

    If you are in a market outside IM, then your list should be much more responsive as they haven't been used and abused : )

    -Shawn
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  • Profile picture of the author JimDucharme
    Every channel has strengths, however no other single channel currently provides the functionality of email and that's likely to be the case for some time yet to come. Open rates and CTRs have always been dynamic. It's not as simple as saying one channel above all. If it were, everyone would have stellar conversions simply by using just that one channel. Some people see much higher than average open rates and CTRs than others using email marketing, so there's more to it than the channel.

    There is no one channel to rule them all. SMS has it's own issues and limitations as you know. How we use or abuse that channel impacts it's effectiveness just like any other channel. A simple search on the apps store shows more than few anti-sms spam apps. It is no more a panacea than any other new or existing channel is. The inbox has always been a moving target and IMHO there has been a bit of an understandable knee jerk reaction to the Gmail changes. We've had changes before and to be sure, someone will move the cheese again and IMers will adjust. Focusing on providing real value (not just lip service to the idea) is fundemental.

    As I said, every channel has it's strengths and most importantly it's own dialect. Use the right channel (or better yet) combination of channels for the right goals with the voice which fits the channel and you'll find success.

    Regards,
    jim
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  • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
    If you set it up right, you can make virtually make money from your list as each new subscriber comes in.

    It depends on a lot of factors, but you don't need to wait until you have 100K subscribers to make anything meaningful.
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Q. Is email marketing still viable?

    A. Yes, ofcourse it is.
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