futureguru94

For the past 2 weeks I have been studying Email marketing a lot and affiliate marketing in general. It has almost become an obsession as I can see great money to be made from it. My theory is the best way to learn properly is not to mess about and start my own campaigns. At the end of the day, each time I fail I'll be closer to success... My motivation is through the roof.

BUT, I am getting crap conversions for my landing page. With a mere 30-35% optin and out of those optins, I am getting a very small open rate for my emails and haven't made any sales. I have invested around $400 on traffic alone. Not saying this is a lot as it isn't, but seeing as though none of my subscribers are opening my emails, I must be doing something wrong.

I am giving them a free eBook that gives value, in exchange for their email address. I am thinking of perhaps adding a video to my landing page, as surely that will get a higher optin rate?? I will tweak it untill its right. My plan is to change 1 variable at a time so I can see what words/background grasps peoples interest the most.

But what I really do not understand is why so so few people are opening my emails? Has anyone got any advice on how to get your subscribers to open your emails? I have not spammed them with promotions, thus far I have only given them emails with value with exception to one. My email subject has not contained caps, or lots of punctuation either as I know this can trigger the spam filter. Any advice is hugely appreciated

chyan007

Hi Brother Keep up the good work

30 to 35% is a decent optin conversion ,It is as per the industry standards ,So i guessing you have a good Squeeze Page ...

The Most important part is from where are you getting the traffic ,This is a big question jot down the source in the notepad and try to find whether the seller is a real/genuine guy ...

and are you tracking your traffic with a tracking link or just blindly giving the link to the squeeze page... ?

futureguru94

Cheers, I am doing my best.

I have heard of people getting an optin of 50%+. So I thought my rate was a little on the low side.

But the thing that I am concerned about mainly is how I have no sales, and hardly anyone opens my Emails up.

I have a proper paid email address, not a yahoo or gmail etc.. As I realise free addresses can get caught by a spam filter. I send plain text emails as even though HTML can look pretty, it can also trigger a spam filter.

Once a user opts in to my squeeze page they are brought to a thank you page with a 'download now' button and with that is a free eBook which contains an affiliate link inside. I was hoping enough people bought the product to at least cover some of my traffic costs. I don't expect to make back the money for all the traffic cost, but to make back 0% is a little frustrating. Even more so because my emails aren't being opened so the list I do have is clearly not profitable.

I was thinking of adding a video with a promotional offer on the thank you page, to perhaps gain a sale or two. As well as a link in the eBook. But would that seem too aggressive? My goal is to build a relationship, not seem like I am promoting too often. I want to give my subscribers value, to gain a long term profitable relationship with them but that is impossible since my emails aren't being opened.

My traffic source is good, I am getting 100% of the clicks i paid for (all unique and around 85% T1). I am using catchy email subject lines too. I don't know where the problem lies, but I guess its time to go back to basics and re-do my squeeze page, and re-think my strategy.

chyan007

Revisiting the squeeze page would be a good option ,I guess and y dont you sell the product straight when some one opts in , rather than having your link in the Ebook,

You can build a thank you page stating your ebook download link will arrive at your email address and then redirect the thank you page to the offer straight away...

We use this strategy and have gotten good results with that,Also you can learn a bit about copywriting so that your email are opened a bit more

Hope this helps

greenowl123

As far as getting subscribers to open your follow up messages, I will say this :

One way I get traffic to my squeeze pages is by purchasing solo ads (from sellers
on Udimi mostly). I have noticed there can be a BIG difference in open rates of my
follow up messages depending on who I purchased a solo ad from.

Some solo ad sellers provide better / newer subscribers to my lists than others.

You have to track your ads from each traffic source you are buying from. An easy way to do this is by creating a new opt-in form with Aweber and a separate squeeze page for each new traffic source you test.

Then, over the next days / weeks / months you take note of how many subscribers are opening your follow up messages, clicking on links, etc.

In summary, when you are sure your squeeze page, follow ups, etc. are good, the source of your traffic has to be good as well.

Brent Stangel

Possibly, maybe not. Where are you getting it? It sounds like you are getting in front of a bunch of freebie seekers.

Are you using double opt-in? You will get fewer subs. but they will be much more qualified. Are the people who sign up actively searching for your product or are they "surfers?"

I would first work on your source of traffic.

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Steve B

If I were in your shoes, I would start checking three things (one at a time, of course):

1. The demand in the marketplace for what you're offering. You did do your market research before you started selling, correct? If you didn't, it could be that there is different demand that what you are addressing. Tons of new marketers skip doing their research before shooting out their offers and can never quite figure out why response is so low. Well, it's typically low because they have mis-guessed the needs/wants/desires of their audience.

2. The source of your audience. Are you targeting your audience properly? Are you sure you're only marketing to those folks that want exactly what you are trying to give them? Non targeted people often show up to your offer out of curiosity or because of some related desire. But those aren't the people that are going to buy from you. Make sure you have closely targeted your marketing to just those that are ready, willing, and able to buy what you are selling.

3. How compelling is your offer? Have you reviewed your headlines and copy and made sure that they are compelling? People have a natural tendency to be blind to advertising - they generally don't like to be "sold" unless they are already convinced they really need something. If your copy is boring, or unprofessional, or not focused on the needs of the audience, you will lose them. Remember, this marketing process is not about you or your business . . . it's about your prospect and what your are going to do to make his/her life easier, better, safer, more fun, more fulfilling . . . what's in it for them?

Good luck to you.

Steve

Steve Browne, online business strategies, tips, guidance, and resources
SteveBrowneDirect

onSubie

There are a few things you can do but the volume of email and spam makes open rates and conversions a challenge to everyone.

One thing to think about when sending emails to your list is to think about the idea that not only are you building a relationship with your list, you are training them to behave according to your strategy.

The key is to test things and tweak things as you go. You should be tweaking and honing your autoresponder introductory sequence every time you send a whack of traffic through your funnel (like a solo ad).

For an affiliate marketer you want to train your list to:

1) Open your emails
2) Click on the links in your emails.

One way of doing this is to both give them incentives to do these things and rewards for doing them.

A good way to start is deliver your "freebie" via email and download link rather than a redirect after they opt-in.

On the "Thank You" page post a big Thank You with the message that their free gift will arrive in their email instantly.

This teaches them to look for your email and open it. If you redirect to the download, they need never look for or open an email.

Once they know your emails and have opened them, use compelling Subjects to keep them reading.

The other thing is using Branding. A lot of Marketers use their name in the hopes that over time and building a relationship, their name will resonate with their subscribers. What actually happens is a few months down the line, readers have no idea who "Bruce Richards" is, how they got on his list or what product they received/purchased from him.

You can get your subscribers resonating by branding the emails as ""from" the product they got. If your freebie is "1000 Niche Hacks" then make the name the emails are from "1000NicheHacks".

Even without knowing you personally or having any reputation to stand on, your emails are instantly identified with the product that got them on your list. If they like the product, they will stay on your list.

To help get them clicking on your links, use many links to useful information that are not always sales or affiliate links.

Write epic blog posts, then promote the posts to your list with a link.
Promote funny, helpful YouTube videos and other resources with links.
Find helpful articles and send links to the source

You want your list to think that the links you send them are valuable and worth following.

One thing to keep in mind is to be honest and make sure to give them what is expected. Avoid misleading subject lines and content that do not match the offers/links.

Don't use a clickbait and switch technique.

Also, use an active return address and encourage your list to simply "reply" to your emails. If they know they can "reply" and you will get the email they will be more likely to engage with you. A lot of lists have "send-only" email addresses that readers can not communicate with.

Use this interaction to ask what they want, what they like about your list, what they would like more of, less of, etc.

discrat

Anything above 30% is decent, imo.

I would take Steve's advice. See if the Product and even the Niche is one with Buyers. And one that is critically solving a big problem.

Email Sub. Lines can also be important but not as important as who they are coming from ( as far as Open rates)

Really think outside the box when writing sub. lines and emails. Be fun and even bizarre as long as its within certain boundaries and pertains to the topic



- Robert Andrew

1Bryan

If I had to venture a guess, I'd say you are probably scared to sell. And guess what? That's a problem.

Look, there's the kumbaya POV of all emails should be informative and whatever. And then there's the POV of folks who make real money.

And that is, everything has to be designed to sell. From the moment they land on your opt-in page, they are "in" the sales process. Most do not think of it like that. Because most don't have sales experience before they try Internet Marketing.

Imagine your funnel is a store.

And all your emails are associates in the store.

And they are all just trying to tell stories or whatever without selling. They are more concerned with - "Do they like me?" than anything else.

Would you be surprised when the store's sales numbers sucked?

You need sales people to sell. And your emails are your sales people.

futureguru94

Thank you for all of the replies!

I'd be lying if I said that I am not disheartened by the fact I have had over 400 clicks sent to my page and not a single sale made. I am clearly doing something wrong, yes I have gained subscribers but my subscribers are simply not reading my emails.

The big mistake I have now realised that I made was simply redirecting them to a download page as opposed to setting my autoresponder to send an email upon them signing up. Next time I'll be sure to do that.

Some info - I was promoting a product called 'Build My List' by Jimmy Kim. It is the course I am on.

I also think I was using the word 'Free' too much on my squeeze page, perhaps attracting people merely wanting freebies. Looks like they signed up, received the eBook (which was a free eBook all to do with BML with my affiliate link inside.

Perhaps I should do the following -

Create a squeeze page that focuses on the benefits of the main offer I am promoting and give them the free eBook via email, which introduces the benefits of list building and essentially promotes the BML course too.

Then do the follow up emails, such as 'How are you getting on with the Ebook'
Then promote BML again
Then perhaps another promotion that promotes something to do with list building, or perhaps software etc.

To be honest I just feel like a noob, and it has dawned on me that this is more complicated than I thought.

caso

thank you





gclub

Jason Kanigan

400 clicks and 2 weeks is really not much.

Think about it in terms of overall annual traffic.

For the opt in, you want people to NOT sign up. If 100% of the visitors sign up, then you aren't qualifying at all. If even 50% sign up, I'd be wary of the job the squeeze page is doing.

Visitors have to see whatever's on the page as a differentiated offer. As something that IS or IS NOT valid for them.

And if you're getting 50-100% opt ins, then I believe your copy is not doing its job. Many people MUST be sent on their way because they're not a fit.

Otherwise, you end up with a list of tire-kickers and broke folks.

Kinda reasons why there haven't been any buyers, huh.

But seriously.

Back to traffic.

400 clicks is nada, because you're starting out. You don't have a baseline.

What if your next 2 opt ins become buyers?

Now instead of 0/400 or 1/401 you're 2/400 and whoopee! 0.5% success rate!

Right??

No.

You still don't have a baseline.

Not until you get at least 10 buyers.

Then you can start to understand what to expect.

I like that you already have the sense to be looking at measurements. And that there will be so many people required to enter your funnel to get a buyer. But it's early times, and it's going to take awhile to figure that baseline out.

So don't be so anxious.

Thing is, when you figure this out, it'll work for you for a long time--and nobody else will have the data, because they're unwilling to stick it out to get it.

Keep doing what you're doing.

Don't change too many variables at once, because you'll lose what alternation was effective. In fact, you should only change ONE at a time. Then measure for awhile.

Unqualified Leads >>> Qualified Leads >>> Buyers.

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