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How to make a profit from an email list?

by Danah Kimberly Go
23 replies
Hey everyone, nice to meet you all! I've just signed up and this is my first time posting on the forums - apologies in advance if I'm breaking any rules.

Anyway, I currently have an email list with about 100,000 addresses on it from my previous e-commerce business. Due to personal reasons and COVID, I had to stop operations for about a year - meaning zero contact with my email list during that whole time.

So I was wondering if you guys could give me advice on how to earn money with my existing email list? Is it still possible to make use of it? We were in the Women's Fashion and Accessories niche and I'm not sure what other money-making options I have given these circumstances.

Looking forward to reading your insights, ideas, etc.
#email #list #make #profit
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  • Profile picture of the author Serene Carmen
    Hi Danah

    Welcome to the forum. I wish you the best of luck and hope you gain much insight from the forum!

    You could look at affiliate options i.e sending affiliate offers to your list.
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  • Profile picture of the author tnob
    Welcome Danah. For your email list, start selling products to them again!

    Although, I am assuming you are saying that you cannot do that? So in that case, I second Serene's affiliate options.

    You could also sell the list if you had no agreements with the users against that.
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  • Profile picture of the author Hasna Michiko Ibrahim
    100k email list is a huge asset. The best thing about email list is you have control over your leads. You can start with affiliate marketing, find a product that you want to promote, get email swipe done and start promoting those product to your audience.
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  • Profile picture of the author Leadnetwork
    Yeah, agree with other members, you should promote an affiliate offer, choose something that feet with your audience needs and go for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    Due to personal reasons and COVID, I had to stop operations for about a year - meaning zero contact with my email list during that whole time.

    Covid didn't stop anyone from emailing...so not an excuse.


    How long did you have your list before you stopped sending to them? How profitable WAS that list when you were emailing it? If you have 100k on a list and are asking how to make money with it - I have to wonder how active that list was a year ago.


    Is the list contained in an autoresponder or do you only have a list of email addresses? How did you contact the list before you had to stop working with it?
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    • Profile picture of the author Danah Kimberly Go
      Hi Kay King! Thanks for your reply I used to run an e-commerce business; we produced and sold physical products to our customers. The pandemic wasn't the only problem we had to face although it was one of the biggest issues that led to our closing.

      Anyways, to answer your question: I've been building that list for about 2-3 years. In terms of how active it was then, we had a good open rate and we'd profit almost every email sent. 80% of those emails were to promote discounts/sales on the shop. We use Shopify so all the emails are in Shopify as well. I hope that answers your questions!

      I realize I have a lot to learn and I'm very thankful for all these comments. Outside of e-commerce, I don't have that much experience in digital marketing. I've had the help of an agency to guide me through the way but now I'm serious about learning all this stuff by myself.
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      • Profile picture of the author Diego Aguirre
        Nice big list you have there,
        There is one thing to keep in mind, and that is the fact that they haven't been contacted in over a year. Most likely all your contacts have already forgotten they were part of an email list that got them discounts/sales for your e-commerce store. I'd try to figure out the most engaged contacts one year ago and try to contact them first this time with some affiliate offer similar to what you used to offer them in the past
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      • Profile picture of the author DABK
        People sign up on lists for particular reasons.


        If you can no longer give them what they signed up for, you might want to try to find out if any of them are interested in other things.


        Send an email with questions/ a survey.


        Something along the lines:
        Covid forced me to change. Did you have to make changes? What were they? What do you want from someone like me?


        You'll have to 'elegantize' it a lot, but you get the idea.


        Originally Posted by Danah Kimberly Go View Post

        Hi Kay King! Thanks for your reply I used to run an e-commerce business; we produced and sold physical products to our customers. The pandemic wasn't the only problem we had to face although it was one of the biggest issues that led to our closing.

        Anyways, to answer your question: I've been building that list for about 2-3 years. In terms of how active it was then, we had a good open rate and we'd profit almost every email sent. 80% of those emails were to promote discounts/sales on the shop. We use Shopify so all the emails are in Shopify as well. I hope that answers your questions!

        I realize I have a lot to learn and I'm very thankful for all these comments. Outside of e-commerce, I don't have that much experience in digital marketing. I've had the help of an agency to guide me through the way but now I'm serious about learning all this stuff by myself.
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  • Profile picture of the author kriveculifestyle
    Email is your biggest asset you could ever have. Congratulations on gaining 100k people on your list!

    I would find some products with affiliate link within your niches (Women's Fashion and Accessories). Try to make story through your email sequences.
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  • Profile picture of the author asifurrahmankhan
    you can list your similar or emerging entrepreneur business owner. Mail them you want to collaborate with them. They will also need your email list. First, help them to grow their business. Meantime, by selling them your email list you can earn money. Then think about yourself.
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  • Profile picture of the author James McAllister
    Ouch. If even a good chunk of those were buyers, especially in that market, that list was likely worth an incredible amount of money. It still can be, but a full year without contact really hurts things. With a list of that size, it's always worth hiring someone out to write emails for them if your're no longer able to do it yourself.

    Regardless of whatever strategy you pursue to monetize, your biggest issue right now is warming those people back up. You need to resell people on why they should remain signed up to your list, and do so tactfully to minimize unsubscribes and spam complaints. There will still be a lot of them, but you can mitigate the damage.

    Also, after a full year you can safely assume that many of those email addresses are no longer being used. Even for those that don't unsubscribe, you'll want to prune dead emails pretty quickly to maximize deliverability to everyone else.
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    • Profile picture of the author Matthew Stanley
      Regardless of whatever strategy you pursue to monetize, your biggest issue right now is warming those people back up.
      Would second this. I'd brainstorm ways to re-kindle the flame, so to speak, and begin engendering some solid brand/name loyalty. A big list is great, but as you know, attention is fleeting, competition fierce, and reader interest is hard to come by and may need to be thoughtfully re-"earned." Are there giveaways you can do from your former store? Compelling joint ventures you might be able to strike with former close competitors?

      You might also spend some time (perhaps with a copywriter) thinking about your positioning. As you'll presumably not be returning to your former business model (unless I have that wrong?), it's probably worth thinking about what the 'connective tissue' will be that binds your old positioning with the new (what ever that winds up being).
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Babenkoff
    Your email list is your asset. You can promote ton of products to your list over and over again. You can find offers from affiliate networks like ClickBank, Commission Junction and Amazon. Every time someone clicks on one of your links and buys a product, you'll earn a commission.
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  • Profile picture of the author mohitensett
    If you have a good email list, you can start earning money with below activities:

    - Sell Other People's Products or Services.
    - Sell Your Own Product.
    - Create a Paid Newsletter.
    - Host a Webinar
    - Advertise on Your Email List
    - Host Sponsorships
    - Offer a Service
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  • Profile picture of the author hamzamarketing
    DO NOT sell anything for the moment. Here is what you should do.

    You need to send your list a Customer Reactivation campaign.

    The purpose of this campaign is to re-build your relationship and trust with your customers in order to recover engagement and then you can sell them. because it's been a long time since they didn't hear from your brand.

    How can you do that?

    You need to set up a series of free content that delivers huge value to your subscribers and presell them on some kind of products.

    It could be a series of blog posts that redirects people to your shop pages.

    Doing this you'll get high open rates and you'll get people to re-connect with you while also preselling them your products.

    By the way, I'm an Ecommerc Email Automation Specialist and this is part of my everyday work.

    Feel free to ask more questions.
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    • Profile picture of the author TobiMDD
      Originally Posted by hamzamarketing View Post

      DO NOT sell anything for the moment. Here is what you should do.

      You need to send your list a Customer Reactivation campaign.

      The purpose of this campaign is to re-build your relationship and trust with your customers in order to recover engagement and then you can sell them. because it's been a long time since they didn't hear from your brand.

      How can you do that?

      You need to set up a series of free content that delivers huge value to your subscribers and presell them on some kind of products.

      It could be a series of blog posts that redirects people to your shop pages.

      Doing this you'll get high open rates and you'll get people to re-connect with you while also preselling them your products.

      By the way, I'm an Ecommerc Email Automation Specialist and this is part of my everyday work.

      Feel free to ask more questions.

      I agree, this is what you should do first before you start selling anything after a whole year
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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    Don't sell them products.

    "recommend" them products or services you are also using with success.

    Also give them free value in your emails.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marian
    You may want to re-connect with your subscribers - by giving them a good tip or free product (if thatss possible) or just send them update what you're up to.

    And then later, start to promote something relevant to your list...

    Marian
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  • Profile picture of the author WF- Enzo
    Administrator
    Welcome to the forum. Please make sure to read the rules here - https://www.warriorforum.com/main-in...ral-rules.html
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    • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
      Originally Posted by WF- Enzo View Post

      Welcome to the forum. Please make sure to read the rules here
      Probably not needed the OP has not logged back in recently.
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  • Profile picture of the author FGMax
    Build a relationship.

    Give them free info first for the first few emails

    Before selling them something.

    Rinse and Repeat.

    It is the same for all niches.

    I think it would be good if you can afford a one-on-one email coaching with some of the email gurus here. There are many of them here.
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  • Profile picture of the author shami
    since they all are buyers, you have the great opportunity to sell them with the affiliate offers..
    you had to stop your operation because of Covid, but so many businesses are running and most of them have Affiliate Program, if you can't start your operation, you can start sending them relevant affiliate offers.

    make sure first reactivate your list by sending them a personalized email
    some or most of them may even forget about you so it is important to reactivate the list

    Start building a relationship with them and always provide value in your emails
    do not try to sell in every email, try to connect with your list on a personal level

    start creating a short 45 seconds video letting them know what you are up to with your brand...

    at the end of the day, people buy stuff, and if they like and trust you ...
    you can capitalize it beyond limits






    Originally Posted by Danah Kimberly Go View Post

    Hey everyone, nice to meet you all! I've just signed up and this is my first time posting on the forums - apologies in advance if I'm breaking any rules.

    Anyway, I currently have an email list with about 100,000 addresses on it from my previous e-commerce business. Due to personal reasons and COVID, I had to stop operations for about a year - meaning zero contact with my email list during that whole time.

    So I was wondering if you guys could give me advice on how to earn money with my existing email list? Is it still possible to make use of it? We were in the Women's Fashion and Accessories niche and I'm not sure what other money-making options I have given these circumstances.

    Looking forward to reading your insights, ideas, etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author Old Molases
    Hey Dannah,

    This is huge list of subscribers and I think you can do wonders with it.

    You can probably start sending them email about selling products on a discounted price.
    Also, you can market your products based on different events. I came across this events idea through my VPN provider (Ivacy). They were offering a good deal for you and your mom on mother's day.
    You can do the same for valentine's day, christmas, new years etc etc. Email Marketing can help you scale real quick with minimal efforts.
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